Involving People in Science and Sustainability in the Pantanal Wetlands of Brazil - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 199

as opposed to an experience that is canned like a laboratory experiment or some-
thing that you just go through where there are certain pre-scripted outcomes of that
activity. Developing a form of engagement where the outcomes are not known is
important in terms of modulating what sorts of experiences are generated (Chandler
2004). Earth Watch believes that informed stakeholders are the key to a better deci-
sion-making process concerning protecting the world's environmental and cultural
heritage (Earth Watch 2008). For this to happen, it is necessary for people to not
only understand but also “buy into” and care about the outcomes of their and oth-
ers' actions. With this motivation comes a feeling of empowerment where individu-
als who have actually performed something together feel that they have more sort
of community that is dedicated to actually carrying out certain outcomes (see also
chapter 2 for how ecological restoration is one way of building such a confraternity
of action). This networking component is very important in terms of enabling people
to share personal information and to develop capacity building in terms of the train-
ing aspects learned from involvement in any activity. Earth Watch has often seen that
when people engage in these activities, they decide to make dramatic career choices
toward doing something they've always wanted to do but have never previously had
the sort of empowerment or ideas necessary to actualize such long-held aspirations.
Earth Watch engages a local as well as an international or regional component
in their sponsored projects. Clearly with respect to the Iraqi marshes, for example,
involving Turks or others from outside of the immediate sphere will be important
in terms of these engagement pieces. Also, the engagement of leaders—people who
have multiplier effects within the community—from the political and corporate
world, as well as educated students, will be equally important. And one other group
to target for fostering widespread engagement in environmental management is those
key people within communities who share information and help build capacity, such
as storytellers and artists (France 2003; France and Fletcher 2005).
THE EARTH WATCH MODEL
The mission of Earth Watch is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research
in education in order to promote the understanding that's actually necessary for a
sustainable environment (Earth Watch 2008). The key piece is the scientific field
research, so that individuals participating in peer-reviewed field research projects
are those who are supported. Earth Watch has been doing this sort of work for over
three decades and in any year supports about 130 different individual field research
projects with 260 researchers in close to fifty countries. In order to do this work,
Earth Watch solicits about four thousand paying volunteers annually to participate
on these projects and to support them.
In terms of the use of volunteers in the scientific field research projects, one of the
important aspects is in providing a labor force necessary to accomplish the goals.
In other words, whether it's replanting or eradicating exotics, there's often a labor-
intensive component to many restoration projects that can be satisfied by volunteer
efforts (see chapter 2). And there is an educational component similar to museums
or national parks using volunteers to help inform the public. Earth Watch therefore
looks at using previously untrained but highly motivated and usually knowledgeable