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POLS GU4412 ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA. 4 points.

This seminar seeks to introduce the students to the analysis of Latin American and Caribbean environmental politics. A large part of the world's natural resources are found in Latin America, including about a quarter of the planet's arable land and just over a fifth of its forest area as well as considerable fossil fuel reserves. Over the last few decades, the region has undergone three parallel processes: 1) the expansion of extractive and primary industries, 2) a growing social mobilization over environmental issues, and 3) the emergence of new state regulation on environemtal protection. Latin American and Caribbean environmental politics is therefore the outcome of complex and often contradictory domestic and global political, social and economic factors. The course covers all those aspects by examining a wide range of environmental issues from a comparative perspective. As a result, students will acquire an overview of the most important environmental issues in the region as well as analytical tools to examine the politics of environmental degradation and protection from different perspectives.