UNH Today

UNH’s College of Life Sciences and Agriculture (COLSA) recently welcomed a contingent of faculty and students from two universities in Ecuador for a visit to Durham as part of an ongoing collaboration between the institutions, a partnership designed to share research experiences and approaches, particularly around watershed sustainability and socioeconomic issues.

The collaboration blossomed out of a connection made in 2018 by COLSA’s Heidi Asbjornsen, professor and program coordinator for forestry, during her four-month sabbatical as a Fulbright scholar in Ecuador. Thanks to a recent NSF grant to Asbjornsen and several UNH colleagues, UNH groups – including 18 students – have made three visits to Ecuador over the past three years. This was the first time participants from Ecuador were able to travel to UNH.

“It was an amazing opportunity to have faculty and students from Ecuador visit UNH and for us to be able to reciprocate all of the support and hospitality they’ve shown us over the years,” Asbjornsen says. “I think the experience really exceeded everyone’s expectations, both on the U.S. side and the Ecuadorian side. I think they felt like they had an opportunity to interact with people from a lot of different disciplines and backgrounds, explore new ideas for research, outreach and education and to bring those ideas home with them.”

The partnership blossomed in earnest several years ago thanks to the aforementioned three-year NSF International Research Experience for Students (IRES) grant. But the NSF funding only covers expenses for UNH participants traveling to Ecuador and not the other way around. In order to bring visitors from Ecuador, COLSA Dean Anthony S. Davis secured funding through connections within the U.S. Forest Service.

“Collaborative partnerships are at the core of so much great work at UNH,” says Davis. “To address complex problems, we know that familiarity of the local context will bring the best ideas forward, and I’m excited to see these relationships grow and benefit New Hampshire and Ecuador.”

One of the biggest benefits of the visit for the Ecuadorian group was exposure to such extensive interdisciplinary work, a core focus at UNH that is not as common in Ecuadorian universities. Patricio Crespo, who helps head up the research enterprise at the University of Cuenca, was particularly excited to see that approach up close and personal.

“One of the problems we are facing in Latin America is that we are not finding good solutions to some problems because we don’t have an interdisciplinary approach, and that’s one of the reasons we were so interested in this exchange with Heidi,” Crespo says. “I think this is very valuable for the future in Latin America, because most universities right now take just a monodisciplinary view.”

The visit included stops at several locations on and off campus in the Durham area over the course of five days to explore ongoing research work. The first stop was university farms, followed by visits to the Lamprey River, several agroforestry sites at university farms and one private farm before concluding with a trip to the Jackson Lab to experience some Great Bay research work.

Anton Bekkerman, professor and associate dean for research in COLSA and director of the NH Agriculture Experiment Station, led the first day’s visit to university farms and was energized by the spirit exhibited throughout the week as the relationship between UNH and the Ecuadorian researchers and students continues to deepen.

“Strong and successful partnerships are built on trust and mutual knowledge of how each side can contribute and benefit from long-term collaboration,” he says. “It was really rewarding to introduce our wonderful research and educational resources and see the resulting infectious excitement across our UNH and Ecuadorian colleagues.”

The variety of sites provided a comprehensive look at some of the work being done by UNH researchers, and left an impression on a group that – outside of Crespo, who had been here twice before – had never visited UNH.

“For me it has been impressive to see outside of my own box, to see different things and maybe open my mind and implement some of these things in my country,” says Ximena Palomeque of the University of Cuenca, who called the partnership a “win-win” because of the reciprocal sharing of knowledge between the two countries.

Adds Franco Tamayo Galarza of Universidad del Azuay: “It’s a change in worldview, because sometimes we need to think twice or three times what society might be needing and to travel and see how other countries are doing things. When you see other perspectives and other worldviews, you realize maybe society might need this or that. It’s nice to see the difference but also the similarities so we can share different ways to solve problems.”

Among the visitors were María Fernanda Muñoz Macías and Daniel Xavier Illapa Guallo, a pair of students from the University of Amazonia IKIAM who will be spending about two months at UNH. The trip is the first time either of them have been to the U.S. Muñoz Macías will be studying ecohydrology, while Illapa is looking forward to learning about soil.

Muñoz Macías says she was very intrigued by the amount of data UNH researchers have at their fingertips that dates back many years, which she cited as an occasional challenge in Ecuador. She was also taken by the amount of equipment available, noting that where her university might have one or two of a certain kind of instrument, UNH often has many more.

“I’m excited because it’s not just about research, it’s like opening a whole new world, meeting other people. I think it will be a really enriching experience,” Muñoz Macías says.

That sentiment has been echoed by the UNH students who have had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador, Asbjornsen says, and highlights the significant benefit of the ongoing partnership. While there are many differences between the climates and geography of the two countries, there are also a lot of similarities, she says – both are confronting a variety of challenging issues related to the changing climate, and both have diverse landscapes that include mountains and coastal environments.

“It’s just a real eye-opener to be able to address some of these similar questions related to watershed sustainability across very different ecosystem types, societies, and cultural contexts, and to learn from each other’s experiences,” she says.

Adds Bekkerman: “In many ways, our two regions face similar threats and challenges, and both of our universities are hubs of really smart people who are passionate about using science to overcome those challenges. Strengthening COLSA’s partnership with the Universidad de Cuenca is a critical step toward moving from ‘what could be’ to ‘what is.’”

Beyond the research-related benefits, the cultural exchange created by the partnership is perhaps even more influential for the students involved. Asbjornsen is hopeful the Ecuadorian students wind up finding the opportunity to study in the U.S. as transformative as the UNH students have found their time in Ecuador.

“I think for many of the students, it’s really been life changing. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve spent any time in a foreign country and the first time they’ve spent this amount of time doing independent research,” Asbjornsen says. “I think more than half of the experience was just being totally immersed in a foreign culture and environment and being exposed to new situations and people on a day-to-day basis.”