An experiential, adaptive, inexpensive, and opportunistic approach to research capacity building in the tropics

Abstract

Based on intensive field courses on tropical forest management and conservation in Belize, Guyana, Indonesia, and Mexico, we recommend a pedagogical approach designed to help fill scientific mentor gaps where they impede publication by relatively inexperienced scientists. Participants in these 8–12 day field sessions were provided what instructors judged to be novel research topics but then were tasked with refining hypotheses, developing and implementing field studies, analyzing data, rehearsing formal oral presentations, and preparing complete manuscript drafts. Over the subsequent months, the manuscripts were revised for submission to peer‐reviewed journals; to date, six were published, one is in review, and two others are close to submission. These were the first publications of most of the participants, some of whom are evaluated by their home institutions partially on the basis of their publication records. These low cost workshops were fun and benefited participants and instructors alike.

Theory-of-Change Development for the Evaluation of Forest Stewardship Council Certification of Sustained Timber Yields from Natural Forests in Indonesia

“…What forest remains in accessible areas is badly degraded and when loggers return for the second and third harvests, they find commercial timber stocks that are a small fraction of what they were initially [42]. Most of the better-stocked forests are in remote areas and on steep land where harvest and transport costs are high and profits are consequently low [60]. Timber yields can be sustained only if, in addition to reduced harvest intensities and the application of silvicultural treatments, alternative timber yarding techniques are employed (e.g., long-line cable yarding instead of cutting switchbacks up steep slopes with bulldozers) [39,42,43,48,49,58].…”