Applying the Rapid Management Assessment (rma) Methodology to Ecosystem Management

In the fall of 2002, approximately sixty undergraduate students from a broad range of disciplines at Acadia University enrolled in an interdisciplinary course entitled Sustainable Nova Scotia. While the theoretical and practical implications of this pedagogical approach are to be discussed elsewhere, this paper focuses on one course project that tested the feasibility of the Rapid Management Assessment (RMA) process developed by the Protected Areas Conservation Trust of Belize, Central America to hone interdisciplinary analysis in sustainable resource and environmental management. This project also tested the practicality of adapting the RMA process designed for protected area applications in a developing country to application in a predominantly working landscape in a developed country.