Household Interviews

Before we run inventory transects in the forest, we conduct household interviews to determine which plant resources are most important for the village and how much of each species they use/need. I call these unstructured interviews "Resource Need Assessments". In effect, we are trying to quantify the demand for different resources. Armed with this information, we then go to the forest and quantify the supply of each one.  

Image shows Gumring Jungkum (great guy) from the WCS Myanmar team conducting one of these assessments in Tikon. We have to do them at night after people come home from their fields, and they usually involve a lot of flashlight work and trying to write in the dark. This house, like most, had a warm fire going and served us hot tea. [NOTE: I am posting this from Changi airport in Singapore during an 8 hour lay-over].