Teaching Statement
From my experience in tropical forest ecology, conservation, restoration and agroforestry I have developed introductory courses and advanced seminars in tropical forest ecology and management, soil science, agroforestry, and restoration ecology. I hold honorary professorships at several universities in Latin America and I teach periodically versions in Spanish of these courses in academic institutions in Latin America, thus contributing to advance their local graduate programs. Although my research experience focuses on Latin America, I have traveled extensively and I use that experience in examples from regions of Africa and Asia for my courses as well. My main offerings at Yale F&ES are:
Tropical Forest Ecology: The Basis for Conservation and Management 3 credits. This course summarizes ecological knowledge on tropical forest ecosystems and shows how this scientific basis can be used for forest management, conservation, and rehabilitation.
Seminar in Ecological Restoration. 3 credits. The purpose of this course is to summarize theoretical and practical ecological knowledge on how to restore or rehabilitate degraded landscapes. Degraded landscapes usually exist in a complex mosaic that is constantly changing. Each of these conditions has characteristics that must be taken into account when developing restoration strategies.
Agroforestry Systems: Productivity, Environmental Services, and Rural Development. 3 credits. Focuses on factors influencing sustainability of agroforestry systems, the role of agroforestry in rural development, and the environmental services that agroforestry can provide, such as biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, restoration of degraded ecosystems, and mitigation of climate change.
Seminar in Soil Conservation and Management 1, 2 or 3 credits. Soils are important to food security, providing food, fiber, and shelter for humans and terrestrial wildlife. Soils are sinks of atmospheric carbon, more important than the aboveground vegetation for many types of ecosystems. Worldwide, soils are constantly impacted by unsustainable management practices in agriculture, forestry, and other human activities, as well as by climate change. However, sustainable techniques geared to increasing soil conservation can mitigate or reverse detrimental effects on soils. This is an advanced course in soil science, and enrolling students are expected to have sufficient background such as graduate or undergraduate courses in Soil Science.
