Welcome!
Currently, parks worldwide (local, state, national, and international) are faced with many challenges and threats including habitat fragmentation, invasive species, climate change, reduced funding, and changing public demographics and relevancy.
In an effort to address these challenges, the Clemson University Institute for Parks (CUIP) conducts a comprehensive and innovative program of research, education, training, and outreach that enhances the management of the world's parks and protected areas, while concurrently communicating the values of these natural, historical, cultural, and recreational resources to a global citizenry.
The CUIP seeks to enhance the management and protection of the worlds natural, cultural, and historic parks and protected areas through two broad areas of activity. It will:
- Develop current and future leaders in the park movement by providing innovative, interdisciplinary, and transformative education and training programs. Through these programs, park leaders will develop the capacity to respond to current and emerging challenges in visionary and creative ways.
- Provide the best available science and research to support park and protected areas and effective decision-making.
The CUIP is uniquely positioned to successfully meet these goals.
- Clemson University is ranked as a top 20 public institution in the U.S.
- It is an interdisciplinary Institute, with faculty and graduate student representatives from every corner of campus.
- It is home to 14 persons with doctoral degrees who are actively involved in research projects that are important to parks and protected areas. This may be the largest concentration of park researchers in any U.S. academic institution.
- The "footprint" of the CUIP extends worldwide, in that it partners with universities and scholars from around the world including Indiana, Colorado State, George Washington, Virginia Tech, Vermont, Middlebury, Stanford, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Sokoine University (Tanzania), and Narok University (Kenya).
- Research has been conducted across the U.S. and around the world including Tanzania, Antarctica, Costa Rica, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Canada, Ecuador (Galapagos National Park), and others. Grant funding has been secured from organizations such as the U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Park Conservation Association, National Audubon Society, the Toyota Foundation, and U.S. Forest Service.
- It has developed a communication and collaboration system based on state of the art cyberinfrastructure called the Open Parks Grid. The OPG harnesses the power of the University's super-computing systems that provides "just in time" knowledge and data directly to park managers, researchers and decision-makers.
