Biodiversity Transects

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=122cc8ee67cd998c&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1

Pushing forward

With about three weeks to go, the fatigue has started to set in, both physical and mental. This past week was full of events from the new volunteers Ria and Eli's arrival to the old volunteers Meghan and Dylan's departure, lots of arrangements, parties and transport. But not much in terms of progress on my research. I've come to understand, that's just the way things work round here and having patience with so little time left is frustrating. Its really different being here both as a researcher and not as a volunteer, and as an "older" individual compared to the others who are just out of undergrad or even younger in the community. Many times as much I'd love to hangout (and believe me Dominicans love to hangout) with everyone I find myself needing to read, organize my data, or head down to town for email. Long story short, it takes more time to really invest in people AND a project than I have in my short 3 months. For example, I can't tell you how many farmers I've interviewed that on my way out all I could think about was how much I wanted to return one day and work in the fields with that guy. Regardless, even with all the distractions and frustrations life has been full of beautiful scenery and relationships. Estoy contento.

To date, we've interviewed about 43 households, a fabulous sampling of farmers throughout the region, the crux is returning to at least 20 of them in the coming two weeks for a sample of coffee farm biodiversity. I'm hoping to hire a couple of folks from the farm in addition to the graduate student forester from Canada, Alex I was able to acquire.

Today was HOT so we spent most of it at the river watching the boys of El Dulce play El Manguito in a best three out of five baseball tournament. My brother comes on Saturday and Dad the week thereafter. I'm stoked to see and share with them. The plan is to continue to work really hard until then, accomplish what can be accomplished, make my recommendations to the coffee associations, and then chill for the remainder of my time. Back to Vermont end of the month with lots to do before school starts. Hope that summer rain has succeeded I'm ready for a short canoe trip and backyard bbq.

2nd and 3rd week of surveying

The past few weeks have been full of long days with new people and places. Most surprising has been the diversity of the landscape within the Pico Duarte watershed where I live. Our first stop was La Pelada, a true mountain coffee community of third generation farmers tucked into a narrow lush tropical valley. After a half hour of driving up a rocky road our journey ended at the river where we then walked the rest of the way on foot. Once arriving farmers where eager to talk with us, even lining up at some points to share their stories, hardships and to inquire as to why exactly we were there and what we were doing. This community had lots of exposure to foreign assistance, some programs I was aware of and some I was not. It was here I realized the importance of understanding the historical context of development in a region beforehand. Some had harsh sentiments towards previous development programs, while others were pleased with assistance and in the post harvest month of July all had time to talk about it.

In La Pelada efforts had included building a "beneficio" or coffee pulping and drying facility and helping farmers transition to full organic certification. The problem now was that the funding had ended and production yields had dropped. Furthermore, the price farmers were receiving for their organic coffee just wasn't enough to cover the extra labor and production costs of producing it. Labor in the DR is relatively expensive $9 a day compared to other tropical countries (eg. Nicaragua or El Salvador) growing coffee. Most households in La Pelada had one or more members working for a private community of millionaire homes called "quintal del bosque" at the bottom of the hill. Without this other source of income, most families had packed up and moved into the city of Jarabacoa, abandoning their coffee farms for day labor in the city.

The end of our second week was spent in the adjacent valley of La Lomita. Similar stories abounded, many had abandoned their coffee for environmentally destructive monoculture crops, like tayota squash which fetches a higher price in the market and provids year round income for the family in contrast to the once a year income earned from coffee. This will be a strong focus of my research in the coming year, how to save the coffee farmers of the central cordillera from these kinds of economic pressures. Diverse coffee landscapes offer a bundle of ecosystem services to both the household and broader landscape. My research will support this argument in the DR, then seek to analyze and provide recommendations for improving the coffee value chain and development assistance for small to medium producers.

After two weeks of surveying I decided it was time to take a break. I had heard from some friends that the most beautiful beaches in the DR were those of the southwestern province of Pedernales where my friend Nathaly was doing climate change surveying with communities around Lago Erinquillo. Nathaly and I agreed to meet up in the coastal town of Barahona, rent a car then drive out to Bahia de las Aguilas, supposedly THE most beautiful undeveloped beach. This was no lie, stunning it was and just the break I needed. On our way out to Pedernales we ran into a guide who had been working with my friend Chuck on bicknell thrush research in the southeast. He asked us if we knew about the cave and then proceeded to take us on a half kilometer walk into the shrub until we reach a cave full of ancient Taino pictographs. Check out the photos. Our hostel in Pedernales, Dona Chona, was a researchers heaven, wireless internet with a tropical plant shaded courtyard. And just when I thought things couldn't get any better... our second day Nathaly and I were dropped off on a deserted beach with three ladies from Spain and a cooler full of "frias." Que dura es esta vida!

Alright, some deliverables I completed the focus group summary document for all you rural livelihood geeks. I believe you'll find this 15 page summary very interesting. The focus group painted a socioeconomic picture of households in the region and provided a great way of introducing both myself and the research to the community. Also here are the pictures from the past two weeks. Dylan and Meghan the two volunteers that have been on the farm with me all summer leave this week, so its bitter sweet and a sign that summers moving by quickly. SO much more to do, but I'm looking forward to the Vermont fall. peace and love, Lee

PICTURES
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=leehgross&target=ALBUM&id=5359808039979823457&authkey=Gv1sRgCO3ep_OHx4SXHw&feat=email

FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.b2289507-a5b1-41f9-b8fb-f42266575352&hl=en

First week of surveying

First week we managed to interview nine households in three days in some of the most remote coffee country in the Central Cordillera!! Hours driving up degraded gravel roads through small communities stopping to ask each person we passed where the next coffee farmer on our list lived. "Perdon doña Ud. sabe donde vive el Señor Juan Jose Baseo Valerio?"

Our journey started in the valley of Jumunuco with its rolling fields of beans and pastor for cattle. As we drove onwards and upwards the fields quickly faded behind us to a pine, guama, banana and robust green caturra coffee plant dominated landscape as we entered Los Montansos, a small community of isolated third generation coffee farmers for our final interviews of the week. Next week, we'll move to the communities of La Pelada and La Lomita in our valley both of which are in transition to complete organic certification a contrast to the full conventional farms of the week before.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=leehgross&target=ALBUM&id=5354994042078485617&authkey=Gv1sRgCMP23pf-zZWcAQ&feat=email

Only in the DR

Focus Group with Community Farmers

Ok, Ok so I know I'm way out of date with the blogging. Truth is, I don't get down to town as much as I'd like, and when I do its configuring the GPS, editing my survey, or deleting listserve junk email. This past weekend was the big focus group with coffee farmers from the surrounding communities that I've been building up to for some time now. Long story short, in my eyes it went really well. Expect a full report within the week. Next order of business is finishing my survey. The past few days we've been testing it with families in Los Marrianitos for figuring out what questions work and which ones don't. This is an invaluable, but lengthy process. My new assistant, Rubalina a 20yr local girl is a good worker, but needs practice so we'll run through it two more times with families today. As of now it takes two hours to complete, not including setting up a time with the family and walking the farm with the farmer after wards, which with the recent heavy afternoon rains has proved difficult. Ok, I'm going to load some pictures up to let them speak for the past couple of weeks (post the below into your browser above) then blog again come weekend. Peace and Love, Lee

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=leehgross&target=ALBUM&id=5353123557209603265&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ6zxqeuqqul1AE&feat=email

Meeting with the "Junta Directiva"

Yesterday,was my first meeting with the “Junta Directiva” or “board” of ASCAJA the association of coffee producers I’ll be working with over the next two months. Imagine a small office with a concrete floor, men in jeans, plastic chairs all lined up in a circle, with the distinct smell of coffee roasting drifting in from the room next door and the sounds of an approaching thunderstorm in the distance. After introductions, business commenced, the mood was direct and I was a bit intimidated by the CODOCAFE (the largest coffee association in the DR) guys’ presentation who had showed up unexpectedly stealing most of my time. Regardless, the last ten minutes were mine and for you Spanish speakers, my prepared notes are below. They represent my introduction for the next couple of months with the outlined main objectives. After stumbling over my first few words, which the members in unison helped me with, my presentation was generally welcomed by the board with offers of assistance. I encouraged them that my study would focus on the “bienestar” or well-being of the family, offering to go beyond just coffee price and into the diverse livelihood strategies of their members. This information would allow us to support farmers in a variety of ways. My ears were open. Their issues seemed much larger than what I would ever be able to offer them. Finance, this year's harvest had ended and farmers were left with no funds for managing their farms with the necessary pruning, weed control and fertilization needed for healthy coffee production. Not to mention, last year’s poor yields due to excessive rains had put the association in the hole with a number of “banca privadas” banks or loan sharks so to speak. Both these issues raised grave danger for the association’s future and for assisting many farmers in their planned transition to a more diverse coffee agroecosystem, much less even keeping their farms. For most it seems (even one farmer on the board) it was time to do something else.


El reunión con la Junta Directiva de ASCAJA 6/17/09 @ 2pm en Jarabacoa

Introduction:
• Soy licenciado, Lee Gross, Tengo 27 anos, Estoy hacienda una maestría en recursos naturales a la Universidad de Vermont en los Estados Unidos
• Mis profesores de la Universidad de Vermont tienen mucha experiencia con la producción de café, conservación y estudios de economía en Centroamérica y el Caribe.
• Con su permiso y apoyo quiera entrevistar 48 cafetaleros de ASCAJA con un cuestionario socioeconómica del hogar y un evaluación ecológico de la finca
• Queremos que esta investigación sea compartida entre los productores, investigadores, y compradores de café. Será un proceso participativo (PAR)

Esta investigación tiene cinco objetivos más importantes:

1. Estudiar la relación entre tipo de manejo, tipo de producción, y el bienestar de las familias cafetaleras.
Es decir, por ejemplo ¿los productores de café orgánico viven mejor, si o no?

2. Conseguir fondos de la Universidad de Vermont o otras fuentes para apoyar esta investigación por el largo plazo. Soy el primer investigador a venir y quiero buscar información de base.
Es decir, crear un banco de información socioeconómica y ecológica de los miembros de ASCAJA.

3. Conectar los miembros de ASCAJA con técnicos para mejorar el cultivo de café, como control de calidad y transición a café orgánico, y también para buscar mercados alternativos con mejores precios

4. Apoyar comunidades cafetaleras en áreas identificadas por la investigación de los hogares.
Por ejemplo apoyo en educación, clínicas de salud, y acceso al crédito

5. Informar a la asociación de ASCAJA, y asociaciones gubermentales (IDIAF, CODOCAFE, SECRETARIA DE MEDIO AMBIENTE Y RECURSOS NATURALES) de los resultados de esta investigación para mejorar la política que apoye la producción de café y el bienestar de las familias cafetaleras.

Ahora vamos hacer una actividad: (preguntas para uds):

• En ASCAJA, Cuales son áreas mas importantes para investigación, capacitación y ayuda?
• Que significa "bienestar" para uds y sus miembros?
Es decir, Indicios de bienestar en el corto y largo plazo..
• Design participatory project evaluation indicators: short term (8 months, 2 years, 5 years) long term. Ex: education, health, quality control, certification, new markets

My number in the DR

Cell phones are cheap and the evenings are slow in the country.

Call me anytime, very cheap via SKYPE.

829.990.0374

Just as I remembered it.

Dylan and Meghan the two other volunteers on the farm from Middlebury College picked me up at the airport on Thursday. To my suprise I was up on the farm by that afternoon. Funny I never thought about it, but this was my first time returning to a foreign country. Undoubtedly the same smells of 2 cycle engine smoke spewing from motorcycles, the same sounds of children playing loudly and roosters crowing, and the same feelings of a place far different from home abound. The high mountain country is peaceful. My new home is beautiful, an open cabana with a kitchen and a view of the mtns, although not without its fair share of unidentifiable insects. The neighbors below are three Haitian boys who work on the farm, music flows up from their room into mine throughout the day and we´ve worked out a deal for two Creole words for two Spanish or English words a day.

Today I´m down in La Vega gathering information from the agricultural extension service, IDIAF. The past four days I´ve been pouring over the Dominican literature on coffee communities and today hope to connect with its authors. It will be important for me to first understand the macroeconomic political history, structures and processes that drive this system before working with the local communities of the Pico Duarte over the next few months.

A la Republica Dominicana..

After a fabulous month in Burlington, VT farming at Open Heart, then past week here in Washington, DC catching up with old friends and attending the USSEE Conference I'm finally off to the Dominican Republic (DR) for the summer's research. On Saturday as I purchased a new shade hat and long sleeve travel shirt I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of adventure come about me. It was a feeling synonymous with my earliest childhood dreams of becoming a famous scientist, dressed in khaki, crouched in the jungle logging field entries and that of my first few days with the Forest Service when I realized I was "getting paid" to hike. This next new adventure feels like something I have been working towards my entire life, perhaps in many respects I have, which is both exciting and humbling.

My work in the DR over the next few months will utilize an interdisciplinary research framework to better understand the interactions between social and ecological process that contribute to the livelihoods of coffee farmers of the Pico Duarte region. In broadest of terms, how does the way farmers choose to practice agriculture affect their lives, given the social, political and ecological context in which they live? In order to access this, I will conduct with members of a local coffee cooperative 60 household socio-economic surveys in addition to biodiversity assessments of their food plots and coffee farms. To introduce this research and determine the appropriate households, we’ll hold a focus group with community leaders on June 27th. For greater details on the background, methodology and research questions consult here.

By tomorrow afternoon I’ll be down on the farm. The next few weeks will require lots of organizing and introductions on my part to the community as an outside researcher. A warm and hospitable people, traditional Dominican greetings almost always include an offer of “cafecito” a dark shot of sugar rich coffee, luckily I’ve been painstakingly practicing this in Burlington over the past few months… wish me luck and stay tuned.

USSEE Conference 2009, Washington, DC

This week I attended the US Society for Ecological Economics Conference in Washington, DC. Entitled "Science and Policy for a Sustainable Future" this four day conference housed at American University was attended by more than 100 representatives from universities, government agencies, nonprofits and the private sector.

In an attempt to shift traditional "growth" economic thinking towards that of a "steady-state economy" Herman Daly, the father of ecological economics provided a compelling lunch time presentation on Monday. Other noteworthy presenters included Pavan Sukhdev of UNEP, Bob Costanza of the Gund Institute and author Bill Mckibben. Topics ranged from biodiversity conservation and human welfare to fisheries management and developing new indicators for economic progress. Students and researchers from the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont provided a strong presence at the conference with more than 15 presentations.

This conference was important for my upcoming research in the Dominican Republic providing me with the opportunity to network, receive feedback and attend more than a dozen lectures on approaches for accessing rural livelihoods, agricultural sustainability and measures to value ecosystem services flows.

Jeff Frank from CDAE has a really nice overview of the conference on his website.. be sure to check it out. www.economixt.com

Peace for Uganda

Due to recent instability.. my trip to Uganda will be temporarily postponed.

This is a critical time for the country of Uganda. I strongly urge you to familiarize yourselves with the peace process and overall need for national unity. This conflict is a unique one which, if the ICC intervenes, may change the course of international law. The world, particularly the youth of America, are watching this process. The voice of the international community can make a profound change. Our governmental stance on a particular issue in a developing country, for better or worse, can often play a significant role in policy and stability.

http://www.resolveuganda.org/

Uganda, Africa (August 1 - August 20, 2008)

Dear Friends,

I am writing you today to share some important new developments in my life. These developments, with a little hard work and planning, will provide me with the unique opportunity to serve the people of Uganda.

Recently, I was accepted into a graduate program at The University of Vermont in Natural Resources and Environmental Economics. I begin my master’s research this fall focusing on the role of environmental conservation in impoverished communities. With nearly 3 billion people around the world living on the equivalent of US$2 a day or less, millions are forced to make decisions that damage their environment in order to feed themselves and their families.

Since my arrival in Washington, DC two years ago, I have spent a large part of my free time advocating and fundraising for the crisis in northern Uganda with a close community of friends. Like genocide-stricken Rwanda, northern Uganda has been the subject of a grievous 21 year-old civil war. Afflicted and displaced to refugee camps by the terrorizing, child abducting, cult-like Lords Resistance Army, many northern Ugandans lack basic infrastructures, leaving the poorest citizens desperate for water and food. However, a recent ceasefire and peace negotiation have enabled many to return to their homes allowing us a crucial opportunity for outreach..

As a community of friends, we view our commitment to Gulu, Uganda as a long-term one, utilizing our talents, resources, and relationships, to love our international neighbors. To date, we have sent fourteen individuals serving in a variety of different capacities through three non-profit organizations. Last summer, I supported a group of ten friends volunteering in Gulu, Uganda with Living Water International. My friends helped provide sustainable, clean-water drinking solutions by drilling two wells on a small agricultural plot owned by Sports Outreach Institute.

Sports Outreach Institute (SOI) is a nonprofit organization working with the afflicted youth of Uganda, Kenya, and Mexico. SOI owns a small compound in Gulu with a schoolhouse, living quarters, and a newly acquired 32-acre parcel of land. This summer I will be working to develop this land through sustainable agriculture with the help of a local, native agricultural expert, a hydrologist from the University of Kampala and other members of SOI. With the newly found peace, many are returning to their homes lacking the basic agricultural skills needed to earn a living and feed their own families. This project will help meet those needs.

Working through SOI, local experts, and funding partners, my hope is that my trip will serve as a catalyst both physically (through hard labor, the identification/planting of site specific seeds, and creation of an agricultural curriculum and handbook) and financially (through additional grant writing and identified contacts for continued funding) giving locals’ ownership in their natural resources and the basic skills to sustain their own livelihoods far beyond my departure.

It is with great excitement and confidence in our ability to make an impact that I ask you for your support through your thoughts, prayers, and finances. Dates for this trip will be July 20 – August 20 at an approximate cost of $3,500. If you wish to partner with me in this financially, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through SOI. Please join me in meeting the short-term and long-term needs of this beautiful and hopeful community of people.
Sincerely, Lee

Getting started...

Sunday, May 18th - from the confines of my spacious basement apartment I'll start this blog. Conservation for Humanity I'll call it, in hopes to inspire a continuing dialogue around the interconnection between humans, our well-being and the natural environment.

I've just returned from a work trip/vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Towering ancient Mayan ruins, vast coastal wetlands, and white sand beaches as far as the eye can see, no wonder tourism from this one region of the country represents over 3% of the country's total GDP. Hiking into one of the largest Mayan ruins in Central America, Calakmul, surrounded by a 1.8 million acre biosphere an interpretive sign caught my attention. Translated into three languages (English, Spanish and Mayan) this particular sign provided a brief introduction into the history and importance of the civilization at Calakmul finishing with a charge that resinated with me deeply. "You are about to enter an exceptional historic site. Take care of it, for it is yours." This statement seemed to shrink the world small enough to grasp in the palm of my hand. Here was this picturesque ancient ruin in the middle of the nowhere and it was mine, to treasure and enjoy, but to also care for just as much as the people who lived there.

Sometimes I wish we could all view the world in a similar light, perhaps we would realize that we are all in this together - one world, one humanity.