Most of the major challenges of biodiversity conservation occur in tropical and subtropical regions of developing countries, where researchers must confront the interactions of biological, physical, social, economic, and governance conditions that often are very different from those in North America. The research at the core of this proposed IGERT program is aimed at understanding these conditions and their interactions in the eastern Himalayas of southwest China. This area, designated a Global Biodiversity Hotspot by Conservation International, is the site of a program for long-term research collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The IGERT program will provide students with the interdisciplinary and international education and research experience needed to deal with biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Course work will be configured to provide solid grounding in one major discipline; competence in a minor that is, ideally, in another area (e.g., students majoring in a biological science and minoring in a social science); and literacy in several other fields (i.e., acquaintance with major theoretical paradigms and research methods). New course offerings on campus will include integrative seminars focused on the southwest China research, with faculty mentoring interdisciplinary student teams working on real problems and producing peer reviewed outputs. The Chinese Academy of Sciences plans to send students and scientists to the University of Wisconsin throughout the program. They will join these seminars as student team members and as mentors, respectively. Research results will be used by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to help to develop projects that sustain biodiversity while raising incomes. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Ph.D. students trained in the program have advanced our scientific understanding of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in a global biodiversity hotspot. Their discoveries have implications for: (a) conservation of ecosystems and species diversity; (b) understanding linkages between natural resources and livelihood strategies; and (c) the influence of policy and governance. Results from IGERT funding led to the publication of articles in high-profile journals, including Society and Natural Resources, Remote Sensing of Environment, Evolution, Review of International Studies, Economic Botany, and Science. IGERT trainees’ research has shown: (a) the acceleration of deforestation and defragmentation in old-growth forests primarily driven by tourism and despite a logging ban; (b) the complex interplay of climate, fire cessation and overgrazing as the cause of alpine meadows being colonized by rhododendron; (c) the importance of sacred forests for the conservation of bird diversity; (d) large inter-village forest cover change variability caused by state-endorsed tourism despite stable forest cover at the larger scale; (e) communities’ abilities to choose the most efficient management system for natural resources, such as matsutake mushrooms; (f) the potential for market-based incentives to help in conservation of agrobiodiversity, such as the in situ cultivation of tartary buckwheat; (g) the importance of addressing indoor air pollution to reduce the cardiovascular disease burden; (h) the adaptation of cultures, such as Mosuo society, to change while maintaining traditional livelihoods; (h) the expansion of environmental regulations and legal institutions may exacerbate environmental harm when local economic and political actors use them to control villager behavior; and (i) non-governmental organizations are dependent on the goodwill of provincial and local governments and as a result they may facilitate state policies. Many of our IGERT fellows have already launched successful careers in interdisciplinary academic institutes and organizations.
