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Jon Kohl'S Informationsphere





 


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Costa Rican History
In 1992, Jon led current president Oscar Arias around Dartmouth College campus (NH) for three days before the first-time president eventually gave the graduation speech for Jon's class. Who would have known they would both end up in Costa Rica together again?

 

Thank you to Brian Kohl for hosting this web site. See his great photo gallery.

Publications

  • “Torpedo Speed: Mexican Group Maps Yucatan’s Underground Rivers with Flying Electromagnetic Torpedo Sensor.” (Nov/Dec 2009). E Magazine.
  • “Way Beyond Darwin: Evolution of Human Consciousness and the Future of Interpretation. (November 2009). Interpretive Sourcebook. 
  • “Making Home: American living in Costa Rica learns that in hard times home isn’t a place that we inherit — it’s a place that we create.” (September 2009). Communities magazine, Issue on “Community in Hard Times.”
  • “Transcending Barriers to Plan Implementation at World Heritage Sites Depends on New Mindset.” (June 2009). Chapter in Tourism Planning at Major World Heritage Archaeological Sites, published by UNESCO.
  • “A Systems-Based Interpretive Planning Model that Links Culturally Constructed Place Meanings and Conservation.” (November 2008). Journal of Interpretation Research. National Association for Interpretation. Co-author: Ted Eubanks, President of Fermata, Inc.
  • Stories of the Reef.” (PDF, 6 MB, 48 pp) Photojournalistic report covering all programs that the Summit Foundation supports to protect the Mesoamerican Reef (August 2008). See image above right.

Recent Projects

Proceedings-Guide on Environmental Interpretation Presented in Bolivia

30 September. Based on the four-day workshop Jon gave last September in Bolivia, workshop organizers compiled content of the workshop and fashioned it into a manual, presented on 30 September for use at a Bolivian university.


Heritage Interpretation in the Poconos, Pennsylvania & Illinois River Valley

July. Jon and Fermata, Inc. are developing an interpretive framework for all of the Poconos region and Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. Jon will also facilitate a feasibility study for a guide certification program in the Poconos. Also working on a framework for the Illinois River Valley which goes from Chicago to the Mississippi River.


Covering Conservation of the Mesoamerican Reef

April. The Summit Foundation hired Jon to study and write about its many funded projects for the conservation of the Mesoamerican Reef. After visiting Mexico and Belize, reading dozens of background documents, and conducting 45 interviews, Jon wrote a photojournalistic report about the reef, focusing on learning, engagement, and enforcement.


Jon and TNC/CATIE Writing Paper on Implementation Barriers

San José, Costa Rica. July. Jon is lead authoring a paper based on a study done by staff from The Nature Conservancy, and CATIE that investigated why so many management plans in Costa Rica go unimplemented.

 

Speaking

US State Dept. Lecture Tour in Africa on Ecotourism Development, Part II

June. Jon is in Africa again with the State Department’s Strategic Speaker Initiative to speak about and meet with Africans on ecotourism development and environmental protection. He visited Swaziland and is in Malawi. See below for first tour in Africa. This is Jon’s third State Department-sponsored speaking tour. The first occurred in 2007 in Ecuador and Bolivia about environmental interpretation. Photo: Host of Swaziland’s national TV daily breakfast show interviews Jon about tourism.

An Opening Talk in UNESCO Training in Montenegro

May, Durmitor National Park. Jon attends a workshop sponsored by UNESCO and UNEP to train World Heritage Sites in Southeastern Europe on tourism planning and management. Jon gives one of the opening talks about barriers to implementing park plans and (second talk) on whether stakeholders should be co-creators or competitors in park planning. More info on Montenegro.

State Dept. Lecture Tour in Cameroon and Liberia on Ecotourism Development, Part I

August ’08, Africa. Jon earned his second Strategic Speaker Initiative Grant with the US State Department, this time to visit Africa for two weeks to discuss ecotourism development. His last grant took him to Ecuador and Bolivia last September on the topic of environmental interpretation.


See all talks and conferences.

 

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Personal News

Querencia in National Geographic Contest

 

21 May. Querencia Costa Rica, the ecovillage that Jon and Marisol are co-founding with others, was just entered into the Geotourism Challenge co-sponsored with Ashoka Foundation's Changemakers program. See the entry which gives a concise overview of Querencia at http://geotourism.changemakers.com/en-us/node/20717.

More personal news

Photo of the Month

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“Hurry up snail male.” Snail has trouble keeping up with date in Podgorica, Montenegro. May 2009

 

Other photos of the month

June 20, 2009