The Mazingira (“Environment”) Fund supports original projects designed to promote environmental conservation/sustainability anywhere in the world. The broadest interpretation is applied to include natural and human-built ecosystems and diverse sources of impacts, e.g. ecology, energy, human population, law/policy, morals/ethics, economics, or aesthetics. Students may implement their projects during January or summer months with the understanding that January work will be at least three full weeks while summer work will be at least four full weeks.
Some examples of successfully funded overseas projects include measuring long-term effects of climate change in Iceland, coral conservation and restoration in Fiji, poverty and human population in India, feline conservation programs in Costa Rica, indigenous forest knowledge in Ecuador, sustainable cities in Europe, insect-based diets in Asia/Europe, and megafauna conservation in South Africa. Within the United States, the grant has funded research on water pollution/presentation of results at conferences, internships in environmental policy/conservation in Wyoming, wildlife management in Texas, and freshwater mussel conservation in the Great Lakes.
