Natural Resources Institute - Director's Message

Welcome to the Natural Resources Institute!

Since our founding in 1968, our students and faculty have dedicated themselves to making positive contributions to a wide variety of resources and environmental management issues and problems, all in attempts to ensure broader social-ecological sustainability. With over 1,000 Master and PhD graduates, we have tackled many issues fundamental to sustainability at local, regional, national, and international levels.

Our approach has always been student-focused and in a way that strives to incorporate community-based, participatory and sound ecological approaches to research that are both inter- and multi-disciplinary. As a smaller, close-knit community, our greatest strength is and has always been our people - students, alumni, donors, faculty and staff – whose commitment to excellence drives creative solutions to complex problems.

The problems we have taken on through our teaching and research have evolved over time, becoming even more complex as the world around us has changed. This is currently underscored by the effects of climate change on natural and human systems, the collective loss of biodiversity, and the ease with which we can share ideas broadly, factual or not. Especially as we better understand the impacts we are having on the earth, the demand for creative thinking in reimagining our economies and the way we live, and doing so in a way that is learning focused and just, is only becoming more intense now. Our students and faculty contribute to this new wave of thinking, exploring topics from community-based resource management to new forms of governance and fundamental shifts in natural resources and environmental policy and programs.

We sustain our research through several multi-partner and other research grants. Continued success by our students and faculty members in winning research grant awards from the central granting agencies in Canada as well as from other provincial, national and international funding agencies reflects our commitment to research excellence.  Our strong network includes an outstanding cadre of adjunct professors from other University of Manitoba and several Canadian and international institutions, as well as collaboration with government departments, non-governmental agencies and the private sector.

Our graduates are consistently successful in obtaining employment in the natural resources and environment fields in Manitoba, across Canada, and around the world, making impactful contributions wherever they go. If you are interested in joining this tradition of excellence, we invite you to explore this website and consider joining our vibrant and diverse community of graduate students.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions about our programs and research activities.  We look forward to connecting with you!

John Sinclair
Professor and Director