This thesis looks at how ecotourists can become aware of biocultural diversity (the intersection of biological and cultural diversity) and help contribute to sustainable development, which considers the needs of both present and future generations. The thesis will address the ecotourism industry and how people who travel with companies that cater to ecotourists can contribute to biocultural diversity and sustainable development. It will utilize a sustainable development framework and a critical theory approach for considering biological and cultural perspectives including human rights and social justice, the contribution of traditional knowledge, community involvement, and the effects of human impact and globalization. The primary audience of my research is people who travel the globe in search of the earth’s natural wonders. I highlight issues related to minimizing environmental impact, respecting local cultures, building environmental awareness, and providing direct financial benefits for conservation. My central research question is: How can travelers help to preserve the environment, be sensitive to local cultures, and contribute to a sustainable future? I ask: By understanding the distinct correlation between biological and cultural diversity, how can we utilize both traditional (and local) knowledge combined with scientific knowledge to help sustain and preserve our natural ecosystems? I conclude with findings that point to the need for shared community authority, management, and decision making; mutual benefits; recognition of the rights, values, norms, power structures, and dynamics of local populations; respect for belief systems as well as traditional and local ecological knowledge; and the importance of contextual adaptation.

Worsening climate change impacts, particularly in coastal areas, are forcing urban planners and designers to find new approaches to govern cities. Traditional government approaches are failing to equip cities with effective strategies on how to implement sustainable interventions such as green and blue infrastructure. Adaptive governance has emerged as a way of dealing with the inherent uncertainty and unpredictability of complex social-ecological systems. It is neither top-down nor bottom-up but involves innovative ways of solving problems with emphasis on collaborative decision-making. This research focuses specifically on how collaboration is undertaken in adaptive governance processes by examining The Soul of Nørrebro case study—an integrated urban design and climate adaptation project for Hans Tavsens Park and Korsgade in Copenhagen, Denmark. Through desk study and interviews, the study identifies which stakeholders are involved in collaborative decision-making processes and how stakeholders envision, implement, and contest collaborative decision-making in The Soul of Nørrebro green and blue infrastructure project. This research found that participation from a wide range of local stakeholders and citizens is an integral part of redesigning public space, as it helps create cohesive, just, and ecologically productive environments. However, trade-offs that result in political decisions that are desirable to some and not to others cannot be avoided in the end. While certain setbacks were unavoidable, others that were encountered could have perhaps been prevented through increased transdisciplinary and representative collaboration.

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Thừa Thiên Huế dispose d’une situation géographique stratégique, possédant des paysages somptueux, des villages artisanaux et d’une culture très riche avec deux patrimoines culturels mondiaux... Parmi les ressources naturelles potentielles de Hue, la lagune de Tam Giang - Cầu Hai (TG-CH), avec ses ressources précieuses, est une nouvelle destination touristique de cette province. À TG-CH, les activités touristiques sont apparues depuis 2010. Mais en réalité, le tourisme à la lagune de TG-CH ne montre pas vraiment qu’il est un outil efficace pour lutter contre la pauvreté pour la communauté lagunaire locale. Cette étude vise à un développement local durable en analysant plusieurs facteurs. Les analyses profondes sur les impacts touristiques, sur la participation communautaire dans le tourisme ont une relation directe avec la valeur perçue par la communauté locale sur le tourisme à TG-CH. Spécialement, une proposition initiale du « tourisme à la ville fantôme » dans la lagune de TG-CH montre une destination unique dans le monde entier que les responsables de Thừa Thiên Huế ne connaissent pas. Pour la première fois, la culture locale devient une clé importante pour comprendre, pour expliquer les pratiques des communautés locales. Cette recherche va être encore développée pour un développement local durable à TG-CH. / Thừa Thiên Huế inherites a strategic geographic position with many majestic landscapes, traditional villages and a diverse culture with two world cultural heritages. Among various potential natural resources of the place, Tam Giang – Cầu Hai Lagoon (TG-CH), with its precious resources, is an emerging tourist destination of the province. Althought tourism has established at TG-CH since 2010, it, in fact, has not shown as an effective tool for poverty alleviation. This research is aiming to a sustainable development of the area through analysing various factors. Analysises on the impacts of tourism and the involvement of local community in tourism have a very strong connection with the community perceived value in tourism. Specifically, a proposal for a model “tourism in the ghost town” at TG-CH would bring a unique aspect of a lost world which could not even be in the mind Thừa Thiên Huế authorities. For the first time, local culture becomes a significant key to understand and elaborate social changes. This research will continuously develop toward the sustainable development of TG-CH.

L’objet de cette thèse est d’analyser les déterminants de l’engagement sociétal des entreprises labellisées RSE, dans un contexte de pays émergent, en l’occurrence le Maroc. Sachant que la démarche de RSE ne connaît pas le même succès dans le monde pour plusieurs raisons liées aux spécificités économiques, culturelles et sociales de chaque pays, ce travail de recherche propose d’analyser empiriquement les bénéfices et freins perçus par les entreprises labellisées RSE de la Confédération Générale des Entreprises Marocaines (CGEM). En effet, face à un contexte marqué par des mutations profondes du nouvel environnement économique international, à savoir, la mondialisation économique et la globalisation financière et les modifications réglementaires et technologiques importantes, il est devenu nécessaire pour l’entreprise de s’inscrire dans des orientations stratégiques portant sur les perspectives du développement durable, et mettant en lumière l’engagement sociétal dans les pratiques managériales dont l’objectif principal est d’assurer sa pérennité. C’est ainsi qu’elle peut concilier préservation de l’environnement et équité sociale d’un coté et les impératifs financiers et économiques de l’autre. En se basant sur des thématiques relatives aux variables démographiques, degré de connaissance et posture managériale, actions menées et outils mobilisés, freins et réticences, et motivations et avantages en matière de RSE, nous mettons l’accent sur les bénéfices et inconvénients de cette démarche.Pour cela, deux parties ont été consacrées pour élucider les différentes questions posées. Après avoir présenté un panorama des approches théoriques et conceptuelles de l’engagement sociétal des entreprises dans la première partie, la deuxième sera consacrée au positionnement épistémologique et méthodologique, et à l’analyse des résultats de l’étude empirique. Les dits résultats permettent de répondre à notre interrogation : Quels sont les déterminants de l’engagement sociétal des entreprises marocaines labellisées RSE? / The Subject of this thesis is to analyze the determiners of the community involvement of a company (RSE) in an emerging country such as Morocco. The purpose of the present research is to analyze this relation empirically. In fact, the new international economic environment characterized by deep changes, particularly, economic and financial globalization as well as the important regulatory and technological modifications that are taking place nowadays tend to give the priority to other strategic orientations relating to the prospects of sustainable development, and clarifying the societal commitment in managerial practices. The main goal of any company is to ensure its sustainability to the benefit of its customers, its shareholders and its collaborators. A company can become a committed social actor and not simply content itself with being an economic agent generating wealth. It can also get involved and adhere to better positioning itself with regard to the sustainable development which requires the production and sale within the best economic conditions while keeping a good image, namely, its ethical behavior, and by guaranteeing that its products are socially humanly and ecologically correct. Thus it can reconcile the safeguarding of the environment, social equity and the financial and economic requirements. Therefore, two parts were devoted to elucidating the various questions raised in this respect: The first part presents a review of the theoretical and conceptual approaches of the social responsibility of a company and its overall Performance and the potential links between these two components. The second part is devoted to the epistemological and methodological positioning, to the presentation of the model and the research hypotheses, as well as the analysis of the results of the empirical study. The results make it possible to answer our question: What are the determiners of the community involvement of the certified Moroccan companies RSE?

This case study was unique in its focus on an environmental education curriculum for older adults. It followed from previous studies in exploring the instructional and research potential of metaphor and environmental orientation. Environmental orientations towards water were examined among a group of retirees before, during and after a workshop which incorporated instructional metaphor as a teaching strategy. The study demonstrated that, at least for some participants, the use of metaphor from a variety of orientations has the potential to increase participants’ appreciation of alternative ways of relating to the environment. Overall, the use of metaphor appears to have contributed positively to most participants’ understanding of water issues. As an educational tool instructional metaphor was useful in group discussion as a catalyst for conversation about how participants view, understand and relate to water. As a research technique metaphoric interviewing was useful to help draw out the accumulated knowledge and experiences of older adults.

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study is to evaluate the housing process of Witzenberg Local Municipality and determine the involvement of the community and their perception regarding the whole process. The researcher is using a qualitative method to obtain the views, perspectives and feelings of the participants. For the purpose of the study is data collection limited to the sample population of people on the waiting list and those already in possession of low-cost house of the seven townships in the Witzenberg Local Municipality to. The researcher made use of questionnaires and interviews to collect data to make a profound finding and recommendation. In Witzenberg, 41% of households earn less than R30000 per annum (Witzenberg Local Municipality 2012: Online) which indicate that the Witzenberg Local Municipality has a high need for subsidized housing. The waiting list for low-cost housing in the Witzenberg Local Municipality currently stands at 6278 of which 1478 are a blocked housing project and a backlog of 4800 houses. The inhabitants of the Municipality received low-cost housing 8 years ago (Witzenberg Local Municipality 2012: Online). Witzenberg Local Municipality does has a housing problem, which stems from finance, affordability, insufficient land to erect housing projects, overcrowding, and quality of housing, staff shortage, unemployment, uncontrolled farm evictions and community involvement (Witzenberg Local Municipality 2007a:Online). Low-cost housing is in demand to address the challenges. Farm evictions, influx into the Witzenberg Local Municipality and forming of informal dwellings and increasing of squatter camps hold a serious threat to build sustainable, quality low-cost housing in the Witzenberg Local Municipality and with limit staff is in-flux control very hard to manage. Although the homeowners of the Witzenberg Local Municipality are happy to have received houses, they expressed much concern about the poor construction work, overall quality of the materials used as well as the housing process adopted by the Witzenberg Local Municipality. / Public Administration / M. Admin.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an emerging viral zoonosis that causes frequent outbreaks in east Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula. The likelihood of RVF global expansion due to climate change and human anthropogenic factors is an important issue. The causative agent, RVF virus, is an arbovirus that is transmitted by several mosquito species and is able to infect a wide range of livestock as well as people. The infection leads to mass abortions and death in livestock and a potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever in humans. RVF has severe socio-economic consequences such as animal trade bans between countries, disruption of food security, and economic disaster for farmers and pastoralists as well as for countries. Human behavior such as direct contact with infected animals or their fluids and exposure to mosquito bites increases the risk for contracting the disease. To better understand the challenges associated with RVF outbreaks and to explore prevention and control strategies, we used the One Health approach. The local community had to be involved to understand the interaction between the environment, animals, and humans. We focused on Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya. First, we systematically reviewed the literature and then we performed cross sectional community-based studies using a special One Health questionnaire. Climatic and remote sensing data were used in combination with statistics to develop a sub-region predictive model for RVF. For both Saudi Arabia and Sudan, the ecology and environment of the affected areas were similar. These areas included irrigation canals and excessive rains that provide an attractive habitat for mosquito vectors to multiply. The surveillance systems were unable to detect the virus in livestock before it spread to humans. Ideally, livestock should serve as sentinels to prevent loss of human lives, but the situation here was reversed. Differences between countries regarding further spread of RVF was mainly determined by better economic and infrastructure resources. In Sudan, there was a lack of knowledge and appropriate practices at the studied community regarding RVF disease symptoms and risk factors for both animals and humans. The community was hesitant in notifying the authorities about RVF suspicion in livestock due to the lack of a compensation system. The perceived role of the community in controlling RVF was fragmented, increasing the probability of RVF transmission and disease. In Kenya, our study found that better knowledge about RVF does not always translate to more appropriate practices that avoid exposure to the disease. However, the combination of good knowledge, attitudes, and practices may explain why certain communities were less affected. Strategies to combat RVF should consider socio-cultural and behavioral differences among communities. We also noticed that RVF outbreaks in Kenya occurred in regions with high livestock density exposed to heavy rains and wet soil fluxes, which could be measured by evapotranspiration and vegetation seasonality variables. We developed a RVF risk map on a sub-regional scale. Future outbreaks could be better managed if such relevant RVF variables are integrated into early warning systems. To confront RVF outbreaks, a policy is needed that better incorporates ecological factors and human interactions with livestock and environment that help the RVF pathogen spread. Early detection and notification of RVF is essential because a delay will threaten the core of International Health Regulations (IHR), which emphasizes the share of information during a transboundary disease outbreak to avoid unnecessary geographical expansion.

<div>Service-learning is an organized volunteer activity in which learners serve the community while utilizing and enhancing their own skills, thus benefiting both the learners and the community. Studies have shown that students gain various benefits from participating in a service-learning activity, especially in their academic skills and civic growth through continued reflections (Eyler, Giles, & Braxton, 1997; Eyler & Giles, 1999; Billig, 2000; Grassi et al., 2004; Steinberg, Bringle, & Williams, 2010), often increasing their motivation to learn the related subject (Steinberg et al., 2010). Service-learning has been implemented in foreign language courses in the United States, especially Spanish (Barreneche & Ramos-Flores, 2013). However, service-learning literature on Japanese as a foreign language is limited.</div><div>The researcher founded a service-learning program in the Japanese language. In the program, the university students enrolled in intermediate- or higher-level Japanese courses help Japanese children with their schoolwork as volunteer tutors. The researcher conducted a qualitative case study on four of the student-tutors to examine the program's potential benefits to maintain and enhance the student-tutors' various motivations toward learning Japanese. The Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) (Clary, Snyder, & Ridge, 1998) was used as an analysis scheme, which reports six most commonly found functions, or varying motivations, for participating in a volunteer activity. The student-tutors indicated five out of the six VFI functions, showing a connection between their service-learning experience and their personal growth. They built strong connections with the Japanese community and kept their motivation to improve their Japanese skills to better help the children. It is hoped that the present research will contribute to providing an example of Japanese service-learning in the U.S.</div>

In recent decades tourism has asserted its importance as the biggest employer and foreign exchange earner in both the developing and developed countries. Consequently, there has been increasing attention to tourism development as a strategy to stimulate economic growth, local economic development and poverty alleviation, especially in the developing countries. This study was undertaken with the objective of determining the direct benefits of the growth in tourism to the local communities in the vicinity of protected areas in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province. The tourism sector is strategically located within the economic mainstream as it links easily with other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, hospitality, transport and entertainment. It has added advantages, including the fact that the tourist product is consumed at the destination. This offers local communities opportunities in job creation, skills development, economic empowerment and social development. The study found that meaningful involvement of local communities in the tourism industry through ownership of tourism-related enterprises was almost non-existent. There were no meaningful linkages between the industry and the local communities other than the communities' supply of unskilled labour. There were also no programmes aimed at harnessing the phenomenal growth in South Africa's tourism for the economic empowerment of local communities. The economic empowerment of local communities need not be achieved through the ownership of tourism-related enterprises only, but may also include shareholding, outsourcing, affirmative procurement and social responsibility programmes by the industry.The continued marginalisation of the local communities by the tourism industry was attributed to unsatisfactory progress with the industry's transformation. The launch of the Tourism Black Economic Empowerment Charter and Scorecard in 2005 provided impetus for the transformation of South Africa's tourism industry. However, more work still needs to be done in the identified areas of ownership and control of tourism-related businesses, distribution of tourism benefits and the development of tourism-related skills and entrepreneurial culture in local communities. The role of the private sector in stimulating community involvement in tourism is particularly important. The private sector is singled out because of government policy that tourism development would be regulated by government and be private-sector driven. Furthermore, the private sector has the capacity and the resources to mobilise, not only to improve the attractiveness and marketing of a destination and the overall management of the tourism industry, but also to build thriving local communities. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)