About the Dispatch from a Small Planet

Here I am with Wolf Guindon (he's the young man on the right, I'm on the left with coffee cup), one of the original Quaker settlers who founded Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. The photo was taken just outside the Quaker meeting house on January 3rd, 2009.

“Dispatch from a Small Planet” connects English-speaking readers with the environmental and social struggles of the people of Central America — with particular emphasis on Costa Rica.  One consistent theme runs throughout this blog — the people of Central America care deeply about the natural environment and are willing to put up a fight to protect it.  In Guatemala, the Mayan people demonstrate their spiritual connection to the earth by fighting foreign-owned mining companies.  In Honduras, the environmental movement is picking up the pieces after a ruthless coup and sham elections have truncated their democracy.  The brutish, dark techniques of death squads that roamed El Salvador in the 80′s still haunt environmental activists today.  There’s a burgeoning green movement in Nicaragua after years of war.  Costa Rica attempts to hold ground as an onslaught of reckless development and mining projects threaten its majestic beauty and bio-diversity.  These are the types of stories I follow, record, translate and make available to those who believe in the Central American people as much as I do.

My name is Austin Haeberle and I’m taking a year to get a Masters degree in Environmental Peace and Security at the United Nations University for Peace just outside of San Jose, Costa Rica.  Here’s my bio:

Austin Haeberle is a Peabody award-winning filmmaker and educator.  In Guatemala, he worked with street children to produce their own TV show — the beginning of an amazing youth media journey.  His work with international organizations has included  Doctors without Borders, Habitat for Humanity and the United Nations. From 1998-2009 he was the Creative Director at the New York City-based Listen Up! Youth Media Network which supports 150 media organizations around the globe, providing youth and their allies funding, training and institutional support.  At Listen Up! he produced “The Way We See It: Youth Speak Out on Education” (PBS &  Annenberg Channel) about youth perspectives on schools and teachers. In 2007 he won a George Foster Peabody Award for “Beyond Borders: Personal Stories from a Small Planet” (Independent Film Channel/IFC), an international collection of short films about what youth fear and how they build security in their lives.  His most recent project is “Beyond Green,” which asks youth in nine countries to examine how they interact with their environment and if there’s a better way to achieve sustainability.  Austin is currently getting a masters in Environmental Security and Peace from the U.N. mandated “University for Peace” in San Jose, Costa Rica.  When not studying in the city, he spends every waking moment with his wife and two daughters at their home in cloud forest of Monteverde.