I have been in Costa Rica for just over a month now getting started with fieldwork for my PhD. For those of you that are interested in my research (and not just cute pictures of my baby in Costa Rica!), let me provide a brief introduction. My work is focused on comparing the impacts of grassroots reforestation efforts with the national Payment for Ecosystem Services (Pago por Servicios Ambientales, or PSA in Spanish) program. As the name would suggest, Payment for Ecosystem Services programs provide payments to incentivize land use practices that will improve ecosystem services like water filtration, flood control and carbon sequestration. While grassroots reforestation programs don’t offer financial incentives, they provide free trees and/or fencing to facilitate reforestation and are very popular here as a way to protect water supplies and create windbreaks.
As a student in the Integrative Conservation program, I am interested in assessing both the social and environmental impacts of conservation initiatives to identify opportunities for minimizing trade-offs and maximizing synergies between these potentially competing objectives. So I will be comparing these two programs in terms of their impacts both on ecosystem services and on the well-being of participants and local communities.
I am conducting my research in the Bellbird Biological Corridor region of Costa Rica. The biological corridor was created to improve ecological connectivity from the high-altitude cloud forest all the way down to the coast. I am based in the small rural community of San Luis, just down the hill from the tourist-mecca of Monteverde.It is a hard place to have to live, but hey someone has to do it.
Enough about me, we know the real genius around here is this little guy.
Reed has already attended a meeting of the local community development association and come along on a trip to meet with community leaders in the nearby Aranjuez watershed, where I am considering conducting some of my fieldwork. He’s already made some friends.
Luckily my husband Casey let me twist his arm into coming to live in Costa Rica for 7 months too. In addition to being great at doing baby bath time, he also takes pretty pictures (among his many other good qualities). Some of the pictures I use here are his, so I’ll go ahead and give him some credit and thanks for sharing now.
Well that’s probably enough of an introduction for now. In addition to the synergies I hope to identify in my research, I am also hoping my efforts to conduct fieldwork, finish grad school, raise a baby and explore Costa Rica will also prove to be synergistic. I hope you enjoy coming along on this journey with me!
