Baye Massene Diallo, a senior double majoring in economics and business administration, said he recently had a “life-changing” experience researching his economics capstone project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa.

The project, “Assessing the effectiveness and implementation challenges of Payments for Ecosystem Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” involved Diallo conducting data collection and field research about how a payments for ecosystem services (PES) arrangement can impact the country generally and especially the Kahuzi-Biega National Park as his target area of research. 

His ability to travel and do nine days of international research was made possible by an Economics Department Excellence Fund grant and a Student Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant. 

PES essentially involves paying farmers, landowners and local communities in return for playing a stewardship role in preserving the rainforest and, in the process, helping mitigate climate change, preserving biodiversity and improving local livelihoods.

“The DRC rainforest is the biggest carbon sink in the world,” Diallo explained. “It absorbs more carbon than even the Amazon rainforest. Preserving it is important for the world to survive.”

This key role of the country, the second-largest African nation in geographic area, is recognized by agencies worldwide, yet it remains little known to many.

‘Beating heart of the world’

“The World Bank called the DRC the beating heart of the world, yet the country remains underresearched,” Diallo said. That organization also notes the Congo Basin's role as the world's largest carbon sink on land, with the DRC alone absorbing 1.5 percent of the planet’s annual carbon emissions.

Political instability and volatility, along with widespread poverty, can provide a challenge to large-scale research. Diallo was greatly aided by connecting with Strong Roots Congo, a grassroots conservation and sustainable development organization, which helped him meet local leaders and citizens to conduct his data collection.

While Diallo’s goal involved learning more about how the PES impacted the country and its population, he received an eye-opening lesson on how much more immediate concerns mattered.

“Ecosystem services are the least of their concerns,” Diallo said. In the area around the park – his targeted area of study – “the average citizen lives on 29 cents per day,” he added. “They’re more concerned about getting their next meal.”  

In addition, a need for better infrastructure, such as roads, schools and hospitals remains more immediate, but providing these could be a non-monetary payment for a PES program. 

“The land is very arable, but sometimes farmers can harvest their crops but cannot transport it,” Diallo noted. 

The lack of adequate public schools also makes progress challenging, and sometimes families have to decide to send one child to school and not send others because that is all they can afford, Diallo said. He added that he saw two eighth-grade students selling onions to help pay the school fees.

But knowing what the PES is and about the importance of the rainforest and park, as well as the country’s role in the global ecosystem, is also crucial.

“People don’t know what the ecosystem services of the park offer,” Diallo said. “You can not protect something if you don’t know the value of it. They might not know that the water that they drink comes from the park. The freshness of the air they breathe comes from the park.”

But Strong Roots Congo and others are making a difference already, with the organization planting 2.8 million trees. Diallo is interested in the possibility of continuing his role as well because the importance of the ecosystem deserves more attention and support.

Those interested in learning more about the project or reading his findings can email massene2001@gmail.com.

Finding his passion

Diallo came to the Oswego family as an international student from Senegal in western Africa. He had looked at other SUNY schools but Oswego’s accreditation from AACSB, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, convinced him of the high quality of the university’s School of Business.

However, he truly discovered a passion for environmental economics when he took some courses that introduced the concept and decided to add an economics major along with business administration.

“I love the business classes, but was super impressed by the economics courses and the professors,” Diallo said. “I took an economic development course with David Andrews and learned so much about the plight of developing countries. Then I took an environmental economics class from Glenn Graham and realized I wanted to not just do economics but environmental economics.”

Diallo added special praise for his advisor, Ranjit Dighe “for being more than a professor to me, and always being there for me,” and to Graham for supervising the capstone project.

In addition to his coursework and preparing for graduating in December 2023, Diallo is a climate change research intern with Abt Associates in Rockville, Maryland, one of the top firms of its kind in the U.S. He had the opportunity to attend Adaptation Future 2023 in Montreal, which is the biggest conference of its type in the world, with more than 2,000 attendees. Diallo was one of the youngest participants. 

“That experience confirms my desire to focus more on the climate field,” Diallo said. 

It is one of many opportunities he has received through SUNY Oswego.

“I want to thank the Economics Department for the grant and for all of their support,” Diallo said. “This has been the most rewarding academic opportunity I’ve ever had. It was a life-changing experience. I was able to see everything the people in the DRC are going through. I could see the problem is deeper, and that to solve it, you have to go deeper.”