Overview

The Nature of the Economic Problem...

Central to environment and development studies is the recognition that natural resources are intricately linked with the everyday life of households in developing countries. Thus, the issues and concerns are different from those of natural resources and environmental management in developed countries. In an economic sense, this is reflected in a greater emphasis on the non-market values related to agricultural, forest and fisheries production and less on such topics as recreational values. Sustainability is a much more immediate concept and faces pressing obstacles in the form of day-to-day sustenance and even survival. Conventional approaches to economics have often ignored the link between economic development and preservation of environmental health. The Environment and Development Research Group was created to address this shortfall, but primarily maintains an economics focus on the problem with an emphasis on biodiversity-related issues.

Who We Are...

The Environment and Development Research Group is part of a multi-disciplinary graduate program offered by the School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM) at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Areas of research interest within our group include:

• Valuation of environmental resources (e.g. biodiversity, fisheries, soil and forest products)
• Natural resource and environmental management in developing countries (e.g. conservation incentives, land husbandry, protected areas and community-based management of biodiversity)
• Bioeconomic modeling with environmental influences (e.g. economic models of fisheries and ecosystem complexity, bioinvasions or eutrophication)
• Sustainable aquaculture in developing and developed countries (e.g. shrimp farming in India, salmon aquaculture in temperate coastal areas)

Funded research opportunities are presently available through the Environment and Development Research Group and may be of interest to applicants to REM in the upcoming academic year.

Graduate students in our research group also have the opportunity to take courses offered in complementary areas of study, such as co-management of natural resources, fisheries science, forestry and landscape ecology, amongst others. Also, by enrolling in specific courses, students may complete the Graduate Certificate in Development Studies being offered at SFU.