Dr. Barbara Best, Coastal Resources and Policy Advisor, Office of Natural Resources Management, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, U.S. Agency for International Development.

How do developing countries with scarce resources and weak institutions recover from devastating disasters like the Asian Tsunami of 2004? By comparing the response and recovery efforts in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, this lecture will highlight the importance of focusing on participatory governance and environmental considerations early in the process to ensure that the long-term vulnerability of communities is reduced, and not increased, by the best of intentions.

This is part of a fall weekly lecture series focusing on the vulnerable Gulf coastal environment, and exploring the question of how the natural and built environments can coexist among the formidable forces of rising seas, coastal degradation, and the Mississippi River.

Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall
205 Prospect Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Light refreshments will be served.

Lectures open to the university community and public.

For more information, contact Martha Smith, Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems.
Email: martha.smith@yale.edu or
Phone: (203) 432-3026