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- All Subjects: Sustainability
Description
Development throughout the course of history has traditionally resulted in the demise of biodiversity. As humans strive to develop their daily livelihoods, it is often at the expense of nearby wildlife and the environment. Conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs), among other actors in the global agenda, have blossomed in the past century with the realization that there is an immediate need for conservation action. Unlike government agencies, conservation NGOs have an independent, potentially more objective outlook on procedures and policies that would benefit certain regions or certain species the most. They often have national and international government support, in addition to the credibility and influencing power to sway policy decisions and participate in international agendas. The key to their success lies in the ability to balance conservation efforts with socioeconomic development efforts. One cannot occur without the other, but they must work in coordination. This study looks at the example of African Great Apes. Eight ape-focused NGOs and three unique case studies will be examined in order to describe the impact that NGOs have. Most of these NGOs have been able to build the capacity from an initial conservation agenda, to incorporating socioeconomic factors that benefit the development of local communities in addition to the apes and habitat they set out to influence. This being the case, initiatives by conservation NGOs could be the key to a sustainable future in which humans and biodiversity coexist harmoniously.
ContributorsPrickett, Laura (Author) / Parmentier, Mary Jane (Thesis advisor) / Zachary, Gregg (Committee member) / Gerber, Leah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Consumption of seafood poses a substantial threat to global biodiversity. Chemical contamination found in both wild-caught and farmed seafood also presents significant health risks to consumers. Flame retardants, used in upholstery, plastics, clothing, and other products to reduce fire danger, are of particular concern as they are commonly found in the marine environment and permeate the tissues of fish that are sold for consumption via multiple pathways. By summarizing various metrics of sustainability and the mercury content in consumed species of fish and shellfish, researchers have found that high levels of chemical contamination was linked with lesser fishery sustainability. I conducted a literature review of flame retardant content in seafood to further compare contamination and sustainability in addition to the initial analysis with mercury. My review suggests that the widespread issue of fishery collapse could be alleviated by demonstrating to stakeholders that many unsustainable fish stocks are mutually disadvantageous for both human consumers and the environment. Future research should address the need for the collection of data that better represent actual global contaminant concentrations in seafood.
ContributorsNoziglia, Andrea Joyce (Author) / Gerber, Leah (Thesis director) / Smith, Andrew (Committee member) / Pratt, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Consumption of seafood poses a substantial threat to global biodiversity. Chemical contamination found in both wild-caught and farmed seafood also presents significant health risks to consumers. Flame retardants, used in textiles, upholstery, plastics, and other products to reduce risk of fire-related injury, are of particular concern as they are commonly found in the marine environment and permeate the tissues of fish that are sold for consumption via multiple pathways. The widespread issue of fishery collapse could be alleviated by demonstrating to stakeholders that many unsustainable fish stocks are also unhealthy and mutually disadvantageous for both human consumers and the environment. To thoroughly investigate the confounding factors and contradictory signals enmeshed in the relationship between ecologically sustainable fisheries and flame retardant contamination, I examined the biological characteristics of regional fish stocks which drive both contamination and perceived sustainability. I found that the biological and spatial aspects of commonly consumed aquatic and marine species best predict contamination when compared with various indices of sustainability. My results confirm that knowledge of flame retardant toxicity will become increasingly more important to consumers because a high percentage of global populations rely on coastal seafood for subsistence, and although dispersal of chemical contamination is still a poorly understood phenomenon, fish harvested closer to land are likely to contain higher concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals. Because some of the same biological traits which facilitate the uptake of chemicals also contribute to how a species responds to fishing pressures, concern for private health increases public consideration for the conservation of species at risk.
ContributorsNoziglia, Andrea (Author) / Gerber, Leah (Thesis advisor) / Abbott, Joshua (Committee member) / Polidoro, Beth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Globally, land use change is the primary driver of biodiversity loss (IPBES, 2019). Land use change due to agricultural expansion is driving bird species to the brink of extinction in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Agriculture is one of the primary threats to bird species in the region, and agroforestry is being pursued in some communities as a potential solution to reduce agriculture's impacts on species, as agroforestry provides improved habitat for wildlife while also enabling livelihoods for people. Understanding how anthropogenic land use choices affect imperiled species is an important prerequisite for conservation policy and practice in the region. In this thesis, I develop a spatial model for quantifying expected threat abatement from shifting agricultural land use choices towards agroforestry. I used this model explored how agricultural land use impacts imperiled bird species in the Peruvian Amazon. My approach builds on the species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric to make the expected consequences of reducing agricultural threats spatially explicit. I then analyzed results of applying the metric to alternative scenarios with and without agroforestry conversion. I found that agroforestry could result in up to 18.68% reduction in mean bird projected population decline. I found that converting all terrestrial agriculture in the Peruvian Amazon to agroforestry could produce a benefit of up to 83% to imperiled birds in the region in terms of improvement in Red List status. This use of the STAR metric to model alternative scenarios presents a novel usage for the STAR metric and a promising approach to understand how to address terrestrial biodiversity challenges efficiently and effectively.
ContributorsPoe, Katherine (Author) / Iacona, Gwen (Thesis advisor) / Gerber, Leah (Thesis advisor) / Mair, Louise (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023