As soon as the DIDEM project was launched in 2021, exchanges with the partners of the Comorian Patsy University Centre led to a request for support in setting up a master's degree dedicated to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Workshops between the teaching staff and the DiDEM team led to the design of an interdisciplinary model validated by the central administration of the University of Comoros.
The opening of the Master's programme is scheduled for the academic year 2022-2023.
The Master's degree in "Sustainable Development and Biodiversity Conservation" is in line with the logic of a broadened multidisciplinarity between natural and social sciences. It aims to train generalist environmental managers capable of operating in the field to collect information and then to analyse it to establish diagnoses and expert assessments to support the implementation of public policies that meet the Sustainable Development Goals. This master's degree also aims to strengthen the capacities of biodiversity conservation and planning professionals to better respond to the problems of the society/nature/Sustainable Development interface with which they are confronted and to better integrate the environmental dimensions into land use planning.
The Master's programme will last two years. It is structured into a common core aimed at giving all students a solid basic training in the first year and two professional courses in the second year:
- the Sustainable Conservation of Biodiversity (CDB) course, focusing on ecology and natural sciences
- the Sustainable Environmental Management and Planning (AGDE) programme, which focuses on risk analysis and environmental engineering.
The DiDEM team will contribute to the reinforcement of the capacities of the teaching staff of the university centre of Patsy with the aim of ensuring the teachings envisaged in the model. It will provide the first lessons in pairs with Comorian colleagues and will build with them the course materials so that they are fully autonomous at the end of the project.
