S D 3365 - Conservation and Development (3)

When Offered: On Demand
This course takes up the concerns about the urgent need to protect “biodiversity” (the variety of life and the processes that sustain it), recent years have witnessed an impressive expansion of protected areas globally. Yet by many standards, conservation is failing: extinctions escalate, habitats dwindle, and ecosystem functions degrade. Moreover, some conservation efforts create and/or exacerbate poverty while those who consume most of the planet’s resources are not the same ones who suffer. This course will also take up other concerns through an in-depth assessment of the human dimensions of conservation. We focus on the following questions: How and why do many conservation initiatives fail to alleviate poverty and increase human well-being? How can this situation be reversed? Why should it be? This course will prepare students to address conservation and development challenges with improved understandings of the complexities involved and increased capacity to contribute to positive social and environmental change.