Announcements

On 29th of january dr. Kathryn Velander (Edinburgh Napier University) will give open lecture „Scenic Routes – bringing tourism into rural areas“. The lecture will take place at 11.15 in Kreutzwaldi 5 - D239.

Dr Kathryn Velander’s role as an academic has enabled her to become involved in projects world-wide advising communities on the how, what, when and where of developing ecotourism. Her emphasis is on capacity building as well as developing the product, by helping communities to address their training needs.  Her work spans over 20 countries world-wide involving all types of communities from tribal elders in Columbia to an urban regeneration project in Edinburgh. Her most current projects include: Scottish Scenic Routes Initiative that links tourism infrastructure development, employment for young architects and community development, Global Challenge Funded work with ALAAP in the Indian Himalayas and ongoing work with the local community in Edinburgh.

Her teaching includes having developed and run an undergraduate programme in Ecotourism and three Master’s programme – MSc Ecotourism, MSc Wildlife Biology and Conservation and MSc Conservation and Management of Protected Areas. Although she has taught a variety of subjects from basic ecology and biology to more specialist forestry, ecotourism and conservation, her main teaching is now related to the Masters degrees including the role of ecotourism in development and more recently Design Thinking as a development tool. All three MScs are based on practical skills, so much of the work is in the lab or in the field teaching students how to survey habitats and identify species.

Dr Kathryn Velanderi is visting our university as she is the oponent of  Sergey Kask PhD thesisis defence.

Dr Kathryn Velander's visit is endowed by the Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology, supported by the European Union, European Regional Development Fund (Estonian University of Life Sciences ASTRA project „Value-chain based bio-economy“).