The Columbia-based Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) recently received a $6 million grant from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation that will allow it to expand its educational and training programs, pursue novel inter-institutional research initiatives, and construct new laboratory and greenhouse spaces.
This latest donation brings the foundation's total gift to CERC to $12 million. It first began supporting CERC when it provided a $6 million seed grant to form this unique partnership among five education and research institutions in the New York City metropolitan area in 1994.
"After a very successful five-year effort to establish CERC as a five-member consortium, we are now poised to expand our programs and fully develop CERC as a leader in conservation education and practice," said Don J. Melnick, CERC's executive director and Columbia professor of anthropology and biological sciences. "We are also strengthening the consortium's structure so that it will be able to sustain itself long into the future."
CERC was established as a consortium of Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, The New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Wildlife Preservation Trust International, and has been devoted to creating a new generation of scientists and policy makers who will focus on the conservation of species and the ecosystems in which they live.
Biologists estimate that hundreds and possibly thousands of species become extinct every year as a direct result of environmental degradation caused by humans. Along with species and their ecosystems, human health and economic well-being have also fallen victim to the massive habitat destruction we are now witnessing.
"There are few more important scientific and social issues than the conservation of the natural environments in which we live," said Provost Jonathan R. Cole. "Through its exceptional generosity, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation's gift totaling $12 million will have a major impact on environmental studies at Columbia and at the other institutions that are part of the CERC consortium. CERC's diverse programs are thriving because they are able to attract extraordinarily talented faculty, students and practitioners to Columbia, which is due in no small measure to the visionary support that has seeded this effort. This new grant will enable us to take the critical next steps in developing research and instruction in these areas of biology and social science."
The recent grant allows CERC to put into place a five-year plan to expand the scope and outreach of its programs. As of this fall, the center has added a master's degree program in conservation biology to the already successful Ph.D. and undergraduate major programs. It will also expand its science teacher professional development program so that teachers with little ecology background can learn about present biodiversity issues and bring the lessons back to their classrooms. The center will enlarge its Conservation Biology Certificate program to include more international students in order to produce scientists and policy makers who can confront conservation issues in their own countries. In addition, the center will develop a network of five-week intensive fieldwork classes for undergraduates and eventually high school students to study the ecology and conservation of ecosystems such as the deserts of Arizona, the coral reefs of Belize and the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil.
Beyond education and training, CERC's scientists have formed research collaborations examining such issues as ecologically crucial plant-animal interactions, genetic and demographic management of fragmented populations, and economic instruments for forest conservation.
The V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation has been a generous supporter of environmental and conservation programs, but its grant to CERC is by far its largest gift. The Foundation, named for the company's founder Villum Kann Rasmussen, was established in 1991 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Danish-based Velux roof window and skylight company, and its trustees are Aino Kann Rasmussen, Anne-Margrete Ogstrup-Pedersen, Hans Kann Rasmussen and Martin S. Kaplan. The company commenced sales in the United States in 1975 and later opened a manufacturing plant in South Carolina.
"The Trustees of the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation recognize the achievements of CERC and its five member institutions in developing a truly unique collaboration for environmental conservation and in stepping outside their traditional institutional boundaries," said Hans Kann Rasmussen. "We wish to encourage these institutions to continue on their successful course, to accelerate the progress of CERC toward its short and long term goals, and to strengthen the inter-institutional ties that have emerged in the consortium's first five years."
|
