Environmental Challenges

Offered By: University of Leeds via FutureLearn

Course Description

Overview

The Environmental Challenges program consists of five short online courses that look at the relationships between people and nature, and the challenging and difficult decisions we face when managing natural resources.

You will see through case studies and discussions that environmental management policies not only need to be economically and environmentally sound, but they also need to be formulated with social fairness if they are to be sustainable.

Accessible for free on desktop, tablet or mobile, the five courses can be taken in any order, providing a flexible way to enhance your environmental management skills and demonstrate your continuing professional development (CPD).

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Environmental Challenges: Justice in Natural Resource Management
-How do we ensure that the difficult decisions about the management of natural resources are just and fair for all?

Course 2: Environmental Challenges: Rights and Values in Ecosystem Services
-Differences in values can create conflict. How can we learn to manage our natural resources with integrity?

Course 3: Environmental Challenges: Hierarchy in Property Rights
-How does language help us develop our relationship with nature and determine the rights of access and ownership?

Course 4: Environmental Challenges: Human Impact in the Natural Environment
-Complexity in nature arises from a myriad of simple interactions. How can this lead to an unpredictable dynamism?

Course 5: Environmental Challenges: Scarcity and Conflict in the Natural Environment
-War and conflict can severely disrupt the governance of the environment. What is the impact on both people and the environment?

Courses

6 reviews
2 weeks
View details

When looking at different societies and cultures around the world, it is interesting how ubiquitous the principles of justice are. It is part of our human nature to think about equality and consider fairness as something that we do naturally. However, in practical terms, equality is hard to achieve.

This course explores three aspects of justice and applies these to environmental issues surrounding natural resource management around the world. It also introduces the Strategic Environmental Assessment and Terms of Reference.

The course is suitable for anyone with a general interest in justice and environmental decision-making; no previous knowledge or experience is required.

If you are working in environmental management, or wish to learn more about it, this course is designed to support you as a professional. By completing all aspects of the course you will have achieved 14 hours of CPD time.
7 reviews
2 weeks
View details

Humans are very innovative, but we’ve also created many ecological problems. We’ve changed the face of the planet, fished the oceans, and we’re causing climate change through emissions.

Designing institutional arrangements that recognise ecosystem services in the values we place upon natural systems will be an important way to help governing the planet, for both present and future generations.

This course explores three approaches to rights and values, and applies these to ecosystem services around the world. It also includes advice on producing press releases about environmental issues.

The course is suitable for anyone with a general interest in values and environmental decision-making; no previous knowledge or experience is required.

If you are working in environmental management, or wish to learn more about it, this course is designed to support you as a professional. By completing all aspects of the course you will have achieved 14 hours of CPD time.
3 reviews
2 weeks
View details

Increasing populations and social changes are pressurising our relationship with the environment. Property rights are embedded in power structures and land management. This course explores the different ways that nature is perceived by different types of societies and the impact of property rights on natural resource management.

This course explores three approaches to the hierarchy of property rights, and applies these to environmental use and management around the world. It also includes advice on producing a policy brief for an environmental issue.

The course is suitable for anyone with a general interest in environmental decision-making; no previous knowledge or experience is required.

If you are working in environmental management, or wish to learn more about it, this course is designed to support you as a professional. By completing all aspects of the course you will have achieved 14 hours of CPD time.
10 reviews
2 weeks
View details

Complex patterns in ecology are not always causal and predictable. Populations have their own dynamics that can be independent of external environmental conditions. In this course we look at the way that natural systems are organised; although living systems are complex, there are also some fairly constant patterns and relationships.

This course explores three approaches to the causality and dynamics of environmental systems, and how humans are involved and affected by these systems world-wide. It also includes an introduction to correlation and the limitations of statistical testing.

The course is suitable for anyone with a general interest in nature and environmental decision-making; no previous knowledge or experience is required.

If you are working in environmental management, or wish to learn more about it, this course is designed to support you as a professional. By completing all aspects of the course you will have achieved 14 hours of CPD time.
6 reviews
2 weeks
View details

Human conflict has both short and long term effects on the natural world. The environment is directly impacted by pollution and explosions; and can be used as a weapon of war. In the longer term, sustainable environmental management is disrupted when conflict destabilises social systems and people are denied access to natural resources. As resources become scarcer, it might be expected that people come into conflict about access to natural resources.

This course explores three aspects of conflict and resource scarcity, and applies these to explore decision making and negotiation skills.

The course is suitable for anyone with a general interest in conflict and environmental decision-making; no previous knowledge or experience is required.

If you are working in environmental management, or wish to learn more about it, this course is designed to support you as a professional. By completing all aspects of the course you will have achieved 14 hours of CPD time.

Taught by

Jon Lovett