Welcome to this 4-week course: Natural Asset Management Fundamentals. I’m Roy Brooke and I designed this course using videos, discussion forums, and other learning activities in each week/module. Throughout the course, you will also be meeting and interacting with many others who are involved in natural asset management.

We’ve designed this course to help local government staff, professionals in multiple disciplines who work with them, and people involved with community organizations, understand the fast-emerging field of natural asset management. The course is in divided into four modules:

• Introduction to the course, natural asset management & each other to help us understand: what natural asset management is, how it came about, and what is starting to happen at a community level.
• The ‘enabling environment’ for natural asset management – what some of the provincial, regional and national opportunities and barriers are that can help or hinder local governments.
• A detailed look at the communities that pioneered natural asset management, why and how they’re doing it, and the results so far.
• How to bring natural asset management into your own work.

At the end of the course, participants will understand:

• What natural asset management is, why it matters, and what conditions enable or hinder it
• How natural asset management is relevant in your own disciplines or community contexts
• What you may be able to do differently as a result of knowing more about natural asset management
• Where you can get additional information on natural asset management

Each module includes one or more video-lectures and discussions that are designed to inform, prompt reflection, and help participants consider the relevance of the work to their own contexts. In the final module, participants will apply what they’ve learned in real-world, learner-relevant examples. Each module also contains resources (e.g., relevant reports, video links) in the Readings and Resources.

You are not required to engage in the learning activities at any specific time. However, we recommend that you complete the activities for each module within the corresponding week. This will help you maximize learning and provide opportunities for meaningful discussion with the instructor and your fellow learners.

Course Schedule