Former RECOFTC Intern wins award for Senior Thesis

In a tough competition, Tian Lin, a 5th year student majoring in International Development Studies, won 2nd place in this year's UTSC Undergraduate Research Forum. With over 40 entries, this is an impressive feat. 

After spending a year with RECOFTC as part of her degree, Ms. Lin wrote her senior thesis on community forestry in Myanmar's Dry Zone. 

Interning at RECOFTC provided Lin with the necessary time and resources needed to conduct a thorough, on-the-ground investigation of community forestry's effects on climate change adaptation.

"A Community Forestry Approach to Climate Change Adaptation: Examples from the Dry Zone of Myanmar," the title of the thesis, is a well-done scholarly exploration of how community forestry influences climate change adaptation in one of the world's most vulnerable countries, Myanmar. By using a sustainable livelihood assets framework to measure adaptive capacity, Lin suggests that CF offers a "critical contribution to adaptation in Myanmar, but faces several operational challenges," including overlapping land claims and disenchantment over the lack of tangible benefits.