Environmental and Natural Resources

This course examines how resource and environmental management systems and tools are developed in cultural and institutional contexts and how these contexts shape the definitions of problems and the management systems proposed as solutions. Included will be analysis of different management regimes and decision-making processes: technocratic, community-based, co-management, network governance, etc. In each case, we will examine the scale of the management issue (local, regional, national, international) and in that context, who has authority, legitimacy, power, accountability, and why; how they obtain, maintain, and enhance them; and implications of each in terms of different management contexts (e.g. common pool resources). Traditional policy-making models will be presented, as well as analytical tools for policy evaluation. Students will develop, defend, and critique a variety of different types of natural resource management plans that involve large-scale environmental changes (including water, air, and land issues), and develop adaptive management strategies that simultaneously account for human and natural systems.