The real cost of a booming economy

For years China’s economy has enjoyed unstoppable economic growth, but it can no longer hide the impact of a copious 9% economic growth at the expense of the wellbeing of its people and relentless depletion of its natural resources. A recent article by David Barboza from The New York Times reports on the misery brought upon the people of Shangma Huangtou, China, by the 24/7 operation of one of the many Chinese coalmines in the area.
Local water sources have disappeared and acres of land are sinking because of the ravages of underground coal mining, forcing the people to flee their land. Meanwhile, as the already 500 feet tall coal waste pile keeps growing outside their village, the Chinese government refuses to help the villagers find a new home claiming that they are only doing for money.

In the meantime, China expects to see their economy roar while burning the lifes of their people and endangering life on earth as they pump yuans and carbon in the atmosphere. For how long? Hopefully not for too long. In the interest of protecting their economy, China will need to realize that their coal dependency wont take them far, and that damning, burning, flooding, and melting their own people can not be their engine of growth.

Kyoto marks one billion tonne GHG reduction

The United Nations Climate Change Secretariat recently announced that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol’s has generated more than one billion tonnes of emission reductions . The reductions are supposed to happen by the end of 2012 and are the equivalent fto the present annual emissions of Spain and the United Kingdom combined. The Clean Development Mechanism was created to help industrialized countries meet their reduction targets by investing in clean technologies in developing counties, thus reducing emission that would have occurred otherwise. Reductions have been accounted for activities ranging from methane capture from landfills to growing cocoa trees in indigenous communities.

Though the 1 billion ton represents an important benchmark for Kyoto Protocol, much more needs to happen to improve the CDM in order to equality distribute the projects between regions and activities. Improvement of the CDM and other incentives to reduce emission in the developing world will be on the agenda at next meeting of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol to be held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Settling in

Last Thursday I started my internship at the UN University for Peace working with UNDP-GEF Small Grant Projects. The work to come looks promising, and I have been trying to use my time wisely to prepare to successfully carry out for that doesn’t lie in my area of expertise. (Left photo: view from our offices in El Rodeo, Costa Rica).

The next 11 weeks are going to be an opportunity to learn from some of the most skilled researchers and development professionals in rural development working closely with the international institutions mandated to assist rural communities to improve their standard of living. My task is to coordinate the work of five young researchers to create 5 proposals apt for funding under the biodiversity and climate change focal points of the GEF. Creating the proposals isn’t really the core of the challenge, the research is supposed to shine light over ways in which the funding process can be improved to include all stakeholders in the conception, planning, and implementation process of the project. Thus, I have already met in the local leaders at the monthly meeting of the County Development Association. Our idea was well received and we will start working in a few weeks once we have gathered enough data to build a methodology that allows for strategic planning and development strategies to be created by the community members of each district in the county. (Photo right side: meeting of the Development Association). I plan to use participatory rural appraisal as a framework, trying to complete participatory analysis of primary and secondary sources, group interviews and sequence interviews, collaborative trend analysis, participatory mapping and diagramming, scenario building, creation of key local indicators through scoring and ranking and livelihood analysis, brainstorming on planning, budgeting and monitoring, and rapid ecological appraisal. Of course, having a list doesn’t really take me far, I now need to identify how to facilitate the adoption of these methodologies while working under the institutional framework, running between meetings with funders, scholars, stakeholders, and still remain impartial.

Yeap, I am still settling in.

meet the ‘Guanacaste’ tree

On my way back from the Costa Rican savannah in the north of the country to the capital I had the change to drive by some of the most amazing trees in the tropics: the Costa Rican national tree, the guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) The Guanacaste tree isn’t any tree. It is one of the widest trees in the World and serves as the perfect shade for cattle while nurturing the savannah ecosystem
As I got over the amusement, I recalled the current political efforts of the Costa Rican government to obtain carbon credits from “avoiding deforestation” under the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change. Basically, the government, in junction with the government from Papua New Guinea, wants to be paid for not cutting trees.
So, basically it is something like this “ Dear Planet, give me Money or I will liberate sequestered carbon until your oceans boil. Love, Costa Rica”
Costa Rica is an expert at tagging a price to every ‘ecological service’ we can come up with. ‘Avoidance of deforestation” sounds like blackmailing to me, but some point to it as a way to bring in developing countries into the climate debate. Like if we didn’t have enough from turning our virgin forest into eco-museums (aka don’t touch unless you can buy the entire acre) and making ecotourism our second largest industries, we want to be paid for keeping our source of income…

I wonder for how long we will continue to justify inaction under economic terms. Polar bears drawing? Cities underwater? International displaced victims? How much to keep you from eating your guanacaste tree? You name the price…

I landed

I have arrived to Costa Rica. After an unexpectively long flight, I landed in the central valley last night in the middle of a tropical storm. The dry season is about to end here, and it is time to prepare for another hurricane season.

As I drove into the city I realized that things haven’t changed much. The same sewage manhole in the immigrant neighborhood overflows every storm. The traffic collapses with accidents in every corner in a poorly planned city. There are five more McDonalds and several new Burger Kings between the airport and my father’s house. Newer and shinier rainforest eco-tours billboards welcome travelers to the city in English with dollar prices. People are happy to see where the country is going; we made it to the World Cup and that is all that matters. (WTF?)

I am still trying to figure out if people think we have a chance to win the World Cup opening match against Germany. It seems like people think we do, but I am not sure if this is also a symptom of the same self-denial that makes the country conciliate with the status quo. Things aren’t internally coherent to me, but they never are. It is my Costa Rica. I still love it.

This is a going to be a good summer. I start my internship on Thursday, I will try to write in here on an occasional basis. Please check it out once in a while to spare me from witting emails.