TAESCO Transamerica Environmental Science Consultants Ltd.
Transamerica Environmental Science Consultants Ltd (TAESCO) was founded in 1980 by Dr. Goetz Schuerholz and registered under the BC Company Act as a Limited Company. TAESCO was created in order to provide environmental and resource management services to industry and Government around the world. With an historical foundation in the management of wild-lands and protected areas, the firm continues to concentrate on consultancy in the broad field of biodiversity conservation through sustainable land- and resource use management. Five main areas of expertise are offered:
TAESCO’s senior professionals and key associates have successfully applied their skills and expertise to the sustainable establishment and management of more than 50 million has protected areas and support zones in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Furthermore, the firm has made major contributions to land and resource use conflict resolutions, produced country-specific environmental profiles and assisted in the development of major environmental investment portfolios. TAESCO has pioneered computer models for wildlife and biodiversity management, environmental impact and/or risk assessment. This work has been done for bilateral aid agencies such as GTZ, KfW, CIDA and USAID, international aid agencies such as The World Bank, FAO, UNESCO, non-government organizations such as IUCN, WWF, Nature Conservancy, and private industry.
TAESCO’s work approach emphasizes public involvement through consultation with local governments and stakeholders, meetings, participatory workshops and questionnaires. SWOT analysis and strategic planning are the firm’s preferred tools in project design and implementation.
TAESCO’s senior personnel and key associates hold internationally recognized professional and academic qualifications with extensive work experience from around the world.
Transamerica Environmental Science Consultant (TAESCO) has been registered in 1980 as Limited Company in British Columbia, Canada, with headquarters in Duncan. In Europe the firm has been registered in 1997 under the name of ‘TAESCO Europe’ in Germany with an office in Goettingen.
TAESCO’s Mission Statement
To promote and contribute to globally sustainable biodiversity conservation
Current and Recent Experience of the Company
During the past 17 years, TAESCO has been responsible for the establishment and management of over 50 protected areas worldwide and resource inventories and analyses in over 100 assignments in 39 countries. Projects have ranged from long-term wildlife research and habitat monitoring on Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in Canada, to the design of a tourism development plan for Gonarhezu National Park in Zimbabwe.
Projects have included environmental and social impact assessments for mine- and linear development projects in North America, forest inventories in Canada and tropical Africa, training protected area planning teams in Eastern Europe and South America and developing investment plans for biodiversity conservation in Russia and Georgia. TAESCO’s clients range from federal and provincial government to large corporations, bilateral donors and international non-government organizations
The following projects have recently been completed or are currently being conducted by TAESCO:
Worldwide Fund for Nature, Germany.
Protected Areas and Support Zones
Over recent years TAESCO has responded to the rapidly growing requirements for the expansion and improved management of the global protected area network. The company has compiled comprehensive biophysical, socio-cultural and economic baseline data, establishmed environmental monitoring systems for protected areas and their support zones, implemented economic microplanning and land use planning for support zones, trained protected area personnel, assisted in institutional strengthening and capacity building on all government levels, elaborated integrated management plans for protected areas and their support zones, established long-and short-term operational plans, tourism development plans and designed environmental education strategies.
TAESCO traditionally emphasizes stakeholder and public involvement in planning and managing protected areas. Logframe analysis, brainstorming and SWOT analysis are commonly used tools in participatory workshops.
For the past 12 years TAESCO through its subsidiary company ‘Yohetta Wilderness Experience Ltd’ has been fully responsible for the establishment and management of a 1000 square km wilderness area in British Columbia. Responsibilities included the preparation of management and business plans, development of eco-tourism related infrastructure, marketing and implementing wilderness tourism, implementation of sustainable hunting/fishing, developing guidelines and economic microplans for land use compatible with wilderness conservation for a 200 000 ha’s support zone. The work involves co-management agreements with a neighboring native community and other stakeholders.
Some of the protected areas for which TAESCO has developed management plans and has trained technical and management personnel include:
Wildlife Management and Biodiversity Conservation
TAESCO continues to be involved in complex wildlife research and management projects with focus in Canada. Ecological and biological research traditionally concentrates on ungulates, birds and furbearers, increasingly more on biodiversity conservation in general. TAESCO has pioneered the application of ecological and biological analysis to wildlife capability assessments, GIS assisted wildlife habitat mapping, carrying capacity computer models and the establishment of ecological sensitivity maps. Extensive work has been carried out on endangered and threatened species. TAESCO has become known for its holistic approach to wildlife management. The firm has been instrumental in developing biodiversity indices for objective and qualitative wildlife habitat mapping.
Some of the major projects implemented by TAESCO included:
Land Use Planning
TAESCO’s experience in land use planning is mostly related to support zones of protected areas. Work covers the compilation of physical, biological, cultural and socio-economic resource information as basis for land use planning compatible with the conservation objectives for protected areas; participatory micro-planning with key stakeholders and tribal/aboriginal communities from the conservation unit and support zones. The company’s characteristic approach implies the use of ecological baselines for the production of an ecological sensitivity map as cornerstone for optimum land use stratification and resource allocation.
Typical projects include support zone planning for:
Forestry
In addition to all basic services TAESCO offers in the traditional area of forestry, its special interest is focused on social forestry, community forest development and management, non-timber forest products in tropical and temperate regions, forest ecology and protection forest. Characteristic forest projects TAESCO has been involved in include:
Environmental Planning and Management
Taesco has made major contributons to the application of ecosystem analysis to environmental impact assessments and ecological risk analysis. The company has developed a number of innovative technologies as part of its environmental consulting practise. This involves the design of ecological sensitivity maps, ecological gap analysis on the macrohabitat level, development of biodiversity and system component indices and the development of wildlife habitat capability models. This approach streamlines and facilitates environmental impact assessments, provides a sound basis for environmental risk analysis and provides guidelines for impact mitigation. The development of biodiversity indices in particular, permits a meaningful design and implementation of land reclamation plans. Projects to which this multifacet approach has been applied include: