A typical day for me [doing fieldwork in Madagascar] would involve doing some surveys of the local population of Mandena, trying to figure out the types of wood that they are using. Have they noticed a change in the landscape in recent history, is it getting harder to find wood, is it getting harder to find the types of wood that they want to use? And then I’m also asking perception questions. What do they think about reforestation? Why do they think the forest is important?

I’ve been at Duke for a long time, but this is really one of the first opportunities I’ve had to work on a project that’s research-focused but also has really broad applications where I know the research can be used down the road to actually help somebody or something. We’re not just researching problems; we’re also coming up with solutions for problems.