Round River Conservation Studies

Round River Conservation Studies is a non-profit organization focused on international conservation research and education. Round River's student programs are designed to involve small groups of students with inspiring people and actual research projects that are finding and implementing solutions to real conservation issues. The student programs contribute significantly to the larger conservation initiatives of Round River and their local partners.

Round River is dedicated to the formulation and accomplishment of conservation strategies to preserve and restore wild places, and believes wildness to be a vital characteristic for vibrant human and non-human communities alike. Therefore, Round River strives to develop and support traditions that sustain wildness, and do not threaten wild biological communities. To achieve these commitments, Round River employs the principles and methods of conservation biology, with field research, and community planning activities.

Round River’s founding science advisor and trustee, Michael Soulé, was the first President of the Society for Conservation Biology and is considered by many to be progenitor of the science of Conservation Biology. Following Dr. Soulé’s edict—that to be effective over the long-term, conservation planning must be on a regional scale, protect large core reserves, maintain connectivity, and enlist the support of local communities—Round River has established recognition for its development of innovative conservation area designs and its strategic land planning activities.

Round River's conservation efforts in North America are focused in the temperate rainforests of British Columbia and Alaska, the territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, The Northwest Territories, and the Northern Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. In 2007, it launched a student program in the Koeye River Watershed, a part of the Great Bear Rainforest in the mid-coast of British Columbia. This nascent program focuses on establishing a long-term system for monitoring the ecosystem, and community-based relations with the Heiltsuk First Nation. As a result of our growing commitment to the wildlands of British Columbia, in 2002, an independent sister organization, Round River Canada was formed.

In Africa, Round River works in the deserts of northwestern Namibia to assist the efforts of the Save the Rhino Trust [http://www.rhino-trust.org.na] and most recently to conduct a regional ecological analysis for the Greater Kunene Region in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

In South America, Round River works in the cloud forests of southern Ecuador and in the Amazon Basin of Peru. For each of these project areas they strive to formulate conservation biology based land designs, while fostering innovative implementation approaches.

These regions were chosen because:

They contain relatively large areas of intact wildlands with a unique composition of species, including many endemics;

Resource conversion activities and unsustainable development threaten them; and,

Favorable conditions still exist to improve conservation education and strengthen long-term conservation plans and sustainable resource use through local community involvement.

For each of these project areas we are striving to formulate conservation biology based land designs, while fostering innovative implementation approaches.

Round River's board includes Trent Thursby Alvey, Rick Bass, Peter Gerity, Doug Peacock, Michael Soulé, and Terry Tempest Williams. Its Executive Director is Dennis Sizemore.