Chika Nakayama

My first interest is inner city kids who have difficulty accessing nature and outdoor activity. Learning from nature and experiencing different types of activities while young age can have a big impact in their lives. From this experience, they can learn so many things besides studying nature from books. The children also can develop communication skills by being in the situation, meeting new people, which are important social skills. Living with busy parents, who are absent because they are working, cannot give this experience. Developing a relationship with nature can also give them a new respect for the world they live in. Being outdoors, learning about how the earth is sensitive can be huge lesson for them.

http://mommypoppins.com/about-mommy-poppins
Mommy Poppins provides information of activity in NY. They have site map of events, calendar, and news to know what kinds of activity is happened. They have variety of activity information all brought, including, Staten Island, Hudson valley, Long island, and New Jersey.

http://www.freshair.org/top-links/about-us.aspx
Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, a not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer experiences in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities.

http://nycico.sierraclub.org/aboutnycico/aboutus
It is a volunteer organization working to provide young people with outdoor recreational opportunities, leadership training, positive group experiences and environmental education, while imbuing in them a love of nature and the outdoors.



My second and third interests are nomads in Mongolia. I was always interested in their way of life, following the cycle of nature. People have misunderstood them, thinking their livelihood destroy the environment, like the Australian aborigine. Actually their culture wasn’t destroying the Mongolia habitat. Industrization, increased population, agriculture, and settlement cause the land to change. People thought they are destroying the environment because their animals, sheep and goats, eat the glass making the land become desert. The truth is they move to the next area after they eat the most of glass, mindful not to let the animals eat the roots. Because of settlement, goats and sheep stay in one place and eat the glass. They also eat the roots, causing the desertification of the glasslands. Production of cashmere is the second largest in the world. Year by year, the demand for cashmere is increasing, and people overgraze the livestock. People and animals no longer have balance with the land, which also causes desertification.

http://www.npo-mef.org/
It is a Japanese organization that analyze and research about Mongolia.

http://www.mongoliacenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=38
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is a non-profit educational organization that supports the development of Mongolian Studies and academic exchanges with Inner Asia.