Project development. Hopefully.

OK, so another day in Bakhawan eco-park..

These first few days (and indeed those which will follow from now) are (for me and Joe anyway) mostly about grounding ourselves, and learning as much about the community we can from people in key positions.  I was really struggling with my project as I've spent so much time with my nose in the literature that I had forgotten how different it was really going to be in practise.  My project has changed so many times over the last six months as I've received more information about the community and the mangroves, and it is only now that I can properly create a final draft proposal.. although to be fair, there isn't really time for that.  Lisa is struggling somewhat as the areas she planned to sample in are not as she thought they were (she was going to be sampling within three different types of mangrove; pristine (naturally grown and undisturbed), disturbed (by over-harvesting etc) and planted but relatively pristine.  The problem is that not all the mangrove are coastal (one of them is a basin, inland mangrove) and this introduces a hoard of confounding factors.  So in many ways we are at the same stage in project planning and confusion.  There is the possiblity that she could do all her sampling within this mangrove (the orginal 'planted' mangrove discussed) as the three areas which she would like to assess do in fact exist here, but possibly in not as large an area as she would prefer.  There is an area of clearly planted mangroves, there is an area which was previously disturbed (by typhoons) mangrove which has naturally regenerated, and there are areas of heavily disturbed (by illegal harvesting) mangroves.  Fingers crossed that this could work.

Today really opened my eyes (and Joe's too I would imagine).  Avit, a 21 year old from Kalibo (barangay of New Buswang where we are currently based), who works in the eco-park and has been involved in the mangroves through his parents from a very young age, took us (all 4) out to meet some members of the community.  We were all under the impression that this was just going to be an informal meet and greet, until he asked me if I had my questions prepared.....  We managed to work it well however.  We spoke to two different people (with differeing views on the mangrove) in a reasonable amount of depth, just explaining why we were here, and asking a few questions of them.  I recorded these sessions and Joe and I transcribed them this afternoon (poor Joe got landed with the longest one, he isn't called my skivvy for nothing :D).  We gained quite a lot of insight from these, and possible directions for when it comes to data collection in earnest.  Later on I decided it would be a good idea to have a chat with Avit, just informally and ask a few questions.  I ended up recording it and we spoke for over an hour, gaining some fantastic insight into the workings of the community and KASAMA, and really contexualising everything which is exactly what we've been needing.  Following this I made poor Joe (who isn't actually just a useless primary teacher :P) listen over the recording (and I re-listened) and together we identified the key issues that came out, and started formulating a new direction for my project.  Instead of coming at it from a totally theoretical point of view and making a lame attempt to marry that to the community issues, we are taking the community issues and trying to find a theoretical framework which fits them (if indeed one exists - I'm almost sure there will be one).  I intended to do start doing a bit more literature review tonight, but we ended up talking too long about possible directions for this project, and muddling together all the previous ideas from my old proposals into something sparkly and new.  Instead of taking the angle of whether both development and conservation objectives are being fulfilled, we are going to (potentially) look at putting this project under an umbrella such as incorporating sustainable development and the reasons for lack of participation.  Whilst I obviously do want a good grade for this project, I also really want to do something which can help these communities and assist in future development of KASAMA as they are looking to expand the mangrove area, expand the boardwalk, and recruit new members.  Ultimately (this came from Avit) they want the community to understand what the mangroves do for them, and what they can do for the mangroves.  They don't want for there to be any segregation in the community, and for everybody to reap the same rewards.  In order for this to happen, they need to know what is currently standing in their way.  Maybe this project can elucidate some of these issues, perhaps not.  We reckon it can, so do the park staff and that is all that matters.

More on the actual methods/key ideas over the next few days when we've bounced them around a bit and I've done a few more preliminary interviews with the KASAMA executives and the barangay captains.