open real world questions, like:
1. A Malaysian company is interested in expanding its supply of rubber from smallholders farmers in Malaysia. Right now, these small holder farmers are already growing another crop on their land (eg it is already deforested), but would potentially be open to growing rubber on their lands if given appropriate incentives. What methodological approach would you suggest to the company for them to spatially identify potential farmers who would be interested in switching crops. It should be assumed that rubber will likely grow in most areas.
2 In an area of Laos, shifting cultivation takes place over time, thus, sometimes a given area looks like ‘forest’, sometimes it looks like ‘nonforest’. The crop-fallow lengths, although may be on average ~7 years, will vary from location to location. In addition, the total area where shifting cultivation is occurring is expanding slowly. How would you suggest the ‘shifting cultivation zone’ be delineated using remote sensing products? How would you update this overtime? What might be some of the political and social ramifications of conducting such an analysis?