The Biodiversity and Conservation Graduate Program (PPGBC) at the Academic Master's level started in 2014 in the face of the need to train professionals able to deal with the environmental, economic and social aspects that permeate Brazilian biodiversity and, in particular, the Amazon region. PPGBC is linked to the Altamira University Campus of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), supplying an important demand for higher education in the Transamazon and Xingu region.
The Campus of Altamira has been part of this regional dynamic since 1987, forming students who, for the most part, did not have the opportunity to continue their training at the graduate level, but who are still working in the region, whether as teachers or development agents, whether working in governmental or non-governmental bodies, in a way that PPGBC seeks to contribute to the improvement of the knowledge that its students have about the reality of which they are part, making possible the understanding and characterization of the Brazilian and Amazonian biodiversity, besides the elaboration of strategies aimed at its maintenance and the sustainable use of natural resources.
PPGBC has Ecology as its area of concentration, being organized in two lines of research: Characterization of Biodiversity and Conservation and Management of Biodiversity. The course has a multi and transdisciplinary approach, based on the interaction of Biological Sciences (Ecology, Zoology, Physiology, Morphology, Genetics, Botany, Systematics, Taxonomy, Phylogeny, Microbiology), Exact and Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics), and Applied Social Sciences (Economics and Sociology).
The graduates trained by the Program are qualified to work in the most diverse sectors of society, both in the public and private spheres. Being able to work in research institutions, inspection agencies, companies specializing in environmental consulting, among others.