Welcome to Juliana Olmstead's Mission 2006 Home Page!

I am in Group 8 of Mission 2006, which is covering the topic of "Alternative Development Strategies."  On this page, I will be documenting the work that I do for and with my group on this project during the Fall semester of 2002, and I plan to update frequently!

What's New:  

10/30/02: Research page updated.
10/23/02: Research page updated.
10/16/02: Research page updated, links page added.           
9/30/02: New page format!
9/26/02: First research posted.

GROUP EIGHT'S MISSION STATEMENT:

We envision three main steps in our work:

1.) Research current development of the rainforest and its consequences on the ecosystem and the economy.
2) Define the problems that we see in the current situation, based on our research, and define new goals.
3) Find alternatives to the current development that will meet our new goals.

While we do this, we want to take into consideration a number of issues:

• Is the forest/land that is being destroyed useful?  How can we optimize its use?
• Look at history and best practices, and learn from native practices.
• How can we use the resources of the forest to promote sustainable development of local populations/societies/economies?
• Compromises; we have to consider the balance between ideal development for locals and the forest and the realities of capitalism and the economy (the roles of big corporations, etc.)
• We have to keep the local population in mind; our work has to focus on their interaction with the forest.
• We should not act as a "cover-all" group in Mission 2006.
• It is very important that we interact with the other teams in the mission, and we plan to have organized liaisons to each team so that we can stay informed.
• Our main concern is: alternative development; by whom and how?  In other words, we have to reflect on the ecological interaction between people and nature in the rainforest.

If we can accomplish our three main steps and take into account all the issues on this list, then we will consider ourselves deserving of an A in this course.

     If you have questions or comments about this website, I can be reached at: jolmstea@mit.edu