This research explores influences affecting livelihood decision-making of community members in rural Tanzania, especially the relationship between the decision-making process and conservation related actions and behaviours. The Theory of Planned Behaviour provides a framework to investigate such linkages. The selection of three villages within a study area which includes a formal conservation mechanism, Saadani National Park, provides a context for conservation policy, documented impacts on typical resource based rural livelihood activities and opportunities for livelihood diversification. The research documents the range of contextual and internal influences and their importance to people through reflection on both recent and potential future livelihood decisions. This research study employs a phenomenological qualitative research approach applied to a case study. Key informant interviews were conducted with two community leaders from each village, twelve senior tourism industry representatives from the three major local lodge operations and two representatives from the national park senior management team. Focus group discussions were also held in each village with a total of 82 participants. The groups were segregated by gender and age. Semi-structured interviews were held with thirty household representatives in each of the three study villages. Field data were supplemented with document analysis of materials related to local and regional community development and conservation initiatives. Results showed that in this resource based livelihood context, attitudes and perceived behavioural control emerged as the dominant influences on intended behaviour in part due to the importance of past experience on livelihood decisions. Participants expressed a lack of perceived behavioural control resulting from few livelihood options and changes in the environment resulting from external forces. Such perceptions of control, reinforced by past experience, led to attitudes that tended to be pessimistic or fatalistic. Secondary influences were a range of social norms including livelihood activities as hereditary occupations, notions of individual versus collective approaches to livelihood endeavours, and impacts of, and adaptations to, cultural and social change. Conservation had little direct influence on livelihood decision-making. The dominant attitude was one seeking to maximize returns from resource harvesting reflecting a priority on short-term necessity rather than long term sustainability. Relative to other external influences, people generally did not feel that their own use of resources played a significant role in the capacity of the resource to yield livelihood benefits. However, people did recognize environmental change and adapted their livelihood activities to maintain or maximize benefits. Such adaptations provide the basis for improving conservation behaviour through greater understanding and broadening livelihood options. Livelihood decision-making was also found to be highly constrained by the nature and scale of the local village economies. Scale restricts potential growth and limitations on land, and resources constrain outside private sector investment thus limiting expansion of wage employment. Significant influences from cultural and social norms were also found, especially with respect to the pursuit of hereditary occupations, the preference for individual versus cooperative enterprises and adaptations reflective of societal change. Information systems and flow were found to be relatively insignificant in the livelihood decision-making process of local villagers. / Graduate / 0366 / 0700 / 0768

Global, national and local institutions are adopting coastal management strategies that attempt to facilitate conservation without undermining socioeconomic development. Recently, two global conservation trends have developed that attempt to address prevailing issues of poverty and environmental degradation – community-based conservation and conservation networks. Using a political ecology lens, I examine the intersection of these trends in the local context of Pemba Island. Through fieldwork, textual analysis and literature reviews, I investigate how a community-based conservation association has been impacted by the establishment of a marine conservation network. In theory, community-based conservation and marine conservation networks offer solutions to the failures of fortress conservation and sectoral management. In practice, this case study demonstrates that these lofty objectives are difficult to achieve. These findings contribute to emerging research into the social dynamics of scaling up marine conservation areas and suggest that the success of marine conservation networks hinges on meaningful community participation.

I examined the dynamics of an endangered population of northern bottlenose whales over a 23-year period during which its prime habitat, the Gully canyon, was made a Marine Protected Area (MPA). Using mark-recapture techniques on photo-identifications I estimate a current population of 116 animals (95% CI=101-130). The population size and sex-ratio have remained stable since before the MPA designation suggesting this population is persisting. I used photo-identifications and high definition videography to examine the social organization of northern bottlenose whales, including behavioural synchrony. Relationships are highly variable; most associations are short-lived, but there are also long-term preferred associations lasting from several years (female/immature dyads) to over a decade (mature male dyads). I found little, if any, division of the social community. Synchronized breathing is common, precise, and appears to vary with behaivoural context. Although speculative, synchronized breathing might play a role the maintenance of general social relationships within this population.

The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the contribution of protected areas (PAs) to the attainment of both conservation and social outcomes including poverty reduction within the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem in Tanzania. The research focused on the role of governance as a factor influencing the attainment of these goals. This research was carried out in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Meatu districts of Tanzania in 2012. Two villages were selected from each district using stratified sampling techniques to obtain villages bordering many PAs including the core PA (i.e. Serengeti National Park). A mixed methods approach was used in this research which comprised of quantitative interviews with 389 households, key informants interviews with 88 stakeholders, 12 focus group discussion and document analysis. The study used a quantitative questionnaire to measure the effectiveness of governance as perceived at the household level. The questionnaire yielded 10 governance factors that accounted for 85% percent of the explained variance using factor analysis. The findings indicated weak governance particularly for Ikorongo-Grumeti Game Reserve. When examined across the ecosystem, weak linkages were evident between the PA actors and other actors such particularly at local community level. There was no difference in governance scoring between community-based PAs and the more traditional top-down government owned PAs. Furthermore, local communities were not adequately represented in PA governance despite being important actors. Findings indicated mixed results in terms of conservation and social outcomes. Results indicate implied relationship between mixed outcomes and weak governance with weak outcomes thought to be related to weak governance. This study recommends adaptations in the Serengeti ecosystem particularly the re-engineering of the ecosystem governance structure to bring on-board more actors in decision-making and management processes and actions through increased linkages between governance actors, governance structures and processes. / Graduate / 0366 / 0768 / 0478 / akisingo@mwekawildlife.org

As land-use change threatens wildlife viability, the understanding of how animals move through spatially fragmented landscapes has important implications for the long-term persistence and management of species. This research compares moose movement and space-use patterns between Algonquin Provincial Park (20 moose) and Wildlife Management Unit 49 (17 moose) in southern Ontario from 2006 to 2008. Moose were found to be using areas in the home range that are not normally used more often in the park relative to the management unit, and that there are signs, although not significant, that the use of land covers between the two locations may be diverging. These differences are likely driven by the differences in predator and road densities between the two locations. I interpret these findings to suggest that Algonquin Provincial Park is protecting moose from the impacts of roads, but that moose can survive in the road-fragmented landscapes if there is enough habitat available.

As land-use change threatens wildlife viability, the understanding of how animals move through spatially fragmented landscapes has important implications for the long-term persistence and management of species. This research compares moose movement and space-use patterns between Algonquin Provincial Park (20 moose) and Wildlife Management Unit 49 (17 moose) in southern Ontario from 2006 to 2008. Moose were found to be using areas in the home range that are not normally used more often in the park relative to the management unit, and that there are signs, although not significant, that the use of land covers between the two locations may be diverging. These differences are likely driven by the differences in predator and road densities between the two locations. I interpret these findings to suggest that Algonquin Provincial Park is protecting moose from the impacts of roads, but that moose can survive in the road-fragmented landscapes if there is enough habitat available.

Protected areas are considered to be the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation strategies and are valued sources of human well-being and ecosystem services. Yet they are not immune to the unprecedented impacts being felt worldwide. As an example, increased human activity, including development, transport of invasive species, and contributions to climate change, are transforming protected areas within the Laurentian Great Lakes into new and novel ecosystems. It is in this context of uncertainty that I explored the practice of managing for resilience. Canada’s first national marine conservation area, Fathom Five National Marine Park in Lake Huron, functioned as the study area. Besides profound and complex ecosystem change, Fathom Five is also experiencing governance challenges in the form of tangled responsibilities and issues of legitimacy. The resilience-based approach recommended elements that strengthened the capacity of the park to cope with and recover from disturbance and maintain its defining structures, functions, and feedbacks. This included a reduction of vulnerabilities (e.g., limit exposure to coastal fragmentation, manage disturbance regimes, and maintain functional and response diversity), an increase in adaptability (e.g., need to foster social learning, innovation, and improved governance structures), and an ability to navigate change (e.g., better express desired state, identify thresholds, and influence transformations), within established management practices. More specifically, methods to make spatial planning and monitoring more operational and resilience-based, were developed. For spatial planning, the decision-support tool Marxan with Zones was utilized and demonstrated how themes of representivity, replication, and connectivity could be applied in a resilience-based zoning context. For monitoring, a multivariate distance-based control chart method was developed to detect a decrease in resilience of the parks coastal wetland fish communities. Although an increase in variability was observed, a regime shift was not reported during the years investigated (2005-2012). In summary, the thesis provided an original contribution to science by examining the uncertainties and complexities facing a freshwater protected area and reframing practical conservation solutions through a resilience lens.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-03-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:31:34Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 alberto_pg_me_rcla.pdf: 3462549 bytes, checksum: 45abdc4944828724d3bf224f31fd9e1b (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Atualmente a questão ambiental revela-se como grande preocupação de diferentes instituições, como empresas, Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs) e escolas. No entanto, existem poucos dados e pesquisas sobre como tem sido desenvolvido o trabalho com Educação Ambiental na Educação Infantil, apesar de muitos professores afirmarem realizar atividades consideradas por eles como sendo de EA. Os Referenciais Curriculares Nacionais (RCNEIs) não apresentam os princípios, metas e objetivos da EA, a temática ambiental dificilmente está presente na formação dos professores da EI, além dos cursos de formação continuada serem destinados principalmente aos professores de outros níveis da Educação. Além desta pesquisa investigar a EA na EI, também mostra-se pertinente pelo fato de tal investigação ocorrer na Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) de Campinas SP, de importância significativa para a região. Diante destes fatores, esta pesquisa tem como objetivos: identificar as concepções de EA dos professores de Educação Infantil da APA de Campinas no processo de desenvolvimento de atividades consideradas como de EA; identificar as concepções de APA destes professores e que significados atribuem ao desenvolvimento de atividades consideradas como sendo de EA dentro desta área; identificar as características que estão presentes nas atividades de EA desenvolvidas por estes professores no que se refere aos objetivos, à temática, aos conteúdos, aos procedimentos pedagógicos, aos recursos didáticos, e à avaliação; caracterizar os aspectos que os professores destacam dentro da relação entre a EA e a EI, identificar se há aspectos positivos e dificuldades dentro desta relação, e caso haja, caracterizá-los. A análise foi realizada a partir dos dados coletados nas entrevistas, nas observações e nos documentos. Constatamos que as professoras de EI da APA... / In the present, the environmental issue revealed as an important concern of different institutions, as companies, Non-Governamental Organizations and schools. However, there is few information and researches about how Environmental Education has been developed in childhood education, despite many teachers affirm that they realize activities considered as an EE activity by them. The Nacional Reference Curricular does not present the EE's elements, goals and purposes. The environmental theme is hardly present in the preschool education teachers's formation, besides the continuated formation courses of studies are designated especially to teachers of other education's levels. Besides this research investigates EE in preschool, it also is pertinent by the fact of such investigation happens in the Ambiental Protected Area of Campinas-SP, that has significantly importance to the region. Before these factors, this research aims: identify the EE conceptions of preschool teachers in the development process of activities considerated as EE; identify the teacher's concept of APA, and what meanings do they attribute to the development of activities considerated as being of EE in this area; identify the characteristics present in the EE actives developed by these teachers referring to its aims, to the theme, to the contents, pedagogic proceeding, didactic resources and the valuation; characterize the aspects that the teachers accentuate in EE and relationship EE-Preschool Education; identify if there are positive aspects and difficulties in this relationship, and if it has, identify the characteristics. The analysis was done by the informations collected in the interviews, by the observations and by documents. We found out that in relation to EE concept, the teachers are emphatic in relation to individual and comportamental action... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Coral reefs and the ecological, social, and economic benefits that they provide are seriously endangered by a colossal number of threats. This study was conducted in marine protected area (MPA) in the Mexican Caribbean. The purpose of this study was to provide results that can be directly applied by MPA managers to improve coral reef conservation and management. Characterization of four coral reef sites and stressors described in a proxy map were integrated into a comparative resilience assessment. Sites ranged from 16.5% to 3.5% coral cover and 47.5% to 12% macroalgal cover. Stressor distribution and intensity was highest near the Puerto Morelos town center and followed general water current patterns. Fishing, tourism, and pollution were identified as major stressors on which management can positively influence. The results of this study provide managers throughout the Caribbean a managerial tool chest to improve management efficacy and bolster conservation initiatives.

In 2010, Thailand’s Andaman Sea experienced unprecedented mass coral bleaching. Between 50% to 90% of corals suffered bleaching along the Andaman coast both inside and outside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This dissertation examines the implications of climate change for these coral reef ecosystems in MPAs. The study explores the potential and effectiveness of conservation management strategies using MPAs and resilience building to address this global challenge in the context of Thailand. This dissertation examines how resilience-based management can be enhanced in Thailand’s MPAs on the Andaman coast in the face of climate change. In particular, the research: 1) Identifies resilient reefs in the Andaman bioregion, 2) Assesses coral reef resilience in a specific MPA to identify management interventions, 3) Examines current MPA coverage and suggests strategies to improve coverage, and 4) Illustrates the potential of social media to enhance coral reef resilience in Thailand. The study employs a mixed methods approach consisting of literature review, a review of available secondary data, workshops, field surveys and social media data tracking. Twenty-two resilience indicators were selected and used to assess reefs at 62 survey stations across the eastern Andaman bioregion. A review of existing Andaman MPA coverage, spacing and design was conducted to determine the gaps and opportunities for expanding the MPA network. A science communication campaign focused on the importance of parrotfish in saving coral reefs using online social media was launched and monitored. The study sites were classified into high (28), moderate (23) and low (11) resilience based on resilience scores. The results provide the first comprehensive resilience assessment of coral reefs in the Andaman sea. The identified resilient reef areas serve as cornerstones in developing a more resilient MPA network and provide a conservation-based platform for long-term marine spatial planning in the eastern Andaman region. Resilience scores for Mu Ko Surin National Park were analyzed in more detail to provide an example of the process for undertaking a finer scaled analysis with a localized weighting system. Management interventions were developed accordingly including strict protection areas and recovery zone designations aiming to improve coral resilience. Expanding MPA coverage and developing MPA networks is an urgent priority for Thailand to reach the CBD target of at least 10% of marine and coastal habitat protected by 2020. This study suggests three important areas for consideration: 1) Expanding MPAs by prioritizing resilient areas and incorporating other types of conservation areas; 2) A ‘bottom-up’ approach that incorporates adaptive and flexible governance; and 3) Implement biological corridors to address key shortcomings of current MPAs. The findings from the parrotfish campaign highlighted the importance of science communication and the usefulness of social networks for conservation. The campaign demonstrated that social media, when used properly and effectively, is powerful for public engagement and helps create an enabling environment for change in public policy and practice for marine conservation. This dissertation offers insights into opportunities to improve the management of large tropical marine ecosystem and how coral reef resilience can be enhanced by developing MPA networks in the face of climate change. / Graduate