Media Release

For Immediate Release

April 20, 2006

Profs tackle environmental issues in China

High up in the mountains in Western China (from left to right): Dr. Zhongmin Dong (Biology), Dr. David Cone (Biology), Dr. Madine VanderPlaat (Sociology and Criminology), and Dr. Doug Strongman (Biology).

Four faculty from Saint Mary’s University, Drs. David Cone, Zhongmin Dong, Douglas Strongman (Biology), and Madine VanderPlaat (Sociology/Criminology), are visiting Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, China and the surrounding countryside.

They are visiting this country to develop, with the assistance of the International Activities Office at Saint Mary's, a CIDA-funded UPCD Tier 2 project proposal entitled, “Environmental sustainability in rural western China.”

The nature of the project is to foster interdisciplinary cooperation and outreach among departments at Shaanxi Normal that will focus on capacity building as it relates to rural community sustainability.

China faces unprecedented environmental issues that come about from complex interactions between humans and their immediate worlds. In rural western China, increased human activity is linked to deforestation, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and to the undermining of ecosystem integrity and function, which in turn fuels poverty, and sustains social and gender inequities. Poverty makes it difficult for poor rural women and men to adapt the simple activities and technologies in their household and on their farm to be more environmentally friendly.

Saint Mary's University is known for its community outreach projects, both in Canada and around the world. Saint Mary's, founded in 1802, is home to one of Canada's leading business schools, a Science Faculty widely known for its cutting-edge research, a comprehensive and innovative Arts Faculty and a vibrant Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.

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For More Information:

Paul Fitzgerald
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: paul.fitzgerald@smu.ca
www.smu.ca