School of Geography and the Environment

Anna Lyons: Intern, Earthwatch Institute

Having completed a fantastic and memorable year on the MSc course, I feel very lucky to be selected for a new three month paid internship. The internship has arisen from collaborations between the ECI and the European headquarters of the Earthwatch Institute. Earthwatch are a dedicated research institute focused on four key areas of interest: climate change, sustainable resource management, oceans and sustainable cultures.

I am very excited by the opportunity to work with this well respected organisation; it will prove to be a perfect progression from my previous experience and the course. Having completed a BSc in Development Studies I worked as a project assistant on a research NGO in Indonesian Borneo. I decided to do the MSc to deepen my knowledge of environmental issues but still keep a perspective on overseas development; hence I conducted research for my MSc dissertation in Uganda. However, although I have strong research skills, I currently lack experience of working within a large environmental organisation; the internship will provide me with this experience.

As an intern I will be expected to develop, with partner scientists, five proposals on potential climate change mitigation projects. I will also be building on previous reports on the scientific validation of volunteer data, to produce an article for a peer reviewed journal. These are interesting roles in themselves, however, there will also be opportunities to attend lectures, conferences and talk to scientists at the cutting edge of pertinent environmental issues.

Well, I sincerely hope I make a good job of the new and challenging internship so that this great opportunity remains open for generation after generation of ECM leavers in the future. Luckily if all else fails I make a very nice cup of tea – that may convince them!

Nicholas Howarth: Intern, European Investment Bank

Being the biggest public lender in the world with around EUR50 billion per annum spread across Europe, Latin America, the Asia Pacific and Africa, I can distinctly remember being caught off balance that I had never heard of the European Investment Bank before.

Afterall, we had heard all about the troubles of the World Bank’s investments in our development and Latin American courses so I thought that perhaps the fact that the EIB had gone unmentioned might be an encouraging sign.

So another window into the world was opened up to me by the MSc when Peter Carter, who heads up their Sustainable Development Unit came to Oxford to run a workshop for our class and invited students to apply to be part of their internship program.

After a few months wait, I finally heard that I had been accepted and I packed my bags, bought an Oxford English-French Dictionary and headed to Luxembourg for two months to what the guide books called the most picturesque capital in Europe.

The Bank provided an ideal base to support my research on how to transform the European energy sector, which is about 80% of EU emissions, to a low carbon future. With investments in the sector of around EUR27 billion over the last seven years, a third of which has been focused on combating climate change and with hundreds of projects to look at, I was given excellent access to Bank’s databases and freedom to interview staff.

This helped me identify key drivers of energy investment and changes in emissions across Europe. I explored the importance of not just the usual mitigation suspects such as taxes, subsidies, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and energy efficiency but also was able to explore the critical roles of governance and public attitudes in Europe’s diverse and multicultural community. Speaking to Bank staff who had decades of experience highlighted the importance of recognizing the individual nature of energy systems in different countries and the role of sometimes competing goals such as energy security, competitiveness and the politics that shape the sector.

But probably the most important of resources given to me by the Bank was the collegiate support of the staff who took time out to speak with me and read my work. Well beyond the call of duty, I got feedback on my academic style, coherence of argument and chocolates and tea when frustrated by the inevitable difficulties that come up. Oh and the gourmet cafeteria and indoor pool was a big plus too when spending hours around the clock at work.

Now going into a D.Phil in the School of Geography and the Environment, I am looking forward to staying in touch with the Bank and have already taken on some interesting work on how to implement the EU’s Green Paper on adaptation within the Bank’s portfolio and business model.

The experience certainly brought home to me the critical and positive role international financial institutions will play in the battle against climate change and securing a prosperous and sustainable future.

Ashley Massey - ECI Intern

My ECI internship stems from my dissertation for the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management: "Do dragons prevent deforestation? Assessing customarily conserved areas in Kiang West, the Gambia." Using remote sensing and GIS, I demonstrate the conservation value of customary practices, such as a Gambian belief in mythical dragons that live in the forest. Most Gambians believe that if you see a dragon, you die, and thus avoid certain areas of the forest. Remote sensing analysis confirms that areas where dragons are believed to inhabit have a significantly lower rate of deforestation than surrounding areas.

The internship was a wonderful opportunity to expand my MSc research and collaborate with other interns. I am in the process of submitting my paper to a peer-reviewed journal and I have begun a DPhil in the School of Geography and the Environment, supervised by Prof. Kathy Willis and Dr. Shonil Bhagwat: "Resilience and adaptive capacity of customary conservation practices in Malaysian Borneo." I hope to develop a framework which will inform the integration of customary conservation practices within the contemporary conservation framework.