Kaitlyn Bretz

The first step to any international project is to move and live amongst the community for an extended period of time. This is primarily so that I can be adjusted to a new culture and lifestyle, and to develop my proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia, the local language. Learning to adjust to the unfamiliar is the best way to be successful in a new place and to learn the most from new experiences. As I have learned from the Chernobyl & Fukushima Research Initiatives and Sealands Archaeology & Sustainability Program, developing nations, including Indonesia, have cultures and mannerisms that are often significantly different than the culture that I am used to from living in the United States, so before I can make any headway in designing a local conservation strategy, I need to know local Bali citizens and understand Balinese culture. Further, I must be able to effectively communicate with them and be comfortable learning new information and adhering to different beliefs in order to identify problems that the Bali community is facing.  My experience in coming to USC, working in Alaska, and participating in research means that as the principle investigator, I will have the skills necessary to aid my team members in adjusting to foreign ideas and concepts so that we can make connections and establish relationships with individuals.

 

My next step is to use the concepts taught in GEOG 343: Political Ecology and begin analyzing the community’s problems from a variety of perspectives by expanding the scale and scope of my research. This is likely to take the longest amount of time, as I have learned that conducting research requires a significant amount of time, and my team and I also need to be comfortable with the local community, and to have the community by comfortable with us. I will use an interdisciplinary approach to the project by conducting research in environmental science, economics, public policy, and anthropology. A variety of research disciplines is absolutely necessary for my conservation project, as each discipline will provide data that will illuminate a small part of the whole picture. The entire project will cover a broad spatial area with a simultaneously detailed scope, so identifying the overall power structure and influences within an area will allow me to see connections and relationships within and beyond the community. Political ecology also taught me that in order to gather the correct information, I will need to utilize the full scope of data available to me: satellite and GIS data alongside personal anecdotes and field work; biological, physical, and chemical science data alongside economic, political, and social data; and perspectives from international organizations and national governments accompanying local governments and communal organizations. This breadth in disciplines and types of data means that my team needs to be able and willing to collaborate and discuss their data as a whole, rather than sticking strictly within their disciplines. In addition, collaboration and communication with the local community is absolutely imperative throughout my project. I will stress the importance of working with locals to investigate not only the environment, but how the community itself sees and uses the environment, what their goals for the project are, and what they are willing to do at the present time, as well as into the future. For this project to be in practice for many years, I need to make sure that it appeals to multiple generations and that it will be able to adapt and shift as different people come take over management.

 

Producing possible solutions and strategies to meet my project’s goals comes after research and data gathering and is likely to take place approximately two or three years after the initial immersion by my team. Similar to the concepts of expanding the scale and scope of analyses in order to understand a region, the best way to develop a viable solution is to include as many different perspectives as possible. For example, several dozen people from all over the world are likely to come up with more solutions than a handful of people all from one nation. Globalization creates venues for nations to cooperate with one another and thus allows easier ways to use interdisciplinary research on a large scale while also having diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences amongst team members. Globalization creates cross-cultural cooperation because nations are intrinsically connected to one another through a multitude of relationships, and often depend on one another like organisms in an ecosystem. These relationships, as discussed in ENVR 202: Environmental Science & Policy II, include the economy, political partnerships, as well as the global environment. Having partnerships where research members can coordinate their efforts on an international scale will provide the team with greater range of experiences and expertise, as illustrated by my work with Sealands Archaeology & Sustainability Program and Chernobyl & Fukushima Research Initiatives. My goal is to have a research team made up of individuals from developed and developing nations, who are bringing many different voices to the discussion surrounding the my conservation project in Bali. Having a variety of people on one team also spreads any influence this Bali project may have. The information and strategies we use will be known by the team researchers from many different nations, and when the project is over they will return to their nation, effectively carrying this knowledge and experience with them. Thus, using globalization to create an effective research team will continue to benefit my project, as we will not have to simply rely on journal articles and word of mouth to spread our information.

 

The main goal of this project is longevity. There is no sense in working for years and using significant amounts of money to develop a conservation strategy that protects the environment and local communities just to have it fail within a decade. A strong support system needs to be established within the local community in order to insure that the community members can handle any problems or changes themselves. If a concern appears that cannot be handled locally, the support system will allow the community to contact me, my team, and/or scientists around the world in order to gain opinions and suggestions for solutions. A support network is necessary to maintain any management project, but to also make sure that locals are equipped to manage and change the strategies themselves. Too often, organizations spend thousands of dollars installing a new type of technology or management practice, only to have it break and no one within the community knows how to fix the problem. Like an energy network in an ecosystem, all things are connected and rely on one another to work properly. Enabling the local community to solve any problems is the key focus of establishing a support system, but some input from my team and I will be necessary for the future.

 

My conservation project in Bali requires several things, including time, the ability to adapt to new cultures, a research team with varied background and expertise, and the cooperation of the local community with developing a conservation strategy. My interdisciplinary education and research experience enables me to see the larger picture and to understand the strategies necessary to finish the project. Understanding other cultures, utilizing various research methods on a broad, yet detailed scale, tapping global connections, and establishing a secure network for long-term support and maintenance are all integral for my project’s success, all of which my time her at USC has provided me and I feel confident in taking part in.