Indigenous Principles in Natural Resources and the Environment Minor

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

This interdisciplinary minor is sponsored by the Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences department in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. The minor consists of innovative coursework and provides research opportunities that incorporate indigenous ecological knowledge in areas such as conservation biology, environmental biology, wildlife and fisheries sciences, forest resources management, environmental studies and environmental sciences: as well as agriculture, ethnic studies, geography, biology, and recreation, parks and tourism.

The Indigenous Principles in Natural Resources Management and the Environment minor aims to bring together principles of both Indigenous knowledge and Western science. Instruction in these two approaches will provide students with the necessary skills, practical research methods and critical thinking abilities for addressing complex environmental and health issues, and resource management problems facing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities around the world. Contact the minor coordinator for more details.

Program Learning Objectives

1. Describe Indigenous environmental knowledge and the range of management approaches that have and are employed with reference to forestry, natural resources and the environment here in the U.S. and throughout the world.
2. Apply and evaluate legal requirements and responsibilities in seeking, constructing and responding to Indigenous viewpoints and perspectives, particularly regarding management of U.S. tribal and non-tribal lands.
3. Analyze ecosystem management principles as a process to improve collaboration and associated decision-making.
4. Apply, synthesize, plan and design in the appropriate inclusion of Indigenous traditional knowledge in environmental assessment and development of planning projects.

Minor Requirements and Curriculum

• At least half of the units must be from upper-division courses (3000-4000 level).
• At least half of the units must be taken at Cal Poly (in residence).
• No more than one-third of the units will be taken with credit-no credit grading (CR/NC), not counting courses with mandatory CR/NC. Departments may further limit CR/NC grading if desired.
• A minimum 2.0 GPA is required in all units counted for completion of the minor.