Environmental Challenges

Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts. Find out more 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. You can use the hashtag #FLenvrights to talk about this course on social media.

• Recognise the difference between the perspectives of the ‘giving spirit of nature’ and ‘controlling ancestor’ in our perceptions of nature.
• Understand the meaning of ‘reciprocity’ as a way of reducing risk in uncertain environments.
• Be introduced to Elinor Ostrom who developed a hierarchy of different types of property rights.
• Recognise different types of property rights and how they affect access to, and withdrawal of, natural resources.
• Appreciate the need for flexible property rights in areas with dynamic ecologies.
• Be introduced to the contrasting arguments of Thomas Malthus and Ester Boserup on population and agricultural production.
• Understand the concept of ‘more people, less erosion’ when higher population densities lead to better land management.
• Recognise the links between property rights and level of biodiversity in agriculture.
• Understand how ‘historical institutionalism’ of past laws affects current legal rights to natural resources.
• Appreciate the social asymmetries caused by the power to control access to natural resources.
• Recognise the importance of language for describing local systems of natural resource management.