Learning for the Future: Educating Career Fisheries and Wildlife Professionals, Published By: Mammal Society of Japan 2016

Posted in September 2020

This is such an interesting piece of research from 2016. If you are a graduate interested in working in wildlife conservation then this is very valuable reading.

Finding a route into conservation or environmental jobs....

The knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to become successful and effective fish and wildlife biologists have changed over time as our professions have evolved. The national and international demand for professionals trained in these fields has also changed with increasing interest in environmental protection and changes in environmental policy and national economies. Regardless of demand, these careers have increased in popularity over the past 10-15 years with the advent of television programming featuring wildlife and the work of fish and wildlife professionals (Dingwall and Aldridge 2006).

The demand for fish and wildlife biologists is difficult to determine from an international perspective because most countries do not publish statistics that project the future needs within these careers. More data are available within the United States, which regularly publishes statistics on current and projected occupations.

In the United States, employment in occupations that typically employ college graduates with degrees in natural resources is projected to increase between 0.5% and 20% from now until 2022 depending on the specific occupation (Table 1). I assume that these trends are similar in most developed countries with substantial levels of environmental protection and related governmental institutions. Job growth is probably less robust in underdeveloped countries, but is likely to expand rapidly as additional environmental protections are enacted, as was seen in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. The United States also is anticipating what has been called a 'retirement tsunami' in the fisheries and wildlife professions because 25-30% of the workforce is retirement eligible (Julian and Yeager 2002).

In this paper, I present my views on educating future career professionals in the fisheries and wildlife professions. I discuss who we need to educate to meet the professions’ needs as well as what these career professionals will need to know and how we will need to educate and train them. My perspective is predominately North American and is based on my 25-year career as an academic. My perspective is also colored by my membership in The Wildlife Society and the American Fisheries Society, 13 years as a university administrator and eight years as a member of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

This paper primarily focuses on formal secondary educational programs and institutions, but I acknowledge the huge demand and need for science education targeting the general public and primary education (Hallerman et al. 2014)

This article was originally published here file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Temp/041.041.0203.pdf

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