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The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a National Scenic Trail that extends approximately 2,653 miles from the border of California and Mexico to the border of Washington State and Canada. This study examined land management and hiker issues that day, overnight, and thru-hikers experience in California while navigating the PCT in order to inform land managers. This quantitative survey, completed through Qualtrics, was disseminated to thru-hikers who completed the trail between 2017 and 2021, and individuals who used the trail for shorter durations. Survey questions focused on technology, Trail Angels, rule enforcement by land management agencies, the permitting process by the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA), hiker education, and hiker demographics. Descriptive statistics were calculated and analyzed. Results indicate that most hikers prefer articles on the PCTA website, Leave No Trace (LNT) website, and certifications to gain education about the trail. They also felt that personal contacts were the most effective way to gain pre-trip education. Almost all hikers use technology on the trail, such as navigation or informational apps, emergency calls, taking photos, and listening to videos or music. More thru-hikers rely on navigational apps than day/overnight users. Many hikers felt there should be more rangers in the backcountry but also felt that social enforcement of rules is effective. Regarding Trail Angels, thru-hikers felt they were important for transportation, food/water, and shelter. Managerial implications for public land managers included a need to develop ways to educate users. This can be done in-person, online, or through signage. Increasing the presence of rangers or volunteers on the trail was also recommended, as well as developing area or jurisdiction-specific apps for information and education about trail conditions or rules. Additional education of sustainable hiking behaviors may help mitigate potential negative impacts hikers may have on the environment. Land managers must continue to assess what is currently being done and reevaluate on an ongoing basis in order to preserve and maintain sustainable use of public lands.

This article examines how school and non-school policies interact to reinforce or disrupt school segregation in the context of suburban communities and how these systems are maintained by structural and institutional mechanisms. Methodologically, we use a case study approach to delve deeply into the interpretation and implementation of school attendance zone redesign and non-school policies, specifically land use policies and tools. We draw on neo-institutionalist theory and Ray's (2019) framework of racialized organizations to make sense of school districts, planning agencies, and their policies. We find that school district rezoning policies provide a weak regulatory framework for desegregating schools because school zoning decisions are not made in a vacuum but rather are shaped by policies and actions taken by other actors in a multi-level governance structure. School zoning policies themselves prioritized capacity over desegregation, and regulations and norms governing the public engagement processes privilege opposition to desegregation. Our study points to the importance of greater coordination across governmental levels and policy arenas, and underscores how desegregation policy is part of a political and relational process between advocates, elected leaders, families, and youth across policy sectors.

The purpose of this research is to examine the role of positive law and customary law in protecting indigenous peoples' rights to land literation and natural resources and their impact on community welfare. The research method used is normative legal studies. Customary law is focused on the customary law of the Tobaru tribe. The Tobaru tribe is one of the well-known tribes in Indonesia, which is famous for its land rights law ("Tola Gumi"). The study results reveal that the regulations of the central government and the regional government of North Maluku have not guaranteed the implementation of legal protection and the welfare of indigenous peoples, especially for the Tobaru tribe. This is also evidenced by the fact that the regional government has not implemented the Constitutional Court Decision in the North Maluku region. This legal review shows that three of the five pillars of the state, namely protection of human rights, social justice, and antidiscrimination, have not been implemented properly. Indigenous people are very dependent on land as their main source of livelihood for farming. Weak legal protections, such as the absence of land titles, make them vulnerable to social conflicts and lose their customary land rights. This research implies that it is hoped that the government will provide consistent legal protection for the welfare of indigenous peoples. Researchers encourage future studies related to learning about the rights of indigenous peoples in terms of the international legal system.

The impact of Residential Schools on Indigenous People has left a long-lasting crippling effect on the subsequent generations of Indigenous youth. The resultant intergenerational loss of identity and self-value has cost the Indigenous People and their communities immensely. Aboriginal People based their education system on the real world around them for centuries and are intrinsically attached to nature. This article investigates the benefits of re-introducing Indigenous youth to a land-based educational system as a means of re-attaching the severed familial and communal ties. The very nature of traditional Land-based education practices such as hunting and gathering form strong bonds between participants and nature, and lays the foundation for interpersonal community relationships. It is believed that, by returning to a land-based teaching approach, Aboriginal communities can be rebuilt.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the spatial planning based on wisdom in the context of resolving social conflicts as a form of learning about the recognition and protection of indigenous peoples in law. The main data sources are obtained from primary legal materials in the form of laws and regulations, regional regulations, and literature studies that focus on spatial planning, local wisdom, and social conflict resolution. The research methodology uses a juridical-normative approach. Content analysis was conducted in order to obtain relevant research results. The findings reveal that local government regulations on spatial planning of the West Papua Customary Law Community are in synergy with central government regulations as regulated in Law No. 27 of 2007 on Spatial Planning. The two laws contribute to the resolution of social conflicts because of the recognition and protection of the sustainability of natural resources which are the living space (lebensraum) of the indigenous peoples of West Papua. An important lesson that can be learned is that spatial planning based on local wisdom is centered on harmony, balance, and sustainability in order to overcome social conflicts between the spatial planning of customary law communities and the spatial planning stipulated by national law, namely by preparing and determining spatial planning through the top down of the central government, then The village, district, district governments are bottom up, and meet in the discussion, preparation and determination of spatial planning in the Province. The expected implication is that the central government and local governments pay special attention to policy practices in spatial planning that are more socially just and in accordance with the needs of indigenous and tribal peoples. The aim is to create harmonization between customary law and national law so that they do not overlap each other, which in turn can lead to greater social conflicts in the future.

This study analyzes factors that triggered the land-ownership struggle for the Titi Tsoro forest area, the Rights for Cultivation Use and to analyze the various differences in interests related to the land's ownership as a major community resource or a production asset for national plantation company named as PTPN XII. This research is qualitative in nature and applies social movement theory. The informants for this research were the conflicting parties. Data were collected using observations, interviews, and documentation. The analysis went through four steps, namely data collection, data filtering, data classification, and conclusions. Results show The settlement of this agrarian conflict has pursued both legal and non-legal means. Various efforts have been made by both parties to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution for both parties, but these efforts have so far failed to find a suitable mutual agreement. Over time, this agrarian conflict has received encouragement and support from various political organizations, such as political parties, legislative institutions, and the ruling elite, who may support the community in order to gain public popularity and secure votes. The more parties that are involved in a conflict, the more difficult it is to resolve it. Negotiations and legal efforts have not been able to overcome this difficulty in this case. A new approach is needed that incorporates customary arbitration that has power over the law.

The Pacific Crest Trail is a National Scenic Trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. Use of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) has increased in the past 20 years. It is important to understand how an increase in use can impact the environment and sustainable practices, land management practices, and the hiker experience. Participants included 15 land managers in California and 25 thru-hikers who completed the PCT. In-depth interviews were conducted, and participants were asked questions about hiker interactions, trail angels, land manager interactions, and the permitting process. Data were transcribed verbatim and coded by three independent coders to reach a 90% inter-rater reliability. Emerging themes included: human impacts, permitting and education, and rule enforcement. Hikers also talked about the benefits of in-person education and the need for consistent communication between thru-hikers and land managers. Recommendations for sustainable practices include improvements to the permitting system, education, enforcement, and communication.

This study determined policy initiatives for improving the contributions of university agricultural education and extension institutions to environmental and sustainable development (ESD) in agriculture. The study was carried out in Cross River State. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study of 534, comprising 195 registered farmers who have continuously participated in ADP farmer field school training from the State; 70 graduate extension personnel; 167 final year agriculture students and 102 lecturers. Agricultural education programme in the Universities in Cross River State was used for the study. The study adopted a triangulation technique involving mixed methods of data collection. Both instruments were face validated by three experts in the field of agriculture with a reliability coefficient of 0.83 obtained through Cronbach alpha reliability method. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and independent t-test statistic. The study identified (17) policy initiatives that could improve the contributions of agricultural education and extension institutions to ESD in agriculture in Cross River State. It was recommended among others that the identified policy initiatives should be integrated into university agricultural education and extension institutions and properly implemented.

Erasmus+ CityLab Program at Universidad de Belgrano School of Architecture and Urban Planning, has focused on urban structure as generator of dynamic and transformable spaces, through a local case located at Juan B. Justo Avenue corridor, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The CityLab project motivated students to experience an integrative 3-year Problem-Based Learning process, related to Morphology Communication and Digital Media, Urban and Territorial Planning, Final Degree Project, as well as integration with School of Public Relations. More than 75 students participated in this international programme to explore, diagnose and re-think city scale, as well as to discover, build and apply technological tools. Land use and mobility regulations were introduced with the participation of stakeholders and external experts in different stages from diagnosis to final project validation. Students' and teachers' staff contribution to the academic final conference "PBL for Sustainable Cities"- September 2018, Bogotá, produced a motivating socialization in collaboration with local partners.

This paper explores the process of developing a continuing education program for tribal land professionals working in tribal land offices across the United States. Born from discussions surrounding the need to professionalize careers in tribal land offices, the National Tribal Land Association developed a certification program for land office staff and tribal citizens interested in careers in tribal land offices. This program consists of 12 courses ranging from beginning/foundation courses to advanced/applied courses in land management and planning, land acquisition, general realty, and real estate practices and procedures.

Study abroad host families and communities in the Global South frequently provide learning experiences to study abroad programs in search of 'intercultural experiences' and 'global competency' to students from the Global North. This paper shares findings from a multi-sited ethnographic research project exploring cultural and economic impacts on host communities in Thailand who hosted U.S. study abroad programs and students. The study found that rather than participating solely for economic gain, host families participated in the global study abroad economy to preserve local knowledge, learn about cultural others, and leverage this knowledge and affiliations in negotiations with local government over land use and the right of communities remain in place. It also found that creation of systems of distributive benefit (systems that ensured transparency and equal sharing of economic benefits received from hosting students) by local government helped to mitigate unwanted impacts from outside visitors while allowing host communities opportunities to engage with the global study abroad economy.

The article outlines ways that teachers could use the content in Biomes and Food Security unit in the Australian curriculum, and its state and territory versions, to encourage their students to engage with higher order thinking. It first briefly discusses how to describe and classify higher-order thinking and argues that concepts are central to this thinking. It also argues that powerful knowledge, an idea associated with Michael Young, develops the same ways of thinking. The article then discusses the higher order actions of explaining (in the sense of explaining causation), analysing, synthesising (or generalising) and evaluating, and how they can be applied to the content of the unit. The contribution of geography's major concepts (such as place and interconnection) to higher order thinking, and therefore to making the unit "geographical," is also discussed. The article concludes with a description of a way of teaching the unit as an extended inquiry, organised as a series of questions. This strategy provides many opportunities to use higher order thinking, because to answer the questions students will have to explain, analyse, synthesise, generalise and evaluate, while the whole unit becomes an exercise in problem solving.

This design case details the critical design decisions used in the development of an e-learning module library for North Carolina local government officials focused on land use regulations. These modules cover topics from an introduction to land use regulations, to evidentiary hearing conduct guidelines, defining vested rights, and explaining how to adopt and amend an ordinance. This project was in response to the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) members' increased requests for training in this subject area. This organization requested the assistance of the two faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government (SOG) who specialize in this content area. Additionally, the professional organization wanted to mitigate risk from cases going to litigation for improper land use decisions. The Target Accomplishment Past Prototype Artifact (TAPPA) Process (Moore, 2016) was used for the module development. This five-step process emphasizes the rapid development of distance education content artifacts in close collaboration with subject matter experts. Between 2013 and 2018, the TAPPA iterative design process guided the development of sixteen modules moving from initial script to finished modules. This design case is relevant for instructional designers who need to develop comprehensive e-learning modules covering complex and often complicated tasks. Examples of design decisions, informed by Clark and Mayer (2016)'s principles of multimedia design, are dispersed through the design case.

Elevated levels of bacteria impact the use of the Little River watershed in Texas. The amount of bacteria entering the waterway could be reduced if landowners within the watershed received water-related information and adopted best management practices. However, landowners' access to water-related information is limited, perhaps, because the information is not targeted to them and their preferences. Therefore, to identify landowners' communication preferences for receiving water-related information, we assessed 275 landowners in the Texas Little River watershed using a paper questionnaire. Respondents preferred water-related information delivered via websites monthly and direct mailings quarterly, twice annually, and annually and least preferred social media platforms as a communication medium. Yet, we found no statistically significant differences between respondents' demographics and their preferred communication mediums. Furthermore, respondents identified Texas A&M AgriLife Extension as the most trustworthy source of water-related information. Water resource experts, therefore, should disseminate information using websites and direct mailings in partnership with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Further research should be conducted using observations, focus groups, and interviews during the watershed-based planning process to understand reasons for landowners' communication preferences. [This research was supported by Texas Water Resource Institute and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under the Clean Water Act Section 319(h) Nonpoint Source (NPS) Grant Program, Grant No. 131527 SRS M1502190.]

This study investigated whether the environmental determinist approach, which was effective in geographical research especially at the beginning of 20th century and generally believed to be abandoned in the 1920's, still had impact on geography teacher candidates. With this aim in mind, teacher candidates were asked to prepare a single question by selecting only one of the four given themes and providing a written text consisting of expected answers to their questions in order to contribute to a questionnaire prepared at high school level. The study utilized document analysis method which is a qualitative research method. The study, composed of 224 geography teacher candidates during four separate academic periods, focused on the theme of rural habitats/settlements in Turkey which was selected by 123 of the participants to prepare questions while the other topics were also evaluated to support the study. As a result, it was determined that 96 of the questions prepared about the theme of rural habitats/settlements in Turkey which was selected by 123 teacher candidates were related to environmental determinist approach. It was found that teacher candidates were directly influenced by the dominant power of nature without taking into consideration the impact of man on environment or the mutual interaction between man and environment. Also, it was observed that teacher candidates did not follow academic level articles or other scientific studies and only used textbooks and they did not have any skills in regards to using documents while they prepared the questions.

This empirical study intends to present core results of the change in environmental literacy of German students by analysing PISA 2006 and 2015 data. The study is carried out within the scope of environmental literacy in science education. The data are based on findings of both PISA 2006 data (N= 4891) and PISA 2015 data (N= 6504) of German students which were published in the official PISA site (http://www.pisa.oecd.org). In this study, a valid and a reliable 'environmental literacy' scale is developed. In addition, students' attitudes towards science affecting their environmental literacy are compared between 2006 and 2015. The study is conducted based on the paradigm of a descriptive field study survey. The validity and reliability of the 'environmental literacy' scale is tested in two stages by applying exploratory factor analysis with SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis with AMOS. In addition, parametric tests (ANOVA) and correlation are used to assess the data obtained from the analysis of quantitative data. The findings demonstrate a positive and meaningful relationship between 'environmental literacy' and the sub-factors (Environmental Awareness (EA), Environmental Responsibility (ER), and Development of Environmental Behavior (DEB)) (r[subscript EA] = 0.73, r[subscript ER] = 0.43, r[subscript DEP] = 0,37, p < 0.01). Moreover, there is an increase in the mean of the environmental literacy ([X-bar][subscript 2006] = 2,55; [X-bar][subscript 2015] = 2,58). According to the results, the major of students (63 % and over) indicate that 'they can describe the role of antibiotics in the treatment of disease' and 'they can predict how changes to an environment will affect the survival of certain species' easily on their own in both 2006 and 2015. However, approximately 20 % of German students point out that they cannot recognize the science question that underlies a newspaper report on a health issue' on their own. In addition, the majority of German students (80 %) point out that they have information about the consequences of clearing forests for other land use in 2006 and 2015. On the other hand, more than 60 % of German students think that they do not have sufficient knowledge about the use of GMO in 2006 and 2015. In the light of the results of this study some suggestions related to environmental issues for the development of science curricula are discussed. For instance, one of the suggestions is that the subject of genetically modified organisms and health issue should be more comprehensive in the German science curricula. In addition, critical reflection and decision making about science issues is important to educate an environmental literate citizen.

This case study addresses the issue of climate change denial among students in their first year of vocational education. It was possible to shake the belief that man-made climate change was not happening, through letting students measure the potential of natural forest vegetation and compare their findings with those gathered by their peers nine years earlier. The comparison revealed that old forests had turned into ecosystems, which were adapted for dryer warmer climates. For education for sustainable development, forest education and biology lessons offer the opportunity to establish a long term project, in which peer-to-peer-learning over generations of students is possible, with a high rate of acceptance of the results generated by the former students.

During the past several decades, there has been a growing awareness of the ways humans affect Earth systems. As global problems emerge, educating the next generation of citizens to be able to make informed choices related to future outcomes is increasingly important. The challenge for educators is figuring out how to prepare students to think about complex systems and sustainability. This article describes a set of design principles used to create online curriculum modules related to Earth's systems and sustainability. The modules include interactive, computer-based, dynamic Earth systems models that enable students to track changes that occur over time. Embedded prompts help students focus on stocks and flows within the system. This approach helps students to identify important resources in the models (stock prompt), to explain the processes that are changing the availability of the stock (process prompt), and to explore real-world examples (application prompts). We report how students learn about the sustainability of soil, a critical resource for growing food, in the module called "Can we feed the growing population?" We give an example of a model-based task, which shows how students identify stocks and flows associated with the model and how they consider human actions in the system. We discuss educational and research implications of using stocks and flows as a framework to structure students' exploration of dynamic models of Earth systems in teaching sustainability.

This paper examines the inequality in secondary school attainment and its determinants across gender, caste, and ethnic group in rural Nepal. Using the primary data from a questionnaire survey, a series of interviews, and school observations, this study found that girls' school attainment is significantly lower than that of boys'. Similarly, "Dalit" (the lowest caste) and "Janajati" (indigenous, disadvantaged ethnic groups) students' school attainment is considerably lower than that of "Brahman and Chhetri" (high caste and privileged ethnic groups) students. Furthermore, the regression analysis using the education production function approach revealed that household chores, father's education, land sufficiency, student/teacher ratio, and local caste/ethnic composition are significant determinants affecting students' school attainment. However, students' desired level of education and the number of siblings they have were insignificant in this study. The results indicate that policy for inclusive education should be based on the local socio-cultural environment, especially with regard to the caste/ethnic composition of the local community.

In order to achieve the regional sustainability and bio-cultural preservation, environmental education of youth will be critical, however due to the lack of the specific subject of regional studies at the educational curriculum, students are not able to achieve the skills to understand the local environment and feel isolated from nature. We decided that, it would be very important to create active nature fieldworks where students can connect with nature by using five senses of perception (hearing, seeing, smelling, touching and tasting), to educate the feeling of connection and belonging to the nature and later develop the awareness of nature-human-culture interactions through the on-hands participatory fieldworks with local communities. Fieldworks were divided in two main parts; biodiversity experience with nature activities (NA) to increase the sense of belongings to the nature, by using five senses; visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), tactile (touching), gustatory (tasting), and olfactory (smelling) in three different ecosystems; marine, forest and mountain areas. The second part was cultural diversity fieldworks with rural communities (RC) to understand the nature-human-culture interactions. The survey, was conducted twice, before the fieldworks to evaluate the overall environmental awareness, knowledge, and attitude, and after the fieldworks, together with the reports submission. Results showed that NA helped students to understand the rural communities more deeply (96%) and they became more concerned about its future (95%). Before visiting the rural communities only 39% showed an interest in volunteering in the community, however after the NA and on-hands experiences with local people 95% showed the willingness to volunteer and help local people. This study suggest about the importance of fieldworks to educate the sense of unity with rural environment and recognizing the local issues. Students became more concerned about the regional issues and evoked the willingness to volunteer in the regions and contribute for the sustainable regional development.

British colonization initiated colonial capitalist dispossession of Adivasi-Dalit-Nontribal Forest Dwellers (ADNTFD) in India. Post-independence development continued this trend, accentuated by the neoliberal turn in the early 1990s orchestrated by the then Congress government and intensified by saffron (Hindu nationalist) authoritarian neoliberalism under the recently re-elected Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014 and 2019, leading the National Democratic Alliance regime. Neocolonial continuities and current neoliberal colonial capitalist dispossession and resistance in the forest belt, or India's contemporary 'land wars', are dialectically linked to potential spaces for Participatory Action Research (PAR) with/in ADNTFD struggles. This paper explores the imbrications of the neoliberal agenda, land wars and PAR in India, and by extension, for similar contexts addressing the vicissitudes of neoliberal authoritarian capitalism in the neo-colonies.

In June 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada held that Aboriginal title should be granted to the Tsilhqo'tin Nation over a portion of its traditional territory in British Columbia.1 This was the first time that a Canadian court had granted Aboriginal title to a specific land area. The court noted that Aboriginal title is collective title held for present and future generations and that, consequently, the land cannot be developed in a way that would "substantially deprive" future generations of its benefit. The court also noted that a government seeking to use Aboriginal title land for development or other purposes must seek the consent of the title holders; if the title holders do not give their consent, the government must establish that the proposed use is justified under Canada's "Constitution Act, 1982." These norms give Aboriginal title holders a prima facie legal right not to have their land used by the government for development or other purposes without their consent, or so I argue. I then turn to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Several UN member countries, including Canada, did not sign the Declaration when it was approved by the General Assembly in 2007. Canada had concerns about provisions which it interpreted as giving indigenous peoples a "free, prior and informed consent" veto over state measures affecting their land. I argue, partly by reference to recent work on consent by the Oxford philosopher Derek Parfit, that indigenous peoples occupying ancestral lands within the borders of a broader state should not be treated as having a veto over state use of their land, but should be treated as having a prima facie moral right that the state not use their land without their consent. This right, being prima facie, can be overridden. I propose a set of candidate override conditions which, I claim, would be considered plausible if judged from the perspective of an ethic of sustainable development broadly conceived in a way I outline. These conditions are based in part on those that the "Tsilhqot'in" judgment says the state must show to be satisfied if it is to be justified in using Aboriginal title land for development or other purposes in circumstances in which it has consulted with the title holders but they have not consented to the proposed use. [This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Oxford Round Table's "11th Annual International Session on Environment, Climate Change, and Global Warming" held at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, July 22-25, 2015.]

An Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) senior spatial science undergraduate student engaged in a multi-course undergraduate research project to expand his expertise in remote sensing and assess the applied instruction methodology employed within ATCOFA. The project consisted of performing a change detection land-use/land-cover classification for Nacogdoches and Angelina counties in Texas using satellite imagery. The dates for the imagery were spaced approximately ten years apart and consisted of four different acquisitions between 1984 and 2013. The classification procedure followed and expanded upon a series of concrete theoretical remote sensing principles, transforming the four remotely sensed raster images into corresponding classified vector maps. The progression of the research project is layed out in a step-by-step process identifying settings and addressing issues that may commonly be encountered. The results indicate that the digital imagery acquired by the Landsat 8 sensor may have resulted in more precise and consistent spectral recognition of the image pixels, and distributed them more accurately in their clusters. The results from the study validate the applied instruction methodology employed in the remote sensing curriculums and reinforce ATCOFA's mission by guiding and empowering undergraduate students with the capability of employing sophisticated remote sensing technology to accurately quantify, qualify, map, and monitor natural resources.

Modern landscape--it's a holistic system of interconnected and interacting components. To questions of primary importance belongs evaluation of stability of modern landscape (including agrarian) and its optimization. As a main complex characteristic and landscape inhomogeneity in a process of agricultural usage serves materials of quantitative and qualitative analysis of agro ecosystems. For this ones use different methods of remote sondage of soils, analysis of soil for agricultural purpose, GIS-technology and other. Usage of modern technologies for space imagery will allow to actualize information of agricultural lands monitoring and effectively solve arising tasks. Article is devoted to definition of indicators of lands condition of agricultural purpose. Accomplished analysis of methodical approaches to analysis of agricultural lands condition, that allows to determine the most prospective ways of usage, gives propositions about application of modern technologies. It is proposed to create a centralized governmental informational resources about lands of agricultural purpose and about these lands as a part of lands of other categories.

The paper is relevant since tourism is considered as an element of sustainable development of the region, which means not only growth but also formation of a fundamentally new system of land use planning with tourism as its integrator. The purpose of the paper is development of theoretical-methodological and cartographic instruments for identifying homogeneous territorial complexes, which can be grouped based on the similar functional features and represented as strategic instruments for development of the region. The differential matrix method for distinguishing typological structures in the economic complex of the region is the basic research method. This method in turn is based on the targeting method for the purpose of planning development of a region, the structural method aimed at forming clusters on the branch principle and the forecasting method with an eye to determine whether implementation of suggested measures will cause an increase in Gross Regional Product. It's suggested to implement recreational monitoring based on the concept of recreational digression stages with diversification of tourist product in each natural recreational area and identifying a few cycles of recreational activity, which allow, if conditions changed, refocusing recreational activity to a different, optimum direction and creating cross-border protected areas, coordinating actions of existing near-border areas. Zoned territories can be useful for investment companies, economic associations. The territories, which could be designated as additional protected areas in the Ukok, Chuya-Kuray, North-South-Chuya natural recreational regions, can be included into the Golden Ring as far-reaching paths.

Land ethics are the ways that humanity justifies their usage of the land. Today this topic is more important than ever as we balance our needs, such as food, water, and energy, with the systems of the natural world. The activity described in this article introduces students to the concept of land ethics using historical case studies of five common categories of ethics. The activity ends with a symposium examining a real-life example: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) in southern Utah, and the potential future use of this land. Engaging students in argumentation about this example allows them to see multiple sides of this complex issue.

We revised the Oregon State University (OSU) Woodland Stick to aid master woodland manager volunteers in advising their peers on land management decisions. The Woodland Stick has been used as an educational and measurement tool by OSU and other university Extension programs for many years, but little information is known about its impact. We surveyed users of the Woodland Stick and found that 48% use the tool at least once a year. Landowners who use the Woodland Stick find it simple to use and appreciate its low cost. Using the various features of the stick helps advance landowners toward successful woodland management.

To assist Extension professionals working in Texas's Little River Watershed with efforts to educate landowners about reducing amounts of bacteria there, we assessed motivations for and barriers to landowners' adopting best management practices (BMPs). We surveyed 275 landowners in the watershed. Respondents were at least somewhat familiar with nine of 11 identified BMPs. Additionally, they agreed that 10 of 13 listed factors were motivators for adopting BMPs and that six of 14 listed factors were barriers to adopting BMPs. Extension professionals can help landowners move through the innovation-decision process by targeting educational programming and materials to motivations for and barriers to adoption of such practices.

Forestry and environmental science students enrolled in a one credit hour freshman seminar course participated in a land management evaluation and water quality sampling excursion using canoes and water sampling equipment. The purpose of this assessment was to engage students with hands-on, field based education in order to foster connections to their chosen profession and the resource. This culminated in poster symposium of the experience. Broad competency areas for high impact practices in natural resource management were emphasized for learning. Students were engaged in the exercise and commented that the project helped them develop a sense of place and forming connections within their peer group. The use of water quality sampling and collection of real-world data increased the teaching a learning effectiveness of the course.

This study aims to determine cropping patterns in class slopes 0 - <15% and the grade slope slopes 15% - <30% and the slopes> 30%. The method used in this study is a description of the dynamic system approach using a software power sim. Forest areas where the research, which is a type of plant that is cultivated by the people in the study area, namely coffee, vanilla plantation crops / horticulture fruit and chili sauce for food crops / horticulture vegetables. Research results prove that the slope grade 0 - <15%. Cropping pattern of this slope is a combination of plant species are pine-vanilla-chili sauce with vanilla density of 712 stems and stem cayenne 1940, with revenues of wages pine + Rp 79,183,734 / ha. b) on the slope grade 15% - <30% and 30%. Cropping patterns on the slopes of this combination of plant species are pine-coffee-vanilla. On the slopes of 15% - <30% density of 277 coffee and vanilla stem rod 547, while for slopes of 30% with a density of 279 coffee and vanilla stem rod 545, with revenues respectively: wages pine + Rp 58.33.144 / ha and wages pine + US $ 55.40225 million / ha.

To ensure the existence of humankind and the sustainable utilization of the earth's resources, deliberate action needs to be channelled towards the conservation of the vital support systems of the entire Earth ecosystems. Forests in this case form quite a crucial part of this wider arrangement that if man does not deliberately conserve and sustainably manage them, they risk being plunged into an irreversible predicament. This study aims at identifying the perception and understanding of the local community on land use and utilization of the Nandi Hills Forests. A mixed methodological design which incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methodologies was embraced. The mixed methodological approaches used in this study were the concurrent triangulation and nested/embedded designs. A four-tier analysis was carried out once all the data had been coded and grouped. The state of the Nandi Hills Forests has been notably influenced by the level of awareness of the local community on the significance of sustainable forest management and what their actions and/or inactions mean to the forests.

As given in the Principle 17 of the Agenda 21, there is the need for environmental assessment for human developmental activities that are likely to have significant adverse impacts on the natural environment (UNCED, 1992). This article reviews various assessment methodologies and the reasons why methodological triangulation is a preferred choice to assess environmental degradation. Methodological triangulation is seen as the use of multiple methods in studying social science issues of concern so that to increase the study validity and or credibility. This implies that triangulation is the combination of two or more method approaches to assess social issues. The study reviews the applications of the populist and the classic approach in natural resource assessment, their advantages and disadvantages and methodological triangulation as a combination of both for neutralizing the flaws of the two approaches. Thus, to reap the benefits of the two approaches and minimizing the drawbacks, the combination of these two approaches has been advocated in this article as well. This study then tests the strength of methodological triangulation to assess environmental degradation in northern Ghana.

Re-embedding foodways in local communities and ecologies is an enormous undertaking that is supported in part through a myriad of educational processes. For niche spaces of post-industrial foodways, a crucial step toward normalization is being accepted, appreciated, and even desired by the wider society. This article explores how pedagogy underlies all food system change, especially for forming cultural legitimacy of emergent spaces. The theoretical perspective of public pedagogy is reviewed in order to provide an analytical frame for analyzing the educational processes that nurture cultural legitimacy for emergent food-oriented spaces. As various conceptions of public pedagogy have been used in a wide variety of contexts, I suggest an articulation that assumes learning to be an assemblage of spaces, practices, people, artifacts, and policies, which better captures the wide range of educational processes that precipitate cultural change (Deleuze and Guattari, 1988; McFarlane, 2011). To illustrate the role of public pedagogy in legitimizing emergent food-oriented spaces, I explore two specific cases. The first case of urban spatial policy takes public pedagogy as a starting point for the legitimization of certain spaces; while the second case of the residential front yard begins with a specific space that is a site of struggle with opposing public pedagogy processes, each creating cultural legitimacy for a different landscape form. By exploring the linkages between public pedagogy and space, I make the claim that education is the primary driver for food culture transformation.

Landscape-scale conservation planning performed in a systematic and transparent manner is becoming more common as it is increasingly evident that ecological processes are being affected at large spatial scales. The Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative undertook a 15-state landscape conservation planning project, resulting in a landscape conservation design called "NatureScape." To facilitate "NatureScape's" implementation by groups and individuals participating in on-the-ground landscape conservation, we developed an online decision support tool. This tool has the potential to assist Extension services in delivering research-based information to varied stakeholders as they make land use decisions.

Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food security (Godfray et al., 2011), with food production located at a critical nexus between land-use, reduced availability of fossil fuels and the urgent need to reduce emissions (Harvey & Pilgrim, 2011). While debates on food security and energy transitions proliferate in the scientific literature, policy discussions continue to focus on technical solutions, "without seriously engaging with the content and social practices of education for sustainable transitions" (Bangay & Blum, 2010, p. 335). In this context, school gardens are receiving renovated attention. Drawing on current drivers in Scottish policy seeking to tackle economic disadvantage and 'close the attainment gap', this project developed as a partnership between a teacher education institution, a non-governmental organisation, a city council planning and infrastructure department, and three primary schools in three regeneration areas of a city. Data were collected through a semi-ethnographic approach incorporating qualitative data obtained through observation schedules; visual data and interviews with teachers and pupils over the course of the project. By adopting a socio-material approach to the analysis, findings articulate the significant changes in both discourses and practices of learning associated with school gardening. Beyond the use of gardens as a context for delivering curricular outcomes and/or acquiring practical skills, tending to the gardens and growing food showed to contribute to the formulation of a learning aesthetics which foregrounds the centrality of the body in learning; acknowledges the living state of materials and positions children's actions as a way of being and becoming into the world.

Grazing management concepts can be hard for learners to grasp in a classroom setting. A grazing demonstration plot is a useful field tool that Extension professionals can implement to visually illustrate how various grazing regimes affect grass health and yields. Specifically, the educator can show how forage harvest timing, frequency, and intensity affect above-ground plant biomass production. A grazing demonstration plot has become a tool of the trade for a small number of Extension professionals in Colorado's Front Range. As a result, land managers in the area have been better able to evaluate how to meet their own needs while considering the importance of addressing environmental impacts and stewarding the land for future generations.

The major problems facing urban residents particularly women are poverty, poor food security, growing urban population, hunger and lack of formal employment. Due to lack of employment, the majority of women in urban centres are involved in urban agriculture. The major focus of this research was to establish to what extent women are being empowered through urban agriculture. The research sought to establish how women are contributing to urban poverty reduction, provision of urban food security and improved urban environmental management through their empowerment. The research used both qualitative and quantitative approaches and because the research involved an assessment of public opinion of a relatively large group, the survey method was used to conduct the research. Questionnaires, focus group discussion and observations were used as data collection instruments. From the list of 29 wards, simple random sampling of 10 wards was first conducted giving a percentage population of 34%. Twelve households from each ward, practicing agriculture at varying levels and on varying sites, were then identified giving a total sample of 120 respondents. The views of resident farmers were tapped through structured interviews, observations and group discussions with residents and agricultural officials. The SPSS package was then used to analyze the data. There was clear evidence that women are the major players in practicing urban agriculture. Women are being empowered by engaging in urban agriculture wherein they decide what to grow, cultivate their plots, and choose how to dispose of the produce. Whilst women are being empowered through urban agriculture, they face a number of challenges that include lack of finance to buy inputs, limited land for use in agricultural activities and the problem of marketing their produce.

In Zimbabwe, the discourse on access and quality in education has been a raging one since the colonial days of bottlenecks and outright discrimination against black Zimbabweans in education. The doors to education were declared open to all at independence in 1980 with the new Zimbabwe government's enunciated policy of education for all. It is an uncontested fact that strides were made soon after independence to address issues of quality and access in education. However, with the prosecution of the fast track land reform programme the dream for access and quality in education became a nightmare. Whilst trust schools, boarding schools, urban and some rural day schools have a comparative advantage in terms of resources like infrastructure and qualified and relatively motivated human resource, emerging resettlement schools bear the brunt of hastened and impromptu establishment. It is the contention of this paper that resettlement schools like Zvivingwi, established in the last decade, are a facade of the schools envisioned by many Zimbabweans at independence. These schools reel from abject shortage of everything except pupils. It would be recommended that government should show creativity in mobilising resources to intervene, failing which, most of the resettlement schools like Zvivingwi, risk closure as public confidence in them wanes. The researcher made use of a questionnaire and interviewed critical stakeholders at the school like headmaster, teachers, parents, pupils and education officers. School records and other critical documents were also made use of.

This article examines the possibilities when shifting what we have come to call a pedagogy of Land from rural to urban contexts. The authors explore some persisting questions around what it means to bring a pedagogy of Land into classrooms and communities in urban settings. The authors consider the ways a pedagogy of Land might translate from rural to urban contexts while addressing some of the ways this work may move forward in a good way. Further, the authors share various aspects that have allowed Land to inform both pedagogy and praxis in teacher education focusing on student success, particularly Aboriginal students within schools.

Global demand is increasing for food, feed, and fiber; for additional agricultural outputs, such as biofuels; and for ecosystem services, such as clean water and outdoor recreation. In response, new agricultural enterprises are needed that produce more outputs from existing lands while meeting the "triple bottom line" of high performance in economic, environmental, and social terms. Establishing such enterprises requires coordination and development within three critical domains: landscape configurations (i.e., types and arrangements of land uses), supply/value chains (i.e., processing and utilization), and policy and governance. In this essay, we describe our efforts, as land-grant university scientists, to support coordinated innovation and enterprise development in integrated place-based institutions, which we term landlabs. We describe our experiences in three prototyping efforts and outline key features of landlabs that are emerging from these efforts. Land-grant universities have a central and crucial role to play in organizing and operating landlabs.

In this article, the authors describe a cultural transformation to embrace community-engaged scholarship by faculty members in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia-Vancouver. They describe a transition from community-inquiry faculty projects to community-engaged action research projects achieved through organizational restructuring, curricular revision, and new teaching approaches; discuss the concepts that grounded their curricular revision; and report on the outcomes of their Faculty's transition. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The "evidence-centered design" (ECD) framework is a powerful tool that supports careful and critical thinking about the identification and accumulation of evidence in assessment contexts. In this paper, we demonstrate how the ECD framework provides critical support for designing simulation studies to investigate statistical methods within an ill-defined methodological domain like games-based assessment. We discuss the design and selected findings of a complex simulation study to investigate the utility of statistics derived from a non -parametric method called "epistemic network analysis"; this method is used in practice for the analysis of real data from a suite of digital learning environments called "epistemic games." We present findings that show that one marginal ENA statistic, the "weighted density" statistic from social network analysis, has some ability to detect differences among a variety of simulated learners when they play different types of simulated games. Detection strength ranged from weak to strong, depending jointly on game design characteristics and the types of learners being compared. Our work illustrates the complex challenges of how best to describe, justify, and evaluate design decisions for simulation studies in the context of games-based assessment.

The Coeur d'Alene Reservation spans 345,000 acres of mountains and farmland in northern Idaho. Most people on the reservation live in the communities of Worley, Plummer, Tensed, and Desmet. Roughly 50 miles south of Plummer is the University of Idaho's main campus in Moscow. The university is Idaho's land-grant institution, with a statewide mission of teaching, research, and outreach. Through its strategic plan, the university is committed to partnerships like Better Together, a university-community partnership in which university faculty members and students work across disciplines to address critical issues, side by side with communities. Better Together brought together two university programs--Horizons and the Building Sustainable Communities Initiative (BSCI)--with people in communities on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation. The communities partnered with the university through University of Idaho Extension's Horizons program to expand leadership capacity and reduce poverty. For its part, the university partnered with the communities first as part of its outreach mission (through Horizons), and then, building from the Horizons relationship, to give its students real-world learning experiences. From 2006 through 2009, local residents interacted with University of Idaho faculty members and students in a variety of settings--community leadership training, broad-based community visioning, activities to reduce poverty, land use planning sessions, and social events. Two years after the main programs ended, there are positive outcomes for the communities as well as the university. This article describes the University of Idaho's partnership with the Coeur d'Alene Reservation Communities, which was awarded a 2010 Outreach Scholarship/W. K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award for the Western Region. (Contains 1 figure.)

Invasive alien species (IAS) cause major environmental and economic damage worldwide, and also threaten human food security and health. The impacts of IAS are expected to rise with continued globalization, land use modification, and climate change. Developing effective strategies to deal with IAS requires a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach, in which scientists work co-operatively with social scientists and policy-makers. Higher education can contribute to this process by training professionals to balance the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of the IAS problem. We examined the extent of such training in Canada by reviewing undergraduate and graduate university curricula at all 94 member institutions of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada for IAS content. We found that degree and diploma programs focusing on IAS issues are lacking at Canadian post-secondary institutions. Furthermore, few courses are devoted solely to IAS, and those that are typically adopt an ecological perspective. We argue that the absence of interdisciplinary university curricula on IAS in Canada negatively affects our ability to respond to this growing global challenge. We present several international educational programs on IAS as case studies on how to better integrate training on invasive species into university curricula in Canada. (Contains 1 table.)

NIMBYism, the popular and short form for "Not In My Back Yard", describes the resistance and outright opposition by residents, either within a distinct place such as a neighbourhood, or, more broadly, in a larger civic area right up to a town or city level, against some planned nearby facility, service, or changed land use. NIMBYism is also about people's more extensive relation to the world of change, and their understanding of the wider places in which they move. It is an existential issue touching on the ways people find meaning in the world. As such it is an ethical issue connected to choices which are often less about care for others then one's ability to consume. It is tied into the integrated nature of people's civic, economic and environmental obligations. In this article, the author talks about environmental engagement and the problem of the "Not In My Back Yard" syndrome. He first describes the historic roots of NIMBYism and the contemporary forces in continuing NIMBYism. He then offers solutions for overcoming NIMBYism.

In this final, collaborative paper in the "Learning to be drier" edition, we reflect on and draw together some of the key threads from the diverse narratives in our four site papers from across the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Our paper title, "Wicked learning", draws on a recent body literature (Rittel & Webber 1973) about messy or "wicked problems" as characterised by Dietz and Stern (1998). It picks up on our identification of the difficulty and enormity of the learning challenges being faced by communities, associated, at best, with a decade of record dry years (drought) and severely over-committed rivers. At worst, drought is occurring in combination with and as a precursor to recent, progressive drying of the Basin associated with climate change. Our research is suggestive of a need for much more learning across all segments of the adult community about "... the big picture, including the interrelationships among the full range of causal factors ..." (Australian Public Service Commission, APSC 2007: 1) underlying the presenting problem of drying. We conclude that solutions to the messy or wicked problem of drying in an interconnected Basin will lie in the social domain. This will include building a wider knowledge and acceptance of the problems and likely future risks across the Basin including all parts of communities. The problem of drying as well as its causes and solutions are multidimensional, and will involve comprehensive learning about all five key characteristics of other "wicked" policy problems identified in previous research in the environmental arena. The narratives that we have heard identify the extreme difficulty in all four sites of rational and learned responses to being drier as the problem has unfolded. All narratives about being drier that we have heard involve a recognition of a combination of the five characteristics common to wicked problems: multidimensionality, scientific uncertainty, value confect and uncertainty, mistrust as well as urgency. All narratives identify the importance of social learning: to be productive, to be efficient, to survive, to live with uncertainty, to be sustainable and to share. Combating the extent and effects of drying, causality aside, will require new forms of learning through new community, social and learning spaces, apart from and in addition to new technological and scientific learning. (Contains 1 figure.)

This research project, part of a much larger study, considered how people in regional communities learnt to deal with the impact of reduced water availability as a result of drought or climate change. The communities in the Mallee-Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, were the focus of this study and a range of local people from different sectors of the communities were involved in interviews, which became our main data source. We recognise the limitation that not all viewpoints could possibly be accessed in the participant selection process. The resultant data indicated that significant changes were being made to local practices as a result of the learning taking place and that there were a range of processes which enabled adult learning across the communities. (Contains 1 table.)

This article explores the adult and community learning associated with "learning to be drier" in the Riverland region of South Australia. Communities in the Riverland are currently adjusting and making changes to their understandings and practices as part of learning to live with less water. The analysis of adult and community learning derived from this research identified six different forms of learning. These are, learning to produce, learning to be efficient, learning to survive, learning to live with uncertainty, learning to be sustainable and learning to share. These forms of learning do not occur in isolation and separately from each other but to the contrary are occurring simultaneously with and alongside each other. Further, it is argued that the people and communities in the Riverland, through learning to live with the effects of climate change and less water, are at the forefront of learning to be drier. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper investigates learning related to the phenomena of drying over the past decade in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in Australia, as perceived in a mid-river site within the western Riverina of New South Wales, Australia. The insights from audio-recorded interviews, with a wide range of adults across the water-dependent community, mostly relate to the catchment of the Murrumbidgee River in the Shire of Hay. Our overarching theme is about how people are learning about, understanding and bearing the risks, of what is widely regarded as a prolonged drought. For some, the learning is about how to cope with less water in the Basin, and particularly from the river, as predicted in the climate change literature. Our narrative-based, empirical research registers the felt experience of those located, in situ, as a severe "irrigation drought" extends into 2009. The paper dramatises the many obstacles to learning how to think and act differently, in difficult and rapidly changing ecosocial circumstances. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

In this article, the authors set the scene for this research volume. They sought to emphasize and broaden their interest and concern about their "Learning to be drier" theme in this edition to the 77 per cent of Australians who live within 50 km of the Australian coast, the majority of whom also live in major cities and urban complexes. On 24 September 2009, a massive dust storm swept across New South Wales, dumping millions of tonnes of red dust on capital city areas of Australia unaccustomed to dust: (1) Canberra; (2) Sydney; and (3) Brisbane. Snow, laced with the same red dust fell the same day in the Australian Alps, as attempts at breaking the historic and prolonged deadlock between the Australian federal government and states about water trading rules, as part of achieving a national "plan" for the Murray Darling-Basin, again broke down. On 1 October 2009 the New South Wales Office of Water circulated a news release, making "an initial allocation (in the Murray Valley) to general security users of 1 per cent" of their entitlements, and asking all water users "to be as conservative as possible with their use in what continues to be the worst drought ever experienced". Eight researchers contributed team papers to this special edition from the four sites in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Collectively, they bring wide and deep academic backgrounds, theoretical perspectives and experiences from a wide range of work, research and life contexts, in mainly rural and regional Australia. While the research plan detailed in this article was essentially common, each two-person team grappled with and selected its own preferred combination of theoretical perspectives for their paper. The method and the qualitative (mainly interview) data were therefore treated somewhat differently across different sites. While the four site papers were researched, developed and written relatively independently by two-person teams, their joint, sixth paper attempts to "stand back". In sum, they collaboratively seek to critically analyse and draw some conclusions about what might be common or different about the diverse approaches to learning about being drier, drawn from four very different land use contexts, in the same Basin, across three different Australian states. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)