Sandi Matsumoto (’02) has always had a passion for environmental work. After graduating from Anderson, she abandoned work in consulting and launched her career with The Nature Conservancy, the leading conservation organization working on a global scale to protect ecologically threatened land and water networks. Matsumoto is now associate director for California’s water program and is developing an innovative strategy to mitigate issues surrounding avian migrations in the Central Valley through the BirdReturns project.
Q. Tell us about your background. Why did you pursue your MBA?
I graduated with a bachelor’s in economics and went into consulting work with nonprofits dedicated to conservation efforts. I have always been passionate about the environment and mitigating the negative effects of industries on local ecosystems. I originally pursued a law degree at UCLA School of Law. But I found that it was far less engaging than I had hoped, so I enrolled at Anderson to pursue an MBA. I hoped to apply the business skills I would acquire to conservation efforts and it turned out to be tremendously useful. BirdReturns, the project I am spearheading at The Nature Conservancy, is very much like a startup within a larger corporate network, and my MBA provided me with the skill set needed for such an entrepreneurial endeavor.
Q. How does the BirdReturns project tackle current threats to migration patters?
The winter migration through the Pacific Highway is used by millions of birds. However, this phenomenon is facing serious threats from land conversion in the Central Valley. Nearly 95% of California’s wetlands — paramount stopover grounds for the migrating birds — have been destroyed as water is diverted to agricultural lands and cities, and farming lands continue to expand.
BirdReturns focuses on mitigating these ecological threats by creating seasonal wetlands to preserve migration patterns. One method is to buy land from farmers and flood the fields during the appropriate seasons to create makeshift wetlands. Our most successful strategy has been to introduce a bidding program in order to establish a case-by-case incentive system for farmers to create habitats on their lands. There exist fixed federal payments for conservation efforts in the farming industry, but the bidding system provides a more efficient and effective solution. The reverse auction process allows us to determine fair and efficient payments based on the value of the conservation efforts by individual farmers, which allows us to optimize the value of our conservation investments and provides greater incentives to farmers to create habitats.
Q. How are farmers receiving the project?
We generally reach out to farmers who do not opt for the federal programs, and there is always a certain level of skepticism of environmentalists. However, this is the second year of the project and we have doubled our farmer base since last year, which is a huge success. Our strategy is conducive to both parties’ interests and so we are optimistic about the outcome.
Q. What’s the future of this project?
We are still in the early stages, but it is a very effective strategy and there are none others like it in our field. The reverse auction process allows us to maximize our return on investment through optimum values and provides strong incentive to farmers. This model has the potential to be applied to other resource conservation efforts and could help shape the future of environmental work.
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