Conservation Biology

This program Conservation Biology from University of Cape Town (UCT) was established at the FitzPatrick Institute in 1991 to educate students and conservation practitioners in the fast developing field of conservation science.

Key Facts

The FitzPatrick Institute is housed within the Biological Sciences Department in the Faculty of Science at the University of Cape Town. The Fitztitute promotes and undertakes scientific studies, mainly involving birds that contribute to the theoretical and practical development of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. The central focus of the conservation biology program at the Fitztitute is an intensive MSc degree comprising 7 months of coursework and a 6-month individual research project.

South African society has been through a set of massive changes in the last 20 years; much of the resulting dynamism and openness to new ideas is mirrored in South African conservation. The discipline of conservation biology is undergoing a similar paradigm shift, in which notions of preservation and paternalism are being replaced by an ethic that recognises the complexity of linked social and ecological systems and the critical need for solid interdisciplinary research. The FitzPatrick Institute is contributing to this disciplinary transformation through research and teaching, while also collaborating with others to support sound, action-oriented science.

Courses included:

• Community ecology

• Population ecology

• Biodiversity basics

• Aquatic ecology

• Molecular ecology

• Disturbance and restoration ecology
• Invasion biology