As a Westerner, when I ask myself what marginalized remote indigenous communities can do when facing severe water shortages and little in the way of modern technological resources, I am sometimes at a loss. Much to my surprise and pleasure, Bard CEP’s visit to the community of San Juan Cieneguilla …
What do coastal resort towns and mountainous coffee farms have in common with peri-urban Oaxaca? Other than places visited by Bard CEP during our time in Mexico this January, they are home to communities that recognize the value of nature and natural spaces and are working at the local level …
In January of 2018, the first-year students at Bard’s Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) travelled to Oaxaca, Mexico to visit and learn from indigenous and local communities. We had an opportunity to talk about methods for environmental conservation as well as practices that make life easier (to that same end) …
Ryan Rusiecki Spending time in both remote villages and populated cities, I was given a glimpse into the food systems in Japan. I spent the first few days of my trip in Fukuoka city and began to observe the themes of maximization and efficiency within everyday infrastructure. Transportation was precisely …
By Mika Endo Our relationship with Ben and Konomi Campbell and their Sophia Farm Community began when a former student and now alumna went to their farm in Honbetsu, Hokkaidô in the summer of 2015. Over the past few years, Professor Nate Shockey and I have been organizing a program …
This January, Bard CEP students visited the state of Oaxaca, Mexico to study watershed management and sustainable development. While traveling to the Pacific coast, we met with Omar Gabriel Gordillo Solís, a Director at the National Commission on Protected Natural Areas (CONANP). Omar told us about the history and …
This January, first-year Bard CEP students went to Oaxaca, Mexico for a course examining resource management, sustainable development and international trade dynamics. The activities of the trip highlighted how community dynamics and global economic drivers influence resource management and the sustainability of development. One approach to sustainable development that I …
During the Bard CEP Oaxaca course trip I learned about a new technology that I’ve been fixated on since: dry toilets! I’ve always specialized in waste management, but I’ve never had much exposure to human waste management. When we visited the community of Cieneguilla, our hosts mentioned dry toilets as …
Mist billows up from the valley, swirling around the green mountains of San Miguel Suchixtepec. Standing by the snow-white superadobe house of Don Claudio, I see a kaleidoscope of alternating bright greens and dark greys, as the sun breaks through the clouds and then ducks behind them again. Looking out …
The state of Oaxaca, Mexico might not be the first place I think of when I am considering innovative sustainability strategies, but, as the Bard CEP class of 2019 found out, it’s full of surprises. One such surprise was the Rancho Alternativo, a small business run by an indigenous family in …
