Constructing space of care in the age of philanthropic economy : a case study of the sea turtle conservation center in Sri Lanka /

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Student Projects

2025

Wang, Hehe

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

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Conservation examines strategies to protect and restore the natural environment in public and private ways. As private conservation initiatives often generate public environmental benefits through protective practices, they intersect with philanthropic principles. Geographic space analysis, as one of the fundamental themes of geography, offers foundational insights into the physical spatial distribution of elements in a three-dimensional world and reveals the interactions between people and the environment. In the age of a philanthropic economy, investigating the conservation practices should refer to a specific time and space scale. Based on the protection needs of the last decades, the functional specificity of the small private sea turtle conservation centers in Sri Lanka creates multi-dimensional geographical space complexities. This research takes the case study of a sea turtle conservation centre in Sri Lanka, which analyzes how the centre can build a sustainable operation and contribute to a caring environment. An investigation through in-depth interviews with staff and volunteers at a sea turtle conservation center found that the private conservation center's unique physical environment spatial design facilitated the formation of multiple geographic spaces to serve its conservation practices, economic activities, educational outreach, and ethical considerations. However, there is a tension between the profitability through market mechanisms and conservation goals inherent in the center. The research result suggests that the ethical space constructed through passion, empathy, responsibility, and access equity could be treated as an internal mechanism to alleviate the tension. Within the framework of the philanthropic economy, the research provides new insights into optimizing private conservation moral models, especially for marine life conservation. It highlights the importance of ethical practices in combining financial viability with environmental responsibility, guiding future conservation initiatives

LG51.H43 hp BEd(Geo) 2025eb Wanghh

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/KKSCn3xe