Change through experience

Once upon a time in a first semester Freshman English class, I wrote a paper about Change through Experience using Che Guevera's The Motorcycle Diaries. I wrote about how important it was to learn and grow from your experiences. Ironically, I hadn't really experienced anything. Not at 18 at least. My experiences and life trials and tribulations were so small compared to the troubles of the rest of the world. Here I am after two months in China and I feel like I have had a lot of different experiences that have shaped and changed me. I've evolved from the person I was and these changes won't really sink in until I'm back in the good old U.S.A.

China's not home turf. The rules and customs are just different. I was so comfortable dealing with Americans and now all I deal with are other foreigners and mostly chinese people. My honeymoon period of studying abroad is definately over and I'm enjoying being here, but it certainly does not have the same glamour that it did when I first got here. I am really trying to take in everything around and I'm realizing it's quite complex and complicated.

Internship at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature

I just started an internship at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It's in the diplomatic district of Beijing and it's right near the Canadian embassy. It's a 40 minute subway ride and  a bus trip away. Growing up in Alpharetta- I never really had any experience with public transportation excluding the school bus. It's been an adventure. Rush hour ion the Beijing subway is a nice mosh pit of Chinese people. My internship is really cool. We are getting ready for Asia Pacific Forestry Week next week in Beijing. My first assignment is to write a blog about each day of Asia Pacific Forestry Week. I am going to a bunch of different lectures about Reforestation, Climate Change, and Governance etc.

So Asia Pacific Forestry Week has been awesome! I've had a lot of great experiences and met a lot of great people. This is the first blog for the first day!

Asia-Pacific Forestry Week

Beijing, China

November 7^th, 2011

During the Community Forestry Enterprises for Livelihoods: The Way Forward session , a panel of experts discussed how non-profit organizations, international businesses, and forest communities can work together to produce timber and non-timber products that are not only environmentally sustainable, but also improve the living conditions of the indigenous forest communities. These indigenous people rely on the forests for virtually everything from food and medicine to flood prevention. These Community Forestry Enterprises stretch all across Asia and bring many short term and long term benefits to the local people. For example, in Cambodia, Forest officials help teach forestry community members about sustainable forest products and potential bio-resource enterprises. These forest officials provide the community with skill development training and sustainable resource management. These officials collects data, research market viability, and create business models for these communities. In Nepal, community based forestry enterprises have reached extremely remote areas that are not accessible by roads. These programs incorporate forestry micro- enterprises and lease land to community members. Through the enhancement of natural resources management through enterprises in the Phillipines, forest officials and associates conduct market research and have published information regarding more systematic management of natural resource based enterprises.

The International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) stands out for it's success in South America, Africa, and Asia. Through product diversification, sustainable resource management, and training and production centres, INBAR has used bamboo to substitute virtually every timber product from boats to desks to matches. Their marketing strategy and quality standards allow the bamboo products to compete in the world market. All of these organizations utilize market principles to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of forest communities while simultaneously consolidating natural resources and returning deforested and degraded environments to their original conditions. These different programs empower men, women, and children and encourage further entrepreneurship. Success creates economic incentives and provides tools for sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation.