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Education & Training repository

The ecosystem services concept is the focal point of various education efforts all over the world. Each education and training effort is unique and requires a context-specific approach. However, they highly benefit from a platform for knowledge exchange, mutual inspiration, enable synergies and discuss common difficulties. This repository provides you with existing online training and education material on ecosystem services. If you miss any initiatives, please contact the training & education lead team (listed here).

Education & Training Repository

Free online Education & Training material

  • E-module Urban Green Spaces – This digital learning module was developed by university teachers and researchers with the aim of giving students a solid introduction to urban green planning and management, the functions and benefits of green spaces in the city, and the measurement and evaluation of planning options. The focus here is on urban green spaces in tropical regions.
    This module could be used by students of Environmental Sciences, Management of Natural Resources, Spatial Planning, Geography, or by professionals in these themes. A teacher manual is also available.
  • We Value Nature – Training resources Natural Capital (for business)
  • IPBES eLearning Modules – IPBES offers two eLearning modules so far – one on designing, implementing or understanding assessments of biodiversity, ecosystems and their contributions; and one on understanding the IPBES assessment process.
  • IPBES Webinars – The IPBES Webinar Series is hosted by the task force and technical support unit on capacity-building and covers different topics.
  • TEEB Training Resource Material. These pages show material developed within the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project (TEEB). The training package is tailored for national level implementers and practitioners. Also included in the training package is an overall guidelines document for guidance on training implementation.
  • TEEB@YALE Lecture Series. Contributing authors to the TEEB reports and other experts taught a graduate-level course related to valuation at Yale University in 2011. The whole series of lectures can be viewed on these pages.
  • WBCSD’s Business Ecosystems Training (BET) course. The course is a freely available capacity building program to increase the knowledge and understanding of the links between ecosystems and business.
  • Nature’s Services – A guide for primary school on ecosystem services. This handbook published by WWF Sweden explains the concept of ecosystem services in a clear and intuitive way and suggests various exercises suitable for students at the primary school level.
  • The Economics of Land Degradation Massive Open Online Course (ELDMOOC). The content of this online course is freely available. It focuses on the economic dimension of land degradation and sustainable land use management, and on how the foundations of ecosystem services assessments can be communicated to a wide range of stakeholders.
  • The Parts and The Whole – a Holistic Approach to Environmental and Sustainability Education. This teacher education manual has been developed by a collaborative network of teacher education institutions in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Sweden, coordinated by SWEDESD. It contains several exercises touching upon different aspects of ecosystem services. The manual is aimed at primary and secondary school teacher trainees.
  • NOS Education. The National Ocean Service (NOS), which is part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has develop this platform with training material on ocean, coastal and climate issues for students and teachers. It contains several components related to ecosystem services.
  • The Conservation Bridge. The purpose of this material, developed by Cornell University, is to bring real-life cases into education on ecosystem services. Teachers can help build case studies, choose existing case studies to use in their courses, and assign students to answer practitioner directed questions. A workspace is provided that allows students to collaborate with each other and with practitioners to answer research questions. Students can also post documentation and multi-media to better answer the questions they have been charged with answering and provide better support for practitioners in the field.
  • The Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA). The toolkit can be downloaded for free upon registration from Birdlife International. Although designed with the main aim of helping users with limited capacity and resources to measure ecosystem services, it could also provide useful input to training and education.
  • Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) Tools Network Webinar Series. The EBM Tools Network Webinar Series highlights key tools and tool use case studies to help practitioners learn about tools quickly and determine their suitability for specific EBM projects. Webinars are held 1-3 times per month and typically last 1 hour. Past webinars can be downloaded from the site and there is a possibility to subscribe for a newsletter on upcoming webinars.
  • Guía Docente – Ciencias de la sostenibilidad (in Spanish only). This guide on sustainability education developed at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid includes several chapters on ecosystem services teaching. It is designed for teaching at the post-graduate level.
  • Innovative research and education for high school teachers(in Spanish only). This document has been developed on the basis of the Millennium ecosystem assessment. The objective is to provide an overall educational experience, bring the most current scientific research to secondary school teachers and show, on the one hand, a different and innovative vision when evaluating two of the Millennium Ecosystems (riverbank ecosystem and agricultural ecosystem) and on the other, facilitate Methodological strategies that bring scientific work closer to these teachers and their students.

Free online courses related to ecosystem services

  • Introduction to the Natural Capital Project Approach, Stanford University. This online course is an introduction to natural capital and how ecosystem service information can be used to inform decision-making. Any or all of four modules within the course can be taken. Each is approximately one hour in duration.

Other online courses related to ecosystem services

  • Ecosystem Services: a Method for Sustainable Development. Ecosystem services are a way of thinking about – and evaluating – the goods and services provided by nature that contributes to the well-being of humans. This MOOC will cover scientific (technical), economic, and socio-political dimensions of the concept through a mix of theory, case studies, interviews with specialists and a serious game. The course is created by the University of Geneva.

Other useful resources

The list below links to material that does not directly deal with ecosystem services, but that could serve as a complement when designing and implementing ES training and education.

  • Teaching Ecosystem Services at the Ruhr University Bochum. This video contains interviews with RUB master students about their learning experience with ecosystem services.
  • Managing Complexity: A Systems Approach. This material is an adapted extract from the course Managing complexity: a systems approach that was formerly taught at The Open University, UK. It is a useful introduction to systems thinking, which is very relevant in training and education on ecosystem services.
  • Tools & methods – Multi-Stakeholder Processes. This portal developed by Wageningen University, NL, holds many useful social learning exercises aimed at improving multi-stakeholder processes.
  • The URP Toolbox. This is a resource of principles and strategies to enhance meaningful stakeholder involvement in decision-making, developed by Griffith University, Australia.