Ecosystem Illustration

Ecosystem Management and Conservation

Students engaged with this LC build a knowledge base and develop skills they can use to help steward and conserve ecosystems, ensuring that human and nonhuman species can coexist across landscapes.

On This Page

    For more information about events and to receive emails and other updates from the Ecosystem Management and Conservation Learning Community, visit the group page on YaleConnect. Join this Community (YaleConnect)

    Irene Shi sitting in front of blue-green lake in the Himalaya

    Preserving China’s Biodiversity

    As the executive director of the Shan Shui Conservation Center in China, Irene Xiangying Shi ’13 MESC is helping conservation efforts in the Tibetan Plateau and southern regions. The Center focuses its work on urban ecosystems and endangered species, such as giant pandas and snow leopards. 

    “If we have the right incentives,” she says, “people will conserve nature in the best way." Her efforts have helped build a biodiversity conservation alliance, an information sharing platform on biodiversity, and long-term funding mechanisms to continue work on these issues.

    Ki’ila Salas

    Restoring Belize’s Landscapes

    Ki’ila Salas ’19 MF returned to her home country of Belize to participate in its first landscape restoration initiative, helping to develop its National Landscape Restoration Strategy for the Belize Forest Department. The project is part of the country’s national restoration commitment to the Bonn Challenge, which has a global goal to bring 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes into restoration by 2030.

    “The project gave me great pride and joy in guiding the process of how the restoration strategies should be accomplished,” Salas says.

    Ecosystem Management and Conservation in the News

    ELTI participants in the field
    News

    Arcadia Grant Will Help Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative Expand its Reach

    The Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI) of The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment will be expanding its reach in capacity development, accelerating on-the-ground results for sustainable land use, continuing efforts to promote open access to resources, and sharing evidence about its experiences to date with the help of a $3 million grant from Arcadia,

    a pile of wood fuel pellets
    News

    Study Examines Potential Use of Machine Learning for Sustainable Development of Biomass

    Researchers at YSE examined machine learning’s role in promoting the sustainable design of biomass and biomass-derived materials and found few studies applied machine learning to their entire lifecycle. They say that when applied appropriately machine learning can support sustainability-informed design.

    Aerial view of coastal marsh in Georgia
    News

    Mussels and Other Aquatic Animals Provide Critical Coastal Ecosystem Protections

    New research led by the Yale Carbon Contain Lab encompassing 750,000 acres of coastal areas in the U.S. finds that mollusks play an important role in the health and growth of salt marshes.

    Related Centers, Programs, and Initiatives

    Marlyse Duguid teaching in the Yale-Myers Forest
    Centers & Programs

    Yale Forests

    Our homes away from home, Yale Forests manage 10,777 acres of forestland that provide educational, research, and professional opportunities to the Yale community and beyond.

    Map of every street tree in New Haven
    Centers & Programs

    Urban Resources Initiative (URI)

    Making New Haven more resilient, URI works with local partners to plant trees, restore community green spaces, and build bioswales to filter stormwater runoff.

    Fmers learning techniques to use silvopastoral systems
    Centers & Programs

    Environmental Leadership Training Initiative (ELTI)

    In critical natural landscapes rich in biodiversity, ELTI empowers local leaders to design and implement land use practices and initiatives that protect tropical forests and the livelihoods of local landowners and their communities.

    Participants in a 2022 TFD visit a facility in Finland
    Centers & Programs

    The Forests Dialogue (TFD)

    The Forests Dialogue provides a platform for ongoing, multi-stakeholder conversations focused on collaborative solutions to challenges in achieving sustainable forest management and forest conservation.

    Tropical Resources Institute
    Centers & Programs

    Tropical Resources Institute (TRI)

    The Tropical Resources Institute supports student research and on-campus programming aimed at solutions to complex challenges within the conservation and management of tropical environments.

     
    Centers & Programs

    Affiliated: Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture

    Finding solutions to climate change through advances in natural carbon sequestration.

     
    Centers & Programs

    Carbon Containment Lab (CC Lab)

    The Carbon Containment Lab is finding big solutions to the climate challenge, designing and testing innovative, affordable, and scalable methods of atmospheric carbon containment.

    Two foresters managing a controlled burn
    Centers & Programs

    Yale Forest Forum (YFF)

    The hub of communications and engagement for The Forest School, the Yale Forest Forum brings together a diverse group of leaders in forestry and forest policy through regular events and programs.

    Log cabin on the high plains of the American west
    Centers & Programs

    Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative

    In the vast and diverse American West, the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative promotes land stewardship and conservation through innovative teaching, research, and outreach.

    Green walkway in urban development
    Centers & Programs

    Hixon Center for Urban Ecology

    The Hixon Center provides an interdisciplinary forum for research, teaching, and outreach that improve our understanding and management of urban environmental systems.

    Tracks of light across mountain skyline
    Centers & Programs

    Affiliated: Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS)

    YIBS is an umbrella environmental science center on campus, supporting and inspiring the environmental community at Yale through research and training, grants and fellowships, and weekly seminars and events.

    Degree Program

    YSE's learning communities span across all master's and doctoral degree programs.

    Learning Communities composite illustration

    Learning Communities

    YSE's Learning Communities were created to offer robust interdisciplinary experiences and networks. Students may engage with as many learning communities as they choose, regardless of their degree program or specialization.