Instructor
Jesse Abrams
Course Description
Ecuador provides an ideal setting for exploring issues related to sustainable development. This course will examine the tensions, challenges, and possibilities for reconciling development and conservation in the tropical dry forest zone, a critically important and globally imperiled ecosystem. Course activities center around the city of Bahía de Caráquez, which has attempted to rethink its development trajectory after a series of environmental disasters in 1998 and 2016 that exposed the human toll of unsustainable development practices. We will work closely with staff from the NGO Planet Drum Foundation, engaging in service learning through field excursions, discussions with locals, and participation in native forest revegetation projects.
Syllabus