Environmental Studies NOW 2012

ENVIRONMENTAL
STUDIES – NOW!
Amulya Ratna Tuladhar
Professor of Environmental Sciences

Environmental Studies – Now!
 Environmental studies is long overdue in Nepal
 Attempts to offer environmental studies
 Deficiencies of such programs
 ‘Ideal’ program in environmental studies ?

Environmental programs classifiable into:
a) general environmental science programs;
b) environmental technology programs; and
c) interdisciplinary environmental programs

LACKING :
A comprehensive environmental studies
program
In a coherent package all relevant
disciplines
for understanding and solving
environmental problems in Nepal and in

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES
Existing academic programs in
environment

An ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
PROGRAM will be proposed
DELIVERY of such environmental studies
program

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PROGRAMS
Masters and Bachelors program in
Environmental Science offered by
Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu
University

PROGRAMS
 Theory, tools and content of a broad
range of environmental problems
 Content and approach are science based
 Freshwater ecology to mountain ecology,
from geology to climate change

PROGRAMS
 No social science tools like economic or
ethnographic analysis
 Theoretical coverage is necessarily thin
and superficial
 Rigor or Content not better than Grade IX
to Grade XII S.L.C, CBSE, and “A” level
environment

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PROGRAMS
 Falling behind in content, due to Internet
 Slow-paced institutional decision-making
 Skill-oriented tools dangerously behind
market needs
 Examples can be given of GIS, Statistical
Research Techniques, Social Science
Research Skills, EIA,
Thesis/Report/Technical Writing, Team and
Individual Presentation with PowerPoint,
Policy Analysis Skills

PROGRAMS
 No governmental career track to get into
like a Ministry of Environment
environmental science cadre like forestry,
agriculture and medical cadre.
 Career opportunities diffuse, mostly in
NGO, INGO, entrepreunial sector in non-
environmental sectors

ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAMS,
Associated with sectoral ministries related
to environment:
Forestry, agriculture, water resources, etc
My experience in forestry education

PROGRAMS,
 Human resources to solve technical
environmental problems important to the
country
 Foresters conserve the productivity of
forests,
 Agriculturists are expected to boost food
 Water resource engineers harness water
for irrigation and power generation.

PROGRAMS,
 Commonality of all environmental
technology programs is the skill-oriented,
depth training
 Limited slew of theoretical menu so unlike
general environmental science programs
 Lack the theoretical breadth and depth

PROGRAMS,
 Programs high on national agenda
 Historically drawn donor support for
infrastructure building, human resource
capacity
 Million dollars worth of grant and loans
from World Bank to USAID for Institute Of
Forestry

PROGRAMS,
 To produce community forestry oriented
‘officer’ and ‘ranger’ level manpower for
the 20 year Forestry Sector Master Plan
of 1989
 Current turnaround from deforestation to
forest increase in the midhills

PROGRAMS,
 Systemic problems: the theoretical depth
is limited
 Actual job of forestry is 10% science and
technology and 90% social, politics, law
and administration.
 Exposure to social science, economics,
political science, development theory,
policy and law or environmental ethics is
either nil or token

PROGRAMS,
 Forest graduates getting into a
government forestry career has dwindled
from 100% before the 1980s to less then
20% in 2011
 Foresters muddle along
 Rarely capable of holding on their own
professionally

PROGRAMS,
 These programs do not prepare student
for:
 Environmental problems such as
sustainable development, green
economy, climate change, gender
mainstreaming, or even higher order
ecological and environmental modeling
increasing on demand in Nepal and

INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONMENTAL
PROGRAMS
 Academic homes different from the sciences
 Examples are Malpi International College
:Environmental Ethics.
 The School of Environmental Management and
Sustainable Development (Schemes) : Masters in
Environmental Management
 School of Education and School of Arts of
Kathmandu University: Masters programs in
Environmental Education and Sustainable
Development, Development Studies and Human
and Natural Resources Studies

PROGRAMS
 Subjects such as Global Climate Change
and Sustainable Development, Population
and Development, Forestry and Wildlife
Management with Conservation of
Protected Areas, Conflict and Gender
Studies

PROGRAMS
 Less than a decade old
 Have donor support
 Agile enough to introduce new subjects quickly
as market demands

PROGRAMS
 Do not have coherent vision or cadre of
teachers
 Dependent on the efficiency of the leader (dean
or program coordinator
 Programs are volatile and fragile
 Not recognized as minimum professional
degrees for government sectoral ministries
 Graduates are destined for nongovernmental
environmental job market

PROGRAMS
 Face stiff competition from excess
environmental science and technology
graduates as well more highly trained
manpower with training from abroad or from
more experienced human resources.
 Most graduate do find some jobs since the
environmental market is still booming and can
tolerate weak candidates
 As demands exceeds supply

PROGRAMS
 Interdisciplinary programs still do not equip the
students for the whole range of concepts and
skills necessary for the market
 Examples include training in political ecology,
discourse analysis, climate change vulnerability
and environmental modeling

AN “IDEAL” ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM
FOR NEPAL
Offer access to all the
necessary disciplines relevant
to solving the environmental
problems in Nepal now and in
the foreseeable future

FOR NEPAL
 Should not be a science only or technology only
or social science only program that has been
tried out in various institutions in Nepal
 Housed only in a central campus with access to
faculty in at least three major categories: the
sciences, the technologies, and the social
sciences and humanities.

FOR NEPAL
 An ideal environmental studies program should
have a general exposure Bachelor program of 4
years and specialist graduate program of 2
years for Masters and a 3 year for Ph.D.

FOR NEPAL
 The Bachelor Program should offer compulsory courses
with 1/3 weightage in sciences, technology and
humanities with the option to major in particular stream
in the 4th
year.
 The Bachelor program should introduce students to all
concepts, terms, tools, issues necessary for
understanding and solving environmental problems and
much of this is downloadable from internet and standard
textbooks
 The aim is to offer the broad domain of choices in
environmental career not to train specialist

FOR NEPAL
 Currently, nearly all the graduate (Masters)
programs in Nepal are at this level:
 Internet downloadable concepts, tools, and
definitions without any preparations for
analysis/synthesis, critical thinking, and
presentation to solve real world environmental
problems that are NOT downloadable or
memorisable from standard textbooks.

FOR NEPAL
 The Master’s program should be designed to
produce specialist (Master) who can solve
complex environmental problems that require
critical analysis and synthesis of theories,
concepts, tools and methodologies across
sciences, technologies and social sciences and
humanities.

AN “IDEAL” ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM FOR
NEPAL
 First year of synthetic course such as gender issues
in environment, environmental history of landuse
landcover changes, sustainable development and
vulnerability analysis, carbon sequestration
modeling, GIS and remote sensing in environment
etc
 No standard textbook answers or copy and paste
internet resources or model answers to model
questions

FOR NEPAL
 Seminar mode of teaching in which students do their
own research in libraries, field, internet, discuss and
participate in both vertical and lateral learning, make
presentations, prepare proposals, conduct research and
formulate conclusions that can be disseminated in
international refereed journals.
 The second year should have at least one semester of
internship and one semester of thesis study with the
option for delving into depth with selected directed
readings on specific topics with the faculty

DELIVERY OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
PROGRAM
 Range of human resources/teachers in a full-
fledged mega campus or central university
campus
 TU administration is too big and unwieldy to
deliver fast changing, quality programs needed
for environmental studies program as the
decision making system is too slow.
 The Environmental Science of TU is undergoing
syllabus review after 10 years now

PROGRAM
 Contrast this with KU management
 Professor are given the trust and liberty to
upgrade the course each semester and
 Have total control over grading.
 Even the program course structure is
open to modification every 2-3 years.

PROGRAM
 Second, the environmental studies needs access to
quality teachers and students and this self-feeding
 Quality teachers, mostly from professional field with
recent experience and more relevant trainings are to be
hired with attractive pay package and benefits as well as
creative freedom
 Recruiting top quality students who are willing to pay
high fees, face stiff selections
 Promise of great training and great job prospects

PROGRAM
 Many TU programs are struggling to fill in seats
 Accept whoever applies and
 Have poor quality teachers because
 Cannot offer good pay nor academic freedom.

ANNEXES:
 Environmental Studies program from Kentucky
University
 IOF Master’s program in NRM & Rural Development
 NEC Master’s program in NRM and IWRM, Pokhara
University
 Schemes Masters in Environmental Management,
Pokhara U
 School of Arts, KU, Masters Program in HNRS & Dev
Studies
 School of Education, KU, Masters Program in EESD.
 School of Science, KU, Masters Program in

Environmental Studies NOW 2012

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