The final graduation requirement is a scholarly paper that uses readily available data to analyze a conservation or development project from the perspective of biological conservation and economic benefits and leads to policy recommendations. These papers do not require original research. Topics for these papers are often derived from internship experiences, and may sometimes be position papers for the internship sponsor. In other cases they are an opportunity for students to explore a topic of interest they developed on their own. Because a primary goal of the CONS program is to foster collaborative problem-solving and multidisciplinary thinking, students with different areas of expertise could collaborate on projects.

The scholarly papers are reviewed by an anonymous student reader, a reader from outside the CONS program, and one of the CONS faculty.

Examples of scholarly paper topics include:

• Parrots as pets in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico: A call for conservation?
• Global ecotourism strategies for park and protected area management: implications for the National Park Service.
• A preliminary report on the conservation status of fungi in the United States.
• A new tool for developing a multiuse conservation plan: a case study of the Madidi Region, Bolivia.
• Economics, objectives, and keys to success for private nature reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
• An overview of the potential for water use fees to fund protected areas using the Chingaza National Park in Colombia as a study case.
• Sustainable and profitable conservation in West Africa: Example from the Bafin Area of Mali.
• Conservation of rare wetland plants in an urbanizing landscape: A case study of the Germantown Bog.

Additional titles are available on the CONS program's alumni home page.