International Conservation & Development

It can be hard to escape the buzz of the activity around energy access initiatives that have been launched by a variety of stakeholders in India. However, this hype often muddles the real story of how entrepreneurs and enterprises are succeeding or failing to distribute energy technologies across this vast country. The space for business innovation in the sector is promising, with a large market of unelectrified people (over 300 million) and government targets aimed at boosting solar technologies and achieving universal electricity access by 2019.

Like rainwater harvesters and solar panels, biodigesters generate power by reinvesting natural resources back into their own ecosystems. Because of their potential to reduce both waste and operating costs, it seems like every family farm should have one on hand. Fellow Alexander Eaton's company, Sistema Biobolsa, is working to create a base of users that leads to a tipping point.

Theoretically, weather-index insurance is an effective risk reduction option for small-scale farmers in low income countries. Renewed policy and donor emphasis on bridging gender gaps in development also emphasizes the potential social safety net benefits that weather-index insurance could bring to women farmers who are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change risk and have low adaptive capacity.

Fellow Eunice Blavascunas pleads on behalf of the threatened Białowieża Forest in Poland, which is both a national treasure and a global gem of biodiversity.

Cal Poly Professor Jennifer O’Leary is an honorary warden for the Kenya Wildlife Service and told KCBX that Kenya is doing well on controlling the act of poaching, but the area still serves as a hub for ivory transport and trade. "Kenya is really against poaching of elephants and has taken huge efforts to find and confiscate that ivory, and that's really where this ivory comes from," said O'Leary. Read more

Researchers have found new clues about the deadly white-nose syndrome, a disease that has wiped out millions of bats in North America. A study found that bats in China showed strong resistance to the fungal infection responsible for the deaths. The fungus invades the skin of the bats and causes characteristic white markings on the face and wings. The scientists involved in the report say some American species may evolve the ability to fight the disease. ...

A new study of market-based forest conservation schemes in Chile provides rare insight into the effectiveness of this relatively new approach to preventing deforestation. The schemes, known as non-state, market-driven (NSMD) governance regimes reduced deforestation on participating properties by between 2 and 23 percent, conclude Switzer Fellow Robert Heilmayr and Eric Lambin.

Fellow Jennifer O’Leary recently received a prestigious Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation and is freshly back on California's Central Coast from management and conservation work she’s doing in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean partially supported by a Switzer Leadership Grant.

Manta rays, which are among the bigger and more charismatic animals in the ocean, have captured humans' imagination for generations. And yet scientists still have many unanswered questions about rays' behavior. Why do they dive so deep? What do they eat in each season? Why do they congregate in certain areas?