Bard Center for Environmental Policy to Offer Three Continuing Education Courses in January
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — This January, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy (Bard CEP) is offering the public three intensive continuing education courses on international and domestic environmental policy topics. The courses, Private Land Conservation: A Primer and the Role of Agriculture; Slow Water for Sustainable Development: Oaxaca; and Energy and Environment in Asia are part of Bard CEP’s January term for its master’s students. A limited number of spaces are open to the public. The courses take place January 21–February 1 and can be taken for credit (2 credits each) or for certificate (smaller fee) and are open to the public.
The deadline to sign up for the Oaxaca course, which takes place in Oaxaca, Mexico, is December 14, and the certificate fee is $1,000 plus plane fare. The land trust and Asia courses both take place at Bard College and the deadline to register is January 11. The land trust course fee (certificate) is $550. The Asia course fee (certificate) is $600, which includes the registration fee for the coordinating conference on Waters, Forests and Communities in Asia. All courses can be taken for Bard College credit, and doing so will add on a $2,200 fee for two credits. For more information on the course or to register, contact Josephine French at [email protected] or 845-758-7085 or visit www.bard.edu/cep.
Private Land Conservation: A Primer and the Role of Agriculture
Several Bard CEP graduates direct or work at land trusts in the Hudson Valley and beyond. How do land trusts work, how effective are these organizations in preserving ecosystem services, and how will their initiatives be affected by climate change? This short course will be broken into sections; the first five days will provide an intensive look at land trusts in terms of their history, structure, legal mandates, funding, strategies, purchase and easement agreements, monitoring and enforcement, and community engagement. Students will acquire a thorough understanding of the role of land trusts in land conservation. The balance of the course will consider how the growing interest in local food and sustainable agriculture is impacting the mission of land trusts.
Professor: Judy Anderson is a consultant and trainer who works with land trusts across the Northeast, on climate change issues, internal system and board/governance development, leadership development, fundraising strategies, communication and outreach, cooperative visioning and program implementation, and land protection and stewardship details and transactions.
Slow Water for Sustainable Development: Oaxaca*
Bard CEP has a longstanding partnership with the Institute for Nature and Society (INSO) in
Oaxaca. Rather than understand the Oaxaca region’s water crisis as arising from scarcity, INSO characterizes the region’s challenge as one of too much “fast water,” water that arrives and disappears rapidly during the rainy season—and not enough “slow water,” water that in the past was trapped by healthy ecosystems and retained for use throughout the year. As a result of urban sprawl and the degradation of mountain forests, cropland, and pasture, rainy season precipitation has become fast water, washing away topsoil, flooding roads, failing to replenish groundwater, and flowing quickly out of the region. This course will explore the general challenge of water management in a developing country context: course content will include an overview of Mexican history and environmental politics; a look at the hydrology and water quantity/quality issues; and a focus on solutions advocated by INSO and others.
Professor: Victor Tafur is visiting professor of environmental law, Bard CEP, adjunct faculty at Pace Law School, and former senior attorney for Riverkeeper, Inc. He previously served as staff attorney for the Pace Law School’s Energy and Climate Center and as deputy director Alternative Development Program for the Presidency of Colombia. Admitted to the bar of New York State, and Colombia.
*Payment to Bard (due by December 14) will be $1,000. This includes room, board, and ground transportation, as well as an overhead fee supporting faculty participation. Students arrange their own travel to and from Oaxaca.
Energy and Environment in Asia
As a component of a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Bard CEP is participating in a college-wide effort to promote engagement with environmental issues in Asia. This short course will introduce students to the environmental challenges faced in East Asia, especially China, but with reference to the development experience in Korea and Japan. Through climate change, but also through greater pressure on natural resources, bringing an additional billion people in Asia out of poverty will have profound global impacts. Beginning with basics on geography and culture, the course will critically examine policies being pursued by Asian governments to attempt to achieve sustainable development. The course will conclude with a three-day regional conference, including keynote addresses by experts from the three countries, in which student teams will be active participants. One Bard student participating in this short course will have the opportunity to pursue a funded internship in Korea. For more information on the conference, Waters, Forests, and Communities in Asia, which takes place from January 31 to February 2 at Bard, please visit http://www.bard.edu/news/conferences/asia2013/.
Professors: Monique Segarra, assistant professor of policy, Bard CEP, and Eban Goodstein, director of Bard CEP and Bard MBA in Sustainability Program.
For more information about the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, please call 845-758-7073, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.bard.edu/cep.
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(11.26.12)
This event was last updated on 11-26-2012
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