Today marks one month since I touched down in Bali to begin my summer as a CBE fellow interning with OneReef in Indonesia. I am serving as an economics intern hired to identify the most effective models for protecting reef patches that are deemed “super productive”. Protecting these patches will not only lead to greater ecological support, it will also allow local community members to reap the economic benefits through industries like tourism and fishing. Read More
Hawaiian Coast
As an undergraduate I gradually erased the mental image of a bold line separating environmental concerns from development-economic issues. Environment does not equal only panda bears. Development does not equal just economic growth. Those working in corresponding fields intend to arrive at the same, logical destination whether they know it or not: sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships between humans and their source of livelihoods and sustenance, also known as the nature. Our economy runs on natural resources, transforms them into products and even services through the energy going into people and machines the machines they operate. There are a few major distinctions between development and environmental issues, but their overlap is much greater. Even professionals in both areas, however, do not always see the relationship between their fields, not to mention the general public’s perspective. That is one of the reasons I am at Conservation International for the summer.
It is said that the hardest part is getting there. After horrendous traffic in Los Angeles, expensive surprises after standing in an hour long queue at LAX, a restless redeye, and setting a personal best mile time through the Panama City Airport in order to make my connection, I would tend to agree. I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, and my adventure had only just begun. I was greeted by smiling faces, and what must have been 100+ degree heat and 90% humidity. Read More
Kaselehlie!
Greetings from Pohnpei!
My first few days on the island have been an adventure, I arrived on Thursday after over 30 hours of travel and met briefly with my OneReef contact Wayne Andrew (yes his last name being my first name has become a bit of a joke). Wayne, who is from Palau, is visiting Pohnpei and staying at the same hotel as me. He stopped by for a brief hello and told me to get some rest. The next day we met up and went to meet the Director of the Conservation Society of Pohpei, Eugene Joseph, we agreed to set up a meeting with everyone on Monday to go over the best way to use my skills. Read More
In about twenty-four hours I will be landing in Honolulu for a 9 hour layover before taking another 10 hour flight through the Marshall Islands to Kolonia, Pohnpei, Micronesia where I will be living for the next two months. As I sit on my bed and look up at the dive flag hanging over my headboard and the two dive photos hanging over the foot of my bed, I cant help but look forward to diving in some of the beautiful reefs of Ant Atoll, a small atoll off the coast of Pohnpei with a population of 10, mostly conservation officers who I’ll be living and working with for a few weeks during my time in Micronesia. Packing has been a challenge, pretty sure my carry-on is over the weight limit but dive gear was included on my packing list and there is no way I am going to Micronesia and not bringing my dive camera rig, still looking for my dive computer though but I’ll find that tomorrow before I leave. I will probably try to do quite a few posts throughout the summer and look forward to posting again after a few days in Pohnpei!
I am working as the Education and Outreach Fellow with Think Beyond Plastic on the Bay Islands of Honduras to raise awareness of the marine plastic pollution problem and encourage local solutions.
Thankfully my day-long trip to Roatan was one of the smoothest trips I’ve ever experienced- with only a half an hour of layover my checked luggage managed to make it on the plane from San Salvador to Roatan and my landlord was kind enough to pick me up from the Roatan airport. After only three days of settling into my new place in the West End community of Roatan, Karl and I turned around and headed to Utila, the second largest Bay Island, where the other Think Beyond Plastic fellow lives, Saba Ijadi. We attended a Recycled Art fashion show put on by the largest conservation organization on the islands, the Bay Islands Conservation Association. It was great to see local students of Utila get creative with recycled material to design elaborative dresses, umbrellas hair accessories and more. Read More