COURSE
This course is designed and implemented by Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF), in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. CSF uses economics and strategic analysis to help conserve natural ecosystems around the world. We train environmental professionals in a focused package of practical economic skills, and also work with groups directly in the field. CSF concentrates on forests and rivers in the tropics where extraordinarily high levels of biological diversity are found. Since its creation in 1998, CSF has trained over 800 professionals from 70 different countries, and conducted over 30 applied environmental economics projects in the field.
What you will learn
Our goal in this course is to give you some very practical tools that can help you design more effective conservation programs, and confront badly planned, unsustainable development projects. You are all highly trained, experienced professionals, so we are merely hoping to add to your toolboxes a package of knowledge and skills that will help you do a better job.
At the core of this course is economics. We do not regard economics as a philosophy that tells us the way things should be. Economics is one way of explaining and predicting phenomena in the world and offers useful insights about the way people use land, water, forests and wildlife. You will learn the methods experts use to place a monetary value on nature and how these methods are applied to tropical forests and reefs. You will do the sort of quantitative analysis experts at the World Bank and private companies use to justify development investments. You will gain a clearer understanding of the economic decisions private companies make in exploiting forests and other natural resources. Further, you will practice negotiating conservation policies with different stakeholders.
The course schedule will also help clarify what the course does and does not cover. While the course will give you tools to evaluate the viability of conservation investments, it is not a course in business administration, and will not teach you to run a successful business. Similarly, we will not cover internal financial management and budgeting for non-profit organizations. We also will not be focusing on macroeconomics, which deals with the functioning of entire national economies. Rather, our focus is on microeconomics, which allows us to understand how individuals, families and companies interact and make up markets for particular goods (timber, fish, oil, land, tourism, etc.). It is microeconomics that provides the basis for all environmental and natural resource economics.
Preparing for the course
Before the course begins, we will make several of the readings accessible from our website. In particular, the Introductory chapter of Environmental Economics, by Turner, Pearce and Bateman gives a good overview of environmental economics. We will also post some readings from a basic microeconomics text that will be helpful to review before the course, especially if your native language is not English.
After the course, CSF hopes to help some of you apply your new skills in your home countries, so please begin to think now about projects or policies you may want to analyze upon your return.
natural resource economics.
LOGISTICS
CSF Contact Information
Kim Bonine
Training Director
Office Phone: 707-822-5505
Mobile Phone: 831-247-4182
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Will Broset
Course Coordinator
Mobile Phone: 650-269-8226
Email: [email protected]
Travel to California
An orientation will be held on Monday evening, August 10. All participants should plan to arrive at Stanford University by 5pm on Monday, August 10. If you will not be able to arrive by this time, you should make plans to arrive on Sunday, August 9 instead.
The course will begin on the morning of Tuesday, August 11. The course will end the evening of Friday, August 21. Everyone will be departing from Stanford University on Saturday morning, August 22.
When you make your travel arrangements, you should fly into the San Francisco Airport (SFO) or the San Jose Airports (SJC), which are both about 30 minutes from Stanford University.
If you would like to arrive in the San Francisco area earlier than August 9, or leave later than August 22, you will need to arrange for your own lodging.
Airport Transfers
Participants must secure their own transportation between the airport and Stanford University. Transportation from SFO/SJC to Stanford University is easy to arrange via a Door-to-Door airport shuttle van.
Shuttles cost $25-$30 USD from either airport.
Ground Transportation from SFO:
Door-to-Door shuttles are available as well as scheduled buses and public transportation.
At the San Francisco Airport, shuttles pick up on the Departures/Ticketing Level from the roadway Center Island at all terminals.
http://www.flysfo.com/transport/services/gt_tsv_search.asp
For help getting from SFO, dial 511 from within the San Francisco Bay Area or (510) 817-1717 from outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ground Transportation from SJC:
Door-to-Door shuttles are available as well as scheduled buses and public transportation.
At the San Jose Airport, shuttles can either be arranged in the airport or can be found waiting in one of two areas: Terminal A - In the Ground Transportation Center located south of the Terminal Garage.
Terminal C – Outside on the same side of street, just south of baggage claim.
http://www.sjc.org/travelers/ground_trans.html
Stanford University Check-In
Ask your shuttle driver to take you to Stanford University, and have your driver drop you off at the Governor's Corner Conference Front Desk, located at 589 Governor's Avenue. Governor's Avenue is near the intersection of Campus Drive West and Santa Teresa Lane. You will be greeted by a CSF team member who will help you check in and escort you to our nearby residence, Yost House, at 574 Governor's Avenue.
If you will be checking in before 8:00 a.m. or after 10:00 p.m., you will need to call 736-9988 (or 6-9988 from an on-campus phone) for an on-call Service Center staff member to assist you in checking in and getting your key. (There will be a phone on the wall near the Service Center.) You will then go to Sigma Nu House and use your key to enter the building and your room.
Stanford University Contact Information
Our Governor's Corner Conference Front Desk is where you will check in upon arrival and get your room key:
Governor's Corner Conference Front Desk
c/o CSF Economics
589 Governor's Avenue
Stanford, CA 94305
USA
Tel: (650) 736-9995
Fax: (650) 736-8252
[email protected]
Note: You can receive mail at the Governor's Corner Front Desk. Make sure that your name and CSF Economics is clearly included in the address.
Our Course House is where we will be staying during the course:
Yost House
574 Governor's Avenue
Stanford, CA 94305
USA
Phone numbers at our residence will be provided closer to start of the course.
Stanford University Facilities and Grounds
The course will be held on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California. The 8,000-acre campus is 45 minutes south of San Francisco and surrounded by foothills and rolling Oak woodlands. For more information on the Stanford campus and surrounding areas, including maps of the University, consult Stanford University’s visitor website at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/visitorinfo/plan. Additional information can be found in the 2009 Quick Start Guide for Individual Visitors.
Our group will be staying in a large dormitory-style house on campus. We will have sole use of the house, including the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room, computer room and common areas, which will enable participants, staff and instructors to interact both during and outside of class. However, as with almost all accommodations on the Stanford campus, these are shared accommodations. Your room will most likely sleep two people (of the same gender) and share a common bathroom on each floor. With this in mind, you may wish to pack a bathrobe and slippers for yourself. You will be provided two towels per week. Available single rooms in our residence will be available to participants on a lottery basis for an additional $500 fee.
Course lectures will be given in a nearby classroom and in the common space of the house. We will be walking the short distance (10-15 minutes) to and from our residence to the classroom and dining facility each day. If this may present any difficulty for you, please let us know and we will make appropriate arrangements for you.
Dining
We will eat meals in a dining facility on campus. There will be a variety of choices at every meal, including a vegetarian/vegan option. Please indicate any special dietary requests on your medical questionnaire form (e.g. food allergies, vegetarian meal preference, etc.).
The first meal of the course is dinner on the evening of Monday, August 10th. The last meal of the course is breakfast on Saturday, August 22rd. Information about some other locations on campus that serve food and drinks are below. Additional options can be found at http://tresidder.stanford.edu/services.html and http://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/dining/map-hours.htm. Please note that not all of these locations are open on weekends.
Tresidder Express
Tresidder Union
Tel: (650) 723-9224
10am - 6pm
Convenience store that offers a variety of food, drinks, school supplies, magazines, and over-the-counter medications.
Stanford Coffee House (CoHo)
Tresidder Union
Tel: (650) 721-2262
Mon-Fri 8am - 11pm
Sat/Sun 10am - 9pm
Hours are subject to change
Peets Coffee
Tresidder Union
Mon-Fri 8am - 2pm
Subway
Tresidder Union
Mon-Fri 11am-6pm
Sat/Sun 12pm - 6pm
Tel: (650) 723-3963
Offers sandwiches, wraps, salads and soups.
The Treehouse Restaurant
Tresidder Union
10am - 10pm
Cool Café
Rodin Sculpture Garden
Cantor Arts Center
Tel: (650) 725-4758
11am – 5pm
Closed Monday and Tuesday
http://museum.stanford.edu/visit/cafe.html
Offers a menu of gourmet sandwiches, soups, and salads.
Numerous restaurants and food options can be found in the neighboring town of Palo Alto, about a 30-minute walk from our residence.
Computers and Internet
Bring a laptop computer if you have one. We will have two desktop computers available in the residence for Internet access during evenings and breaks, and Stanford also has Internet access at various libraries around campus. If necessary, the staff can send and receive important messages for you (messages can be sent to [email protected]).
Those interested in wireless access for their laptop will need to set it up individually through Stanford University. The cost is $30 per week. If you are interested, visit http://rescomp.stanford.edu/conferences/connections.html for more information and to register before coming to the course. If you have questions, you can email [email protected]. Please note that all of your windows updates and anti-virus software must be current in order to register for wireless access at Stanford.
Telephone
You will have use of a shared telephone at our residence that can be used to make and receive phone calls during breaks. The telephone number at our residence where you can receive calls will be provided closer to the start of the course.
Long distance calling cards can be purchased through the Internet from various vendors (try www.consumer.att.com/prepaidcard/ or www.callingcards.com/) or on the Stanford Campus at the Tresidder Express convenience store at the Tresidder Student Union. If you plan to make international phone calls, it is probably most cost-effective to buy a calling card online. If you bring a mobile telephone, it must be turned off during class hours.
Health Insurance
You will need to be covered by health insurance during the course. If you do not already have a policy that will cover you while you are at Stanford, you can obtain a short-term insurance policy online from various vendors. Policies usually cost between $35-$45 dollars depending on age and amount of coverage chosen. Let us know if you need assistance with obtaining health insurance.
Two companies offering short-term policies for international visitors:
International Medical Group
http://www.imglobal.com/coverage/patriot/
International Health Insurance
www.HealthInsurance.com
Personal Expenses
You are responsible for all your personal expenses, such as personal telephone calls, mail, photocopies of personal materials, and food items outside the regular meals provided by the course. During the day off and optional trip to San Francisco, participants will be responsible for their own travel and dinner costs. Travelers’ checks, Visa and MasterCard are accepted at most locations.
Recreational Facilities
Recreational and athletic facilities (pool, gym, etc.) are available on the Stanford Campus. The Stanford Quick Start Guide includes information about facilities, hours, access passes and short-term membership fees. Any fees associated with recreational or athletic facility usage will be the responsibility of the participant and will need to be paid directly to Stanford University.
What to bring
The weather is variable during all seasons, so bring clothing for both warm and cool weather. Stanford can be very warm, but visits to the coast and to San Francisco can be cold and foggy. In August, expect minimum temperatures of around 10°-13° C in the evening and maximum temperatures of 25°-35° C. Bring comfortable, casual clothes – at least enough to last 7 days without doing laundry. Bring long pants and shorts or skirts, and both long- and short-sleeved shirts. You will have access to laundry machines in the residence during the course (about $5 USD for washing and drying).
Among other items, we recommend you bring:
Clothes:
sturdy shoes for walking to and from the classroom, and for hiking or playing volleyball, soccer or other recreational activities during free time
a windbreaker or rain jacket (visits to the coast can be cold, wet, foggy and windy)
sweaters (nights can be cold)
a warm hat
a sun hat
Equipment and other items:
a flashlight
sunscreen
sunglasses
a water bottle
a calculator
pens and pencils
a camera (optional)
binoculars (optional)
Sightseeing
Stanford University is located close to downtown Palo Alto and we will schedule a couple of evening trips for walking around, shopping and free time. Overall, please plan on having limited access to shops and stores. During the course, we will visit a nature preserve near Stanford and take a day trip to San Francisco or Monterey Bay. Northern California has a great deal to offer, and within an hour of Stanford are cities such as San Francisco and Berkeley, the popular beach and surfing town of Santa Cruz, and ample opportunities for hiking, camping and biking through woodlands and redwood forests. Many of the most well-known California wineries are located about two hours away in Napa and Sonoma counties. We will be glad to direct you to information on tourist attractions, but please plan to do your shopping and sightseeing before or after the course. You will be very busy during the course, so there will not be time for such visits outside of planned excursions.
Stanford’s free Marguerite Shuttle (http://transportation.stanford.edu/marguerite/MargueriteShuttle.shtml) provides service around campus and into downtown Palo Alto. A map and schedule can be found at http://transportation.stanford.edu/images/marguerite-map_5-28-2007.pdf.