Student fieldworks in February-March 2018

.Denise visited Bolivia to understand the current state of sustainable waste management in the country. She did site visits and expert interviews with national and local stakeholders involved in solid waste management in La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Ei undertook fieldwork around an operational cement plant in Myanmar to assess its local environmental and socioeconomic impacts. She conducted household surveys, focus group discussions and community surveys in five affected communities around the cement plant. She also conducted extensive ecological, biomass, and soil surveys to assess possible changes in carbon stocks and biodiversity.

Eric visited areas of coca and oil palm production across Ghana to explore how certification is promoted and implemented on the ground, and how it can potentially affect smallholders. He interviewed several experts including, among others, representatives of government institutions, large oil palm companies, cocoa license buying companies, certification agencies and oil palm and cocoa smallholder associations.

Franz visited two eco-industrial parks in Tianjin and Beijing, China. He collected from the relevant departments extensive secondary datasets about production, resource use and emission patters He also visited and talked to local residents about their perceptions of the environmental impacts of the eco-industrial parks.
 
Helen conducted extensive fieldwork in Pin Oo Lwyn, Myanmar to elicit the economic values of the services provided by different urban ecosystems. This included biodiversity/biomass/soil surveys and surveys with users and surrounding residents of urban parks, monasteries, coffee farms, food crop farms and a golf course.
 
Rodo visited Panama to identify the major changes that indigenous communities in Guna Yala currently face. He conducted multiple interviews with stakeholders from government ministries, NGOs, international organisations and the governing bodies of the Gunas. He also visited and conducted interviews and focus group discussions in three of the Gunas islands: Gardi Sugdu, Nargana, and Soledad Miria.
 
Spencer visited agricultural areas of Zimbabwe to assess the drivers of adoption and the impacts of Conservation Agriculture. He conducted extensive household surveys and soil sampling in farms that have fully adopted, partly adopted or not adopted at all different conservation agriculture practices such as crop rotation, mulching and zero tillage.
 
Vinamra did a pilot study in Sarawak, Malaysia to identify the main impacts of logging to local communities. He consulted experts in Kuching city and visited six of the 33 communities around the Anap Sustainable Development Unit managed by Zedtee Snd. Bhd.