Where Capital Meets Conservation

The art and science of raising and deploying capital for conservation is at the heart of the work being done by Leigh Whelpton ’12 MESc. She is executive director of The Conservation Finance Network. “You often hear people talk about how there’s not enough money,” says Whelpton. “That’s not quite true. It’s a lack of capacity and connection, a lack of risk-adjusted return opportunities, and a limited supply of projects that can meet the requirements for financing. We focus on increasing the project pipeline and scaling up capacity to get more money on the ground.”

Tracking Big Cats in the Sierra Madres Mountains

Siria Gámez tracks big cats — all the way up 80-foot trees.  A doctoral student in YSE's Applied Wildlife Ecology lab, Gámez had special training to set up camera traps in the tree canopy of the El Triunfo Biosphere to examine how jaguars, pumas, and other carnivores use vertical spaces in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains in Mexico.

“This particular region of Mexico is quite understudied,” says Gámez. “We’re exploring how these animals survive in this three-dimensional forest structure.”

Greening the Supply Chain

As a YSE student, Morgan Pierce ’20 MEM did her summer internship at McDonald’s, where she worked with its global suppliers on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After graduating she was hired as manager of strategy and alignment, where she has continued to address sustainability issues related to customers’ experience with dining and take-out.

“If we have YSE graduates like me sitting at the tables in these large organizations that control decisions on sustainability, then we can really be a catalyst of change,” Pierce says.

Experiments in Reducing Methane Emissions

Researching natural ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ben Girgenti ’22 MESc tested whether adding minerals to wetland ecosystems can reduce biological methane emissions. After adding iron to the soil of mini wetlands, Girgenti found that methane was reduced by the mineral enhancement.

“If you’re building or using wetlands for natural carbon capture, you could shut off or decrease methane emissions, reducing the amount of time it takes for wetlands to begin having new sequestration of carbon,” Girgenti says.

Financing Community-led Climate Action in Africa

As a YSE student, Rita Effah ’12 MFS participated in COP 17 in Durban, South Africa. She says her experience at the annual U.N. climate change conference was the catalyst that sparked her interest in working to mitigate climate change impacts in Africa.

Now a senior climate finance officer at the African Development Bank, Effah is managing the Africa Climate Change Fund, which implements small grant projects in 28 African countries.

Protecting An Underrated Resource — Soil

For Darya Watnick ’21 MEM and Abbey Warner ’21 MEM, soil is an underappreciated resource. So, they authored an innovative guide to help states craft community-driven policy guidelines for soil health. The guide, Soil Health Policy: Developing Community-Driven State Soil Health Policy and Programs, addresses topics from food production to drought prevention to climate resilience.

“We have a Clean Air Act, A Clean Water Act, but no clean soil act,” Watnick says. “To me, it’s just as important.”

Swimming with Sharks

In the middle of the South Pacific, Aarthi Kannan ’22 MESc is doing a deep dive into predator ecology to inform wildlife conservation initiatives worldwide. As a Fulbright scholar, she is spending eight months in French Polynesia researching the impacts of shark-diving tourism practices on shark behavior, and their ecosystem-wide effects. 

“Shark-diving is a million-dollar global industry,” she says. “This exhaustive assessment of shark-diving on the behavior and conservation of reef sharks and other endangered species will contribute to the world’s first shark-safe diving guidelines.”

Tree Equity

Using income, age, ethnicity, health, and surface temperature data and tree canopy surveys, Ian Leahy ’21 MEM, vice president of urban forestry at American Forests, helped create a Tree Equity Score. Wealthy urban communities, it found, have 65% more tree cover than low-income neighborhoods where temperatures can range 10 degrees higher.

The issue is a matter of health, Leahy noted in a New York Times Op-Ed., and his efforts have led to more financial support for urban tree growth. “What we're trying to do right now,’’ he says, “is close the canopy gap to save lives.’’

Where My Heart Will Always Be

Liz Plascencia — ’22 MEM (she/they)
“I’m a surfer from Los Angeles and have always been obsessed with the oceans. In college, it was shocking to learn about the effects of plastic pollution on the coastlines, and I wanted to do something about it through plastic pollution policy. That’s what drew me to apply to graduate school. I was a Posse Scholar as an undergrad and found out about YSE through the Posse Graduate Affiliation Programs.”

Knowing Where to Look

In her first semester of college, Julia Talamo’s (’23 MEM) career advisor asked her to draw a map illustrating what the next five years would look like. What classes would she take? What experiences would she pursue? Where did she hope to be after graduation?

“In that fifth year, even from my very first semester, I knew that I wanted to be at the Yale School of the Environment,” Talamo says. The question, then, was how to get there. 

Growing a Grassroots Movement for a Just Transition

Liam Gunn — ’21 MEM
“I wanted my internship to focus on grassroots environmental justice, and WE ACT in New York City is one of more prominent groups in the U.S. They’re working on building a coalition of environmental justice leaders; for a while, I’ve felt there needs to be a network for leaders of grassroots environmental justice groups. Grassroots is hard, and being able to share resources, skills, and knowledge will help build out the movement.”