Eligibility

• Being enrolled in a Master’s program for the academic year 2011 for South Africa.
• Students with background in Geography/Anthropology/History/Political Science.

Scientific objectives

The UPA network is an international network created in 2009 that aims at bringing together research teams and practitioners to reflect on issues pertaining to the “nature-city” relationship and particularly to the protected areas that are confronted to urban dynamics.

The UPA network therefore carries out research on governance and management of national parks that are located in or nearby cities. It focuses in particular on the following urban protected areas: Tijuca National Park (Rio, Brasil), Sanjay National Park (Mumbai, India), Nairobi National Park (Nairobi, Kenya) and the Table Mountain National Park(Cape Town, South Africa).

The objective of the UPA network is to pool together knowledge, expertise and experience in management of different urban protected areas through the setup of a research network that associates researchers, managers and local authorities dealing with urban protected areas. It notably aims at supporting research focusing on management strategies and methodologies for urban protected areas in order to help policy makers make informed decisions towards greater sustainability. It also aims eventually to produce educational material about the management of urban protected areas.

This call is intended to elicit applications from Master’s students in Geography/Anthropology/History/Political Science willing to conduct research in line with the following themes:

• Practices, management and policies of urban protected areas.
• History of the “park-city” governance relationship.

The research must imperatively be done with the Table Mountain National Park as a case study.

Apply:

To apply, please send the following documents to research@ifas.org.za

before the 15th of February 2011 (South Africa):

• 1 CV of 2 pages maximum.
• A cover letter of 2 pages maximum explaining how the research topic would fit into the questionings and framework of analysis of the research programme.
• A reference letter from the research director.
• A proof of academic registration