Lucia Pérez Volkow and Susan S. Ekoh
Exploring the link between climate change and human migration to understanding women’s role in the food system are two of the projects that a fellowship at ESF makes possible.
Graduate students Susan S. Ekoh and Lucia Pérez Volkow can delve into areas that can influence future policy thanks to scholarships through ESF’s Randolph G. Pack Environmental Institute.
The Institute supports and encourages the research and public service activities of ESF’s Department of Environmental Studies in the areas of international, environmental, natural resources, and conservation policy.
Students are selected because they clearly articulate how their projects align with the Pack mission to create and disseminate knowledge about environmental concerns of high public interest, according to Benette Whitmore, department chair.
Ekoh is one such student and a two-time recipient of a Pack fellowship. The first opportunity with the United Nations Environmental program in New York City led to her second grant.
“I knew I wanted to do something related to climate change,” Ekoh said. “During the fellowship, I followed the Global Compact for Migration to see how different countries talk about (human) migration and climate change as something that needs to be considered.”
Ekoh is exploring that connection as it is affected by extreme weather events such as flooding in Lagos, Nigeria. “I’m looking at the long term. Do people choose to stay or move, and if they move will they stay within the community, region or country?” She’s also looking at how a person’s economic situation figures into the decision.
“There’s so much more that we need to know,” she said. “Specifically, the views of the communities and individuals impacted and how the policies are decided.”
The Pack fellowship will enable her to hire people in Nigeria to administer data collection surveys. Due to travel restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, Ekoh is doing the data collection online, “but because not all populations will be accessible that way, I had — and have — plans to travel to Nigeria to do in-person fieldwork.”
Once complete, Ekoh’s work will help inform policies and programs. “We’ll be able to understand how people see risks of staying in a location or moving, and tailor policies accordingly.”
For Pérez Volkow, the support of the Institute allows her to study women’s role in shaping the landscape and the diet in the indigenous community of Lacanja Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico.
“Women’s role in the food system has been understudied and undervalued,” Pérez Volkow wrote in an email. “Through my study, we are realizing how women are crucial to keeping the traditional food system since they not only harvest the food, but also are the only ones who know how to cook the traditional meals.”
Industrial food is taking over traditional food, Pérez Volkow explained, and since industrial food brings with it products high in saturated fats and sugars it also leads to an increase in diseases such as diabetes. Industrial food also brings with it a huge amount of pollution through the plastic and other materials that are not recycled in that part of Mexico.
“Traditional systems are more sustainable since they don’t require the input of agrochemicals and by being an agroforestry system,” Pérez Volkow said. “They are able to maintain several ecosystem functions like biodiversity. It is also the way that communities are able to have food sovereignty by being able to control their food system and ensure they have enough food and that it is culturally appropriate food, without depending on buying it from external sources.”
“Women are shaping, in very positive ways, the landscape and the diet of Lacanja Chansayab and thanks to the Pack Institute, I will be able to demonstrate this in a clear way,” Pérez Volkow said.
The Pack Institute was established at ESF in November 1995 with a gift from Virginia Pack Townsend, to honor her father, Randolph Greene Pack. Randolph Pack was a philanthropist and international forestry policy expert.
“The Institute is a living representation of the interest of many generations of our family in sensible land use planning and environmental policy and regulation,” said James Townsend. “It is an honor to be associated with the legacy of Randolph G. Pack, our grandfather, and the activities of the Institute particularly for the scholarly efforts of the master’s and doctoral candidates whose work mirrors the concerns of our grandfather.”
“The Institute allows students to travel to research sites and faculty to attend professional conferences, all of which contribute significantly to their academic pursuits that might otherwise present impossible challenges,” said Whitmore.
The Institute also sponsors the department’s monthly seminar series where they bring in speakers who present on topics that engage diverse publics around complex environmental issues. “This well-attended event has inspired intellectual engagement for our graduate students and faculty, which extends to the campus and local community,” said Whitmore.
“The Pack grant has done so much for me,” Ekoh said. “I appreciate the Institute and the people who made it possible. It reinforces my desire to pay it forward beyond my research. I want to be able to carry the generosity forward.”
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Karen B. Moore is the senior writer in the Office of Communications and Marketing.