Christian A. Kull is completing a dissertation entitled "Isle of fire: grassland and woodland burning in highland Madagascar" at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management of the University of California at Berkeley, USA. He has spent 21 months over the past seven years in Madagascar studying land use change, political ecology, and environmental management. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Mr. Kull holds masters degrees from both the University of Colorado (geography) and Yale University (forestry and environmental studies).