About Us

Memorial University Biology 4651: Conservation Biology II, Winter 2019

We are the Conservation II class of Winter 2019 at Memorial University! Our class is made up of 21 Biology students, including fourth-year undergrad students, and a handful of masters students. Our instructor, Dr Yolanda Wiersma, introduced the Living Planet Index of Newfoundland and Labrador project to us in January 2019. The project started with an idea which the class collaboratively turned into a comprehensive report on the Province's wildlife.

At the beginning of the Winter term, 2019, the class decided together how we were going to divide the report into chapters. Using the Canadian Wildlife Report and the Global Living Planet Index as guidelines, we decided to split the report into the following sections: Mammals, Birds, Aquatic Life, Plants, Humans and Species at Risk. We divided into small groups and extensively researched the topic to which we were assigned. The first draft of the report was created at the beginning of March 2019. After extensive peer-review editing, the second draft was created. In mid-March, 2019, we moved into the final phases of streamlining our report, editing, and publicising the project.

With the guidance of Dr Wiersma, the report came together very well, and we hope it will inspire members of the province to become more involved in the preservation of wildlife. We are proud to say that the Biodiversity Report of Newfoundland and Labrador is the first comprehensive report of its kind in the province. Having an overview of the wildlife in the region and how it has changed will hopefully be useful for researchers, educators, and anyone else interested in the wildlife of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is our pleasure to provide the report to all those who are interested, and we hope that we can spark an interest in some people who are not in the field of science.