Acknowledgements

Thanks collectively for

My Yami friends who have assisted me in my study contributed to shaping my thinking and world view about conservation (Syaman and Sinan Jipengaya, Chin-Hua Chou...)

Special thanks to

Advisor: Claudia Neuhauser for her long-term supports of my interest exploration
Advisor: Kristen Nelson for many conceptual clarification and constructive suggestions

Committee members: David Andow in Entomology, Jeffrey Broadbent in Sociology, and Jean Langford in Anthropology

Yin Wang for actively encouraging my conservation interests, and Jen-Che Wang for his information of Araceae (taro) researches in Taiwan, Wen-Je Wu for ant information

Seminar Group of Conservation Issues in Human Dimensions in fall 2000, and of Comparative Methodology of Sociology in spring 2001

Marjorie Loeffler, Kimberly Byrd, Julia Frost, Shu-Mei Chang, Kim Alan Chapman and Sarah Coles for patiently reading draft versions

Shaben Anaen, Chi-Mao Hwang, and Tim Linksvayer for the uses of photograph

Other thanks to agencies and institutions

David Smith and Francesca Cuthbert in Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, US
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Scientific and Natural Areas Program, MN, US
Lan-An Culture and Education Foundation, Lanyu, Taiwan
NSF DMS #9703694 (to Claudia Neuhauser) for conceptual model developing
MacAuther Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2002
MacAuther Pre-Dissertation Fellowship for Fieldwork, 2001
Alexander P. and Lydia Anderson fellowship, 2001
Dayton and Wilkie Natural History Fund of the Bell Museum of Natural History, 2001