Why I #CareAboutClimate

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change started negotiations to address the issue of climate change in 1990, a year before I was born (5 years before the photo below was taken). It has been over 20 years since people from all over the world identified that this was an issue that needed to be discussed worldwide in order to ensure something was going to be done to alleviate the effects that human induced climate change has on our planet and people.  We have made very little progress, but recently I have been given a lot of hope, and I think we have the opportunity to change the course of history.

I grew up in Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. This small city is a two hour drive from the Grand Canyon, is nestled in the largest continueous ponderosa pine forest in the world, is the first international dark sky city and the place Pluto was discovered (we still consider it a planet, dwarf or not), and is a place where the human environment and natural environment never seemed very separate. Growing up here you get to appreciate all four seasons; have opportunities to hike, river raft, rock climb, see deer in your backyard; get to see the stars at night; and get to look forward to monsoons every summer and snow every winter. You quickly appreciate the forest, the mountains, and the fresh air. Especially if you have to leave it for extended periods every once in a while.

Recently there have been significant changes in the environment that I once lived in. I moved to southern Arizona, and people here notice changes too, but in a different context. Flagstaff no longer experiences as many powerful snowstorms that provide water to the region, and protect the forest from intense fires. Drought hangs over the forest hauntingly. The bark beetles take this opportunity to feed and breed within the trees, which leaves the dead trees ready to be consumed by wildfire. The summer monsoons, which provide relief for the forest are not as reliable as they once were. All these factors leave the ecosystem susceptible to extreme fire, which means humans and their structures are also vulnerable in these regions.

I do not think people know how much of a problem global warming is until they have to face it directly. You start to figure out how big of a problem it is when you are on standby to evacuate your house due to a wildfire, and you have to decide what is most important to pack because you could lose everything else. You also start to realize how big of a problem it is when you need to sandbag your house because the forest that once protected your house from flooding has now been wiped out by a wildfire. So even though your house stands it is still damaged because the forest has been destroyed. These are the kind of things my community faces because of the change of weather as a result of global warming in addition to historical mismanagement of the forest, which is another topic entirely.

In this situation I am only concerned about losing my house, but in other places around the world people are facing much more dire consequences of global warming. I go to the UN conferences on climate change and I hear the stories of people that have lost family members from extreme weather events, have lost crops because of drought or excessive winds or rain, or are fearing they will lose their island country from rising sea levels. Most of the people that face these problems are not rich enough to just move or buy other food. For most of them they either lose their home, starve, are more easily subjected to diseases that they cannot afford to cure, and in some cases they die. Global warming is not an environmental issue, this is a human issue.

I am not saying these things to depress you or make you feel guilty or scared. I think people that talk about climate change are too doom and gloomy to be honest, but I do want to tell you about the realities that we face. I have been on standby to evacuate my home due to extreme wildfires and I have been to Indonesia where rice farmers are noticing the yields from their rice crop decreasing, which they need to survive. I have been to the UN where I hear people from island states tell their tales of how typhoons killed thousands of people, some friends and family. These are my experiences, and every time I encounter these things I get more passionate to do something about it.

We have the opportunity to make a difference and to help prevent these occurrences globally. We have the opportunity to be proactive and come together as communities, private entities, states, provinces, countries, and the world to act on this now and prevent further global warming. Never has there been a better time then now to show the power of human ingenuity, and to address an issue that affects every single person, and the reason I am so hopeful is because of the amount of people that are challenging their governments to take on this issue with real and viable commitments and solutions. People around the world are calling for action, and they will not back down. Together we are a community that has enough voice and power to change the way we tackle global problems. We are committed, we are strong, and we will not give up

Last Village and Back to Java

          

  We (team awesome to the left deep in thought) have just finished the last surveys for my research this summer. We have talked to 120 people, have conducted 13 focus groups, and have talked to various village leaders throughout western Lombok. What I have concluded about my research is I feel like I know so much, and at the same time I feel like I know nothing. I feel like I could make so many conclusions about what is happening in and around these villages, but I also feel like those conclusions would be debatable. This feeling may go away as I look at trends in the data, think about the stories from the villages, and start calculating fuelwood use in Lombok more in depth. For now I will remain lost in my thoughts and all the answers I have received as I finish entering the data for Dasan Griya.

            Dasan Griya was our last village, but was one of the most challenging, if not the most challenging. The village is in a hook like shape, and the only way to get to the northernmost hamlet is to cross through another village. The hamlet is completely different from the rest of the village, but this is where the Mandor lives. The Mandor is the village level protector of the forest, and we have been staying with them since my work has been through the regional forest management entity. The problem with this hamlet is primarily the roads. They are bumpy, full of rocks, narrow and steep. The drivers of the motor cycles always have to leap from rock to rock with their feet to keep the motorcycle going. The road further into the hamlet is even a bit worse, and conveniently next to large drops in the forest. I will never have a career as an action adventure hero, and this trip has confirmed it. My arms are always sore after I get off the motorcycles from holding on so tight.

            Although the roads are a little more adventurous than I would like them to be, I have to say this is the nicest place I have stayed climate wise. There are very few mosquitos, it is slightly cool with a breeze (which I have come to appreciate), and it has been raining. That is a great bonus to this village. 

            So everyday we would start by slowly maneuvering around the road down to the village where most of the people live. On my quest for interviews I was able to taste some palm sugar, watch a community health worker immunize babies (I am scared of needles and I wanted to cry for the babies), a learn about how industries operate in Indonesia. I met a traditional blacksmith, some women in a cracker producing factory, and a lot of palm sugar makers. This village has been very interesting in that regard.

            When we would finish down in the village we would come up the scary road back to our homestay. There we would break our fasting for the day due to Ramadan, and we would eat too much. Then we would go quest for respondents in the evening, which was a lot of fun trekking in the dark through the forest to people sitting in their homes. By the time we got back I just want to fall down and sleep, but there is always something happening like talking or singing karaoke.

 

           Somehow the two months I needed to do my research in Indonesia is almost over. I have 4-5 days left in the country (days dependent on when I post this). Sometimes it feels like I have been here for months, and sometimes it feels like I have been here for days. My time in the villages was wonderful, and I am sad to leave, but time for more adventures like analyzing my data and finishing my Master’s, both kind of important things.  

Village in the Forest

I just returned from Guntur Macan, which is the village that I can easily say has been the best village experience thus far. After we got permission from the village office to be there Tony, Agus and I met the Mandor, which is the Indonesian version of a community forest monitor. We followed him to his house, which was 400 meters straight uphill. Tony and I got stuck a couple of times on the hills because the weight of him, my backpack and I was too much for the poor little motorcycle. Although the first time trying to get to the Mandor’s house was difficult, it was magnificently beautiful. When you ride up the first hill you come to a plateau of sorts where you can see a lush valley of forest beneath you. It was refreshing to see after being in villages dedicated to agriculture or that are in general deforested. Another thing that I immediately noticed was that it was much cooler in this village than anywhere else I had been on the island. I almost forgot what the sensation of cold was like aside from taking cold showers since my house does not have hot water in Mataram. It was refreshing in the afternoon, but I was not prepared for it at night. Either way, it was nice to be less then hot and humid for a few days.

The home we stayed at was surrounded by trees, and really big trees, which I have seen few of in the villages we have been in despite being in a tropical forest. People use the trees for food, fuelwood, to make palm sugar, and to support their livelihoods in a variety of ways. However, it is easy to see that the forest is in better condition here than anywhere else I have been. I can also tell that the government gas stove program has been more effective here then other villages. Whether that has mitigated forest degradation is something I have not concluded yet, but this village seems to use the forest very differently.

Another great thing about this village was that tourists never go to the village. This was great because they did not have any preconceived ideas about how I was to behave and they were curious to learn about me. An elderly woman was very happy and fascinated by me. She wanted to look at me, and touch me. She was impressed by how tall I am. In some ways I feel like I was being examined. She had never met a tourist before and she was happy to see how friendly I was. She gave me a gift of a huge bunch of bananas and had me over to her house to let me see her stove and her ducks. Everyone was much more excited to talk to me, and many people worked on practicing their English. They were really proud to use it for the first time after learning it in school. It was fun to see their faces light up when they talked to me.

I also was able to befriend a lot of the children in this village, which was fun. I chased around the Mandor’s son and neighbor until they started beating me with sticks. The game was less fun after that so I ran and hid. They were small so it did not hurt, but they won, and they were proud of themselves. The older son of the Mandor also was very fun. He took us to a waterfall with his friends, helped me catch and feed kittens that were wandering around the house, and he bought fireworks, which happened to be on the 4^th of July. So I was able to see fireworks after all. They were small sparklers and popping things, not actual fireworks, but it did the job and they were fun. I am excited to see what the last village has in store for us.

Where does the time go?

 Somehow I have been in Indonesia a month. Time has slipped by so quickly, and now I only have 19 days until I leave Lombok, and 23 days until I leave the country. I cannot believe it. It seems like yesterday I was shaking my professors’ hands as they left me and entrusted me with their precious research when I did not have a clue what I was doing. Luckily, I actually have learned quite a bit from my Master’s program, and I would argue I am an adaptive individual despite my desire for order so I feel actually really confident with the work that I have done here.

I have spent the last month at first learning about the island, the problems that the government is facing, the culture that makes it so vibrant, and about the forest that I have been so much time reading about online and in articles for the past several months. After my professors shook my hand and bid me farewell I sprinted out of the gates… meaning I hung around Mataram for a few days, went to the University of Mataram, realized that I would have difficult buying things because I could not speak the language, and getting acclimated to my little yellow house I am staying in, which is actually a preschool. The yellow house has lots of new friends I have made that keep me company, which startled me at first, but now I am used to like a lizard the likes to go in my trash and eat things and the ants that like to hang out on my computer as I type.

This is my first time traveling on my own so this was sprinting out of the gates for me. I usually have a group that I am with or at least a friend to help me navigate these things. I have been put on the edge of my comfort zone this trip and have been challenged many times, which is good, but also ridiculously scary. Luckily the people are not mean they just find me amusing and laugh at me, which I can deal with. I am a little clunky, clumsy, and eating with my right hand without spilling rice all over me is still a little difficult. I have also gotten over my fear of motorcycles, which is nice given that we have to ride one everywhere.

After a couple of days in Mataram it was time to start my research. I really like being in the villages much more than the city. There is always something to see and do, and I can walk around without fear of being hit by a motorcycle, car, or a horse drawn cart (they are faster then you would think).  The people are also always so nice. At first they are a little afraid of me. The children especially like to run and hide, but then they see I am silly and helpless, and then they start to warm up to me. They help teach me words, offer me food, and laugh when I drink gallons of water after only a little bit of spicy food. Indonesians are also really loving and funny people. They like to make jokes, laugh, smile and talk. Additionally everyone is always outside and in the presence of one another. It is not as much like that in the city, but in the villages everyone is like family.

I have conducted my research in two villages thus far in Malaka and Sigar Penjalin, and I will finish my research in two other villages throughout July. I have conducted 30 household surveys and 4 focus group discussions with two students from the University of Mataram in each village. Although the villages are around the same area they are exceptionally different.

Malaka is a village that is by the ocean and the main road that tourists take to get to their destinations in Lombok. This means that the village and the forest is easily accessible. This also means that the natural resources that the village can offer like rock, sand, and fuelwood are bought and sold in this village. Many people gain incomes from harvesting and processing these things.  This makes the village difficult to deal with when it comes to weaning them off forest resources since they depend on it for their livelihoods, and when they only make $2.00 a day in most cases it is hard to just say no. So we will have to think of things and get creative to think of ways they can gain income without cutting down the trees.

Sigar Penjalin is different in that it has a lot of farms and the forest is really hard to get to. The people that use fuelwood are usually using agricultural residue like coconut leaves, and not the stereotypical fuelwood that one would think of, which is stacks of branches and trees that people burn to cook and produce things. The forest around this area is really hard to get to for most people. You have to live there to want to use it. I know because I was brave enough to hop on a motorcycle and ride up steep hills and rocky slopes to get there. I eventually got off when the motorcycle was fully revved and we were literally stuck in one place on a hill. I walked the rest of the way, and I am so impressed by the women who walk up and down that everyday with 15 coconuts on their heads or fuelwood. I was so tired when we made it to the top of the hill. Their use of the forest was very different from Malaka. There was no fuelwood market they were just using fuelwood for personal consumption and some small industries. The government did have to intervene in this area after over a 150 ha of forest was converted to gardens for the people. They had to do forest rehabilitation and an enforcement program to make sure the problem did not get any worse.

This is also the village where I learned the word hati-hati, which means be careful, and they said it to me every time I entered the bathroom. Here is the reason why. The first time I used the bathroom at our homestay I had to take my socks off because bathrooms in Indonesia are always wet because it is an eastern style toilet and because the shower is just a bucket and a smaller bucket so you just throw water everywhere to clean yourself. Anyway, I was wearing shoes instead of flip flops because I had to walk up the mountain so I had socks on. After using the toilet I wanted to put my socks back on so I leaned against a wall so I would not fall. However, I did not realize the wall was not very stable so all the bricks and cement fell down, which also destroyed their piping system to bring in water. One of the bricks had fallen on my foot/ankle. Agus, one of the students that helps translate for me and do my research called to me to see if I was ok. I was foolishly trying to put the wall back together again, with not surprisingly little success. So we had to go down and tell the owner of the home what I had done, and he scurried off to look at the damage while 6 women surrounded me to help me with my wounds. It was an excellent first night. Luckily we only stayed there for two nights, but it was an adventure.

There is of course more I could say and write, but for now this will do. This country and this island has been good to me, and there is still a lot to look forward to. I get to learn what it is like to be in a Muslim country during Ramadan and see how people celebrate the holy month, I get to go to two more villages and learn about people’s lives, I get to witness the 3^rd democratic election that Indonesia will have had with a candidate that is being equivocated to Barak Obama and another that is like the previous dictator that ruled Indonesia for over 30 years, and I get to read, which is something I never get to do at home. These are my tales for now, and more will come when I have ac

Villages and Tourism

I finished my first round of surveying and interviewing of people in the village of Malaka, and I just got back from the famous Gili Islands where I spent a couple days snorkeling and being a stereotypical tourist. So I finally have time to sit down and tell you about my experiences.

Malaka is a large village with 12 hamlets, and it is just north of Senggigi, which is a beachfront tourist attraction. We were welcomed by incredibly nice people in the hamlet of Lendang Luar. We stayed in a community health center for the hamlet, which was a one bedroom facility with a bed, a filing cabinet, some chairs and some pillows.  For a health center it does not seem to be used very often. In the 5 days we were in the village it was used once for an immunization clinic. I am not sure how often people seek medical care, but there was no doctor as I could tell, and the resources for the medical center seemed limited.

The people were exceptionally friendly though. They made us meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, and they even made it less spicy so I did not cry when I was eating, which has only happened once. Lombok is famous for their spicy food, and for someone that has grown up on a Mediterranean based diet spicy is not something I am used to. The village head we were staying with offered to take us to the various hamlets that we needed to go to, and when we were done he gave me honey from his hive, which is some of the best honey I have ever tasted. I am working on my Bahasa Indonesian so that I can have conversations with the people here and show the appreciation that I have for their kindness.

            The culture here is so friendly and open. We were able to walk up to homes and people would answer our questions, make us tea, and offer us cookies. They would have a 30 minute conversation and be happy to talk with us. By the time I am done with the day I have had 10 cups of tea or coffee and I am always full. This is a nice change from the United States where I do not know my neighbors and if you try to go up to talk to someone they ignore you or look at you like you have a disease. Even in the Gili Islands a place swarming with tourists and people “like me” I tended to talk to the local people because they saw I was alone and so they befriended me. Sometimes the men were trying to be too friendly/flirty, but it is nice that the sense of distance between people is much less here, and that starting a conversation with someone is not seen as threatening. The only complaint I have is that everyone smokes, which makes breathing less fun.

            So back to the village. We did 30 household surveys and 4 focus groups in the 5 days that we were there. It is actually quite tiring when each interview lasts at least 30 minutes each. We were trying to get a sense of the village and its use of fuelwood for industrial and home purposes. I am learning that this is quite difficult and after looking at the data I need to go back to the village and get a sense of the major industries in each hamlet, which I do not think I know as of right now. I learned this for the next village, and I think we can get a better sense of Malaka if we go back for one day.

As we did the interviews they got easier and easier, and the team started to work together better. We learned each other’s style and we each have strengths that are working well together. I have two students from the University of Mataram assisting me. Their names are Toney and Agus. Toney is funny and knows how to make people comfortable, which is awesome since I am a serious person with little fun in my soul when I am working. Agus is a very level headed individual and is exceptionally helpful when it comes to ensuring the interviews go well. He is quick and knows when certain questions need to be asked, which is nice to have as back up since he can help Toney interpret. I think it is working well. Otherwise they are just two college aged boys that goof around and do thing you would expect, and that is great!

            I think I will find this as I keep going, but education levels and incomes are relatively low in this community. Malaka is a major production village for primary goods for Mataram (capital city of Lombok) and the tourist areas. A lot of people have jobs collecting fuelwood, making bricks, collecting sand, breaking rocks into smaller stones by sitting for hours on end smashing rocks with a hammer for the foundation of buildings. The economic opportunity is limited here, and you can see the impacts that this constant resource extraction has had on the forest. I was talking to a villager that speaks very good English, and he was saying that the children have no incentive to go to school because their opportunities are limited in the village and essentially there is no incentive. Another boy I was talking to in Gili was telling me how much he wanted to be a teacher and show students “they need to go after their ambition,” but there he was serving me food on Gili island away from his family because he could not afford the $70/year tuition it costs to go to the University of Mataram.

            It made me very frustrated to go from the village of Malaka to Gili where all the tourists were. Everyday these tourists pass by this village and they will never know the lives of these people, they will never know their language, and they will never know the kindness of their culture. They come here for a couple of days to have a good time and then leave without even seeing the country that they are coming to. I enjoyed the islands, but it was difficult to know that the tourist experience was all Lombok was to them.

            Hopefully the work I do here will have an impact and can influence policy to offer economic opportunity that protect the environment while offering people ways to gain income. The villager that I mentioned earlier asked what I would do for Malaka. Off the top of my head I suggested having a short nature hike where people could get a guided tour to learn the plant species of the forest. This would give people incentive to protect the forest, would encourage people to stay in school so they can lead the tours, and would hopefully bring income into the community. He liked the idea and may pursue it. I guess what is great about this world is you can create something out of nothing, and I think Lombok and Indonesia is on its way to something as they become a middle income country. I just want to make sure it is not at the expense of the environment or at the expense of the health of people. These are just some of the thoughts as of right now.  

Ecosystem Services, Surveys and Gender

On Sunday I arrived on the island of Lombok, where I will conducting my research and where I will live for the next two months or so. This week has been a whirlwind of experiences as I have been following a group of international researchers that are working on evaluating schemes of payment for ecosystem services throughout the island to talk to government officials and community groups. There are so many interesting elements to the dynamics between people and the environment that I have never considered before.

For those that do not know,  ecosystem services are the benefits that we receive from ecosystems that are important to us. For example, vegetation in forests slow down water when it rains so that it can seep into the soil slowly and then be slowly transferred to streams, rivers and groundwater. Without forests, rainwater will fall to the ground and it will not be captured by roots, leaves, etc so it will hit the ground directly, will cause erosion and topsoil loss, could cause flooding in an area, and will ruin the flows of streams, rivers and ground water. This means that people will not have consistent access to the water that they used to. Forests provide many other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration to limit climate change, biodiversity to prevent disease from spreading throughout the ecosystem, cultural services such as spiritual locations for local people, plants that have medicinal potential or purpose, ecotourism opportunities, and much more. All ecosystem provide a variety of different services that humans benefit from.

Now that you know what ecosystem services are, payment of ecosystem services is a way to work with local communities to encourage them to maintain or expand ecosystem services in the ecosystem that they live in. So in the case of Indonesia, groups are trying to work with farmers specifically to work on reforestation efforts to promote and expand the ecosystem services that the forest can give with an emphasis on watershed protection. Government entities and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) are giving money or resources to farmer groups to initiate reforestation efforts, but the success of these initiatives is questionable. This group of researchers is looking into ways that these systems of payment of ecosystem services can be improved.

With this team I have been able to meet with Indonesian forest managers, local farmer groups, NGOs, and researchers. I have had the privilege of going through the forest with all of these individuals and learning about this issues farmers are facing, what the forest is being used for by the community, and the challenges forest managers are dealing with in trying to balance all these different elements with a very small budget. It has been fun to learn and listen.

In addition to learning about the forest with this team, I have been developing my research methods with my advisers to study fuelwood usage on the island. Today I had my first run through with my questionnaire. It is clear I have to practice a few more times and edit the survey itself, but it was wonderful to be able to talk to people about their use of the forest. Indonesians are incredibly friendly, welcoming and wonderful people. I was so happy to be in the field today listening to their stories and thoughts.

I was able to meet with the village head with my professor and a student from the University of Mataram that is helping me with my research, and he introduced us to some of the villagers. We started by interviewing the head of the Hamlet. He was a quiet older man that told us of his garden and the crops that he grows. He let us know about some of the use of the forest, and it was really interesting.

The part that I liked the most was interviewing the women. I never realized how gendered fuelwood collection could be, but it makes sense. The women spend about 4 hours a day collecting fuelwood. They walk 2km and collect two bundles. One they use for their cooking, and the other bundle they sell to a man that collects all the wood and takes it to market. The bundles go for 5,000 Rupiah, or about 50 cents in USD. For four hours of time $1.00 worth of fuelwood is not much to collect. In the focus group that was conducted today most of the women said that was their main source of income. Some were married and others were not so this is their only source of income unless special construction projects are started in the village. The women in this province in general are poorly educated and if their husband leaves them, which is likely (divorce rates are about 50% or more in North Lombok) then they are left with very few options to make a living. So they turn to the forest.  

Granted this is only one focus group in a village that I am not going to be conducting further research in, but it was good to see the social dynamics I am working with and to see how people are using the forest. By no means are these results conclusive. I am excited to see what I will find so that I can make policy recommendations that address some of these underlying issues that we find. Hopefully in the end it can help some of the poorest people on the island while conserving the forest ecosystem.

Energy, Poverty and Climate Change

 I am sitting in Bogor, Indonesia in the Center for International Forestry Research Guest House. I have spent the day trying to listen to/translate (not effectively) presentations in Bahasa Indonesia, meeting with internationally recognized researchers, and attempting to understand an incredibly complex problem that I have been set to research for the remainder of the summer. This summer I will be spending 2 months on the island of Lombok trying to understand fuelwood consumption and use in order to mitigate deforestation and forest degradation, and therefore limit the amount of emissions that are produced from unsustainable use of the forest. Seems pretty simple right? Just get people to stop cutting down trees so that the forest can remain untouched. Wrong, very wrong.
 
For something that seemed so simple a couple months ago it has gotten so complex it is hard to wrap my mind around all the issues that are associated with fuelwood deforestation and forest degradation. However, I find this also really exciting because I enjoy my perspective to be challenged, and I think it will also help you start thinking about these issues in different ways as well. This is important because when I first entered the field of development everything seemed so straight forward, and I could not understand why it was so difficult to answer what seems to be simple questions. I realize that this is arrogant of me now that I am actually working on these issues, but it is important to be wrong so we can learn from it.

So here is the deal. I became interested in forest issues after attending the UN climate negotiations. I followed the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), and I found it incredible that 20% of greenhouse gas emissions came from the destruction of forests. Indonesia is the 3rd largest contributor to greenhouse gases in the world behind the United States and China. However, when you think of Indonesia you do not think of a quickly developing country, at least I don't. I found that 85% of the emissions from Indonesia came from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). Essentially, most of the emissions are coming from the cutting and burning of the forest to convert to large plantations for oil palm, to gain pulp for paper, to harvest for timber in general, to use for general agriculture, and to collect fuelwood for the local people. Indonesia also has peatlands, which are areas where the soil contains over 45% of organic matter. This means the soils are literally on fire and can smoulder for days.

 This is an incredibly serious issue if you care about climate change, biodiversity, and health. Forests are incredibly important and burning them leads to respiratory issues and can even lead to the closure of airports internationally if the smoke gets bad enough where pilots can no longer see. There are a lot of other problems associated with this, but you get the idea.

On the island of Lombok (Lombok is located right next to Bali so you know where I am talking about)  most of the deforestation and degradation comes from tobacco companies that dry their tobacco using fuelwood. There is also some illegal logging and shipment of wood to Java. The other source of deforestation and forest degradation is fuelwood consumption by the local people to cook or produce goods like tofu or candy to sell in informal markets. So the goal of my research is to understand how people are using fuelwood and to make policy recommendations to encourage people to use alternative fuels (kerosene, agricultural residue, liquid propane gas, etc.). 

This is where things get difficult. Lombok is in one of the poorest regions in Indonesia and there is poverty throughout the island. People rely on the forests for their survival to cook and produce goods. They cannot afford to use other sources of energy and getting a certain energy source to people can be difficult if they do not have roads or transportation to access a market place. The transaction costs to switch fuels are high. Additionally, even if a certain fuel is offered for free whether they can use it to cook enough food on a small burner for their whole family, or prepare traditional foods with it is questionable. For example, in Mexico using a single burner that is used with propane tanks to make tortillas has been found to be inefficient and the tortillas do not taste as good so people still use fuelwood. Using fuelwood is in many cases not a matter of choice for the people of Lombok because the options to people are limited and they cannot be expensive. So simply telling people to switch or giving fuel to people for free for a short amount of time is not sustainable or feasible in most cases. Furthermore, if the fuels that are being suggested actually lead to more carbon emissions after being harvested, transported, and used it defeats the purpose of the project to begin with.

The research I am doing this summer will look at how much fuelwood is being used in Lombok, the markets of fuel, how people use fuel for cooking and the cultural significance of fuelwood, the opportunity costs of fuelwood, the transaction costs of switching to alternative energy sources, the effects of fuelwood collection on the ecosystem, and how governance can be improved to manage forest use. A bit more complicated then you were expecting, eh? It was for me. 

I am not telling you all of this so you can be impressed by the work I am doing. I am telling you this because I think it is really important for the world to understand the complexity of these issues, and to understand international development from a different lens. Before I got into this field I just remember focusing on the outcomes and the numbers associated with development projects. I think it is good to tell people about the inputs that need to be considered with development projects as well. It is not just about saving the rainforest, but it is about sustaining and improving the quality of life of people as well.

So this is just an introduction to what I am working on, and how I am thinking about my research project as I am just starting. I am excited to learn from the people that I meet and to have my preconceived ideas challenged as I work on this project further.

 

(If you want to read more and get a better sense of the issue I wrote a paper that outlines all of this in more detail, and you can click here to read it.)