published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

The New Nature Conservation Policy was released by The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau (ETWB) (now the Environment Bureau) of the Hong Kong government has set a new direction with an aim to conserve ecologically important sites under private ownership. It is proposed to achieve it by through the Management Agreement (MA) scheme and the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) scheme. The MA projects in prioritized sites were first launched in 2005. Over the past seven years, the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) had been granting funding to Conservancy Assoication (CA), Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) and Tai Po Environmental Association (TPEA) for the long-term management and conservation of the Long Valley and Ho Sheung Heung areas, Fung Yuen and Fishpond in Ramsar Site and Deep Bay Wetland outside Ramsar Site. The study aims at evaluating the policy of Management Agreement, examining the progress of implementation, scheme effectiveness, merits and inadequacies, and giving suggestions for improvement. Examination on the progress of the MA projects shown that they were well implemented since their implementation and the effectiveness were high in terms of increased ecological value (both habitat and species value), expected gain and merits involving social and educational factors were also added. Case studies of Long Valley and Fung Yuen projects revealed major concerns on the requirement of sustainable financial support and a long term plan on the priority sites by the government, future threats including unpredictable impact from nearby development, illegal activities and human disturbance, etc. It is conclude that though Management Agreement may be effective tools yet not sustainable for sites in prioritized sites, extended MA sites and future possible sites requiring active management on ecological conservation. A more comprehensive conservation plan should be established to pave sustainable development way in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

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Biophilia, the human-nature connection, stems from the evolution of humans and our affiliation with natural environments. This need for nature has been proven essential to our health and wellness. Younger generations, especially, have distanced themselves from the natural environment, as they are subjected to conventional forms of architecture. Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada provides the opportunity to inhabit nature through a 2.7 hectare lawn and forest. By working with the environment and weaving activity through nature, this thesis strives to facilitate interaction in a positive way, through principles of Restorative Environmental Design. As a gateway to the forest, this thesis proposes a learning centre, connected by a network of study pods within the forest canopy. These insertions of activity wind themselves through the forest, creating a series of events to experience nature.

This thesis aims to show that Martin Heidegger’s notion of fundamental ontology can serve as the foundation for a new approach to environmental ethics. The thesis begins with a brief introduction to the traditional approaches of environmental thought and a description of how Heidegger’s interpretation of human existence as Dasein provides a new perspective from which to approach questions of the fitting relation between human beings and the nonhuman world. While traditional environmental thought approaches nature primarily as the object of modern science and technology, Heidegger’s thought allows nature to become meaningful for human beings as an important part of their everyday lives. The first chapter begins with an examination of the wilderness and environmental justice debates and argues that Anglo-American environmental thought has yet to understand and define the natural environment in a way that encompasses the needs of both human and nonhuman life. Heidegger’s existential analytic of Dasein describes human existence in a way that demonstrates its interconnectedness with the nonhuman world and can be used to rethink the fitting place of human existence within the natural environment. The second chapter demonstrates that Heidegger’s critique of the metaphysical foundations of modern science and technology clears the way for a renewed understanding of the interconnectedness of human and nonhuman life. Heidegger’s critique demonstrates that an authentic understanding of human existence necessarily entails a new approach to interpreting being. The final chapter of the thesis analyses Heidegger’s retrieval of the early Greek understanding of being as phusis together with Heidegger’s notion of poetic dwelling in order to provide a new perspective for interpreting the scope of a fitting relation between human beings and natural environment. Heidegger’s thought demonstrates that the natural environment must be understood as an essential condition of human existence and can thereby allow human beings to interpret the nonhuman world in a way that would encompass the needs of both human and nonhuman life.

Beginning with an overview of the appropriation of Heidegger’s thought to environmental philosophy, I proceed to identify two themes as holding a prominent place within the current literature: Heidegger’s conception of primordial nature or physis as well as the notion of “poetic dwelling”. Drawing on both of these themes, I argue that a prominent implication of Heidegger’s thought for environmental philosophy concerns the conservation of the natural world’s “natural otherness”—its differences from and indifference to humanity. However, within the current discussion concerning the conservation of nature’s otherness little is said concerning nature itself. The question arises as to whether or not non-human natural beings compel us to protect and conserve their differences. How does nature “call” us to protect its otherness? Following this, Chapter Two seeks to establish the relevance of Heidegger’s theory of moods for answering the question at hand. In particular, I illustrate the potential of moods by comparing the occurrence of an “equipmental breakdown” with the mood of “anxiety” (Angst). While the former experience exposes Dasein to nature’s “ownness”—its Being outside of the worldhood—its potential insight is easily re-subsumed into the world of work and projects. In contrast, the experience of anxiety avoids such a shortcoming while simultaneously disclosing Dasein as responsible for what it makes of its existence. These features, or so I argue, demonstrate the relevance of moods in answering the question of this project. Having established the relevance of moods I return, in Chapter Three, to the question posed at the outset of this thesis. Specifically, I investigate the nature of nature’s call by exploring the phenomenology of “profound boredom” as Heidegger presents it in The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude. Significantly, profound boredom discloses nature in a distinctly primordial manner, while simultaneously revealing Dasein to be responsible for its own there-being. In light of this disclosure, I argue that within the experience of profound boredom primordial nature can be interpreted as calling Dasein towards responsibility, not by demand or challenge, but through its ambiguous indifference towards Dasein and its choices. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-27 17:11:17.45

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Our Human connection to the Earth and its living species has become withdrawn from our daily lifestyles and has been taken for granted over the passing years with ever-increasing technological advancements. This so-called technological advancement has provided conveniences, which have pulled people indoors and drawn them to the computer resulting in an unhealthy lifestyle. Christopher Brandlin (2011) discussed the variety of ways human health has been affected by technology. A few of the effects noted by Brandlin were obesity, lack of Vitamin D, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Through activity, outdoor interaction, and the development of an understanding of our critical relationship to other living species, physical and psychological health can be improved. Many of today’s youth have lacked a physically active and outdoor interactive lifestyle due to the technological gadgets they have at their fingertips. A Growing and Connected Future: Exposing Youth to Nature Through Education is a design practicum that poses the following question: Using an open space network, how can the community, specifically High School youth, be integrated into a healthy lifestyle, and enrich Dryden High School’s outdoor programs? To address this question, this document has included an overview of the Biophilia Hypothesis and the health benefits that arise from the practice of this concept. Learning styles have been broken down to specific gender needs that influenced aspects of the proposed design. Dryden High School’s outdoor programs have been addressed and proposals were made to expand this area of the curriculum. Lastly, examples of successful active transportation routes were examined and incorporated into Dryden’s existing trail system. The addressed information influenced design decisions that will increase exposure to the outdoors through activity and knowledge resulting in Biophilia values that increase physical and psychological health.

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The Commonwealth of Dominica has acquired a reputation as the nature island of the Caribbean. This thesis sets out to explore how Dominicans perceive and relate to nature in their nature island. It considers these perceptions and relationships as consisting not only of people’s cognitive and intellectual constructions of nature, but as also comprising their practices in and embodied engagements with the natural world. A key premise underlying this work is that people’s ideas about and relationships to nature go beyond the discursive: they arise in and from historical, geographical and social contexts, but also emerge through particular personal encounters and experiences. So, for example, tourism and conservation are two prominent means by which Western constructs and discourse of nature are brought to bear in Dominica in the present day, but they also provide opportunities for engagement with the natural world and for the cultivation and expression of experiential knowledge. The focus on engagement and experience is consonant with Dominicans’ thoughts about what it means to know and understand nature, in which considerable emphasis is placed on practical knowledge and knowledge by acquaintance. Further investigation of ideas of nature, through the use of selected collateral concepts, shows how Dominicans think about nature and certain relationships with nature as being an integral part of “what Dominica is about”. Correspondingly, Dominica can be seen as providing the context and framework for their notions of what nature is about. The findings of this sort of place-based empirical investigation can be useful to the formulation of nature-related policies, in that such policies are more likely to have practical purchase if they are seen to be germane to local ideas of and relationships to nature. Research of this kind can also provide new answers to the interesting philosophical question: what is nature?