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Climate Change Curriculum

 

Welcome to USAID LEAF’s Regional Climate Change Curriculum

As part of its efforts to prepare a future cadre of climate change professionals, USAID LEAF and the US Forest Service worked with 14 universities and training institutes from the Asia-Pacific to develop an innovative climate change curriculum for the Asia-Pacific region. Visit our Process and Partners pages to learn more about how the curriculum was created.

The curriculum is a free resource of teaching materials for university professors, lecturers, teachers and climate change training experts. The modules offers an excellent introduction of climate concepts, social and environmental issues, land use planning, and carbon measurement. The curriculum materials include presentations, lecturer notes and supporting materials. The key ingredient of the curriculum is YOU.  You can study the curriculum materials, adapt these materials, design your courses, teach the courses, improve the materials and share your success stories. We hope you enjoy studying and adapting USAID LEAF’s Climate Change Curriculum!

Climate Change Curriculum Log In
You can access all of the climate change modules by logging in as a guest user.
RECOFTC e-Learning Platform

In partnership with RECOFTC the USAID LEAF climate change curriculum is currently hosted on the RECOFTC e-Learning Platform. No registration details or login are required to access the modules. Visit the module pages by following one of the module links below and then when prompted to log in - click the 'Log In As Guest' button.

 

    • MODULE 1: BASIC CLIMATE CHANGE (BCC)

    • MODULE 1: BASIC CLIMATE CHANGE (BCC)

      Learning Objectives:

      By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
      • Describe the components, drivers, and interactions of climate, at global and local levels
      • Explain the causes and effects of climate change
      • Explain the relationship between human activities and climate change, with emphasis on forest ecosystems and conservation
      • Assess the impacts of human activities on climate
      • Assess the impacts on climate change on ecosystem services and socio-economic systems.
      • Identify potential responses and solutions to climate change challenges, as well as assess their feasibility and potential effectiveness
      • Apply appropriate communication strategies on climate change mitigation and adaptation to different types of audience
    • MODULE 2: SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDNESS (SES)

    • MODULE 2: SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDNESS (SES)

      Learning Objectives:

      By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
      • Interpret social and environmental “soundness” and explain how it fits into larger contexts of climate change, climate change mitigation, and climate justice debates
      • Analyze conceptual and theoretical frameworks underlying social and environmental soundness
      • Explain the purposes of a variety of relevant tools and apply them according to context specifics
      • Appraise how gender issues relate to REDD+ and cut across various other concepts
      • Explain how safeguard mechanisms and approaches are being used in practice
      • Synthesize a range of social, economic, and environmental considerations for application in REDD+ projects and safeguard mechanisms
      • Assess real-world REDD+ and safeguard design and implementation
    • MODULE 3: LOW EMISSION LAND USE PLANNING (LELUP)

    • MODULE 3: LOW EMISSION LAND USE PLANNING (LELUP)

      Learning Objectives:

      By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
      • Develop an adaptive management framework for land use planning under uncertain climate patterns and policy regimes
      • Develop approaches to quantify drivers of historic land use change patterns in a changing climate
      • Develop future land use scenarios and cost-benefit analysis taking into consideration climate adaptation and mitigation strategies (environmental, social and economic)
      • Describe a process that leads to a negotiated agreement
      • Construct a monitoring and evaluation framework for low emission land use planning
      • Integrate information from multiple disciplines
    • MODULE 4: CARBON MEASUREMENT AND MONITORING (CMM)

    • MODULE 4: CARBON MEASUREMENT AND MONITORING (CMM)

      Learning Objectives:

      By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
      • Identify the roles of forests in climate change and that of international efforts to mitigate climate change
      • Explain forest carbon stocks, the geographic and climatic constraints on forest carbon, and the drivers of change in forest carbon
      • Apply the theoretical issues of and practical methods for measuring and monitoring forest carbon, including statistical approaches, sampling design, and operational protocols
      • Integrate map and field-based measures to generate forest carbon stocks and emissions at plot to national scales using an IPCC framework