After news of my Africa San arrow poison paper went viral on the internet — coverage in several journals, newspapers, online news sites, etc. — I was contacted for interviews by journalists in different organizations. One interview was with Mongabay, the large environmental news agency (http://www.mongabay.com/). It is my first stop for news around the world, but I get a little depressed reading about the latest incursion into indigenous lands, new policy that endanger ecosystems, natural habitat illegally and legally transformed into cattle pasture or oil palm fields…. I must work harder to seek out the stories that reflect positive approaches to environmental policy, planning, and protection. Ditto for indigenous people because environmental policy usually reflects how local communities are being treated. My interview with Mongabay occurred via Skype with their journalist based in India. I wanted to ask about issues in India and Asia, but we focused on my Peru beetle inventory – my inspiration, how I worked, what we found, the context for my achievement in the ‘Beetles of Peru’ project, and evaluating why such findings are fundamental to any environmental politics and policy. Mongabay this week has news on the tragic oil spill affecting the Wampis people, expanding oil palm cultivation in northern Peru, illegal gold mining in the Tambopata area, and climate change anticipated to make the Amazon wetter and more prone to flooding. I hope my interview reflects the joy of my field research, our powerful findings, and the superior value it brings to habitat conservation over habitat transformation.
Read the news: http://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/a-forest-full-of-beetles-an-interview-with-bug-researcher-caroline-chaboo/
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