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Forest Policy, Governance and Conflicts

8 ECTS Padua Year 2 Semester 3 Compulsory Humanities

Content

The aim of the course is to identify and understand the differences between the key concepts of forest policy, forest governance and conflict management and their interconnections, and recognize the conflict situation as a creative opportunity in driving forest policy development and implementation, as well as in forest governance change and reform.

The course deepens the concepts of forest policy and governance and how they are connected with conflicts over forest resources use management, which derive from contrasting social demands and deforestation, unsustainable practices, climate and biodiversity crises and other global forest-related challenging processes. Central themes are:

  • forest policy and policy reforms at global, regional, national and local levels;
  • opposite views on forest resources use/management and examples of conflicts;
  • “old” vs. “new” modes of governance;
  • governance and ‘good governance’ concepts as applied to forest sector;
  • how to explore forest governance: the analytical and the normative approach;
  • multi-actor, multi-sector and multi-level governance: the role of networks;
  • governance and public participation in conflicting situations, negotiation procedures and participatory approaches and tools;
  • sustainability, multifunctionality, cross-sectoral impact and integration;
  • case-studies from European, Mediterranean and tropical areas related to: national forest policy formulation processes, national governance models, human-nature conflicts in the framework of political ecology (e.g. parks creation for biodiversity protection);
  • examples of participatory approaches and tools to be used in facilitation and negotiation processes.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to: i) Differentiate, interpret and describe complex concepts, such as “forest policy”, “forest governance” and “conflicts management”; (ii) Explain and discuss how they are interlinked each other and how they are reciprocally affected by changes; iii) Recognize and critically analyse drivers and types of conflicts related to forest resource, at global, national and local level; iv) Apply basic skills for: a) Analysing and assessing forest policy and governance at global, national and local level; b) Critically assessing as a facilitator should act in negotiation/participatory approaches related to natural resources management in fragile areas, with a focus on forests and related conflicts.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

–   frontal and online lessons with case-study analysis;

–   classroom and online exercises (workshops in small groups of students, oral presentations based on power point and plenary discussions);

  • specialized seminars on specific topics with the participation of external experts;
  • home assignments (few short exercises, papers reading;
  • field trip.

In the e-learning Moodle platform of the School teaching materials used in class and additional readings and media will be made available.

Type of assessment

  • Individual
  • Written assignment, Written exam, Oral presentation

  • The compulsory tasks required to the students during the course will count for different percentages on the final score:

    1. Oral presentations of assigned exercises and discussions and attendance of role play will count for 30% on the final score;
    2. Final examination will count for 70% on the final score.

    To pass the exam, students must achieve the minimum score 18/30=sufficient/pass in each of these two components (active participation and presentations in class + final written exam).

    Students will be evaluated on the basis of their active participation into the course (level of lessons attendance, quality of questions and comments, originality of topics brought to discussion, regularity of posting, respect of deadlines in submitting the exercises), their personal capacity in terms of new knowledge and skills acquired, capacity in terms of critical analysis, technical correctedeness, clearness and accuracy in writing/presenting what requested (slides of the exercises, written answers to the open-ended questions of the final exam, and oral discussion with the professor and fellows during the classes).

    In this way, a formative assessment during the course is provided alongside a summative assessment at the end

Institution(s)

  • Location: Padua
  • ECTS granting: University of Padua
  • Organisation: University of Padua

Webpage(s)

Coordinator(s)

Laura Secco

forest illustration