Environment and Development in Tropical Regions

Code: PAO11393L

6 ECTS

Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours

Scientific Area: Environment and Ecology Sciences

Teaching languages: Portuguese

Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, English

Regime de Frequência: Presencial

Sustainable Development Goals

Educação de qualidade - Assegurar a educação inclusiva, e equitativa e de qualidade, e promover oportunidades de aprendizagem ao longo da vida para todos.

Learning Goals

Provide students with knowledge on the tropics, covering topics related to climate, natural vegetation, soil, agriculture and anthropology. Characterizing the Human-Environment interactions and reflect the preservation of ecosystems, natural and human resources. Contribute to the capacity to intervene in the tropical environment on what concerns fighting deforestation, soil erosion, and depletion of biological resources. Be able to implement low-input technologies using local materials.

The tropical regions. Concepts and generalities. Location, soil, climate and natural vegetation. Biological and cultural diversity.
Economic structure. Agriculture and its importance in the economy. Social and environmental impacts. Industry.
Social and demographic characteristics. Population growth rate and food production. Age structure. Pressure on natural resources, land and forest degradation.
Identification of key environmental issues tropical. Deforestation. Smallholding / landowners. Application of non-sustainable agricultural systems. Degradation of natural resources. Loss of biodiversity. Poverty and degradation of rural communities. Suburbs and other phenomena associated with urban sprawl.