lynsdmb Oct 17, 2005 11:41 am

Hello,

We are students in the University of Maryland's Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development graduate program and are currently working on a project for Conservation International (CI) to assess attitudes toward biodiversity in selected Biodiversity Hotspots, Key Marine Areas, and High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas around the world, including: Tropical Andes, Mesoamerica, Amazonia, Mountains of Southwest China, Southern Africa, Madagascar, Indonesia, and the Philippines. One of our end products will be a database cataloguing all the studies we find, as well as their results, which will provide a readily available source of baseline data of attitudes toward biodiversity in each of these areas. Ideally, this database will be converted into an online web-based database that researchers and organizations all over the world can not only access to find relevant studies in their area or work, but can also update with additional studies that they have found. We will be looking at a broad range of studies, including those measuring knowledge, attitudes, and skills of the public pertaining to biodiversity conservation (including studies of attitudes toward endangered species, protected areas, conservation corridors, ecosystem services, wildlife trade, and others). We plan to only include studies dated from 2000 and beyond, as public perceptions and attitudes fluctuate and may not be relevant beyond a five-year time scale. We would appreciate a few moments of your time, if available, to suggest specific studies assessing attitudes toward biodiversity in your area of study, as well as suggestions for sources and further contacts that would be helpful for us to find this information ourselves. We would especially appreciate access to unpublished studies or those unavailable through the internet or university libraries if available.

Thank you so much for your time. The more information that we are able to gather, the more complete our database will be, and the more helpful it will be to provide baseline data concerning attitudes toward biodiversity in key conservation areas, as well as identifying areas where more research is needed. Of course, you will have access to our completed project if it is indeed converted to an online database (we can send you the link). Otherwise, we can share our results with you in another format. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Lynsey White, Lulu Keng, & Thinley Namgyel

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]