Digital Commons Network^™

Modern Slavery As A Product Of Transnational Corporate Supply Chains: An Ecofeminist Evaluation Of Systems To Address The Linkage Between Modern Slavery, Climate Change, And Gender Injustice, Miranda Kanter

University Honors Theses

Neoliberal ideologies and economics are based on the concept of endless economic growth. This growth is sustained through the use of market domination and the exploitation of the vulnerable and their resources. As pressures of economic growth place priority on industry over human and environmental health, our world faces dire consequences for its corrupt relational values. This research demonstrates the link between modern slavery, the environment-climate crisis, and gender injustice in three separate case studies of modern enslavement in transnational corporate supply chains. Through the use of ecofeminist theory, modern systems of domination and their internalizations are used as a …

Money Growing On Trees: A Classroom Game About Payments For Ecosystem Services And Tropical Deforestation, Sahan Dissanayake, Sarah A. Jacobson

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs use an incentive-based approach to pursue environmental goals. While they are common policy tools, key concepts determining their efficacy are nuanced and hard to grasp. This article presents a new interactive game that explores the functioning and implications of PES programs. Participants play the role of rural households in a developing country, deciding individually or as groups whether to enter into contracts to refrain from reducing local forests in exchange for payment from a forest-based PES initiative. The game explores topics that include PES programs, climate change, tropical deforestation, cost-effectiveness, additionality, illegal harvest and …

The Influence Of Microsite Conditions On Early Performance Of Planted Nothofagus Nitida Seedlings When Restoring Degraded Coastal Temperate Rain Forests, Jan R. Bannister, Manuel Acevedo, German Travieso, Andres Holz, Nicole Galindo

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Widespread impacts of changes in land use, climate, and disturbance regimes continue to affect mature forests and their subsequent post-disturbance recovery. In South American temperate rainforests, the recovery of the original composition, structure, and ecological services of now-degraded old-growth forests is additionally hampered by the aggressive competition that the native Chusquea bamboo understory exerts on juvenile trees, thus arresting ecological succession. In this study, we aim to evaluate the early performance of Nothofagus nitida seedlings (pioneer tree species that tolerate shade) planted beneath nurse canopy following removal of the understory, and to define which microsite conditions can facilitate N. nitida …

Whence And Whither: Acoustic Variability And Biogeography Of Tarsiers In North Sulawesi, Olivia Clare Kulander

Dissertations and Theses

The morning duet calls of eastern tarsiers (Tarsius spp.) in North Sulawesi were recorded and analyzed to examine the effects of geography and geologic history on their call structure. Tarsius species exhibit interspecifically variable duet calls shown to correlate with species differentiation and distribution. They are distributed across Sulawesi, a biogeographically complex island in the Indonesian archipelago, where tectonic activity and multiple glaciations during the Pleistocene generated and modified barriers to their dispersal and gene flow.

Recordings were made at ten locations from November of 2012 through June of 2014. Two locations were categorized as mainland, while eight island …

Sosiel: A Cognitive, Multi-Agent, And Knowledge-Based Platform For Modeling Boundedly-Rational Decision-Making, Garry Sotnik

Dissertations and Theses

Decision-related activities, such as bottom-up and top-down policy development, analysis, and planning, stand to benefit from the development and application of computer-based models that are capable of representing spatiotemporal social human behavior in local contexts. This is especially the case with our efforts to understand and search for ways to mitigate the context-specific effects of climate change, in which case such models need to include interacting social and ecological components. The development and application of such models has been significantly hindered by the challenges in designing artificial agents whose behavior is grounded in both empirical evidence and theory and in …

Is Ecotourism An Outdated Solution To Orangutan Conservation In Sabah, Malaysian Borneo?, Ellis E. Thompson

University Honors Theses

Since its inception, ecotourism has been presented as an ideal way to raise money and awareness for conservation while at the same time benefitting local communities. In the early 1960's, orangutan rehabilitation centers in Malaysia and Indonesia began to integrate tourism into their fundraising efforts in order to reintroduce ex-captive orangutans back into the wild and provide education on the conservation of the species. This early integration of tourism led to a widely popular industry that today is thriving. The present research provides a review of the history and current perspectives of traditional orangutan tourism and the more novel wild …

Structural Factors That Increase Hiv/Sti Vulnerability Among Indigenous People In The Peruvian Amazon, E. Roberto Orellana, Isaac E. Alva, Cesar P. Cárcamo, Patricia J. García

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examined structural factors—social, political, economic, and environmental—that increase vulnerability to HIV among indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. Indigenous adults belonging to 12 different ethnic groups were purposively recruited in four Amazonian river ports and 16 indigenous villages. Qualitative data revealed a complex set of structural factors that give rise to environments of risk where health is constantly challenged. Ferryboats that cross Amazonian rivers are settings where unprotected sex—including transactional sex between passengers and boat crew and commercial sex work—often take place. Population mobility and mixing also occurs in settings like the river docks, mining sites, and other resource …

Ecology Of White-Cheeked Crested Gibbons In Laos, Julia Cleverly Ruppell

Dissertations and Theses

The endangered white-cheeked crested gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys), native to Laos, Vietnam, and perhaps China, remains little known and highly threatened. I studied seasonal variation in the diet, activity budget, and ranging behavior of three groups of white-cheeked crested gibbons in Nam Kading National Protected Area, Bolikhamxay Province, Laos, over 12 months in wet seasonal evergreen forest. Crested gibbons (Nomascus spp.) are speculated to be more folivorous than other gibbons, but this has never been confirmed because of the paucity of fieldwork on the genus. I studied diet in relation to forest seasonality to determine the contribution …

Madécasse: Competing With A 4x Fairtrade Business Model, Scott Marshall, Darrell Brown, Bex Sakarias, Min Cai

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Brett Beach and Tim McCollum, co-founders of Madécasse, spent two years as Peace Corps volunteers in Madagascar. During that time, they fell in love with the country and its people. Recognizing the need of the Malagasy for stable jobs and fair wages and the connection between poverty and environmental destruction, Brett and Tim discussed possibilities for a social enterprise in the country.

Madagascar presents a beautiful yet challenging place to operate a business. It has a wide range of flora and fauna, approximately 70% of which are found nowhere else on Earth and it produces coffee, vanilla, sugar, cotton, pepper, …

Tropical Salvage: From Recession To Expansion, Scott Marshall, Lisa Peifer, Erin Ferrigno

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tim O’Brien, founder of Tropical Salvage, was preparing for another warehouse clearance sale of his unique, handcrafted hardwood furniture. It had been an enormously challenging year and it was important to reduce inventory before the next container arrived from Indonesia. The market for fine furniture had begun to decline steadily in early 2008 following the stock market crash of the prior September. The company survived a difficult period, but not without suffering a decline in sales. O’Brien had spent ten years building a sustainable business model based on environmental stewardship, worker empowerment and unique, high quality product. As the economy …