The Environmental Management Unit conducts research and supervises research projects in various parts of the region and on a range of environmental themes.

• Biodiversity in farmed areas (agro-biodiversity)
• Land management and food security
• Disaster management and risk mitigation
• Urban renewal
• Parks and protected areas
• Environmental health
• Coastal zone management
• Waste management
• Water resource management
• Eco-tourism
• Environmental perception
• Environmental law and policy
• Children and the environment

One of the Environmental Management Unit’s principal areas of research is on the integrated management of rural landscapes. Researchers involved in this project address issues of biodiversity in agricultural areas, food security, and sustainable rural livelihoods. The research has involved collaboration with scientists and small farmers from across the developing world, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

• Ahmad, R. (1999). “Jamaica, Port Royal Mountain, and Kingston and St Andrew: physical environment and natural hazards”. Papers in Disaster Studies, Department of Geography and Geology 5.
• Goodbody, I. and E. Thomas-Hope (eds) (2002). Natural Resource Management for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean. Kingston, Canoe Press (UWI).
• Gupta, A. and R. Ahmad (2000). “Urban steeplands in the tropics: an environment of accelerated erosion”. GeoJournal 49.
• Semple, H. and J. Bierley (2000). “A logit analysis of problems affecting domestic food production in Guyana”. Social and Economic Studies 49.
• Spence, B. (1999). “Spatio-evolutionary model of Jamaican small farming” Geographical Journal 165(3).
• Thomas-Hope, E. (1996). The Environmental Dilemma in Caribbean Context. Kingston, Grace, Kennedy Foundation Lecture.
• Thomas-Hope, E. (ed.) (1998). Solid Waste Management: critical issues for developing countries. Kingston, Canoe Press (UWI).
• Thomas-Hope, E. (2002). “The role of environmental management in Caribbean economic growth” in V. Bulmer-Thomas (ed) Explaining the Income Differential in the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century. Special Issue, Journal of International Trade.
• Thomas-Hope, E. and B. Spence (2002). “Promoting agrobiodiversity under difficulties: the Jamaica-PLEC experience”. PLEC News and Views 19.
• Thomas-Hope, E. and B. Spence (2003). “Jamaica” in H. Brookfield, H. Parsons and M. Brookfield (eds) Agrodiversity: learning from farmers across the world. Tokyo, United Nations University Press.
• Thomas-Hope, E., H. Semple and B. Spence (1999). “Biodiversity within the agricultural diversity of small farming in the Rio Grande watershed, Jamaica” in C. Ortega (ed) Proceedings: Seminario Internacional Sobre Agrodiversidad Campesina. Toluca, Autonomous University of Mexico.
• Thomas-Hope, E., H. Semple and B. Spence (2000). “Household structure, agrodiversity and agro-biodiversity on small farms in the Rio Grande watershed, Jamaica”. PLEC News and Views 15.