Rewilding Tuscany

Italy

Summer Session 2

4 Weeks

4 Credits

Summer 2025

Jul 7 - Aug 5

Open

Program Costs

Tuition$4,950
Room & Board$1,750
Total$6,700

Application Deadlines

Summer 2025

May 1, 2025

Resources

Italy Field Guide + Financial Planner

SFS Academic Handbook (2024)

SFS Policies and Procedures (2023)

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Summer Session 2 Program

Rewilding Tuscany

Greve,

Italy

How do rebounding wolf populations impact the sheepherders in Tuscany’s agricultural highlands? What effects can wetland restoration have on small-scale coastal fisheries? Can farming and biodiversity thrive together? Using food systems as a lens, this program explores the diverse effects global biodiversity frameworks have on local food producers. With Tuscany as a case study, students will examine the economic and sociocultural complexities of global-to-local ecological restoration and rewilding efforts in historical agricultural ecosystems.

Program Highlights:

Interview farmers, shepherds, fishers, and foresters to understand the benefits and drawbacks of ecological restoration projects in their local areas.
Examine the successes and challenges for various agricultural practices posed by the return of wolf, wild boar, and roe deer populations.
Identify the synergies and tradeoffs of forest area expansion and land use changes.
Explore the cultural goods and services provided by wetland and lagoon conservation in southern coastal Tuscany.

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Academics

This academically rigorous program follows a five days/week schedule. The program explores the on-the-ground, local implications of commitments set in international frameworks, such as the Global Biodiversity Framework, the Green Deal, and Nature Restoration Law. Students will see first-hand the impacts of global and regional sustainability policies on food producers.

Major academic themes include:

Human-wildlife conflict management
Multiple and differing values of ecosystems goods and services
Land use change, agroecological practices, and wild and domesticated biodiversity
Social justice and equitable sharing of ecosystem services
Climate change and ecological restoration

Courses

During this summer program, you will take one 4-credit course. Students will experience theory learned during classes directly in the field. This course is interdisciplinary and participatory in nature, designed to foster inquiry and active learning. Lectures, tests, and assignments will inform field visits and field exercises to develop critical capacities.

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to view a description and download the syllabus.

Ecological Restoration in Agricultural Landscapes

4 credits

Core Skills

Students will gain knowledge and make use of practical research field tools and instruments such as: quantitative/qualitative data collection and analysis, questionnaire development, stakeholder interviews, basic statistical analysis, monetary valuation techniques, multicriteria analysis, and biodiversity assessments and survey techniques.

Field Sites

You will visit different communities, protected areas, and agroecosystems, including vineyards and olive groves, arable lands, natural pastures, oak, beech, chestnut, and pine forests, salt marshes and wetlands, the Apennine Mountain range, Chianti hills, and the coastal flats of Maremma.