The primary purpose of this course is to provide students with an introduction to environmental and natural resource economics. The secondary purpose is to give students insight into how economists think about the environment and how they approach environmental problems. It will provide an introduction to economic value of environmental assets and costs of environmental problems. It will provide students with the basic theory in environmental and natural resource economics and how this underpins environmental management policy and decision making.

To promote best practices in the field of integrated coastal management in order to address environmental issues and conflicts associated with exploitation of coastal resources. To facilitate the application of social analysis, economic evaluation, EIA, GIS and alternative dispute resolution techniques to resolve coastal issues. To analyse the composition of stakeholders involved in any issue and evaluate the coastal resources management in the region towards the formulation of a regional strategy for ICM.

This course will provide an advanced and detailed review of the theoretical basis for conservation practice and review issues relevant to tropical biodiversity conservation. It is structured to provide the critical biological underpinning for other courses in the MSc programme.

The Convention on Biological Diversity expressly recognizes the importance of rural, indigenous and traditional users of biodiversity. The primary purpose of this course is to provide students with an introduction to the cultural, socio-economic and traditional beliefs, values and attitudes that affect the way rural, tribal and other indigenous users of natural resources interface with these resources. It also introduces the students to the approaches available to natural resource managers to integrate these users in sustainable management of biodiversity. The course will serve as an introduction for those students who have had little exposure to the disciplines of economics, social psychology, demography, and social organization to the issues surrounding the use of natural resources by rural and indigenous peoples

The goal of this course is to provide students with a solid background in the philosophy of research, research design, in modern methods of data and information collection, as well as in data handling and analysis for environmental management. This will include an introduction to the conceptual and practical aspects of qualitative and quantitative research and the types of topics for which each approach is useful. Students will be introduced to various quantitative and qualitative analytical methods including media and public education, participant observation, participatory action research, media and textual analysis as well as software for data analysis. The modules will provide the student with a broad range of research skills which can be utilized both for the specific Masters project and as a basis for more long-term projects. The course also aims to develop student skills in making oral presentations as well as writing for scientific papers and technical reports.