Only for University Scholars Programme (USP) students. The increasing global population combined with rising incomes and globalisation has put the world's environmental resources under significant pressure. Management of the Earth's natural and environmental assets has become a major global political focus, as increasingly people are aware that environmental problems are political problems. Although environmental actors confront trade-offs between human wellbeing and profit on a regular basis, management and governance responses are all dictated by a political process. This course aims to provide you with the tools to be able to apply scientific, political, economic and social knowledge to understand the cause of these problems, and to help society resolve issues surrounding the use of natural resources and the conservation of the environment.