For my research, I’ve visited Indonesia several times to do fieldwork and to meet with my local partners WWF Indonesia, UGM and UnMul. These visits were fun, interesting and inspiring because I felt the positive energy of people who feel connected to their country, to their land and to whom they are deep inside. At the same time, I sometimes felt challenged and confronted because I just didn’t understand why a planet like ours can inhabit so much beauty and so much destruction at the same time.
In the coming months, I will write about what drives me in doing this research, why I selected it in the first place and how the past years of my PhD have been exciting and challenging, and the best learning-exercise I could've ever imagined.
* Whether a need is basic or luxury is of course debatable..