Symposium 2004 - Symposia - Archive - Events - CTEC - Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation - Antioch University New England

2004 Symposium - Speaker Biographies

Conservation Without Borders: The Impact of Conservation on Human Communities

Keynote Speaker

Lisa Naughton
Associate Professor of Geography
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Senior Research Fellow
Center for Applied Biodiversity Science of Conservation International
Washington, D.C.

Talk Title: Living on the Edge: Risk and Benefits for Communities Neighboring National Parks in Uganda and Peru

Lisa Naughton is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Senior Fellow for the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science of Conservation International. Her academic training includes degrees in Zoology (B.Sc.), Human Geography (M.Sc.) and Wildlife Ecology (Ph.D). Dr. Naughton has worked at several rainforest parks in Africa and Latin America to better integrate local concerns for resource access and security with international mandates for biodiversity conservation.

Websites: www.geography.wisc.edu and cabs.kms.conservation.org

Cultural Lens

Moderator:
Richard (Rick) B. Peterson
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
University of New England
Biddeford, ME

Richard Peterson received his BA in International Studies from Michigan State University and earned both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin and at Antioch College (where he coordinated the Environmental Studies Program), and is now Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of New England. His research addresses how conservation and other types of environmental projects can incorporate indigenous ecological knowledge, practices, and perspectives. His book Conversations in the Rainforest: Culture, Values, and the Environment in Central Africa (Westview Press, 2000), addresses such themes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has spent a total of 17 years. He has also published his work in a variety of book chapters, journal articles, and conference proceedings. His most recent work in collaboration with colleagues at Maseno University focuses on comparatively analyzing different models of forest conservation in the Lake Victoria Basin of western Kenya.

Website: www.une.edu

Speakers

(Alphabetically by last name):
Amity Doolittle
Program Director
Tropical Resources Institute
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
New Haven, CT

Talk Title: “Here There Be Tygers”: Exploring Terra Incognito between Academia and Community in Participatory Mapping

Amity Doolittle, Ph.D works as the Program Director of the Tropical Resources Institute at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Her work uses an interdisciplinary approach combining perspectives from anthropology, political science, environmental history, and political ecology to explore property relations and conflicts over resources use. In 2005 her book,
Property and Politics in Sabah, Malaysia: Native Struggles over Land Rights will be published by the University of Washington Press.

Websites: www.yale.edu/tri/ and www.yale.edu/forestry/bios/doolittle.html

William H. Thomas Ph.D.
Director
The New Jersey School of Conservation
Montclair State University
Branchville, NJ

Talk Title: Designed to Fail: Misunderstandings and Missed Opportunities in Participatory Conservation

Dr. Thomas is Director of the New Jersey School of Conservation. He has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Arizona State University. His research interests include ethno-ecology, conservation and traditional ecological wisdom of indigenous people. Since1988, he has conducted ethno-ecological research in Papua New Guinea. He is a fellow in the Explorers Club and has been recognized by the United Nations for the development of research methodologies now recognized as one of the “Best Practices” in the use of indigenous knowledge. In addition to his current research interests, he is developing an indigenous based program for the conservation of New Guinea’s four great river systems: the Sepik, Fly, Idenburg and Digul.

Reed Wadley
Department of Anthropology
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO

Talk Title: Paper Parks and Co-Management Dreams: Lessons from the Failure of External Conservation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Reed L. Wadley is an ecological anthropologist with particular interests in local resource management of tropical forests, conservation, and historical ecology, with research in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. An assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, he has also held positions at the International Institute for Asian Studies (Netherlands), Center for International Forestry Research (Indonesia), and Wetlands International (Indonesia). His publications include “Sacred forest, hunting, and conservation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia,” Human Ecology (2004) (with Carol Colfer); and “Ethics of access, boundary keeping and forest resource management in Indonesian Borneo,” Nomadic Peoples (2003).

Website: rcp.missouri.edu

Advocacy, Politics, & Management Lens

Moderator:
Abigail Abrash Walton
Faculty
Environmental Studies Department
Antioch University New England
Keene, NH

Abigail Abrash Walton has documented the nexus of resource extraction and human rights, governance, and environmental concerns through her focus on the situation of Indonesia’s indigenous and traditional communities. She is founder and principal of ActionWorks, a consulting firm, and is on the faculty of Antioch University New England’s Department of Environmental Studies. Abigail served as program director for the Washington, D.C.-based Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (1993-1998) and was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program (2000). She has served as a commentator on a variety of human rights issues for media outlets including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, National Public Radio, “Democracy Now,” and “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.” She is a director of the Papua-based Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy, Vice Chair of the Papua Resource Center, a member of the RFK Center for Human Rights Indonesia Support Group, and an advisor to the International Accountability Project. She was a founding board member of Project Underground, a human rights organization supporting communities resisting mineral and oil extraction.

Website:faculty.antiochne.edu/ESfac/AABrash/homepage

Speakers (Alphabetically by last name):

Peter Alpert
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Amherst, MA

Talk Title: World Parks: Extending the Concept of the National Park to Save Wild Lands in Tropical Countries

Peter Alpert works on plant ecology and natural resources policy, including the spread of introduced species and the management of natural areas. He has been an American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Fellow at WETA and an AAAS Diplomacy Fellow in the Bureau for Africa of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is an associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, a visiting researcher at the University of California Bodega Marine Lab, and an Aldo Leopold Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. He believes strongly in conserving wild lands and life.

Jim Tolisano
Director

ProNatura Peace Parks Program
New York, NY

Talk Title: Lessons Learned from Peace Parks in Africa: A Model for Conservation Action in the Americas

Jim Tolisano is ProNatura’s Peace Parks Director. During the past 22 years, he has worked with projects integrating conservation project planning; natural resource management; field biology; ecological monitoring; scientific, technical and creative writing and communications; training, facilitation, and mediation; and environmental education. Jim emphasizes a cross-disciplinary approach to conservation planning and fieldwork. He has worked as a team leader in the design, implementation, management, and evaluation of protected area management, sustainable forestry, conservation planning, environmental impact assessment, ecological monitoring and related natural resource management projects in 15 nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, and throughout Asia, eastern Europe, and in southern Africa. He has worked closely with the World Bank, U.S.A.I.D., World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, and other international, national, local, and tribal organizations in these projects. From 1999-2003 he developed and directed a cross-disciplinary program in conservation science at the College of Santa Fe placing students from disciplines in the natural and social sciences, humanities and arts in applied internships in Latin America and southern Africa. He has published widely in both technical and creative periodicals and books, and has lectured at many universities. Mr. Tolisano graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earned his Master of Science in forest ecology and watershed sciences at the University of Arizona and conducted doctoral research in parks, conservation science and environmental education at the University of New Mexico.

Website: www.pronatura.org.br

Elin Torell
Coastal Management Specialist
Coastal Resources Center
University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography
Narragansett, RI

Talk Title: Marine Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction Linkages: Experiences from Tanzania

Elin Torell is a coastal resources planning specialist who formally joined CRC in 2002 after first serving as a visiting scholar and research associate since 1997. Based in the US, she manages CRC’s initiative to mainstream gender and population issues into coastal management. She also provides research and learning-oriented support to CRC’s East Africa and global programs. She has carried out riverine and coastal resources management consulting in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Elin has a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from Antioch University; an M.Sc. in Science in Human and Economic Geography from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Website: www.crc.uri.edu

Economic Lens
Moderator:
Joshua (Josh) Farley
Assistant Professor
Community Development and Applied Economics
Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT

Dr. Joshua Farley is a renaissance economist. With degrees in economics, international affairs and biology, the University of Vermont professor embodies the transdisciplinary nature of the new economics paradigm. Recently he co-authored the first comprehensive textbook on ecological economics with Herman Daly. Not content to just teach in the classroom, Farley has traveled to Australia, Brazil and the Philippines to work hands-on with community groups and governments in community-driven projects. In his opinion, “ecological economics is too important to focus primarily on academic studies that circulate among a group of... peers before slowly diffusing out to the broader public.”

Speakers (Alphabetically by Last name):

Brian Czech
President
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
Arlington, VA

Talk Title: Borders Without Conservation: Internationalizing the Steady State Revolution

Brian Czech, P.D. is a certified wildlife biologist with 15 years of public service. He currently serves as Conservation Biologist in the national office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is also an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech, where he teaches ecological economics and sustainability science. He is the founding president of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, and is the author of Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train; Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop Them All. He is also the author (with Paul R. Krausman) of The Endangered Species Act: History, Conservation Biology, and Public Policy.

Website: ww.steadystate.org

Reginald (Reg) Hoyt
President
Forest Partners International
Flourtown, PA

Talk Title: Sapo National Park, Liberia: Socio-Economic Impact of the Wildlife Harvest in Adjacent Villages

Trained as a mammalogist, Reg Hoyt has held positions at several zoological gardens around the country over a 23 year period. His last position was that of Senior Vice President for Conservation & Science at the Philadelphia Zoo, where he managed conservation programs in more than 30 countries. In 2003, he founded Forest Partners International with the core belief that the future of forests, wildlife and the rural poor that depend upon them are inextricably linked. His current work focuses on wildlife management and community-based conservation in Liberia, West Africa where he has been working since 1996.

Website: www.forestpartnersinternational.org

Kiwe (Kaddu) Sebunya
Manager
Africa and Madagascar Program
Ecotourism Department
Conservation International
Washington, D.C.

Talk Title: Enhancing Human Communities benefits from Biodiversity Conservation: a case for tourism development

Mr. Sebunya is a generalist with a unique combination of experiences gathered from working intimately with African governments, private sector, and civil society organizations. He is complimented by a bachelor’s degree in Social Development and two master’s degrees; a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy with a special focus on International Resource Policy, Law, and Global Sustainable Development from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a Mater of Science in Natural Resource Management with a special focus on human development and biodiversity conservation outcomes from Wye College, London University, UK.

Currently Mr. Sebunya is working at the Washington D.C office of Conservation International in the Ecotourism Department. He is the manager of the Africa and Madagascar program. Before CI, Mr. Sebunya worked as the Country Program Coordinator for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Uganda and was the Associate Director for US Peace Corps in Uganda.

Website: conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/home

Ecology Lens
Moderator:
Mark Leighton
Executive Director
Great Ape World Heritage Species Project

Lecturer
Harvard University Extension School
Cambridge, MA

Mark Leighton received his BA in Human Biology from Stanford University in 1973, his Ph.D. in Biological Ecology from the University of California, Davis in 1982, and then was an NSF-NATO post-doctoral fellow at Oxford University. He joined the faculty in Biological Anthropology at Harvard University in 1983, where he remained as Lecturer on Ecology until 2003. He continues as Lecturer on rainforest conservation ecology in the Harvard Extension School. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Great Apes World Heritage Species Project, a nonprofit foundation whose mission is to develop new international mechanisms for conserving and protecting populations of the great ape species and tropical forest habitats.

His research and forest management work has been focused on the rainforests of Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan). In 1984 he founded the Cabang Panti Research Station in Gunung Palung National Park, and this has remained a very productive site for basic and applied studies carried out by many collaborating students and colleagues. Leighton’s research has ranged across topics in orangutan evolutionary ecology, rainforest community ecology, plant-vertebrate interactions, vertebrate behavioral ecology, conservation biology, and the management of tropical forests.

A decade ago, he began integrating ecological and economic research methodologies in an attempt to develop new models for the management of forests for both sustainable production and conservation. For the last many years he has directed various conservation projects in collaboration with Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, and has been involved in several international public policy initiatives.

Speakers (Alphabetically by last name):
L. Alden Almquist
Kluge Fellow
Kluge Center
Library of Congress
Mt. Rainier, MD

Talk Title: Using Indigenous Knowledge to Conserve African Forests and Wildlife

Alden Almquist is an anthropologist who has worked at the Library of Congress since 1985 as an Africa analyst and literary examiner. Alden received his Ph. D. in anthropology from Indiana University in 1985. His current work focuses on Indigenous Knowledge and Practices as Resources in the Preservation of Wildlife and Biodiversity in Africa.

Richard D. Estes
Research Associate
Smithsonian Institution Conservation and Research Center

Chair
Antelope Specialist Group
Species Survival Commission
World Conservation Union
Peterborough, NH

Talk Title: The Impact of Human Communities on Conservation

Richard (Dick) Estes is a well-known authority on the social ecology of African mammals. Within the fields of mammalogy, ethology, and behavioral ecology, his area of concentration focuses on antelopes and other members of the family Bovidae. Dr. Estes’s field studies in Africa have been mainly in Tanzania but include also Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Angola. In addition to his refereed papers, he has written three books on African mammals: The Behavior Guide to African Mammals (University of California Press, 1991), The Safari Companion (Chelsea Green, 1993, 1999 [revised edition]), and the National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife (Chanticleer Press, co-author, 1995).

Cynthia Moulton
Professor of Biology
Department of Natural Science
Castleton State College Castleton, VT

Talk Title: Island Integrity: Impacts of the Virgin Islands National Park on the Ecology Culture, and Economy of St. John

Cynthia Moulton has been a biology professor at Castleton State College since 1997 where she teaches such courses as ecology, ecotoxicology, tropical biodiversity, zoology, and biological illustration. Understanding the human role in ecological integrity has been a central focus of Cynthias professional endeavors. She began her career at the US EPA in the Ecological Effects Branch of The Office of Pesticide Programs in 1989 while finishing an M.S. through the MEES (Marine Estuarine Environmental Science) Program from the University of Maryland. After three years of evaluating risks of pesticides to nontarget fish and wildlife, Cynthia pursued a Ph.D. at NCSU while working for the National Biological Service (now part of USGS) as a researcher in the North Carolina Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Unit, completing her degree in 1996. Cynthia believes teaching is the best and hardest job outside motherhood.

Peter J. Rogers
Assistant Professor
Environmental Studies Program
Bates College
Lewiston, ME

Talk Title: Relationships between Governance and Ecological Mosaics: Considering the Case of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area

Peter Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, growing up there and later in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He received a BA in International Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1989. Peter attended graduate school at the University of Florida, earning a PhD in Political Science in 2002. While at the University of Florida, he worked with the Center for African Studies, the Tropical Conservation and Development Program, and the Tropical Agriculture Program. He undertook PhD research with a Fulbright Fellowship in Tanzania, writing a dissertation on “The Political Ecology of Pastoralism, Conservation, and Development in the Arusha Region of Northern Tanzania.” Peter is currently an Assistant Professor in the Bates College Environmental Studies Program. He is part of the Transboundary Protected Area Research Initiative and is doing research on protected area governance in and around the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Southern Africa.

New Voices From the Field
Speakers (Alphabetically by Last Name):
Kelly Biedenweg
Environmental Studies
Conservation Biology
Antioch University New England

Talk Title: Environmental Leadership Development: A Human-Centered Approach to Conservation in Honduras

Kelly is a Masters student in Conservation Biology at Antioch University New England and the Managing Director for the Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation. She received her BS in marine ecology and has since spent many years working in environmental education and community-centered approaches to conservation. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer for three years in Honduras, working on a nation-wide environmental leadership training program. Her current research looks at environmental attitude and behavior change as a method for conservation in communities surrounding important ecological areas.

Leandro Castello
Environmental Science Forestry
State University of New York

Talk Title: A Strategy to Conserve Pirarucu and Promote Community-Based Management in the Brazilian Várzea Amazon

Andrea E. Johnson
Master’s Student
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Yale University

Talk Title: Participation through the Pipeline: Civil Society, Representation, and Power in Peru’s Camisea Natural Gas Project

Andrea Johnson is a candidate for Masters in Environmental Science. She has worked previously doing ecology research and community conservation projects in Indonesia, Peru, and Belize. She is interested broadly in the intersection of social justice objectives with conservation and development initiatives, at scales ranging from international finance institutions to community organizations.

David Kneas
Environmental Science
Social Ecology
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Talk Title: Everday Forms of Neoliberal State Formation: Mining, The World Bank, and the Dismantling of Environmental Authority in Ecuador

David Kneas has spent a total of three years in Ecuador, where he managed a small cloud forest reserve in a region known as the Intag, and worked closely with local and regional opposition to proposed large-scale copper and gold mining. A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, David has a BA in Biology and Spanish from DePauw University.

Leon-C. Malan
Community and Environmental Studies
Colby-Sawyer College

Talk Title: Beyond the Debate: Exploring and Uncovering Underlying Assumptions in the dialogue on Biodiversity Conservation

Dr. Leon-C Malan is Associate Professor in Business Administration at Colby-Sawyer College. He is a program member of the Community and Environmental Studies major. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Antioch University New England, the area of his research is conservation strategies in postcolonial societies.

Jennifer J. Wilhoit
Ph.D. Candidate
Environmental Studies
Antioch University New England

Founder
TealArbor
Education and Research for Crafts Communities and the Environment

Talk Title: Common Ground between Crafts Cooperatives and Conservation: The Potential for Partnership?

Jennifer Wilhoit is a craftsartist, environmentalist, educator and researcher. Her doctoral work with artisans in cooperatives examines the relationship between the conservation of natural resources and their use as crafts media. She is the founder of TealArbor, an organization dedicated to the simultaneous protection of biological and cultural diversity through global networking of conservation groups and craftspeople.

Miriam Wyman
NSF/Working Forests in the Tropics Program Fellow
School of Forest Resources and Conservation
University of Florida

Talk Title: Identifying and measuring community-based ecotourism’s impact on livelihood systems and land-use decisions within the Maya Forest

Miriam holds a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts and a M.S. in Natural Resource Management (Environmental Education / Interpretation) from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. Outside of academia, she worked on an animal ecology research project in Patagonia, Southern Chile and has several years experience in environmental and community organizing in Minnesota.

Miriam is currently a PhD student as a NSF / IGERT fellow with the Working Forests in the Tropics Program at the University of Florida. She is interested in looking at the links between community-based ecotourism and conservation within the Maya Forest and how ecotourism impacts communities’ land-use decisions and livelihood systems.

Poster Presentations
Charles C. Chester
Research Associate
The Fletcher School
Tufts University

Poster Title: Beyond States, Beyond Borders: Crossing a Landscape of Boundaries

Charles Chester is a Program Consultant for the Henry P. Kendall Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, and is currently working on a book tentatively titled Biodiversity over the Edge: Conservation Organizations and the Protection of Transborder Ecosystems in North America (Island Press). Charlie has also taught the course Conserving Biological Diversity at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, having graduated from the same institution in May 2003 (Ph.D.). He has worked as a consultant to the Union of Concerned Scientists (on global biodiversity issues) and the World Foundation for Environment and Development (on bioprospecting).

Victoria (Vicky) Critchley

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Yale University

Poster Title: The Spirit of Collaboration – How Private Partnerships are Changing the Politics of Conservation on the Yukon Frontier

After a few years of being a private resource consultant, working on projects as diverse as sustainable forestry in PNG to rural residential planning on Sydney’s urban fringe, Victoria Critchley became a local government environmental officer. After 5 years running the natural heritage, environmental management and environmental education program of a large urban fringe Council in Sydney, she decided it was time to return to natural resource management via University. Currently, Vicky is at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies undertaking a Masters of Environmental Science Research degree. Her focus is the intersection of environmental and indigenous interests through case studies in the Northern Rockies of Canada and Cape York, Australia.

Gabriela Shuster, M.Sc.
Department of Environmental Studies
Antioch University New England

Poster Title: Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center: Changing Perceptions About The Bushmeat Trade In Cameroon

Gabriela Shuster received her Bachelors of Science at Cornell University and her Masters of Science in Animal Behavior at the University of New England in Australia. She has participated in behavioral and conservation related field studies of mammals and birds in Australia, Cameroon, Nicaragua and the United States. Gabriela is beginning the second year of her Ph. D. Studies at Antioch University New England. Her current interests are in wildlife conservation with a focus on the management of the bushmeat trade in Central-West Africa.