Conference ideas

The conference has been interesting. One session on adaptation to climate change introduced an idea from the World Agroforestry Center called "sustainagility" -- developing and teaching farmers to use combinations of crops and practices that can be adapted to varying rainfall, temperature, and growing seasons. Another session on mining near biodiversity "hotspots" included people from the mining companies asking for international regulations and procedures to define the hotspots and keep all mining companies out. A guy from AngloAmerican refered to the wildlife and plants as the "jewels on the ground" that must not be disturbed for the sake of the jewels underneath. There was general appreciation that remediation after mining almost never successful at restoring biodiverse settings. I got the impression the big mining representatives wanted international rules so that their competitors, who might be less scrupulous or less vulnerable to bad PR, could also be kept out of biodiverse areas.

The part that I'm here for is mostly happening over coffee and meals. I've given my two cents of technical advice in conversations about server backup in a South African research institute, use of Plumtree portal builder when multiple departments are involved, and how to get IP in Equatorial Guinea.

Here's a view from one of the conference rooms of a lake near the downtown. Dinner yesterday was at a mostly expat bar and restaurant called the KuDeTa (as in "coup d'etat" ..)