Courses offered by the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies are described below. The letters “a” and “b” following the course numbers indicate fall- and spring-term courses respectively. Bracketed courses will not be offered during the academic year.

Project courses embrace individually assigned advanced field or laboratory work, or literature review, on topics of special interest to the student; credits and hours for these projects are determined for each student in consultation with the instructor.

Courses throughout the University are generally open to students enrolled in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, subject to limitations on class size and requirements for prerequisites. Courses numbered 500 and above are graduate courses.

The sequence of numbers does not reflect level of advancement.

Social and Political Ecology

F&ES 83047a Social Ecology, Community Forestry, and the Future of Place-Based Environmentalism (740a)
F&ES 86048a Introduction to Planning and Development (744a)
F&ES 83049b Society and Natural Resources (746b)
F&ES 83050a Society and Environment: Introduction to Theory and Method (747a)
[F&ES 80051b] Seminar on "Values of the Natural Environment" (748b)
F&ES 80052a Project in Ecosystem Management: General Applications (749a)
F&ES 80153b Society and Environment: Advanced Readings (752b)
F&ES 80054a Agrarian Societies: Culture, Society, History, and Development (753a)
F&ES 83155b Contemporary Environmental Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa
F&ES 83056a Social Science of Development and Conservation (757a)
[F&ES 80157b] Social Science of Development and Conservation: Advanced Readings (759b)
F&ES 83058b Monitoring and Evaluation Techniques: Theory and Methods Applied to Ecosystem Rehabilitation/Community Revitalization Interventions (767b)
F&ES 86059a Cities and Sustainability in the Developing World (795a)
F&ES 86062b Theory and Practice of Restorative Environmental Design (884b)
F&ES 83064a Energy Issues in Developing Countries
[F&ES 83065b] Topics in Environmental Justice (917a)
[F&ES 80166a] Leaves, Livelihoods, and Landscapes: Ecology, Socio-Economics, and Politics of Development across Borneo
F&ES 80067a Ecology and Equity
F&ES 80070a Seminar on World Religions and Ecology
F&ES 80071b World Religions and Ecology: Asian Religions

Social and Political Ecology

F&ES 83047a, Social Ecology, Community Forestry, and the Future of Place-Based Environmentalism. 6 credits. This seminar explores the art and science of community-based field ecology as a means of providing a more participatory and therefore sustainable suite of policy, planning, design, and management strategies for protecting scarce system resources. Theoretical, conceptual, methodological, quantitative, and pragmatic field practices drive our approach. Primary attention is to the role of "open spaces"—trees, woodlands, forests, gardens, parks, and other protected and sacred places—in creating sustained development of community livelihoods, the enhancement of diverse life styles, and the adaptive legacies held by local populations. This focal system is a stand-in for behavioral responses to other environmental issues and compels us to ask how we measure associated benefits and deficits along this gradient. This gradient is what the U.S. Forest Service calls a "forest opportunity spectrum" that runs from the inner city to the outer wildlands. We learn research concepts, techniques, and skills in measurement from the literature (Jane Jacobs, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Odum, et al.); from systematic field observation practices, public documents and other trace information; from long conversations with key informants; and most of all from solid, systematic study of covariation in associated biophysical resources as found in relevant biophysical journals. This is a field-based professional effort. It uses readings, reviews, exams, presentations, and the usual sorts of ways by which we capture the knowledge of others and make it our own. William R. Burch, Jr.

F&ES 86048a/ARCH 903a, Introduction to Planning and Development. 3 credits. This course demonstrates the ways in which financial and political feasibility determine the design of buildings and the character of the built environment. Students propose projects and then adjust them to the conflicting interests of the financial institutions, real estate developers, civic organizations, community groups, public officials, and the widest variety of participants in the planning process. Subjects covered include housing, commercial development, zoning, historic preservation, parks and public open space, suburban subdivisions, planned communities, and comprehensive plans. Alexander Garvin.

F&ES 83049b, Society and Natural Resources. 1-3 credits. This research seminar explores the relationship between society and natural resources. Although the specific topic of the seminar varies from year to year, the consistent underlying theme is an examination of how societies organize themselves, use natural resources, and affect their environment. In past years, the seminar focused on energy and the environment, interdisciplinary problem solving, and other topics. The seminar overall looks at people seeking values using natural resources through institutions. This relationship (people, values, natural resources, and institutions) has been extensively written about and discussed in diverse fields. The last seminar examined and compared conceptual (theoretical) models about society and natural resources from policy sciences, social ecology, and other knowledge areas. The applied utility of each model was examined through cases as appropriate. The next seminar focuses on "Complex Sustainability Cases." Guests and students make presentations and carry out discussions each week. Student papers are required. Susan G. Clark, William R. Burch, Jr.

F&ES 83050a/ANTH 581a, Society and Environment: Introduction to Theory and Method. 3 credits. An introductory course on the social scientific contributions to the study of the environment and natural resources, designed as the first course for students who specialize in the social sciences as well as the only course for students who take just one course in this field. The approach taken is inductive, problem-oriented, and case-study-based. Subjects covered include the framing of environmental "problems," social science field methods, rethinking environmental perturbation and change, and the environmental relations of local communities. The course offers students an opportunity to develop analytic frameworks for past or proposed research projects. The course is a prerequisite for F&ES 80153b and F&ES 80157b. Three hours lecture/seminar. Enrollment limited to thirty. Michael R. Dove.

[F&ES 80051b, Seminar on "Values of the Natural Environment." 2–3 credits. This course examines the way humans view and value the natural world. It considers values theory, varying environmental values, the biological and social bases of environmental values, and variations among cultural and demographic groups and by environmental feature. The course further examines the relation of environmental values to an ethic of conserving and protecting the natural environment, as well as methodologies for assessing environmental values, particularly non-economic approaches. Finally, the course connects an understanding of environmental values to policy and management issues involving the conservation of biological diversity, natural resource extraction, and development of the built environment. Stephen R. Kellert.]

F&ES 80052a, Project in Ecosystem Management: General Applications. Work should be within six areas—wildland recreation management, environmental protection and planning, environmental interpretation and planning, urban community forestry, social dimensions of tropical forestry development, and renewable energy systems. A detailed study plan and work schedule are required prior to acceptance. William R. Burch, Jr.

F&ES 80153b/ANTH 610b, Society and Environment: Advanced Readings. 3 credits. An advanced seminar on the social science theory of the relationship between societyand environment, intended for students interested in research design and policy planning in this field. It examines key theoretical developments and current issues in social and political ecology and ecological anthropology, and attempts to place them in their historical and intellectual contexts. Topics discussed vary from year to year in response to ongoing debates in the field and global events, but in the past have included environmental conflict, the concepts of local agency and governmentality, re-thinking extractive reserves, converging theory in agriculture and medicine, the natural history of the Amazon, conservation in Papua New Guinea, ethnographic approaches to human-animal relations, and comparative method. Students are expected to use the course to develop their own research and writing. Prerequisite: F&ES 83050a or F&ES 83056a. Enrollment limited to twelve. Three hours lecture/seminar. Taught alternate years. Michael R. Dove, Carol Carpenter.

F&ES 80054a/ANTH 541a/HIST 965a/PLSC 779a, Agrarian Societies: Culture, Society, History, and Development. 3 credits. An interdisciplinary examination of agrarian societies, contemporary and historical, Western and non-Western. Major analytical perspectives from anthropology, economics, history, political science, and environmental studies are used to develop a meaning-centered and historically grounded account of the transformation of rural societies. Four hours lecture plus discussion sections. James C. Scott, Michael R. Dove, and other Yale faculty.

F&ES 83155b, Contemporary Environmental Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. 3 credits. The objective of this seminar is to provide students with in-depth insight into the dynamics of human-environment interactions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in a collaborative and open discussion. Families, communities, and nations in the African region face an array of environmental challenges ranging from periodic drought and food insecurity to loss of biodiversity, conflict over resources, and persistent poverty. Moreover, many countries in the region are saddled with histories of colonial rule that defined human-environment relationships in the simplest terms, often posing direct causal links between traditional practices and environmental degradation while ignoring the complex interplay of social, biophysical, and geographical factors that contribute to environmental outcomes. Frequently, these discourses of crisis and change were transferred directly from colonial to post-colonial environmental policies, where they persist to this day. Throughout the course, we critically engage common perceptions of African environments, explore alternative theories, and seek deeper understandings of human-environment interactions in the region. The course is designed around six main themes: (1) environment, poverty, and development; (2) property rights and access to resources; (3) energy and environmental health; (4) risk and adaptation to natural hazards and climate change; (5) conservation, deforestation, and biodiversity; and 6) the environment as source of conflict and cooperation. Within each theme, we devote about one week to introducing the general concepts and a second week to discussing one or two in-depth case studies that illustrate the issue in detail. Student evaluations are based on participation and a course paper, which is presented to the class. Enrollment is limited to fifteen students. Robert Bailis.

F&ES 83056a/ANTH 597a, Social Science of Development and Conservation. 3 credits. This course is intended to provide a fundamental understanding of the social aspects involved in implementing sustainable development and conservation projects. Social science makes two contributions to the practice of development and conservation. First, it provides ways of thinking about, researching, and working with social groupings—including rural households and communities, but also development and conservation institutions, states, and NGOs. This aspect includes relations between groups at all these levels, and the role of power in these relations. Second, social science tackles the analysis of the knowledge systems that implicitly shape development and conservation policy and impinge on practice. In other words, we analyze communities but also our own ideas of what communities are. We also examine our ideas about sustainable development and conservation. Finally, we attempt to look at development and the institutions that implement it from the perspective of communities. The emphasis throughout is on how these things shape the practice of sustainable development and conservation. The goal of the course is to stimulate students to apply informed and critical thinking (which means not criticizing others but questioning our own underlying assumptions) to whatever roles they play in sustainable development and conservation, in order to move toward more environmentally and socially sustainable projects and policies. A prerequisite for F&ES 80153b and F&ES 80157b. Three hours lecture/seminar. Carol Carpenter.

[F&ES 80157b/ANTH 598b, Social Science of Development and Conservation: Advanced Readings. 3 credits. An advanced seminar on the social science theory of sustainable development and conservation, intended for students interested in research design and policy planning in this field. It traces the conceptual history of the ideas of progress and development from the colonial period through the present and examines how these ideas are used by the parties who fund, design, and manage development projects. Topics discussed vary from year to year in response to current debates and events, but in the past have included the idea of poverty, the politics of mapping, microcredit and the entrepreneurial subject, the politics of indigeneity, new directions in political ecology, the tsunami in Indonesia, the WorldWatch debate on conservation andindigenous people, and the idea of community in the natural and social sciences. Students are expected to use the course to develop, and present in class, their own research and writing. Prerequisite: F&ES 83050a or F&ES 83056a. Three-hour lecture/seminar. Enrollment limited to twelve. Taught alternate years. Next offered spring 2008. Carol Carpenter, Michael R. Dove.]

F&ES 83058b, Monitoring and Evaluation Techniques: Theory and Methods Applied to Ecosystem Rehabilitation/Community Revitalization Interventions. 4–6 credits. This course is an introduction, exploration, and application of performance-based tracking of interventions to repair ecosystems and to revitalize their associated human communities. The underlying assumption is that one cannot occur without the other. Our task is to test that notion with qualitative and quantitative measures of real-life cases. Seminar members are grouped into three interdisciplinary, peer learning, service-oriented professional teams according to different organizational scales and different ecological approaches. Readings from the literature and case studies such as Chicago Wild and diffusion of innovation literature guide our effort. Studies and cases from Web sites are analyzed; data sets are collected for study locales. These studies and data sets are one source of theory, methods, and data for application to an actual, client-driven field analysis and diagnostic report that each team carries out. Field trips are made to the study sites. A binding thread in this effort is an interest in the use of generic "outdoor/environmental education" approaches as critical means for developing local knowledge and practices for rehabilitation/revitalization design and to monitor and sustain the system. William R. Burch, Jr., Colleen Murphy-Dunning.

F&ES 86059a, Cities and Sustainability in the Developing World. 3 credits. Most population growth in the twenty-first century will occur in the urban areas of the developing world, which are expected to increase by 2 billion inhabitants between 2000 and 2030. Urban living poses environmental hazards, which affect the current population, and especially the poor, through immediate, local impacts on health and safety. It also causes environmental degradation, with longer-term, wider-area, and intergenerational consequences. Variations in the incidence and relative severity of a range of environmental problems across cities at different levels of development suggest differences in priorities for action. In coming decades, in order to support sustainable national development, urban areas will need to ensure a healthful and attractive environment for their rapidly expanding populations, while protecting natural resources and reducing harmful impacts on wider regions and later generations. The massive new investment in the capital stock of cities required for the doubling of urban population by 2030 will be critical to environmental outcomes. Using a number of city case studies, the course highlights local solutions, as well as new technologies for monitoring, planning, and managing urban growth. There is a field trip to Mexico City for about fifteen students at the end of the term. Ellen Brennan-Galvin.

F&ES 86062b, Theory and Practice of Restorative Environmental Design. 3 credits. This course examines the theory and practice of sustainable, green, or what is called here "restorative environmental design." The objective of restorative environmental design is to create a more compatible relationship between the human built and natural environments. Two basic objectives include avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating adverse impacts of modern design and development on natural systems and human health; and enhancing and promoting a positive and beneficial relationship between people and nature in the built environment. Low environmental impact topics include energy, resources, products, materials, wastes, landscape. Positive environmental impact or "biophilic" design issues focus on "organic" and "vernacular" design strategies. Stephen R. Kellert.

F&ES 83064a, Energy Issues in Developing Countries. 3 credits. This graduate seminar is designed to provide students with an opportunity to explore the interrelationships among energy, environment, economic development, and social welfare in developing countries. Throughout the course, we consider the role that people, industries, and state institutions play in supplying and consuming energy-based resources in countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and much of Asia. The goal of the course is to understand the many ways in which energy is used by the majority of the world's population and to examine some of the tensions that exist among environmental sustainability, economic growth, and quality of life within the context of non-Western, non-industrialized, and/or industrializing populations. Class meetings consist of a short lecture followed by discussion; therefore reading and participation are critical components of the course and students are evaluated based on their contributions to the discussion. Students are strongly encouraged to have prior knowledge of basic energy issues. F&ES 86025a or equivalent is recommended. Enrollment limited to fifteen students. Robert Bailis.

[F&ES 83065b, Topics in Environmental Justice. 3 credits. In this seminar we explore global environmental issues from a perspective that foregrounds questions of social justice. The field of environmental justice asks for fair treatment of all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, economic capacity, national origin, and education level with respect to environmental politics and their implementations. In this and other aspects, the environmental justice perspective differs from traditional environmental philosophies in that it seeks to combine a concern for the natural world with a consciousness of ethnic, class, and gender discrimination. From this vantage point it is argued that throughout the world there are marked and increasing disparities between those who have access to clean and safe resources and those who do not. This course is based on two fundamental premises: All individuals and communities, regardless of their social or economic conditions, have the right to a clean and healthy environment; and there is a connection between environmental exploitation, human exploitation, and social justice. With these premises as a starting point, we first define "What is environmental justice?" Then we turn to more difficult questions such as: Why and through what political, social, and economic processes are some people denied this basic right to a clean and safe environment? The course draws on both international and domestic case studies. Amity Doolittle.]

[F&ES 80166a: Leaves, Livelihoods, and Landscapes: Ecology, Socio-Economics, and Politics of Development across Borneo. 3 credits. Borneo has occupied a space of exoticism in our collective imagination ever since colonial explorers returned to the metropolis with stories of headhunters and the "wild man of the forest." More contemporary images of Borneo include massive forest fires and violent ethnic wars. Despite these images of "primitive" and wild jungles, the past two decades have brought unprecedented socio-economic and environmental change to Borneo. This interdisciplinary course explores the historical, bio-geographical, political, and socio-economic context of anthropogenic and natural change across the Bornean landscape. Each week students are introduced to basic concepts from the ecological and social sciences. These concepts are then applied to specific case studies in Borneo. We examine the interrelated issues of forest conversion, local livelihood practices, resource distribution and availability, and extractive industries coupled with political power and corruption and emerging democracy and decentralized management. By adopting multiple perspectives and using multiple lenses across nested scales of analyses, we seek to understand the dynamics of how the landscape influences anthropogenic resource use patterns and how resource use alters the landscape and the resulting synergies and feedbacks. Although Borneo is used as the specific context to explore these issues, comparisons and contrasts are also emphasized with other tropical regions (e.g., tropical Latin America and Africa), and the conceptual issues should be applicable worldwide in a variety of situations. Lisa Curran, Amity Doolittle.]

F&ES 80067a, Ecology and Equity. This course provides a comparative, cross-cultural perspective on the environmental debate. The first part explores the history of environmentalism in different parts of the world. The cases studied include Wilderness Thinking in America, Gandhian agrarianism in India, and Green politics in Germany. The second part looks at the trajectory of environmental conflicts and ways of resolving them. We focus especially on the sectors of forestry, biodiversity conservation, and resource consumption. The course moves back and forth among the locality, the nation, and the globe. Ramachandra Guha.

F&ES 80070a/REL 870a/RLST 872a, Seminar on World Religions and Ecology. This seminar explores the understanding of the emerging relationships of world religions to our global environmental crisis. Both the problems and the promise of these relationships are acknowledged. Religions are containers of symbolic language that often evoke nature's processes and reflect nature's rhythms. For many years science, engineering, policy, and law alone were considered indispensable for understanding and resolving environmental problems. We now have abundant knowledge from these disciplines about environmental issues, but still not sufficient will to change human behavior. Religion, spirituality, ethics, and values can make important contributions to address complex environmental issues. This course explores those contributions. Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim.

F&ES 80071b/REL 817b/RLST 872b, World Religions and Ecology: Asian Religions. This course explores the various ways in which religious ideas and practices have contributed to cultural attitudes and human interactions with nature. Examples are selected from Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. The course examines such topics as symbols, images and metaphors of nature in canonical texts, views of the divine as transcendent to the world, the indwelling of the sacred in the earth, the ethics of using and valuing nature, ritual practices that link humans to the natural world, and cosmology as orienting humans to the world and embedding them in place. Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim.