Potential for cascading impacts of environmental change and policy on indigenous culture

Global environmental and societal changes threaten the cultures of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC). Despite the importance of IPLC worldviews and knowledge to sustaining human well-being and biodiversity, risks to these cultural resources are commonly neglected in environmental governance, in part because impacts can be indirect and therefore difficult to evaluate. Here, we investigate the connectivity of values associated with the relationship Ngātiwai (a New Zealand Māori tribe) have with their environment. We show that mapping the architecture of values-environment relationships enables assessment of how deep into culture the impacts of environmental change or policy can cascade. Our results detail how loss of access to key environmental elements could potentially have extensive direct and cascading impacts on the cultural values of Ngātiwai, including environmental responsibilities. Thus, considering only direct effects of environmental change or policy on cultural resources, or treating IPLC social-ecological relations simplistically, can severely underestimate threats to cultures.

Moralistic Gods and Social Complexity: A Brief History of the Problem

A cluster of persistent and contentious questions in the scientific study of religion concern when and why so-called “moralistic traditions” developed and how they have shaped human relationships. Is there an association between moralistic gods and the size and/or complexity of the society that might worship them? How cross-culturally ubiquitous are such traditions? Are people more willing to engage in cooperative behavior when they believe their god cares about morality? This chapter focuses on how these questions have arisen and how generations of researchers have struggled to address them. We first briefly examine the intellectual history of the problem, pointing to some of the troubling aspects of early observations of traditional societies and subsequent anthropological positions. We then address how early observations of small-scale peoples have populated cross-cultural resources that have informed and driven contemporary empirical projects. We finish by pointing to ways in which we might go about ensuring that the conversation continues with clarity and consistency.

Climate change trends and impacts at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site: Focused condition assessment report

This assessment synthesizes information about current and projected climate and related impacts at Martin Van Buren National Historic Park (MAVA) in order to help park stewards understand, plan, and manage for climate change. Working with a group of park managers, scientists, and local stake-holders, six key park resources were identified for assessment herein: Climate, Water quantity, Phenology, Agriculture, Trees, and Cultural resources. Where data was available, this analysis assessed current condition and considered mid-century (2030–2060) and end-of-century (2100) impacts based on a range of projected future climate conditions, including reduced, low, high and highest emission pathways. Climate change stressors identified for MAVA include: Increased temperature, increased hot days, increased precipitation, increased extreme precipitation events, increased flooding and erosion, shifting ranges of both native species and pest, pathogen and weed species, and phenological shifts and mismatches.

Local Perspectives of Sustainable Urbanism

The protective actions of rehabilitation, especially when they affect urban spaces formally declared as areas of rehabilitation, must have an urban reflection and be projected and reflected in the corresponding planning and management techniques. Planning legislation provides the instruments (plans) and the proper techniques to make urban planning adjusted to the parameters of the rehabilitation performing actions that seek to promote the rational use of the natural and cultural resources, in particular the territory, the soil, and the urban and architectural heritage that are the support, the object, and the scene of the quality of life.

Writing With Emergent Bilingual Students

The aim of this chapter is to provide teachers with an understanding of who emergent bilingual students are and how they can adapt their practices in order to use students' home language as a resource rather than as a deficit. The chapter will share findings from a study conducted with emergent bilingual students in a kindergarten writing workshop. It will also focus on how teachers can adopt an additive approach to language that expands children's linguistic, social, and cultural resources while supporting learning a new language as well and literacy development.

Borders as a Space for Mobility, Cooperation, and Tourism

The border is framed as a political/administrative element, as a space of contact of cultures and geographies, as a line of separation and permeability, generator of mobilities of different scales. During the last decades, the Iberian border has experienced depopulation dynamics and socio-economic reorganisations that have transformed the ways of working, the models of social organisation, occupation, and land use. In this context of growing mobility, tourism has become an important activity for the border due to its ability to generate employment and foster economic and social development. The mobilization of natural and cultural resources assumes significance in the valorization of these spaces, in line with the current policies of cross-border cooperation promoted by the EU and the efforts of the two Iberian countries. The border between central Portugal and Spain is taken as a study object, highlighting the existing dynamics and forms of cooperation, given the heritage values, capable of generating new attractions and functions in the oldest European border.

Local Perspectives of Sustainable Urbanism

The protective actions of restoration, especially when they affect urban spaces formally declared as areas of restoration, must have an urban reflection and be projected and reflected in the corresponding planning and management techniques. Planning legislation provides the instruments (plans) and the proper techniques to make urban planning adjusted to the parameters of the restoration performing actions that seek to promote the rational use of the natural and cultural resources, in particular the territory, the soil, and the urban and architectural heritage that are the support, the object, and the scene of the quality of life.

Determination of Eğirdir And Its Surround in Terms of Tourism and Recreational Potantial

Eğirdir districts is rich in natural and historical environmental values and cultural traits are the important places of tourism and recreational activities. Tourism and recreational activities, which are developed in regards with the atractiveness of such places, are made of those natural and cultural environment. When events of tourism all over the world are examined, it could be observed that such activities usually take place during summer months. However, since developing residences and facilities tend to use sources more than before, they affect natural, historical and the cultural values negatively and thus corruption starts. Inspite of the fact that the district is gradually getting more intensive in terms of tourism and recreation during the four seasons, there haven’t been any serious problems yet. In the areas of these natural and cultural resources, the problems related with the use of those resources where tourism and recreational activities are concentrated can not be ignored and the purpose of this study is what can be done to prevent the spread of such problems of the district. In this study, natural and cultural traits to be developped in the district of Eğirdir have been investigated and analized in order to detect the tourism and the recreational potentials in the region.