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CICR Monday Seminar Series3:30 - 4:30 p.m. April 14, 2008 Public Understanding of Coastal Wetland Loss and Restoration in the U. S. Gulf of Mexico We conducted a self-administered mail survey of 4,111 residents of the Mississippi River Valley during spring 2006. Questionnaire items addressed awareness of problems associated with coastal erosion, general attitudes toward ecosystem restoration and coastal wetlands, and support for coastal wetland restoration. We received 1,441 (35.1%) total responses. Although a majority (71%) of respondents perceived coastal wetland loss to be a very important issue and a majority (68%) also viewed restoration coastal wetlands as very important, few (7%) were aware of the national education campaign designed to increase public awareness. As expected awareness of coastal erosion and restoration activities was higher among Louisiana residents, however awareness of educational programs was also low (17%). Support for greater returns of oil and gas royalties existed across residents from each of the 4 regions, with a significant majority (66% overall) favoring funding equal to other states. Public support was strong for lands created through restoration projects undertaken with public funds to become public lands. Results of this study indicate a public receptive towards receiving information regarding coastal wetland loss and supportive of restoration efforts, however such information is perceived to be lacking given the low awareness and understanding exhibited by respondents to this survey. April 7, 2008 A Geographer, an Anthropologist, and a Whole Mess of Data: How to Map Murkiness In this talk, we discuss some of the issues we face in trying to reconcile ethnographic data within the common data structures of traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These problems include: 1) creating base maps when the study site is in a political and cartographic frontier zone, 2) temporally analyzing data that is described in relative as opposed to discrete time periods, and 3) spatially representing a territory that is defined by a lack of boundaries, overlapping claims, and continuous fluctuations in movement. We also provide a review of GIS data structures and their relationship to ethnographic data collection and describe the role grounded theory plays in moving us forward. March 24, 2008 Making space for environmental problem-solving: Many of the most pressing environmental problems – e.g. climate change, water scarcity and pollution, habitat loss – cannot be effectively dealt with within traditional administrative structures and decision-making hierarchies. Across the policy landscape, new institutional spaces are being constituted according to spatial dimensions presumed to be more relevant for environmental management and decision-making. Delineating new spaces for environmental policy-making necessitates stakeholders working across political and disciplinary boundaries to agree on (or resist) new forms of shared identity, responsibility, and environmental citizenship. From 2005 to 2007, I observed and surveyed participants in a state-sponsored, multi-year public advisory process that resulted in the delineation of new spaces for environmental problem-solving in Georgia – specifically, a set of 11 water planning regions. In this presentation, I discuss the perspectives and preferences of surveyed participants, and examine implications for future multi-stakeholder deliberative processes designed to integrate ecological understanding and political decision-making. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation program in Human Social Dynamics, NSF Award 0433165.
February 18, 2008 Known as "Georgia's Little Grand Canyon," Providence Canyon State Park protects some striking canyon and badland formations that resulted from massive erosion allegedly produced by negligent cotton farming. Providence Canyon is, best I can tell, the biggest gully the South has ever produced, and while it is virtually unknown today, it was relatively famous back in the 1930s. During that decade, the locals tried to make it into a national park, insisting that it was a natural formation of unparalleled scenic beauty, while national soil conservationists and environmental reformers consistently invoked it as the poster-child of southern soil abuse, a potent visual symbol of human-induced environmental degradation. My talk will examine what it means to preserve as a park the results of an environmental disaster, how two groups could have interpreted the place in diametrically opposed ways, and how such a place might help us to rethink the larger history of conservation in the South and beyond. February 11, 2008 The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) embodies the complexity of central African political, social and economic uncertainty, which collectively have significant impacts on rural people and biodiversity. After decades of internal strife and civil war, there exist growing numbers of displaced Africans living deep in the Congo Basin. These forest communities subsist on a combination of bushmeat (e.g. primates, forest antelopes), slash-and-burn agriculture, and temporary employment with timber industry. When conducted unsustainably, these practices act as stressors on wildlife populations and the people that depend on those populations. Thoughtful landscape-level planning and resource management that attends to the needs of the local people is necessary in order to reduce the rainforest’s vulnerability to exploitation and fragmentation. These forests harbor the last remaining populations of bonobos (Pan paniscus), or pygmy chimpanzees, and many other species vulnerable to anthropogenic changes to the environment. Although not a primary species for subsistence consumption, bonobos are indeed eaten and can be sold for considerable profit as a delicacy in urban markets. It follows that improving the livelihoods for remote forest communities could enhance wildlife conservation efforts, and vice versa. In combination with micro-enterprises such as animal husbandry, sustainably harvested wildlife populations could contribute to the diet of forest residents, yet reduce the pressure of hunting on sensitive species including the bonobo. The Maringa-Lopori-Wamba is a landscape in DRC that is undergoing just this sort of collaborative conservation planning through initiatives like the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP). The challenge is to successfully incorporate the views of a multitude of stakeholders, including marginalized groups, while balancing opposing demands on natural resources.
February 4, 2008 The Deepest Cut: The Social and Ecological Impacts of the Use of Satellite Imagery in the Placement of a New Sea Mouth in Chilika Lake, Orissa, India
April 7, 2008 and Tommy Jordan, Associate Director April 14, 2008 |
