S.E.H. Conservation Committee Blog

The SEH Conservation Committee (SEH-CC) is pleased to announce a two days course (September 24-25)on herpetofauna monitoring to be held at the National Museum of Natural History Luxembourg prior the 16th European Congress of Herpetology (http://www.symposium.lu/herpetology/). The course is aimed at European herpetologists, conservation professionals, and people working in environmental policy who design and run monitoring programs. The aim of the course is to highlight key issues when designing and running monitoring programs. This includes the conceptual and political background for monitoring programs, an overview of field methods and an introduction to methods for data analysis. Furthermore, one part of the course (topic #3 below) will specifically focus on the Article 7 of the Habitat Directive. Additionally, on-going projects will be presented. One of the goals of this course is to set a framework for developing and improving herpetofauna monitoring programs in Europe. The target audience of the course is beginner as well as experienced herpetologists. Final date for sending application documents to attend the course is 31 May 2011. Topics of the course will be: 1) General principles of monitoring: why? what? how? 2) Monitoring and biosecurity 3) European Habitat Directive: monitoring and reporting 4) Survey methods for amphibians (field methods) 5) Survey methods for reptiles (field methods) 6) Analysis of monitoring data: abundance at one site 7) Analysis of monitoring data: abundance at multiple sites 8) Analysis of monitoring data: distribution (presence/absence) 9) Presentation of a few on-going monitoring projects in different countries 10) General discussion on the topics of the course Speakers: - Benedikt Schmidt (topics 1, 7, and 8) - Trent Garner (topic 2) - Tony Gent (topic 3) - Jean-Pierre Vacher (topics 4 and 5) - Cesar Ayres (topics 5 and 9) - Sebastiano Salvidio (topic 6) - Raymond Creemers (topic 9) - Katja Poboljsaj (topic 9) - Richard Griffiths (topic 9) Other additional information, including registration cost, and documents to send to register to the course can be found in the attached circular of the course. Information about the speakers can be found in the attached file Monitoringcourse_Speakers_info Monitoringcourse_Speakers_info.pdf SEH_Monitoring_course_program_new.pdf