Author Archives: Jeff Conant

(Note: the following post is not your typical blog post, but a longish work of fiction in the genre you might call “speculative genoeology”. Enjoy. And, if you read it, please send feedback.) *** Lot’s Relation Being the Account of an Olde Settler in the Colony of New England & of His Travails Among theContinue reading “Lot’s Relation”

A few years ago I began keeping a list of the books I’d read each year, and posting it on social media in the event that others would find it handy, as I find inspiration in the booklists of friends and colleagues. This year, as December rain comes down on my little house in theContinue reading “2022: My Year in Books”

The village of Air Pahlawan in Sumatra, Indonesia sits amid steep jungled hills two hours’ ride by motorbike up long slopes from the sprawling shore of the Indian Ocean. Home to several dozen families, some whose roots are here and others whose parents or grandparents migrated from West Java in search of fertile land, theContinue reading “Sowing the Seeds of a Tropical Village Economy in the Mountains of Sumatra“

On a chill morning in November 2021 about a dozen people are circled up in a clearing atop a high hill in Massachusetts, the paper brown leaves of oaks and beeches crackling lightly in the wind. Nearby a white dome three-stories high rises from the earth, pale as a cloud, its base ringed with sculptedContinue reading “Prayer Walks on Ghost Roads: Re-Enchanting New England with the Monks of Nipponzan-Myōhōji  “

A reflection on the COP26 deforestation commitments in light of global policy efforts [Note: It’s been rare for me to post articles to this blog related to the ‘professional’ side of my work, as it feels a bit disjunctive to the tone I want to maintain here; but then, it’s been rare for me toContinue reading “Financial Incentives To Slow Deforestation Are Helpful – But Public Policies To Stop It Are Essential”

Part One: Summer Into Autumn September 1 2021 We’ve been a month in the new house, in the new state. August in New England is lush and sweet, the nights hot, the days moist. It’s a good thing the nights are hot because the movers still haven’t delivered our belongings. We sleep on mattresses kindlyContinue reading “Massachusetts Diary”

by Jeff Conant, senior international forests program manager Mar 31, 2020 · Reposted from Medium ·  6 min read “When we try to pick out something by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” — John Muir The rapid worldwide spread of coronavirus is proving to be a massive shock to everything we know,Continue reading “We need our tropical forests more than ever”

By Jeff Conant 21 March, 2020 :: Published on the Platform of the New York Declaration on Forests The 2019 assessment of progress five years after the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) was created is discouraging to say the least. Global tree cover loss has increased by 43 percent since the declaration was made, and monthsContinue reading “Momentum is growing for demand-side regulations on deforestation – here’s why regulation is an imperative”