University | Science

14 Aug 09

Last week saw the official launch of a new diploma and new facilities at Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), strengthening its mission to achieve practical solutions to the global wildlife conservation and environmental challenges of the 21st Century.

Both the Diploma and the new facilities have been funded by Thomas Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan, founders of the charitable foundation Panthera. In recognition of their support WildCRU’s base has been renamed The Recanati-Kaplan Centre.

The new Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice is intended to give students the practical skills and theoretical understanding to contribute to conservation efforts in developing countries. The Diploma is delivered by WildCRU with support from Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education.

Members of the five-strong pilot group of Diploma students, known as the ‘WildCRU Panthers’, have already begun putting what they learnt into practice by, for instance, establishing a research station to monitor the Andean cat in Bolivia, working with WWF in China to save the Amur tiger, mitigating the effects of man-eating lions in Tanzania, and looking to do further research on the Persian leopard.

After running a successful four-month pilot course last year, the first eight formal Diploma students – the 2009 WildCRU Panthers – started in April this year and will look to apply what they learn to conservation challenges within their own countries.

The WildCRU Panthers come from countries as far away as Bolivia, Zimbabwe and Bhutan, so the barns and stables at WildCRU’s Tubney House HQ have been converted into the Panthera Buildings, providing residential accommodation for students to stay in Oxford for the duration of the course from April to October each year. In keeping with WildCRU’s conservation objectives, the work was undertaken with the University Estates Directorate; the local construction company, Beard; and architects from the Frankham Consultancy (Oxford) Limited, delivering an environmentally-friendly building with a minimal energy footprint.

On 7 August the Panthera Buildings were officially opened by Thomas Kaplan and Daphne Recanati Kaplan and WildCRU Director Professor David Macdonald (centre).

In addition to these developments and continuing WildCRU’s re-branding, which began with the redesign of their logo and production of a new brochure last year, WildCRU has also launched a new website.

WildCRU is part of Oxford University's Department of Zoology.