Dr Charles Palmer, KGS2.06.

Compulsory for BSc Environment and Development, BSc Environmental Policy and BSc Environmental Policy with Economics students. Optional on BA Geography and BSc Geography with Economics. The course is also available as an outside option and to general course students.

The course starts by recognising that developing countries tend to be more dependent on natural resources and to have higher pollution levels than developed countries. They are also typically characterised by lower institutional capacity and fewer financial resources. As a consequence, the issues and concerns are somewhat different from the management of natural resources and the environment in developed countries. Sustainability is a much more immediate concept, since it must take account of pressing concerns such as basic subsistence and survival. This course explores the complex relationships between development, poverty and the environment; it covers a range of important natural resource and environmental issues in developing countries, and provides students with the necessary tools critically to evaluate how these issues have been addressed by different stakeholders and at different levels of governance.

Ten hours of lectures (fortnightly) and seminars (weekly) in the MT and LT. A one-hour lecture and seminar in the ST.

Students will be expected to produce a minimum of three 1,500 word formative essays/projects during the year.

• Barbier, E. (2006), "Natural capital, resource dependency, and poverty in developing countries: the problem of dualism within dualism", in R. Lopez and M. Toman (eds), Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability: New Policy Options, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp: 23-59.


• Deininger, K. and B. Minten (1999) "Poverty, policies, and deforestation: the case of Mexico", Economic Development and Cultural Change, 47(2): 313-344.
• Mäler, K.G. (2008) "Sustainable development and resilience in ecosystems", Environmental and Resource Economics, 39:17-24
• Ostrom, E. et al. (eds) (2002) The Drama of the Commons, Washington: National Academies Press.
• Ostrom, E. (2003), "How types of goods and property rights jointly affect collective action", Journal of Theoretical Politics, 15(3): 239-270.
• Pichón, F.J. (1997). Colonist land allocation decisions, land use, and deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon frontier," Economic Development and Cultural Change, 45(4): 707-744.
• Pretty, J. & H. Ward (2001) "Social capital and the environment", World Development, 29(2), 209-227.
• Ravallion, M. (1997) "Famines and economics" Journal of Economic Literature, 35(3): 1205-1242.
• Ray, D. (1999), Development Economics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Ruttan, V.W. (2002) "Productivity growth in world agriculture: sources and constraints" The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(4): 161-184.
• Seabright, P. (1993), "Managing local commons: theoretical issues in incentive design", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17(4): 113-134.

One 3 hour exam in the ST (75%) and one 2,500 word essay (25%).