This hands-on course will provide participants with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to use Marxan in a marine conservation planning exercise (more information provided below). It has been offered in Ottawa, ON in July, and will be available in San Francisco, CA and Edmonton, AB in October, Vancouver, BC in November, and Toronto, ON in December 2010.
The following topics are covered in the Inroduction to Marxan:
- Key concepts in systematic conservation planning
- Creation of planning units
- Creating the essential Marxan input files
- Parameter setting in Marxan
- Understanding and using Marxan results
- Zonae Cogito (decision support software)
- A brief introduction to Marxan with Zones
The course time will be split between lecture (~30%) and hands-on exercises (~70%).
Click here for a general course agenda.
Courses are usually $550 for a two-day training (including breaks and lunch).
About Marxan
Marxan (Ian Ball and Hugh Possingham, 2000) is a software program used to support the design of marine and terrestrial reserves worldwide. It is maintained by the University of Queensland in Australia.
Using Marxan, conservation planners can identify an efficient system of conservation sites that include a suite of biodiversity targets at a minimal cost. Marxan provides a unique method for designing reserves that is systematic and repeatable. It is the most utilized conservation planning tool worldwide; over 60 countries, 1100 users, and 600 organizations use Marxan to support the design of terrestrial and marine reserves. For example, it has been used to help zone the Great Barrier Marine Park, design marine reserves in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, and set spatial priorities in the Romanian Carpathians to protect large carnivores. Marxan is available at no charge from the UQ Spatial Ecology Lab: Download Marxan Software.
About the Instructors
In July 2010, the first set of North American certified (by the University of Queensland) trainers were trained by Lindsay Kircher, a leading instructor from UQ. These trainers include Daniel Farr from the University of Alberta, Chris McDougall from the Haida Oceans Technical Team, Dave Nicolson from Black Coffee Consulting, Danijela Puric-Mladenovic from the University of Toronto/Ministry of Natural Resources, and Krista Royle from Parks Canada.