Hello! I will be using this blog to share my experiences wrapping up my final semester in the Earth Observation & Informatics M.S. program at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My last semester will be focused on a capstone project that I am developing in partnership with Conservation International (CI) in the Guiana Shield Region. This research will explore what factors encourage or discourage community members from participating in conservation programs and take a deeper look at how these programs can benefit both local communities and the natural environments they live in.
Where am I headed?
I am drawn to environmental protection work that centers community needs because I believe it is the only way forward. We need to dismantle oppressive methods of forcing “conservation” programs on people and rethink the way we are engaging in our social and natural environments. Not only do inequities stem from programs that are put in place with disregard to their effects on all populations, but these programs just don’t work. A sustainable conservation program is one that seamlessly continues on because it fits within the needs and norms of the local human and non-human groups. We need to move away from invasive, colonial ways of approaching policies in this space to supporting grassroot programs that fit natively within an environment.
To gain more experience in this approach to conservation, I am working with the regional CI-Guyana & CI-Suriname offices in South America to study potential patterns between which Indigenous communities choose to engage with a given conservation intervention and which do not. I will be performing a density cluster analysis to investigate which variables (e.g. closeness to geographic features or socioeconomic factors) are statistically relevant to how ideas move or are adopted through physical space. I am hopeful we will have the opportunity to complete fieldwork during my summer term, which will include an opportunity to perform interviews within the study area as well as field measurements of the biomass in the area. The latter fieldwork will be performed by a fellow on the project, Timothy Babb, so that we can combine our research to see not only what influences people to participate in conservation programs but measure their efficacy as well (more biomass = successful tree conservation program). The addition of this survey and biomass data will allow for more sophisticated, multivariate spatial modeling beyond a cluster analysis. If this data is available, we will be able to perform a deeper, more nuanced analysis on which variables are most influential in how ideas move through space and time.
Changing Hearts & Minds
Conservation International has a strong global presence in environmental and community work so I am looking forward to this opportunity to widen my understanding of how conservation programs are approached and communicated within different cultures. Although I am very interested in practicing my statistics and coding skills, I am also excited for the opportunity to create communication deliverables like community flyers and infographics to explain our research to non-academic audiences. It’s very important to be able to communicate effectively in order to change behavior in a way that allows the community, natural environment, and local species to flourish together. I am hopeful to maintain this analyst/communicator balance throughout my fellowship and whatever comes next. I will know I am successful not when I implement a program but when the community believes in it.
The Nelson Institute: Environmental Professional Programs 2022 Leadership Projects 