Dear students, as you probably know the course starts on Wednesday, but because we are encouraged to not have lectures on Wednesdays, we have created following instructions for day 1:

Instructions for Day 1 (Wed, 24 March)

Hello dear students of MX0149: engaging critically with environmental governance practices,

SLU encourages us to keep Wednesdays free from face-to-face meetings, and so we will have our first course session on Thursday, 25 March 2021, 9.30am. We will meet via the following Zoom link:

To allow you to unwind from handing in assignments, we would like you to grab a nice beverage and some snacks, find a nice place to sit, watch some films, and take some notes on these. We will use the films and your notes as starting points for discussions and assignments in the first course weeks.

Specifically, we ask you to:

1. watch our brief introduction video on environmental governance: http://e.pc.cd/WNjotalK or on Canvas

2. watch at least 2 out of the 4 films linked below; if for some reason you are unable to access them, please connect to the university's VPN and try again:

   1. Portugal: The Dirty Truth Behind Green Cars (Portugal, 24m, fr/de/en) https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/099874-000-A

      On the sustainability choices between lithium mining for modern battery technology and the protection of rural communities.

   2. Marine Biodiversity and Villagers' Voices (Tanzania, 48m, en) https://youtu.be/mAhGG8D9i9w

      On the mistrust and disappointment that emerged after government-mandates for co-management of marine national parks were not taken seriously anymore.

   3. Peru: The Price of Gold (Peru, 24m, fr/de/en) https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/087028-000-A/

      On the collusion of local villagers and external actors for illegal gold mining; thanks to the locals, the military always seems to be a step too slow.

   4. More of Everything (Sweden, 59m, en/sv/de) https://moreofeverything.org

      On the hidden (or ignored) sustainability and biodiversity issues of the Swedish forestry industry.

3. take notes on the following questions for the two films you watched:

   1. what is the problem that the film presents? are there underlying issues or dimensions of the problem, that the film does not (or only insufficiently) accounts for?

   2. what actors are introduced? whose interest do these actors seem to represent? are actors presented to be sources of problems or solutions?

   3. considering what you learnt in the introduction video: are environmental governance attempts described? what sort of governance mechanisms (legislation, norms, contracts, enforcement) are considered? which degree engagement of private and societal actors do the presented possible solutions exhibit?

4. think about a (local) environmental problem you engaged with in the past or have heard about; possibly including further literature research, write a brief summary or notes about your problem (you will need a polished case description for an assignment in a few weeks) and prepare to introduce yourself and your problem briefly (less than 3 min) in class:

   1. what is the problem? are there any underlying problems?

   2. what actors are involved in the problem and in potential solutions? who and what are affected by the problem?

   3. what governance measure(s) are taken to deal with the problem?

   4. why did you choose this problem? why is it interesting to you?

   5. how were you engaged in it?

If you have any questions, please send us an email:
fanny.mockel@slu.se / malte.rodl@slu.se / lotten.westberg@slu.se

Good luck with this; we are looking forward to see you on the 25th!

Fanny, Malte, and Lotten

The course schedule is updated (under "timetable"). We also want to remind you who have been accepted and intend to participate in the course to register. You do this via Ladok Student (on the student web).

As the reserve list to the course includes a lot of students who are eager to start the course, we do encourage you who have been accepted but do not intend to take part, to sign off as soon as possible please. You can easily do that via www.antagning.se or www.universityadmissions.se

• Om studenten inte blivit godkänd på ett prov har examinatorn rätt att ge en kompletteringsuppgift – om det finns skäl för det och om det är möjligt.
• Om studenten har ett beslut från SLU om särskilt pedagogiskt stöd på grund av funktionsnedsättning, har examinatorn rätt att ge ett anpassat prov eller låta studenten genomföra provet på ett alternativt sätt.
• Om denna kursplan ändras, eller om kursen läggs ner, ska SLU besluta om övergångsregler för examination av studenter som antagits enligt denna kursplan och ännu inte blivit godkända.
• För examination av självständigt arbete (examensarbete) gäller dessutom att examinatorn kan tillåta studenten att göra kompletteringar efter inlämningsdatum. Mer information finns i utbildningens regelsamling.