Deforestation
Throughout history, the competition between forested and agricultural land has been intense. Deforestation is a major problem today as we lose around 13 million hectares of forested land each year. This includes the loss of just over 8 million hectares per year in South America and Africa collectively.

Conserving our Forests
Over the past three decades, we have witnessed the emergence of sustainable forest management promoting stewardship of forest lands in order to maintain their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential, now and in the future.

Highlights
This interactive and open educational resource explores the multiple uses of forests for wood production, as hunting grounds, as recreational areas and as the protection of biodiversity.

We can understand how the forest scientist views forests as a natural resource to be managed. How the forest economist understands the forest as an economic resource or a property. Forests are part of the natural capital of nations.

A policy-maker, on the other hand, emphasizes the relationship between society and forests, and seeks to manage the conflicting interests between different stakeholders (private industry, public agencies, non-governmental bodies and the general population.

This open educational resource has been designed as to improve your understanding of forestry, market economics and forest economics including concepts related to forest policy. On completion, you should be able to better understand the interconnections between forest economics and policies (past and present).

Using this Open Educational Resource
This learning resource has been designed for students enrolled in an MSc Course on Forestry Policy through a network of universities in the Western Balkans.

It is available for use in similar programmes across the globe and provides an overview of some of the key theoretical concepts and practice in the area of forestry, economics and policy-making.

Level
Designed for students in the tertiary education (graduate and post-graduate) and for professionals and practitioners.

Design and Technology
Developed using Wordpress with a customized plug-in support for the creation of multi-choice quizzes, footnotes as well as image captions. Contains narrated animations using Flash Video. Compatibility tested with Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

Authors
Olli Saastamoinen and Jukka Matero from the University of Joensuu.

Copyright License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0

Project Title
Contribution to the Forest Policy and Economics Education and Research (FOPER) project

Purpose of Environmental Impact Assessment
The design of development projects like highways, airports and power stations is greatly enhanced through the use of environmental impact assessment. It is a systematic process to identify, predict and evaluate the environmental effects of proposed actions and projects.

Preventing damage to the environment
This process is applied before major decisions and development commitments are made. The main objective is to prevent, reduce and off-set significant negative impacts on the environment. Through the application of Environmental Impact Assessment it is possible to provide better information to the decision-maker on the environmental consequences of proposed actions.

Highlights
This open educational resource includes three parts: a course module, a wiki and an instructional guide. Through the course module you will learn:

Why do we need Environmental Impact Assessment?
Who is responsible?
How to undertake such an assessment?
What are the costs and benefits of completing an assessment?

An online encyclopedia
The wiki provides you with access to an encyclopedia on Environmental Impact Assessment. It includes information on the relevant legislation in each country as well as case studies of the implementation of this form of assessment in different sectors and in different countries. This encyclopedia is constantly being updated by you – the community of learners and educators.

Instructional Guide
This learning resource was initially developed for international students enrolled in the Masters of Science Degree in Global Environment and Development Studies at Agder University College in Norway. It is available for use in similar programmes across the globe. You can adapt and use these materials in your own teaching programmes. There are sample assignments that you may build on and change.

Level
Designed for students in the tertiary education (graduate and post-graduate) and for professionals and practitioners.

Design and Technology
The course module was developed using Wordpress with a custom built plug-in to support the creation of multi-choice quizzes. It contains video interviews with the subject matter expert as well as narrated animations using Flash Video. The online encyclopedia was developed using Mediawiki. Compatibility has been tested with Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

Authors
Barry Sadler and Mary McCabe edited the original UNEP training manual. Ralph Horne and Ian Thomas from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University edited the course module.

Copyright License
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0

Project Title
Contribution to the UNU-Global Virtual University

Through this open educational resource on Strategic Environmental Assessment, you will examine how to construct predictions on the likely environmental impacts of major policy decisions, how to look at alternative policy scenarios and how to involve the public in the decision-making.

A new approach

Strategic environmental assessment is a new approach to environmental issues. It plays a key role in enabling nations and communities meet a whole range of objectives including tackling global warming and protecting biodiversity. By ensuring that decision-makers consider the environmental consequences of actions at the earliest possible stage, it helps find the best possible option in environmental, social and economic terms.

Open, rational decisions

The emphasis is on preventing environmental damage. It requires that each decision is made in a rational and open manner, and as such Strategic Environmental Assessment is a powerful tool that reinforces the principles of democracy and equity.

Highlights

This open educational resource includes three components: a course module, a wiki and an instructional guide. The course module covers the following topics:

Why we need Strategic Environmental Assessment? What kinds of decisions (strategic actions) require an assessment? How do you undertake this assessment?

An online encyclopedia

The wiki provides you with access to an encyclopedia on Strategic Environmental Assessment. It includes information on the relevant legislation in each country as well as case studies of the implementation of this form of assessment in different sectors and in different countries. This encyclopedia is constantly being updated by you – the community of learners and the educators.

Instructional Guide

This learning resource was initially developed for students enrolled at Oxford Brookes University in the UK and international students enrolled in the Masters of Science Degree in Global Environment and Development Studies at Agder University College in Norway. It is possible for you to adapt and use in your own teaching programmes. This open educational resource contains sample assignments that you may build on and adapt.

Level

Designed for students in the tertiary education (graduate and post-graduate) and for professionals and practitioners.

Design and Technology

The course module was developed using Wordpress and contains Flash video animations and interviews with the subject matter expert. The online encyclopedia was developed using Mediawiki. Compatibility has been tested with Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

Author

Riki Therivel from Oxford Brookes University is one of the leading international experts in Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Copyright License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0

Project Title

Contribution to the UNU-Global Virtual University

The global opencourseware movement holds considerable promise for the expansion of access to tertiary and lifelong education, especially in developing countries. Universities from around the world have started to make available course materials freely on the Internet.

These materials range from lecture notes and reading lists to full video lectures, and some courses are carefully designed for self-study by online users. As a result, anyone with an Internet connection has access to learning materials from more than 3000 undergraduate and graduate university courses.

Design and Technology
eduCommons from the Utah State University Centre for Open and Sustainable Learning Interface customized by the UNU Media Studio.

Copyright License
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0

Project Title
UNU OpenCourseWare