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Abstract

Natural resources education for a culturally diverse audience is central to the mission of the Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM) in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. GEM’s purpose is to pioneer and apply practical learning methods and technology to solve natural resource problems by linking faculty, students and citizens worldwide. Building on mutual interests and joint collaboration, GEM and its international partners exchange ideas, personnel, and curricula, develop models for community involvement in sustainable development, and conduct applied research and outreach education in a variety of natural resource-based fields of endeavor. This paper describes how GEM and its partners overseas are operationalizing United Nations Millennium Development Goals on the ground in culturally adapted and locally accepted demonstration projects. Examples of such natural resources education for diverse cultures include an international field-based seminar in Wisconsin on watershed management for watershed managers from around the world; a demonstration project of watershed catchment monitoring and water allocation in South Africa; a project on dietetics and small garden systems to support medical treatment and food security for families impacted by HIV/AIDS in Kenya; a community based ecotourism, land use planning and watershed management project in Mexico; a rural leadership and community development twinning study on water resources between Wisconsin and the Peoples Republic of China; an international student exchange and internship program between several U.S. and European universities on sustainable forestry; a conservation and environmental sciences educational curriculum project and teacher exchange between Wisconsin and Puerto Rico; and a GEM Student Ambassador Program for international learning.

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