Rebecca S.’ Vietnam Experience

“So far my placement is going well. My first week I spent getting to know the different areas/communes in Hoi An by visiting and speaking with the local people. This was to get a sense of the different livelihoods and also identifying some problems related to environmental degradation/sustainability.”

“Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Quang Ngai province with a visiting American journalist and the Professor Trinh, who is one of the founders of the Cham Island MPA in hoi an and a leader at the organization I’m interning at. This tour was to learn about opportunities for enhancing the tourism in certain areas as a tool for improving the livelihoods of local people as well as providing an alternate income source that is not directly dependent on resource exploitation. For example on Tam Hai Island residents’ are highly dependent on fishing, and one of the main industries in central mountainous region is timber which they export to Japan for paper products. This has lead to the conversion of most of the old growth rainforest into acacia trees, which are harvested every 7 years and support much less biodiversity as well as a decreased capacity for carbon sequestration and storage for global warming mitigation.”

“I spent the end of last week on Cham Island learning its transformation over the past 14 years and about challenges still faced. I am currently working on narrowing down a research topic based an all of the information I gained since coming here”