Resources, environment and development

Source: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/resources-environment-development/ Parent: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/study/taught-masters/

The challenge

Climate change and biodiversity loss are existential threats that are disproportionally affecting socially and economically marginalised populations around the world, making them key global development challenges. Understanding how political and economic structures and interventions influence social and environmental trajectories is essential for more effective and socially just transitions to environmental sustainability.

Three acute contemporary challenges include:

How can increasingly ambitious climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation strategies (such as expanding protected area networks and reforestation initiatives) achieve their aims, while benefitting people and navigating difficult trade-offs?
How can private entities, governments and local communities manage land, agricultural commodities, and natural resources (for example, water and minerals) in more socially just and environmentally effective ways?
How can the development of key infrastructure (including roads and dams) be managed in more environmentally and socially sustainable ways?

How we are addressing it

Our research is on focused on three main areas:

The political ecology and political economy of natural resource management, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation.
The evaluation and estimation of social and environmental impacts of climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and natural resource management strategies, including interrogating the data justice implications of remote sensing approaches.
Analysis of agricultural production systems, including alternative organisational systems, cooperatives and value chains, in relation to environmental and social sustainability.

Research projects

[## Sustainable Forest Transitions

Johan Oldekop's project will conduct research to better understand how reforestation drivers affect forests and the communities that depend on them.](https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/sftresearch/) [## Just Earth Observation for Conservation

Led by Rose Pritchard and Tim Foster, the project will transform understanding of the social risks and benefits of increased use of Earth Observation in conservation.](https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/resources-environment-development/just-earth-observation-for-conservation/)

[## Wildlife trade futures

Charis Enns and colleagues are seeking to understand how Covid-19 is reshaping the global wildlife trade landscape.](https://wildlifetradefutures.com/) [## FutureDAMS

The FutureDAMS consortium is working to improve the design, selection and operation of dams to support sustainable development.](http://www.futuredams.org)

[## Shared lands

Charis Enns and colleagues' project explores how peoples’ relationships with each other and different species are changing as a result of rapid landscape change.](https://sharedlands.org/) [## Mining and corporate social responsibility

Tomas Frederiksen's research into global governance and development impacts of the extractive sector in Africa.](https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/resources-environment-development/mining-and-corporate-social-responsibility/)

Research project archive

Our teaching agenda

People and publications

Click on the names below to read their latest publications or read the latest publications from the Global Development Institute.

Prof Bina Agarwal - Professor, Development Economics and Environment
Dr Admos Chimhowu - Senior Lecturer
Dr Katarzyna Cieslik - Lecturer in Global Development
Dr Clare Cummings - Lecturer in Politics and Development Policy
Dr Charis Enns - Presidential Fellow, Socio-Environmental Systems
Dr Tim Foster - Senior Lecturer in Water-Food Security
Dr Tomas Frederiksen - Senior Lecturer, International Development
Prof David Hulme - Professor, Development Studies
Dr Duong Khuu - Visiting Researcher
Aarti Krishnan - Lecturer in Innovation and Sustainability
Dr Tom Lavers - Reader in Politics and Development
Dr Johan Oldekop - Reader in Environment and Development
Dr Rose Pritchard - Presidential Fellow, Socio-Environmental Systems
Dr Maria Rusca – Senior Lecturer in Global Development
Arianna Tozzi - Research Assistant
Prof Philip Woodhouse - Emeritus Professor

PhD researchers and post-doctoral fellows

Lucas Alencar - Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Armando Caroca Fernandez - Political ecology and production of space of mining waste’s sacrifice zones
Caroline Cornier - Postcolonial Political Economy of commodity dependence and financial subordination, (francophone) West Africa
Katie Devenish - Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Natalia Galvis Arias - Effects of cash transfers on the adaptive and resilience capacity of households exposed to climate shocks. Evidence from Colombia
Dhanapal Govindarajulu - Sustainable Forest Transitions
Mariana Hernandez-Montilla - Sustainable Forest Transitions
Judy Hofmeyr - Extractives industries and development, natural resource governance, sustainability, political ecology, and corporate social responsibility.
Nabila Hasan - Sustainable Forest Transitions
Sandy Nofyanza - Sustainable Forest Transitions
Harry Quealy - Political ecology, climate politics, critical agrarian studies, water, and infrastructure
Magdalena Rodekirchen - Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Hilman Triandi Sukma - Biodiversity conservation and management; Social and ecological justice
Esteban Valle-Riestra Padro - Green Extractivism', Mining Temporalities and the Governance of Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition in Latin America
César Vicencio Vega - The discarded city of extractivism. Urban changes articulated by mining logistics
Natalie York - Sustainable Forest Transitions
Zhiqiang Zheng - Social-ecological relations between human interventions, environmental change, and sustainable rural development in the Global South\ \ \ \ \ \ \