Olivia's fieldwork update

Olivia is back in the office after five months of fieldwork in the Argentine Chaco. Between May and July, she spent most of her time talking with people that have recently migrated away from the forest towards a rapidly growing town, to understand the pressures acting on families living through the expansion of soy and maize monoculture in the region. Then, in July and August, Olivia made her way into the forest to work with charcoal producers. By examining the supply chain of this nationally important commodity she's found that there are fascinating (albeit worrying) feedbacks happening between agricultural expansion and charcoal production in the region (stay tuned!). Finally, in September, Olivia gave a workshop (aimed at exposing youth living in rural communities of Santiago del Estero to concepts in Ecology) in twelve primary schools. During these, she had a chance to interview many teachers - inarguably the experts on the dynamics of outmigration happening in the region. What's next? Lots of data analysis for the next couple months, and then hopefully a return trip to continue the workshops in April and May!