Erasmus Mundus MSc in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems (TROPIMUNDO)

The world faces a crisis risking extinction of species through global warming. Due to impact of e.g., changes in land use and destruction of habitats, tropical rain forests, mangrove forests and coral reefs are disappearing and with them ecosystem functions, goods and services on which human populations are dependent. In order to conserve nature, to manage or even to restore tropical biodiversity and ecosystems, we must understand patterns of tropical biodiversity, study how organisms interact with their environment and how they respond to perturbations and change. Next to research, this is dealt with in this unique masters programme.

TROPIMUNDO is an EC-funded and excellence-labebeled Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems. We aim to bring together expert Higher Education Institutes (HEI), with long-standing worldwide expertise in tropical rainforests and woodlands and in tropical coastal ecosystems. TROPIMUNDO students are able to concentrate on botany, zoology and integrative ecosystem approaches in institutions worldwide in 2 Master years, of which an entire semester is spent in the tropics. Specialisation is possible on the evolution of tropical flora and vegetation, on faunistic assemblages, on informatics tools to treat and manage biodiversity data and databases (biogeographical, genetical, geographical information systems) including the management and conservation of historic collections such as herbarium sheets, on the study of diversity, dynamics and evolution of tropical and subtropical ecosystems (with a focus on four related systems, namely tropical rainforests and woodlands, mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs, including the interactions between flora, fauna, man and the environment within and between each of these adjacent ecosystems), on conservation and restoration ecology of natural habitats and their biodiversity including competences in sustainable management and governance of biodiversity, and finally, on tropical ethnobotany, exploitation and valorisation of natural resources and conservation of traditional ecological knowledge.

CORE VALUES. Unique mobility programme worldwide, including a unique set of threatened ecosystems

• Study, research and field courses in Amazonian, African, Asian and/or Australian wet tropics
• Intensive contact with different cultures and languages

Trajectory in 4 semesters. The consortium is composed of 5 institutes in Programme Countries (largely European) and 4 higher education institutes in Partner Countries (largely non-European). In a first semester, students start at a European institute of their choice to acquire similar competences. In a second semester field experience and courses will take place in a university in a non-EU country. This includes hands-on experience in 1 or 2 tropical sites. The third semester will cover a specialisation in a European university, different from the first one. Courses vary at this semester. In the fourth semester students return to where they started out for their thesis research. Every trajectory of 4 semesters constitutes a unique combination of courses and expertises

The added values of TROPIMUNDO comprise:

• unique course program with a mobility within Europe that maximizes radiation of the scientific excellence of EU HEIs and that leads to multiple degree. To our knowledge this is the first curriculum in Europe (maybe world-wide) to cover such an integrated set of threatened ecosystems;
• unique mobility beyond Europe under the form of an entire semester in situ including both ex cathedra and field courses in the Amazonian, African or Australian wet tropics at participating third-country HEIs;
• principle that strongly stimulates content and language integrated learning (the study of a discipline whilst learning one or more European languages);
• clear Trajectory in which fundamental understanding of some of the most threatened ecosystems, or their components (incl. biota and abiotic factors), is followed by research tools to study and understand them with the aim of protection.