Digital Commons Network^™

The Amazon Ablaze: Are The Environmental Policies Of The Bolsanaro Administrative In Contravention Of Brazil’S Commitment To The Convention On Biological Diversity?, Jordan Johnson

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In the Summer of 2019, the Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil experienced an unprecedented increase forest fires. This dramatic uptick in forest fires, according to environmental officials and scientists, is believed to have been caused by recent, rampant illegal deforestation of the Brazilian Amazonian Rainforest. Furthermore, some within the scientific community believe that the increased deforestation and ensuing forest fires are attributable to the anti-environmental protections and pro-development policies of Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro. Since taking office in January 2019, President Bolsonaro has publicly endorsed and encouraged deforestation of the Amazon as a means to spur economic development within Brazil. This …

Artificial Intelligence For Social Impact: Learning And Planning In The Data-To-Deployment Pipeline, Andrew Perrault, Fei Fang, Arunesh Sinha, Milind Tambe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the maturing of artificial intelligence (AI) and multiagent systems research, we have a tremendous opportunity to direct these advances toward addressing complex societal problems. In pursuit of this goal of AI for social impact, we as AI researchers must go beyond improvements in computational methodology; it is important to step out in the field to demonstrate social impact. To this end, we focus on the problems of public safety and security, wildlife conservation, and public health in low-resource communities, and present research advances in multiagent systems to address one key cross-cutting challenge: how to effectively deploy our limited intervention …

Shared-Use Infrastructure Along The World’S Largest Iron Ore Operation: Lessons Learned From The Carajás Corridor, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano, Edgar Santos Monteiro, Felipe Botelho Tavares

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

To be beneficial for a country’s development, non-renewable resource extraction should be leveraged to build long-term assets, such as infrastructure, that will support sustainable and inclusive growth. This is especially critical for countries facing an infrastructure-funding gap (e.g. the World Bank’s Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic has estimated that Africa faces an annual infrastructure funding gap of US$31 billion); leveraging extractive industry-related investment could help fill this gap. Historically, natural resource concessionaires have adopted an enclave approach to infrastructure development, providing their own power and transportation services to ensure that the basic infrastructure needed for their operations is reliably available.

Shared-Use …

Building Life-Cycle Carbon And Operational Energy Report, Duncan Cox, Alexandra Davis, Vamshe Gooje

General University of Maine Publications

The premise of this report is to surmise the embodied carbon impact and anticipated operational energy use of the 57,995 sf crosslaminated timber (CLT) and glulam addition to the Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) on the University of Maine campus. The project will contain open lab space for the world’s largest prototype polymer 3D printer, offices, and a presentation venue.

A life-cycle assessment is a methodology for quantifying environmental impacts at all stages of a building’s life cycle. This is a cradle-to-grave assessment of the building, beginning from raw material extraction and sourcing, to manufacturing, transportation, construction, energy use, …

Covid-19 And The Environment: Reflections On The Pandemic In Asia, Hao Huang

EnviroLab Asia

The idea of planetary health as a form of scholarly analysis and scientific investigation has particular relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic and to Asia, where the outbreak of the novel coronavirus was first reported. Over the past three decades, the continent’s rapid urbanization and industrialization have played a significant role in the region’s economic growth, increase in per capita income and the concentration of wealth, and the creation of some of the world’s fast-growing cities. These profound benefits have come with some serious consequences, however, and planetary-health experts have stressed that one of them has been the sharp uptick in …

A Behavioral Approach To Bilateral Cooperation On Criminal Laws: A Case Study On Indonesia’S Extradition And Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, Harison Citrawan, Muhammad Fedian

Indonesia Law Review

The effectiveness of bilateral agreements in the context of criminal law enforcement remains highly contested. In the Indonesian context, such bilateral cooperation classifies two modalities of indirect law enforcement systems, namely, extradition and mutual legal assistance (MLA) in criminal matters. This article attempts to explain these modalities through a behavioral and rational approach by taking Indonesia’s MLA treaty with Switzerland and its extradition treaty with the Russian Federation as a case study. From this approach, we argue that the state’s decision to cooperate implies the adoption of control and consensus models. However, these two models were induced by political preferences …

Rapidly Accelerating Deforestation In Cambodia's Mekong River Basin: A Comparative Analysis Of Spatial Patterns And Drivers, Sapana Lohani, Thomas E. Dilts, Peter J. Weisberg, Sarah E. Null, Zeb S. Hogan

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The Mekong River is a globally important river system, known for its unique flood pulse hydrology, ecological productivity, and biodiversity. Flooded forests provide critical terrestrial nutrient inputs and habitat to support aquatic species. However, the Mekong River is under threat from anthropogenic stressors, including deforestation from land cultivation and urbanization, and dam construction that inundates forests and encourages road development. This study investigated spatio-temporal patterns of deforestation in Cambodia and portions of neighboring Laos and Vietnam that form the Srepok-Sesan-Sekong watershed. A random forest model predicted tree cover change over a 25-year period (1993-2017) using the Landsat satellite archive. Then, …

Population Status, Threats, And Conservation Of Preuss's Red Colobus (Piliocolobus Preussi) And Other Diurnal Primates In The Ndokbou Forest, Littoral Region, Cameroon, Ruth Bowers-Sword

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Ebo-Makombe-Ndokbou forest block in southwest Cameroon lies within the Gulf of Guinea biodiversity hotspot, characterized by extremely high levels of species richness and endemism, including those of primates. These forests may contain one of the last populations of the Critically Endangered Preuss’s red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus preussi; PRC), which is found only in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Gun hunting for bushmeat and habitat loss and degradation from logging and agriculture are the main threats to PRC. The conservation status of PRC and other primates in the Ndokbou forest are largely unknown, with most regional research efforts occurring in …

Cultivating A Decolonial Feminist Integral Ecology: Extractive Zones And The Nexus Of The Coloniality Of Being/Coloniality Of Gender, Melissa Pagán

Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology

No abstract provided.

Ktunaxa Nation V. British Columbia: A Historical And Critical Analysis Of Canadian Aboriginal Law, Jennifer Mendoza

Washington International Law Journal

Aboriginal law is a developing and emerging area of the law in Canada. In fact, Aboriginal rights were not constitutionally protected until the ratification of the Canadian Constitution in 1982. What followed was a series of precedent-setting cases that clarified what “rights” meant under Section 35 of the Constitution, how Aboriginal title and rights could be established, and what duty the federal government had to the First Nations when trying to infringe on those rights. In 2017, the Canadian Supreme Court heard Ktunaxa Nation v. British Columbia, which was the first case to interpret Aboriginal rights under Section 2(a) religious …

Understanding The Conditions For Protected Area Success In The Asia Pacific And Neotropical Regions, Noel Nina Langan

Senior Theses

Tropical rainforests support a significant portion of the world’s total biodiversity. In addition, they provide a number of invaluable ecosystem services including climate regulation and mitigation, carbon sequestration, food, medicinal, and genetic resource provisioning, and cultural services. Today, an array of human land use decisions are the greatest driver of rainforest loss and degradation and are largely responsible for dramatic biodiversity losses globally, but especially in the Asia-Pacific and Neotropical regions where forest fragmentation has come to dominate landscapes. Protected area policies are among the oldest and most commonly employed tools for biological conservation and will be integral to the …

Parameters Summer 2020: Full Issue, Usawc Parameters

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

The Compound Security Dilemma: Threats At The Nexus Of War And Peace, Isaiah Wilson Iii, Scott A. Smitson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Exploring Embodied Carbon Within Smith College Construction: Utilizing The New Neilson Library As A Case Study, Larissa Holland, Rebecca Miller, Lydia Sheyda

Other Student Projects

According to the Carbon Leadership Forum, the built environment contributes to almost 40% of CO2 emissions worldwide each year. While much of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted from structures is a result of the energy required to operate the lighting, heating, and cooling of existing buildings, it has been calculated that embodied carbon will be responsible for roughly half of the total new construction emissions between now and 2050. At an institutional scale, Smith College has made great progress in improving the energy and structural efficiency of building operations and expanding renewable energy initiatives. However, with construction being responsible for …

Understanding Forest Fire Management In Indonesia From A Global Perspective, Riyanto Indra Agus, Cahyadi Ahmad, Kurniadhini Faricha, Bachtiar Hafidz, Apriyana Dwiki, Caraka Brian Kannardi Aji

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

Forest fires are one of the global issues that attract worldwide attention. Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and Indonesia are among the countries with the largest forest cover and long records of massive forest fires. Forest fire management is, therefore, critical to decreasing the severity level of these fires. Current conditions indicate that, compared with the four other countries, Indonesia has significantly reduced forest fires within the past five years. Consequently, adopting a global perspective to study the characteristics of forest fire disaster management has become necessary. For each management parameter, this research employed a literature review and descriptive …

Ethics In Archaeological Lidar, Anna S. Cohen, Sarah Klassen, Damian Evans

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Airborne laser scanning or lidar has now been used by archaeologists for twenty years, with many of the first applications relying on data acquired by public agencies seeking to establish baseline elevation maps, mainly in Europe and North America. More recently, several wide-area acquisitions have been designed and commissioned by archaeologists, the most extensive of which cover tropical forest environments in the Americas and Southeast Asia. In these regions, the ability of lidar to map microtopographic relief and reveal anthropogenic traces on the Earth’s surface, even beneath dense vegetation, has been welcomed by many as a transformational breakthrough in our …

Improving Smallholder Livelihoods: Dairy Production In Tanzania, Edward Ulicky, Jackson Magoma, Helen Usiri, Amanda Edward

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Tanzania is primarily an agro-based economy, characterized by subsistence agricultural production that employs more than 80% of the population and contributing up to 45% of the GDP (2005). This country is endowed with a cattle population of 21.3 million, composed mainly of indigenous Zebu breed and about 680,000 improved dairy animals. About 70% of the milk produced comes from the traditional sector (indigenous cattle) kept in rural areas, while the remaining 30% comes from improved cattle mainly kept by smallholder producers. In Northern Tanzania and particularly in Hai district of Kilimanjaro region, some dairy farmers organize themselves into small producer …

A Buck For A Forest: Does Corruption And Development Lead To Environmental Degradation?, Alexandros Economou-Garcia

Student Publications

With growing awareness of sustainability in both the private and public sectors of the world, new funds - for sustainable development - have been created for developing countries through inter-governmental organizations including the United Nations. With an increase in funding, comes the challenge of ensuring that the funds are used for their correct purposes. This paper analyzes the connection between corruption, human development index (HDI), and environmental degradation. This paper first looks at understanding the connection between corruption and environmental degradation. Secondly, the paper explores research demonstrating the possible impact development has on environment degradation. Finally, the paper looks at …

Instrumentalization Theory: An Analytical Heuristic For A Heightened Social Awareness Of Machine Learning Algorithms In Social Media, Andrew R. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New innovations in information management and communication technologies have produced technological assemblages which have radically altered the way people socialize and interact with the world. The most significant and ubiquitous of these technologies is what is colloquially referred to as ‘machine learning.’ Like most, if not all, technologies, machine learning models are neither wholly good nor bad. Their functional ethics are largely determined by the context in which they are employed. However, their ubiquity demands that we develop a heightened social consciousness of the way machine learning simultaneous constrains, manipulates and democratizes social processes. In order to develop better social …

The Right To Legally Sourced Lumber? How The Effective Enforcement Of The Lacey Act Is A U.S. Human Rights Obligation And Critical To Preventing Abuse In The Illegal Logging Industry, Melanie Hess

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Socioscientific Issues On Informal Reasoning And The Transference To Controversial Issues In A Social Studies Context, Thomas J. Dolan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if informal reasoning skills associated with socioscientific issues (SSI) transferred to controversial issues in a social studies context. The principal researcher developed three controversial issues derived from social studies education to create social studies context issues (SSCI). This acronym has been termed by the principal researcher, as controversial issues in social studies have not been evaluated beyond the social studies classroom. Twenty-one, fifth grade students participated in this three-month study, which featured three specific SSI units (A Need for Speed? – speed limit reduction, Roller Coaster Ban – preventing injuries to children, …

Spectator 2020-02-05, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Gis-Based Spatial Model For Habitat Suitability Of Babirusa (Babyrousa Celebensis), In Gorontalo Province, Muhamad Khairul Rosyidy, Adi Wibowo

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Babirusa (Babyrousa celebensis) is an endemic animal from Gorontalo Province whose population is declining day by day due to poaching, land clearing, and selling babirusa meat in traditional markets in Gorontalo Province. Since 1931 this species has begun to be protected in Indonesia, and since 2008, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) named the babirusa species as a vulnerable category. This study aims to determine the suitability of babirusa habitat areas (Babyrousa celebensis) in Gorontalo Province with a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach and to determine the relationship of physical characteristics for the habitat of the babirusa habitat in …

Biodiversity Impacts Of Investment And Free Trade Agreements, Lee C. Rarrick

Pace Environmental Law Review

The following Article identifies the myriad ways in which international investment and free trade agreements interact with biodiversity. It categorizes these interactions into three main groups and provides a literature review of the various real-world and policy impacts. The first part analyses arbitration procedures in these agreements that investors and trade partners can invoke to protect their economic expectations from otherwise proper State action, including regulation that is intended to promote biodiversity. The next part evaluates biodiversity provisions that are included directly in the free trade and investment agreements themselves, or in side agreements thereto. Some of these provisions reference …

Seeing The Forest For The Trees: Public And Private Law Tools For Halting Deforestation, Harriette I. Resnick

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Need For A Physical Therapy Clinic In Pucallpa, Peru, Isabella M. Sutton, Abby M. Waldek, Brylie M. Wiedmaier

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In developing countries, complications from traumatic injuries account for a significantly higher number of deaths annually compared to developed countries. Not only are traumatic injuries more likely to occur in developing countries, but limited access to quality healthcare and adequate funds to pay for services make it much more likely for individuals to be left with lifelong disabilities. With that, this community service project worked with Scalpel at the Cross (SATC), an orthopedic medical ministry based in Pucallpa, Peru to expand their ability to provide free orthopedic surgeries and physical therapy following traumatic injuries. The community service project will help …

Human Impact On Global Extinction, Ashley Carter

Integrated Studies

For this project, I wanted to look at how heavily humans are impacting the current rate of global extinction. Many scientists and experts believe that Earth is either on the brink of experiencing a sixth mass extinction or that is it already occurring. The rate of extinction is argued to be happening at a much faster rate than during the Earth’s five previous mass extinctions which were before the evolution of humans. This project explores the different ways that humans are impacting global extinction, between a significant contribution to global warming, poaching, deforestation, and other factors. There is a limited …

Novel Tools For Community Based Assessment And Monitoring Of Forest Phenology Response To Environmental Variability And Change In The Tropics, Jennifer Christine Ramos-Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tropical ecosystems provide a variety of services and resources for global well-being. However, landscapes within this biome are undergoing rapid changes mostly due to anthropogenic activities. These systems are further impacted by current, extreme fluctuations in climate, including climate change and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). With predicted future increase in strength and occurrence of these climate oscillations, these landscapes and their plant communities will be impacted and changed. There is a gap in research and knowledge among tropical Indonesian landscapes in regards to the effects of global climate change at the community level. Therefore, there is an urgent need …

Climate Change, Drug Traffickers And La Sierra Tarahumara, Daniel Weisz Argomedo

Journal of Strategic Security

The purpose of this article is to uncover the ways in which climate change will impact indigenous people in contested areas as is the case of the Tarahumara indigenous community in Northern Mexico. The case study takes place on a border that John Sullivan conceptualizes as a “hyperborder” due to the complexity and high level of both licit and illicit trade. Sullivan explains how this border region has been heavily contested as criminals exploit weak governance. After 9/11 the increase of security at the border led drug trafficking organizations to diversify into internal drug distribution which required control over micro-territories. …

The Eco-Martyrs Of 2018 And Maslow: Is Self-Actualization Only For Colonizers?, Johanna Guz-Montgomery, Ian Mcfadden, Victoria Bee, Ashley Sanico, William Purrington, Christopher Latourrette, Rachel Creed, Kelly Rios-Santos, Alan Lankford

Undergraduate Research Posters

The Eco-Martyrs of 2018 and Maslow: Is Self-Actualization Only for Colonizers?

Johanna Guz-Montgomery, Dept. of Psychology, Ian McFadden, Victoria Bee, Ashley Sanico, William Purrington, Christopher Latourrette, Rachel Creed, Kelly Rios-Santos, and Alan Lankford, with Dr. Richard Bargdill, Dept. of Psychology

Every year the Global Witness organization complies and releases a list of forest, earth, water and animal protectors who have been murdered while defending the earth and people. There have been about 2000 “eco-martyrs” since 2002. Most of these persons are farmers, indigenous people, nature lovers or in other words--ordinary people. In their efforts to stop projects that would lead …