Scientific Conservation Expeditions Indonesia, Honduras, Egypt, Cuba, South Africa, Mozambique and Peru

Expeditions For Sixth Form Groups

The various biodiversity surveys being run as part of the Operation Wallacea programme are mostly carried out by university academics and university undergraduates acting as Research Assistants or completing dissertations or Senior Theses.  However, there are some tasks that need a much greater amount of manpower than available just from university students. These tasks are to be carried out by groups of sixth form groups from the UK, and senior High School students in the US and Canada. The groups will join the mixed teams of scientists and undergraduates but will undertake their own training programme before completing the survey tasks for which they have been trained.  In most cases the second week will be spent completing a dive training course.  

All participants should therefore have the following opportunities:

• chance to work alongside tropical biodiversity specialists for a few days whilst completing the survey training course.

• chance to contribute to real biodiversity surveys with clear conservation objectives

• chance to learn new skills (e.g. dive training).

• chance to visit remote rainforest, desert asked and reef areas.

Fitness and health levels required The forest and desert projects in particular require reasonable levels of fitness. The survey work can be physically demanding and on top of that the working conditions will be hot and humid. Each of the projects is graded as to the fitness levels required using the table below:

Grade level  Definition of fitness and health risk 1 Capable of trekking up mountains over rough ground for 5 hours with a 15Kg rucksack and no health problems that would require medical assistance in remote camps 2 Capable of trekking up mountains over rough ground for 3 hours with a 15Kg rucksack and no health problems that would require medical assistance in remote camps 3 Capable of trekking for up to 2 hours on well defined footpaths with a 15Kg rucksack and no health problems that would likely require medical assistance. 4 Lower fitness levels than any of the above definitions or with a medical condition that could reduce ability in the field or require emergency evacuation.     Marine projects (although the marine scientists will probably not agree!!) are generally possible with lower levels of fitness although there are various swim tests required for diving and snorkel based projects. For example to undertake Open Water Dive training you will need to be able to swim 200m unaided.

The various camps require differing levels of fitness, and each school group leader will be advised of these levels, in order to enable the group to select the most appropriate camp. It is possible to split school groups into subgroups going to different camps, but in each case a teacher will have to accompany each subgroup.

If you want to know more information about each of the available camps, please go to the "introduction to research sites" page for the expedition you would like to attend. Alternatively, follow the links at the top of the page to investigate the school groups projects available as part of the research programme for each expedition.

To book an Operation Wallacea presentation at your school, or even just a 10 minute initial meeting with an Operation Wallacea representative, please contact the relevant Opwall office. Booking these meetings puts you under no obligation, it just gives us a chance to tell you about what we do, and how your school could work with us.