Environmental sustainability adoption

Double degree

Rapport à la nature et stratégies intégrées de conservation et développement : le cas de São Tomé et Principe

Depuis les années 90, les Projets Intégrés de Conservation et Développement ont été présentés comme des modèles fonctionnels de développement durable pour un site spécifique dans une perspective de réalisation. Le but est d’intégrer les objectifs biologiques de la conservation aux objectifs sociaux et économiques du développement. Ces projets, qui répondent à de multiples dénominations et stratégies, sont implantés dans des contextes naturellement hétérogènes et dynamiques, où l’aménagement du territoire ne doit pas être un outil de planification étatique, désigné et imposé dans une logique conservationniste. Les aires protégées représentent une certaine vision du rapport entre l’être humain et la nature, apparue dans le contexte nord-américain avec la création des premiers grands parcs nationaux en 1870. Aujourd'hui, la forte volonté d'impliquer la population se heurte avec la difficulté de concilier la gestion de ces espaces avec les pratiques, les nécessités et les intérêts locaux. Le parc naturel Obô, qui occupe 30% du territoire de São Tomé et Principe, doit affronter la difficile intégration entre les représentations de la nature et les usages locaux avec les objectifs globaux des politiques conservationnistes, ainsi qu’avec les intérêts touristiques et économiques des investisseurs locaux et étrangers. Les représentations sociales de la nature, établissant une forme de connaissance pratique, déterminent la vision du monde et la relation qu'un certain groupe social peut avoir avec le territoire. Ainsi, chaque communauté possède ses propres mécanismes d'adaptation au milieu basés sur ce système représentationnel. Dans le cas des communautés sãotoméennes, la nature présente un caractère spirituel (associé à des croyances, des rites et des pratiques médicales traditionnelles) et utilitaire (la nature, à travers l'agriculture, la récolte ou la chasse, répond au besoin de subsistance). L’objectif de ce projet de thèse est donc de mieux comprendre la synergie existante entre savoir endogène et gestion de la biodiversité pour adapter l’aménagement du territoire à la réalité des populations qui y vivent.

L'interaction entre les savoirs écologiques traditionnels et les changements climatiques : les Cris de la Baie-James, la bernache du Canada et le caribou des bois

Cette étude vise à identifier les effets des changements climatiques sur les activités de subsistance traditionnelles des chasseurs cris de la Baie-James. De nombreuses études se penchent sur les changements climatiques, mais relativement peu d’entre elles traitent de leurs effets socio-économiques et socioculturels sur les populations dans le Subarctique du Québec. Cette thèse explore les mécanismes d’intégration des connaissances scientifiques au savoir écologique traditionnel (SET) ; une intégration prônée par de nombreux chercheurs comme l’évolution souhaitable dans la recherche sur le SET et sur ses applications. L’étude de cette intégration se fait ici à l’aide d’une analyse des perceptions des chasseurs de l’Association des Trappeurs Cris concernant les effets des changements climatiques, avec l’accent sur les activités de subsistance traditionnelles en lien avec la bernache du Canada et le caribou des bois, deux espèces importantes culturellement. Une approche combinant l’aspect théorique de l’ethnoécologie et l’aspect pratique de l’étude de cas a été utilisée. Diverses sources de données ont été employées : l’analyse documentaire et cartographique, les questionnaires et les entrevues ouvertes et semi-dirigées. Cette recherche met en évidence des variations dans l’observation des changements climatiques et dans la perception de leurs effets par les chasseurs cris selon la localisation de leur communauté. Certains effets sont ressentis de la même façon par tous. Ainsi, les participants de toutes les communautés s’inquiètent des dangers liés à une fragilité accrue de la glace sur les lacs et les rivières. Cependant, ce sont surtout les membres des communautés côtières qui s’alarment du déplacement des bernaches vers l’intérieur du territoire. Ils sont aussi les seuls à ne pas percevoir de baisse du nombre de caribous des bois sur leurs lignes de trappe. Les effets des changements climatiques paraissent avoir un impact sur le mode de vie traditionnel cri en lien avec la bernache du Canada et le caribou des bois et affecter la transmission du savoir traditionnel vers les nouvelles générations quant au caribou des bois. Les résultats montrent aussi que la combinaison du SET et des données scientifiques permet de compléter le portrait de l’évolution du climat et des espèces (par ex. : variation du climat entre la côte et l’intérieur du territoire, apparition du cerf de Virginie et du coyote sur le territoire) et d’élaborer de nouvelles pistes de recherches et des hypothèses qui n’auraient pas été autrement identifiées (par ex. : causes d’un changement dans la structure de la gla ce, évolution des aires de répartition des sous-espèces de bernaches, impact des insectes suceurs-piqueurs sur la santé des caribous). Elle facilite également l’identification et la compréhension des enjeux et des processus d’adaptation qui ont lieu dans les communautés cries de la Baie-James (par ex. : diminution de la consommation du caribou, maintien de la consommation de la bernache, dangers accrus dans les déplacements liés à la fragilité de la glace ou à la difficulté à prévoir les schèmes climatiques). L’utilisation combinée du SET et du savoir scientifique permet de mieux appréhender les effets des changements climatiques et les dynamiques socioculturelles et environnementales complexes du territoire de la Baie-James.

The 'nature' of environmental education research from a feminist poststructuralist viewpoint

For a generation or more, environmental education discourses have been constructed around persistent Cartesian dualisms of modernist thought that divide an "othered" category of being from that of a constituted homogeneous human identity. During the same period, both feminist and poststructuralist theorizing has acted to destabilize the constitution of identities, revealing knowledge, including environmental knowledge, to be multiple, subjective, contingent, and intimately tied in with embodied experiences of place. We explore some of the contingencies of environmental knowledge as revealed through a poststructuralist feminist research methodology and the place for such understandings within an early twenty-first century vision for environmental education research and practice.

Critical reflections on professional education for the environment

Evidence exists to suggest that in Australia many environmental issues remain unresolved even though the community has apparently become more environmentally aware. Although universities have undertaken responsibility to educate future environmental professionals to address this concern, there are numerous tensions underpinning professional environmental education. This folio explores my perceptions of these tensions and their effect on my professional practice as an academic. I refer to this as the relationships among theories and practices experienced in my work. Four perspectives are taken in this research as I appraise professional environmental education. This Dissertation (Vol. 1) focuses on views informing my professional environmental education, inclusive of my own reflexivity. From interviews with students, academics, professionals and environmentalists, and other sources of information, I consider various tensions arising from what I regard as dehumanising social and political forces. The conventional elite and authoritative roles for universities and professionals dominate most participants' understanding of professional activities. Professional practices often endorse these conventions. Juxtaposed to this authoritative view of professional education, and prescribing a different interpretation for professional practice, is my theoretical position informed by criticality and a need to challenge the status quo. I suggest that Leopold's The Land Ethic is an exemplar of criticality and a suitable basis for examining professional environmental education. The Land Ethic is used as a foundation to my thesis because it encapsulates suitable arguments to examine ideologies supportive of my understanding of professional environmental education. My thesis investigates the nature of participants' (including my own) understanding of their land ethic or land ethics suggesting that interpretations of 'place' provide an emotional and ethical appreciation of the land. I suggest that 'place', as a culturally derived construct, is central to the concept of a land ethic or land ethics, and a characteristic of an environmental ethic or ethics. To incorporate these different perspectives into professional environmental education perhaps land could be viewed, not just as a 'client' as in Schön's (1983) reflective contract, but expanded so that professionals form ethical partnerships with the land, which implies a greater equity between roles and responsibilities. This perspective challenges elite interpretations of the roles for environmental professionals by asking them to be advocates for their land, and to work with the land. Searching for my own land ethic or land ethics has promoted a discourse that encompasses a language of possibility and opportunity. This language of possibility and opportunity stands in contrast to the constraining language of reproduction that has promoted stasis. My reflexivity, a holistic and ecological view that in this thesis is an expression of my searching for a land ethic or land ethics, has encouraged me to develop critical and ethical questions to challenge my professional environmental education practice. As such the process of theorising about my theory and practice has been personally transformative as it encourages my development as a 'critical person'. Elective 1 (Vol. 2 ) reviews public information promoting a selected range of Australian environmental courses. Analysis demonstrates environmental courses are mainly technocratic, promoting technical-scientific and vocational perspectives. This orientation, I consider, is aligned to an emerging corporate agenda as universities attempt to be more accountable to the government within a competitive market dominated by economic interests. Elective 2 (Vol. 2 ) considers the providers of professional environmental education where I explore a diversity of tensions undermining current academic life found in many Australian universities. I suggest that corporatisation and vocationalisation dominate university culture to such an extent that any examination of professional environmental education is prejudiced. Professional environmental education appears to be biased toward maintaining the status quo. My conclusion is that professional environmental education does not promote graduates as 'critical persons' (Barnett 1997), and this may affect graduates' understandings of the purpose and aspirations of environmental professionalism. I suggest that elite and technical understandings of professionalism may affect the professionals' ability to implement environmental policy. Australia has an admirable record of developing environmental policy. However, public concern about a lack of resolution for many environmental issues suggests that professionals may be struggling to successfully implement policy in any meaningful way. Such challenges for environmental professionals may be a result of a professional environmental education that does not engage graduates within ideas that professional practice may require community participation and collaboration as key themes. Elective 3 (Vol. 2) is a case study investigating the development of conservation policies by the Ballarat community. The case demonstrates how the dominant social paradigm informs community views about environmental issues emphasising a technical emphasis and hierarchical arrangements of power and authority between local government and the community. The community view appears to be that environmental action should be mainly individualistic and behaviourist, which I suggest may have resulted from a technical framework for environmental knowledge. The community view of environmental issues resonates with the dominant view promoted by professional environmental education in most universities. In conclusion, my thesis is a representation of my challenges to critically engage in possible relationships among theories, practices and circumstances in my workplace, with a view to addressing what I perceive as a 'gap' between my own theory and practice. The motivation for this critical examination is to question the purpose of my professional environmental education practice in relation to the challenges of my emergent environmental ideology. The difficulty of promoting my critical theorising in a traditional small science faculty, within a corporate university, with my scientific background, is acknowledged. Nevertheless, based on my own experiences, I recommend that academics involved in professional environmental education should be encouraged to explore relationships between their own theories and practices in their own professional settings. I suggest that the search for a land ethic or land ethics, and one's 'place' in the 'land', can be an effective platform for this process.

Environmental learning in adolescents from a Mexican community involved in forestry

Education can generate knowledge and foster a change in attitude provided that people feel individually and collectively responsible for the state of the environment. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro is an internationally recognised indigenous community located in western Mexico that manages its forest sustainably through a community-based forest enterprise. However, recent research has shown that both children and young people from the community show little interest in participating in forest activities or working in forest enterprise and have a poor standard of environmental knowledge. Our research project assessed the environmental learning process of 32 high-school pupils in three settings: at school at home and in a forest enterprise. The opinions of teachers and adults of teaching subjects which focus on communal forest management were collected using various methods (questionnaires, observation and interviews) and analysed. The results show that school and home alike are important places for learning. However, environmental issues were not much addressed in the schoolroom or in conversations between parents and children. Furthermore, no connection between the activities of the forest enterprise and the school curriculum was found.

Indigenous climate change adaption in the Port Philip Bay region : a longitudinal investigation into the physical and cultural transformation of the bay from an indigenous and landscape architectural perspective

Currently there is a dearth of research into Australian Indigenous knowledge and their understanding of climate change especially in regard to how it fits into their world view. Recent discussions by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research facility (NCCARF) have highlighted this deficiency but also the need to source relevant research projects that may address this knowledge and perspective, and enable the incorporation of Traditional ecological Knowledge into the planning climate change adaptions strategies in the Port Phillip Bay region thereby increasing their engagement in this discussion. Within this context, this paper examines the use and understanding of landscape, both urban and regional, surrounding Port Phillip Bay and the risks and opportunities climate change adaptation brings to the local Indigenous communities. It synthesises focused interviews with the (Wurundjeri (Yarra Valley), Wathaurong Geelong-Bellarine Peninsular) & Boon Wurrung (Mornington Peninsula)) to elicit a contemporary and local response to issues raised by NCCARF but importantly to articulate a possible Indigenous position about the formation, change and direction that Port Phillip Bay and its environs should take from their perspectives. Research draws upon how these communities have adapted to climate change physically, mentally and spiritually over their long habitation of a shared geological asset and their perceptions of climate change in respect to forecasting and adapting to climate change for this century. The project looks to uncover a longitudinal perspective of change and adaptation focused upon Indigenous views of ‘country’ and traditional custodial obligations to ‘country’ including accumulated cultural and environmental histories.

Words, oral libraries and environmental responses : an Australian indigenous perspective to climate change adaptation

Climate change adaptation and mitigation continues to be a prevalent discourse in this country and internationally in both the sciences and the arts. While various types and degrees of change are evident, the quantification of these changes including their scope and diversity have challenged conventional sciences. This is demonstrated in their inability to succinctly answer key questions about change including the degree of change and associated patterns and consequences. Most of this discourse is nested in a temporal band comprising the last 100-200 years of data and evidence, and very much informed by Western science perspectives and protocols. Little attempt has been made to engage with Australian Indigenous communities whom possess environmental knowledge of some 10,000-100,000 years albeit embedded in their artistic and oral narrative 'histories'. This paper explores the role and values that Australian Aboriginals, the Indigenous peoples of the Australian content, can offer in shedding new light on this discourse While focusing upon a cross-peri-urban Indigenous investigation, it examines this discourse though the lens of their words, terms, sentences as a vehicle to better understand a longitudinal perspective about climate change adaptation pertinent to Australia.

Indigenous landscape change and climate change : the historical transformation of the Port Phillip bay from an indigenous and landscape architectural perspective

Currently there is a dearth of research into Australian Indigenous knowledge and their understanding of climate change especially in regard to how it fits into an Indigenous world view. Recent discussions by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) have highlighted this deficiency and also the need to source projects that address this perspective, and enable the incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge into the planning of climate change adaption strategies. Within this context, this paper examines the use and understanding of landscape, both urban and regional, surrounding Port Phillip Bay and the risks and opportunities climate change adaptation brings to the local Indigenous communities. This paper comprises a literature review and proposes further research with the Wurundjeri (Yarra Valley), Wathaurong (Geelong-Bellarine Peninsula) & Boon Wurrung (Mornington Peninsula - Westerport - southern Melbourne) which aim to elicit a contemporary and local response to issues raised by NCCARF but importantly to articulate a possible Indigenous position about the formation, change and direction that Port Phillip Bay and its environs should take from their perspectives. The research looks to draw on how these communities have adapted to climate change physically, mentally and spiritually over their long habitation of the region and their perceptions of climate change this century. The project looks to uncover a longitudinal perspective of adaptation focused upon Indigenous views of 'country' and custodial obligations to 'country' including accumulated cultural and environmental histories, and how this can inform the contemporary practice of landscape architecture and the design of resilient and sustainable human environments.

Gestão ambiental na agricultura: um estudo sobre fatores associados à conscientização ambiental em estudantes de uma escola agrotécnica

This study deals with environmental issues on agriculture. In this context, the aim of this study is investigate factors able to influence the environmental conscientization of students of a agricultural technicals school about the aspects and environmental impacts related to the agricultural productive process. Besides, the used methodology on this work was to the application of a questionnaire based in Likert-kind scale with closed questions, they are constituted of variables which consisted of groups denominated perception, attitude, communitarian sense, commitment, sel-consciousness, knowledge and student profile. Like data analysis way was used descriptive analysis and chi-square to check the association significance between the perception variable with the variable ones of cited groups. The results obtained show that the environmental knowledge variable was one of the that showed high significance when it associated to the variables of perception group. The students with environmental knowledge showed high consideration that the production activities on agriculture cause large adverse impacts on environment. After the identification of some factors of environmental conscientization are shown recommendations which school must prepare techniques in aware high school of agricultural sciences with the environmental problems which be able to apply sustainable technologies on agriculture instead of traditional ones through the benefit of environment

Comunidades sustentáveis: um estudo de percepção, interpretação e valoração da paisagem mediante o conhecimento tradicional

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE

Sustainable Environments and Pro-Environmental Behavior

This thesis examines the ability of the sustainably designed building to alter occupant behaviors using LEED for New Construction and Major Renovation, Green Building Rating System™ as a standard of measure. A cross sectional survey compares the pro-environmental behaviors, intentions, environmental knowledge, and pro-environmental orientation of occupants working in a traditionally designed building and occupants working in a LEED-NC certified building located on the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Campus. While there is a visible increase in the pro-environmental variables for occupants working in the sustainable environment, data analysis indicates that these differences are not statistically significant for any of the measured variables. Significant correlations were discovered between an individual's environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behaviors as well as between an individual's pro-environmental orientation and pro-environmental intentions. These correlations support past findings of multiple research studies completed in the field of environmental psychology. Due to limitations of this research these findings must be clarified through continued study in the area of behavior influencing design.

A resource management scenario for traditional and scientific management of pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus paulensis) in the Patos Lagoon estuary (RS), Brazil

Abstract Background This article aims to discuss the incorporation of traditional time in the construction of a management scenario for pink shrimp in the Patos Lagoon estuary (RS), Brazil. To meet this objective, two procedures have been adopted; one at a conceptual level and another at a methodological level. At the conceptual level, the concept of traditional time as a form of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) was adopted. Method At the methodological level, we conduct a wide literature review of the scientific knowledge (SK) that guides recommendations for pink shrimp management by restricting the fishing season in the Patos Lagoon estuary; in addition, we review the ethno-scientific literature which describes traditional calendars as a management base for artisanal fishers in the Patos Lagoon estuary. Results Results demonstrate that TEK and SK describe similar estuarine biological processes, but are incommensurable at a resource management level. On the other hand, the construction of a “management scenario” for pink shrimp is possible through the development of “criteria for hierarchies of validity” which arise from a productive dialog between SK and TEK. Conclusions The commensurable and the incommensurable levels reveal different basis of time-space perceptions between traditional ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge. Despite incommensurability at the management level, it is possible to establish guidelines for the construction of “management scenarios” and to support a co-management process.

Linking local knowledge, conservation practices and ecosystem diversity: comparing two communities in the Tunari National Park (Bolivia)

Combined approaches to conserve both biological and cultural diversity are seen as an alternative to classical nature conservation instruments. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of urbanization coupled with exclusive conservation measures, on land use, local knowledge and biodiversity in two Quechua speaking communities of Bolivia located within the Tunari National Park. We assessed and compared the links between land use, its transformation through conservation practices, local institutions and the worldviews of both communities and the implications they have for biodiversity at the level of ecosystems. Our results show that in both communities, people’s worldviews and environmental knowledge are linked with an integral and diversified use of their territory. However, the community most affected by urbanization and protected area regulations has intensified agriculture in a small area and has abandoned the use of large areas. This was accompanied by a loss of local environmental knowledge and a decrease in the diversity of ecosystems. The second community, where the park was not enforced, continues to manage their territory as a material expression of local environmental knowledge, while adopting community-based conservation measures with external support. Our findings highlight a case in which urbanization coupled with exclusive conservation approaches affects the components of both cultural and biological diversity. Actions that aim to enhance biocultural diversity in this context should therefore address the impact of factors identified as responsible for change in integrated social-ecological systems.