Introduction to the Egypt projects

On the edge of Africa, Egypt is a country that holds a historical fascination for many people. Accredited with some of the earliest records of any civilized society, and home to the world renowned Pyramids and Mount Sinai (where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments), Egypt is the setting for Operation Wallacea's only desert expedition.

Operation Wallacea has a long-term agreement to assist the Egyptian Nature and Science Foundation (NSF) to continue the work of BioMap to produce one of the first biodiversity atlases for the country.  Data for an atlas of higher plant, reptile, bird and bat species distribution and relative abundance throughout the St Katherine Protectorate are being collected.

The project has to date published identification guides and distribution details for the mammal fauna, butterfly fauna and three families of plants. In addition publications on the reptile fauna, one family of wasps and two further plant families are close to completion. The project aims to complete the publication of identification guides and distributional details for birds and the remaining 28 families of plants over the next few years.

This detailed study has revealed some significant knowledge gaps for particular areas of the country, which Operation Wallacea is helping to fill with a series of biodiversity surveys. One of the areas where more records are needed is the in the mountains of Southern Sinai within the St Katherine Protectorate. A sampling grid of 10km x 10km squares has been established to cover southern Sinai and constant sampling effort is being spent in each square. To date Opwall teams have completed surveys on plants, reptiles, birds, mammals and bats in more than 40% of the squares in the southern Sinai. This survey effort is continuing in 2012 with some of the more remote mountain wadis being surveyed in a series of long treks.

Operation Wallacea are also running diver and reef ecology training courses in Nuweiba on the coast. Volunteers can join these courses after participating in the desert surveys.