Course abstract:
In collaboration with The South America Project, a research effort spearheaded by Harvard GSD and with a network of institutions in the Americas, this course interrogates environmental conservation and development practices in two developing contexts: Western China and the Andean Amazon. Within the last year, China has become Peru's largest trading partner. Economic growth in Peru, one of the strongest in the world, is primarily supported by its large mineral base, with Chinese investments in its mining expansion up 75% in 2011. This seminar uses this investment as ignition for a transnational study of the local battles between intensive rural development, resource extraction, and environmental conservation in the world's most biodiverse regions. Agricultural reforms in both countries have led to their present complex and unique states of conservation, equity, and definitions of protected areas. The design disciplines here explore the highly physical, formative nature of protected areas (topography, indigenous landholdings, watersheds) and related sciences (biodiversity hotspots, habitat, climate) to re-narrate these conflicts toward productive platforms for scientific, political and public debate.
