My new job at EcoAgriculture Partners in Washington DC has enabled me to continue to work on the issues that matter to conservation and humanity. Primarily how to produce food, save the world's biodiversity and improve human livelihoods. There's some goals for ya. Our projects include working with smallholder palm oil producers in Sumatra, Indonesia to save the last remaining Peat Swamp forests of their region; the Xingu Basin of Matto Grasso State, Brazil where rapid soy expansion threatens the mighty Amazon; and Ghana, training cocoa farmers to improve their practices, income and livelihoods. My job is to provide Monitoring and Evaluation support for this portfolio of projects. I ask, "are we having the impact we said we would?" These are tough questions to answer. We would like to think so, but context matters, nothing is ever straightforward, and despite our best intentions things don't always work out the way we'd hope they would.
Below are a few pictures from my travels this past year. I made my first trip to southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia), back to Africa (Kenya) via Turkey, and to the United Kingdom (Shetland, Scotland and London). It was an exciting year of learning, love, birth, matrimony, joy, experience and sadness. I hope and pray that the next year will continue to teach and reward me.
1. Oil palm expansion in Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia
2. Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey
3. Shetland Isles, Scotland, United Kingdom
4. Workshop with producers in Kijabe, Kenya at KENVO center
