Vincent Kusi-Kyei

Vincent Kusi-Kyei is a graduate student from the Department of Tourism and Recreation (MA. Sustainable Leisure Management) at Vancouver Island University (VIU), Nanaimo BC. Vincent has worked as a field demonstrator/technician, teaching and research assistant through his academic training from the College of Renewable Natural Resources(CRNR)-Sunyani through to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)-Kumasi all in Ghana, West Africa with a diploma in natural resources management and a bachelor degree in forest resources technology (FRT)specialized land reclamation and rehabilitation technology respectively. As an environmental and conservational advocate to transforming and revitalizing rural and urban community development, he contributed and gained much experience working with and serving on two CIDA funded projects via; the Ghana-Canada Partnership for Environmental Education between VIU and FRT-KNUST in 2009-2012 and Agroforestry Practices to Enhance Resources Poor-livelihood ( APERL) also between University of Guelph, Canada and KNUST, Ghana.

Trained in biological science field and believing that, natural resources management is adapting and responding to current demands and changing socio-cultural and political regimes, Vincent is motivated and challenged to learn, discover in diversities, the social ethics that shape these forces and thus curious about their relationships.

Ecological governance recently has become an indispensable sustainability pillar to safeguarding our planet earth and also helps to analyze these relationships. But an efficient and effective communication is a dilemma in this regard. To develop a better understanding of these relationships, His master's research explores of the role community play in protected area management a case study of the Gulf Islands National Park, Canada. Now the "BIG" question is "Whose Knowledge, whose nature" (Escobar, 1998)? Funding for this research is through the Protected Area and Poverty Reduction (PAPR)-Canada project provided by SSHRC and IDRC. The project is an International Community Research Alliance involving Canada, Ghana and Tanzania partnering with their individual academic institutions. (Vancouver Island University, University of Victoria and University of Guelph-Canada; Sunyani Polytechnic, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Forest commission-Ghana; and College of African Wildlife Management- Tanzania).

Vincent dreams to become a researcher-consulting and a university professor, hence hoping for PhD opportunity in resource and environmental management planning. Being part of the Centre for Global Studies (Grad Research Fellow) has provided me with a multi and interdisciplinary dimensional thinking platform of analyzing scenarios to be innovative in providing solutions.