The 21st Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, One World, One Conservation, One Partnership, will be held from 1 - 5 July 2007 in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) welcomes proposals for short courses. All proposals for short courses must be submitted by 13 November 2006 to 2007@conbio.org as an MS Word document. The LOC expects to select these sessions by early December 2006.

The theme of the 2007 annual meeting is One World, One Conservation, One Partnership and emphasises the need to move away from national, regional and disciplinary territoriality in support of a joint effort to conserve the world's biodiversity by uniting towards a common goal. Preference will be given to proposals that deal with tools or concepts that are relevant to one or more of the four major themes of the meeting and advance the goals of the Society (see below).

Budgeting for the short courses, including costs, anticipated fees and sponsorships, should be devised on the break-even principle, but include a reasonable contingency. It is the responsibility of organisers of short courses to obtain funding for their own expenses and the expenses of their instructors, including a stipend if required. The Local Organising Committee is not responsible for obtaining funds to support speaker travel to the meeting and cannot guarantee that any support will be available. Preference may be given to proposals for which organisers can demonstrate that funds are likely to be available. We can offer free conference registration to a maximum of two instructors per course. All short-course instructors and participants must register for the meeting by the early registration deadline of 16 March 2007.

Individuals may not submit more than one proposal. As a general rule, no individual may give more than one presentation at the meeting. Please ensure that your invited speakers have not accepted multiple invitations.

Meeting themes:

1. Partnerships for effective conservation
   Biodiversity conservation is dependent on partnerships at all levels; ranging from international agreements to co-management arrangements with local communities. The most effective implementation often occurs at informal levels involving interest groups, NGOs, academic institutions and management agencies. Topics could include current and future implementation challenges of conservation, and how these can be overcome.

2. Global change and conservation challenges beyond boundaries
   Global effects such as climate change challenge the current temporal and spatial paradigms in conservation. For example, bio-geographic, political and management boundaries may be re-aligned over time and thus challenge the ongoing utility of current formal and informal conservation areas. Discussions on new approaches to conservation planning and implementation are invited taking cognisance of large scale and long-term effects of global change.

3. Linking freshwater, marine and terrestrial conservation
   Terrestrial, marine, and freshwater systems form a network of life, with threats, resources and organisms moving among them. Due to this inter-connectedness, impacts on biodiversity can not be considered in isolation and are often more noticeable away from the point of impact or over time. Non-human induced factors shape populations and communities, which in turn respond by evolving or adapting in order to deal with change. The challenge is to quantify these changes in communities, populations or species across these various systems in order to appropriately protect biodiversity.

4. Interactions between biodiversity and society
   Biodiversity adds value to society by providing ecosystem goods and services and contributing to human survival and well-being. How does resource use and economic, social and cultural pressures influence the balance between maintaining natural capital, biodiversity and societal benefits? What approaches and innovations are required to ensure sustainable delivery of these services to society at large and into the future? This is a wide-ranging theme and presentations could investigate ethical perspectives, highlight ideas for and application of new technologies, or discuss approaches to awareness, education and advocacy.

Proposals must not exceed 1200 words in length and must include the following information.

Short courses will comprise either one-day courses or the longer format 4 - 5 day courses and will be scheduled before the meeting. These short courses should be aimed at professional skills development.

• one-day short courses will take place on 1 July 2007
• 4-5 day short courses will take place from 25 - 30 June 2007 (scheduling as per logistics and travel constraints, but dates finalised on course acceptance)

1. Short-course title.
2. Instructor(s) name, affiliation, and complete contact information.
3. Length of the course: one-day or 4-5 day course (justify longer course).
4. Description of the course content and explanation of how it relates to one or more of the themes of the meeting and the goals of the Society.
5. Minimum and maximum number of students that can be accommodated.
6. Whether any special instructional or audiovisual equipment beyond that which the instructor(s) will provide is needed.
7. An itemized budget (in dollars) for the course and a description of any funds available to cover costs. In your budget, include the space required (note that we may have to make use of external facilities in which case there may be a cost related to the venue) and that Internet access will cost approximately $30 per computer (laptop, desktop, or workstation). Please be sure to include all budget items. Note that the LOC will not be able to cover any stipend for the instructor(s).

For more information, contact the
Local Organising Committee SCB 2007
Centre for African Conservation Ecology (ACE)
Department of Zoology, P O Box 77000
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth 6031
tel +27 41 504 4278; fax +27 41 504 1778
email: 2007@conbio.org; Web: www.conbio.org/2007