UT Shield

Graduate Association of Geography and the Environment

The University of Texas at Austin

Just another University Blog Service site

  • GAGE Family Photos
  • Officers
  • Alumni

July 11, 2013, Filed Under: Uncategorized

From the Field: Greg Schwartz

Greg is a Phd student researching neoliberalism, sustainable development, and women’s land-use decisions in Costa Rica. He sent us this update from the field earlier this week.

I’ve now been in and around the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica for about a month now with three more weeks to go, based in the town of Puerto Jimenez. Each morning I’m awakened by a combination of howler monkeys, a resident rooster,  and the beaming tropical morning sun. This area is home to one of the largest contiguous stands of primary tropical rainforest in the country, which I have wandered into several times and had many many animal sightings. Yet, it took the neighbor’s pit bull here in town to log my first animal attack on this trip. No serious damage though. Otherwise, I’m doing lots of informal interviews and a few fully structured ones, resulting in lots of good contacts. I was even invited, then uninvited due to cost issues, to a beach wedding.

So far, I’ve found that the region’s economy seems to be based, in descending order, on 1) tourism 2) African oil palm plantations & processing 3) Rice plantations 3) Payment for environmental services (government paying land owners not to cut down their trees) 4)  government and/or NGO jobs and 5) gold mining (almost entirely illegal)

Can’t wait to have some Home Slice pizza on South Congress 🙂 See you all soon & have a great 2nd half of the summer !

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Simple Calendar

January 2021

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

Recent Posts

  • GAGE Officers for 2017-2018 Academic Year
  • A Year Full of Accomplishments
  • Doctoral Candidate Kalli Doubleday Published in Geoforum
  • Winner of Jean Holloway Teaching Award – Dr. Caroline Faria
  • UT Geography at AAG 2017

Archives

  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2016
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • July 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010

Social Media

Twitter Facebook

UT Home | Emergency Information | Site Policies | Web Accessibility | Web Privacy | Adobe Reader

© The University of Texas at Austin 2021

  • UT Austin
  • UT Blogs
  • Log in
  • GAGE Family Photos
  • Officers
  • Alumni