Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Study Of A Self-Assessment System For The Ecotourism Group In Curuçá: Accounting For Tourist Opinions While Maintaining Initial Goals, Karina Hope Costa

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Community-based ecotourism can be a potential tool to both promote empowerment and conservation of the local environment. One of the main goals of community-based ecotourism is to ensure that participating communities take an active role in the development and management of ecotourism activities. One way to measure if their goals are being reached is through a system of assessment, through which an ecotourism community will be able to account for the opinions of the tourist, the guide operators, and the local community. The general objective of this paper is to determine how a community-based ecotourism group can account for the …

Walking Amongst The Sacred Spines: Social And Ecological Investigation Of The Fenoaivo And Zanavo Sacred Forests In Southern Madagascar, Laura Miller

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study explores the social and ecological aspects of the Fenoaivo and Zanavo sacred forests—an area located in the commune of Ifotaka and region of Anosy in the spiny forest of southern Madagascar. Through a general survey of the 2.5km by 950 meter forest, a survey of the fauna and flora, a survey of the sacred forest areas, over fifty local interviews and an expert stakeholder survey sent out to over 65 people internationally, an attempt was made to look at the areas potential for a community conserved area and the possibility of community-based tourism. Discovering that both the general …

Creative Ecology: Art’S Role In Addressing Environmental And Sustainability Issues In Australia, Michael Meade

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Art has embodied the relationship between humans and the natural environment throughout the ages. As this relationship changed, many artists began to address concerns about the ways humans interact with nature. Today, more than ever, there is a need for channels of communication to address the major environmental and sustainability problems of our time. This study examines how art is influenced by environmental and sustainability concerns and the ways in which it responds to such concerns. By investigating how artists, community organizations, festivals and other initiatives encourage public awareness about environmental and sustainability issues, the study explores art’s role in …

The Role Of Zoos In Creating A Conservation Ethic In Visitors, Elean Kazarov

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project addresses the role of zoos in creating a conservation ethic in their visitors, with a focus on Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The zoo educates visitors about animals, species, and habitats as well as conservation and threats to biodiversity. Interactive exhibits encourage the visitors to reflect upon the relationship between humans and animals and humans and nature, as well as solidify the zoo experience in the visitors’ minds. By providing an entertaining experience, the zoo renders visitors more receptive to conservation messages. Other messages increase respect for animals, species and habitats. Individual connections with animals are facilitated …

Estatus Actual De Los Búhos Terrestres (Athene Cunicularia) En La Zona De Puerto López, Ecuador: Efectos De Las Creencias Y Sentimientos Hacía Los Animales Silvestres, Allison Qubain

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In response to negative attitudes towards the existing biodiversity in the region of Puerto Lopez, Ecuador and as a follow-up of a study conducted in 2006 on the status of Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) populations, through informal interviews and observation, this investigation focuses on how local sentiments towards nature have affected the current status of the Burrowing Owl populations and their habitat. The investigation revealed that in addition to the effects of legends and beliefs, there is an existing lack of knowledge, understanding, and appreciation for the extremely high biodiversity, which has created an evident fear instilled in the people. …

Conceptions Of Wilderness In Tasmania, Sam Adels

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With this project I set out collect and compare different conceptions of wilderness from individuals on all sides of the ongoing wilderness protection versus forestry debate in Tasmania. I purposed to share the results with all parties to bring them together to cooperate and work towards wilderness protection and sustainable forestry for the future of Tasmania. I spent 5 weeks in April and May of 2008 researching the history of the concept of wilderness as well as Tasmanian wilderness issues. I interviewed 11 subjects, involved in the wilderness versus forestry debate in many different arenas, including forest ecologists, wilderness academics, …

Renewable Energy And Agriculture: Promoting Biogas In The Rural Communities Of The Lashihai Wetland Nature Reserve, Amanda Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“China’s economic miracle will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace.” – Pan Yue, deputy environmental director (Larson, 21)

In recent years, the causes and impacts of global warming have increasingly garnered press on an international scale. Scientists have confirmed global warming as being mostly anthropogenic (Rosenthal and Revkin; Xuequan). More wildlife species have become endangered or extinct (Roach) and natural disasters such as storms have increased in severity (“New study”; Schmid). With the 2008 Beijing Olympics quickly approaching, the international community has turned its eye to China and its policies, including those towards the environment. Since …

Formal Education For Sustainable Development, Caryn Saslow

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the next 50 years, humans will make the choice as to whether or not they would like to mitigate or exacerbate global warming. Seeing as now is a crucial time in which to enact change, why is it that the issues inherent in sustainable development are not currently a compulsory part of primary and secondary school education within the developed Western world? If our children stand to inherit our environmental, social, and economic problems, it is our responsibility to supply them with the tools to survive through such adversity. This paper examines the history of the concept of sustainable …

Arauco Y Sus Políticas De Rse En La Viii Región Del Bío Bío (Una Comparación Entre Sus Políticas Medio Ambientales Y La Situación Real), Jamie Warner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of my independent research project is to find out whether the written Corporate Social Responsibility environmental policies of Arauco Forests are actually enacted in the eight region (Bíobío). My hypothesis is that even though Arauco has implemented these policies, it does not have a sustainable model for its forest industry. Arauco continues to damage the land, water, and air in the Biobió region, which is in turn affecting the lives of the people that live in the region, the natural flora and fauna, and the workers. I have chosen to focus on the VIII region because it has …

A Reassessment Of Avian Assemblages Along The Lakes Corridor In The Atherton Tablelands, North Queensland, Shaina N. Stewart

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Forest fragmentation is the process by which large areas of continuous forest are replaced by foreign ecosystems that restrict native growth to isolated patches. Biota remaining within these fragmented environments often suffer consequences that stem from reduced forest area. Wildlife corridors—linear patches of habitat that connect remnant fragments—have frequently been proposed to alleviate fragmentation effects by facilitating biotic movement between forest patches. Initiated in 1998, the Lakes Corridor on the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland, Australia, connects the two formerly isolated sections of Crater Lakes National Park with the goal of promoting wildlife dispersal between them. This study monitored avian …

Storybooks: A Teaching Tool For Sustainability, Amanda Medress

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

If today’s children learn to make decisions with the environment in mind, tomorrow’s future will be cleaner, greener, and energy leaner. Storybooks, which are a creative and imaginative learning tool, can influence children to pursue sustainable lifestyles. Early education through literature can help green decisions be the default mode for the next generation.

This project has two components. The first is to produce research on the following question: what kind of storybook instills environmental regard and motivates sustainable behavior? The second is to produce a children’s adaptation of Greeniology, a green living guide by Tanya Ha, which utilizes the findings …

La Sucesión Primaria De La Vegetación Sobre Los Flujos Piroclásticos Del 2006 En El Volcán Tungurahua, Lauren Schaefer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A year and a half after the August 2006 eruption of the Tungurahua volcano, the vegetative growth on the pyroclastic flows is young and scarce. To determine the types of plants and the mechanisms which control the dynamics of vegetative recovery, two transects were made; one in the Cusúa gorge and the other in the Bascún gorge in which the type, quantity and ages of the plants were noted. A third transect of vegetation not directly affected by the 2006 flows was made near the Bascún gorge for comparison purposes. In the two main sites, a total of 47 species …

The Current State Of Populations Of Diadema Antillarum On Isla Colón In Bocas Del Toro, Panamá, 25 Years After Mass Mortality, Leah T. Ritz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In January 1983, the worst recorded die-off of any marine animal hit the Caribbean beginning near the mouth of the Panama Canal and eventually wiping out nearly 99% of one of the most important herbivores in coral reef communities, Diadema antillarum—the long-spined sea urchin or Diadema. No populations of Diadema in the Western Atlantic are known to have escaped the drastic population declines. The loss of Diadema throughout the Western Atlantic has had long-lasting impacts on the structure and composition of many types of communities including coral reefs, mangrove roots, sea grass beds, and sand flats. Though the mortality was …

Post-Fire Demography Of A Dry Eucalypt Forest In The Midlands, Tasmania: A Pilot Study, Christine Urbanowicz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

There have been many efforts to regenerate the threatened and declining dry eucalypt forests found within the Midlands of Tasmania. This pilot study was completed as part of a larger research project on eucalypt regeneration. Researchers need to know where recruits are most successful in order to appropriately place regeneration microsites. I have begun characterizing the baseline demography of a recently burnt remnant forest. I had two objectives: 1. to characterize the stand structure where recruits are successful, and 2. to describe where the recruits are within this structure. Data on location, size, and life history stage of trees were …

Atravesando La Amazonía: Carreteras, Desarrollo, & El Camino Del Desastre, Olivia De Lancie

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Road construction in the Amazon has greatly impacted its floral and faunal inhabitants. The opening of a new road in a previously isolated region exposes its populations to the economy for the first time, and to the possibility of enriching themselves through the extraction of their products. Unfortunately, this exchange of goods results in the aculturization of indigenous groups, and in the loss of their unique culture. The migration that the roads near indigenous communities encourages increases access to education and sources of work, but results in a nearly complete destruction of these communities’ social fiber. Economic and cultural exchanges …