St.Petersburg
April 2008
M,Sc. Program ‘Biodiversity and nature protection’
Introductory general remarks
First of all, I want to compliment you with the development of this new Master of science
programme. There are at least two reasons to congratulate you with this new programme.
The first reason is that today worldwide development of biodiversity requires the attention of
university teaching and research. Climate change is now the big issues when world wide
environmental problems are discussed, but biodiversity loss deserves a great attention as well.
The second reason is that the development of this programme enables the State University of
Saint Petersburg to cooperate with universities abroad, and in particular in the European Union
where the bachelor- master structure of university teaching recently has been introduced.
The programme is well structured and highly informative.
Module C. Applied ecology.
As a sociologist I am in particular interested in Module C on ‘Applied ecology’. The module
contains some interesting modules, but I missed several important issues and an argumentation
why some issues are chosen and others neglected.
1. Suppporting courses (compulsory) -15 ects
Integrated environmental management
The first course of Module C is entitled ‘Integrated environmental management’ In the
description of this course I missed a presentation of the context of environmental management.
Is it a task of state authorities or of private enterprises? What is the impact of environmental
management as compared with other policy instruments of governments or activities of non
governmental environmental organizations? What are the opportunities and constrains of
environmental management? The relevance of the topic of the course is ‘excellent’ (5), the
coherence of scope needs extensive improvement (2) because of the lacking context.
Computer technologies in ecology and nature management (GIS environmental incl.
No comments because of lack of expert knowledge.
Urban ecology
The distinction between this course and the course on ‘urban green environment’ should be
clarified. The earlier remarks about the lacking context (see: module ‘Integrated environmental
management’) are relevant for this course as well. What is specific ‘urban’ in this course? In
the lectures on ‘Environment of the city’, the city is compared with ‘nature’. But what about
the human impact on nature outside cities? Some elements of the course, like ‘urban green
plantations’ are specific urban issues, but others like ‘chemical, physical and biogenic
pollutants’ are not. The issues discussed in the course are highly relevant but they should be
split in specific urban issues on the one hand and air, water and soil pollution in general on the
other hand. So the ‘contents of the course ‘should be completely redesigned or replaced with
other topics’ (1) but its relevance and up to datedness seem to be good (4).
Environmental psychology
Again the argumentation for the choice of this subject is lacking. Why environmental
psychology and not environmental economics, environmental law or environmental sociology?
Some elements in the course like ‘providing useful insight for understanding how to develop a
sustainable society’ are beyond the scope of environmental psychology. The role of this course
in the programme ‘should be completely redesigned’ or the course should be replaced by
another topic (1). There is, as far I can judge upon, no reason to doubt about the ‘up-todatedness’ of the course.
2. Common optional courses – 6 ects
Students should choose two courses form each section for total 6 ects
Section 1. Ecological issues in environmental studies
Ecological modelling
No comments because of lack of expert knowledge
Risk assessment for environment
My expert knowledge on this issue is limited. My impression is that social and psychological
aspects of risk assessment should get a more prominent place in this course.
Ecological basis for the cultural heritage protection
No comments because of lack of expert knowledge.
Urban green environment
This course could be combined with those elements of the course on urban ecology which are
specific for urban environments.
Section 2. Population biology
No comments because of expert knowledge
3. Supervised project on Sustainable cities - 6 ects
No comments
Concluding general remarks
The programme contains far too little about the societal aspects of reduction of biodiversity
and about biodiversity protection. What are social causes of biodiversity reduction? What are
social opportunities and social constraints in protection of biodiversity?. Which are important
international policies and international laws on biodiversity?. What is the relevance of
disciplines like environmental law, environmental economics, environmental sociology and
environmental psychology for biodiversity protection? How was and is biodiversity destroyed
and protected in the former Soviet Union and in today’s Russia? What are interesting
biodiversity protection policies in different parts of the world? What is the role of non
governmental environmental organisations in the protection of biodiversity in Russia and
abroad? Questions like these and others regarding the social aspects of biodiversity are not
enough dealt with in the course. In my opinion at least one third of the course should be about
this type of questions.
Prof. Dr. Egbert Tellegen
Environmental sociologist
Utrecht University The Netherlands