This site will eventually be updated regularly with information regarding my work on environmental change in Vietnam. Starting September 2011, I will be based in VIetnam starting a new NSF-funded project on the combined impacts of anthropogenic climate change and forest carbon market development.

Forecasted future climate changes for tropics have the potential to exacerbate existing social vulnerabilities, especially in poorer developing countries. The ability of communities and individuals to cope with these challenges is likely to depend on their ability to access and mobilize natural resources. At the same time, new global policies are in development that would pay countries for “avoided deforestation” through what is known as Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (or REDD) in order to sequester carbon and contribute to climate change mitigation. If access and use rights to forests change under REDD implementation, however, this may render some households and communities more vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the long term, particularly if these policies reduce their adaptive capacity by restricting access to natural resources. An understanding of the potential outcomes of carbon-credit policies on land-use decision making therefore is important, particularly before such large-scale global programs get more fully underway.

I and my collaborators in Vietnam will be reporting back on our work this fall as it happens. Stay tuned!