As a Zoology student, the chance to complete an expedition to Indonesia is a dream once in a lifetime experience. This expedition is based in the endemic rich forests of the Wallacea region on Buton Island for the first two weeks, followed by two weeks in the Wakatobi Marine National Park. It is run by Operation Wallacea (Opwall) who is a conservation research organisation that is funded by, and relies on, teams of student volunteers who join expeditions for the opportunity to work on real-world research programs alongside academic researchers. Due to human advances in these tropical areas, pollution levels (especially plastics) are at an all time high. Opwall is in place to monitor the scale of and the effects this pollution has on wildlife. This trip will greatly improve my knowledge on a wide range of scientific sampling techniques in field situations and allow me to increase the individuality of my CV, putting me in a better position to work in my dream job sector. It will also allow me to visit a new part of the world that I have always wanted to go to.

The cost of the trip is £2250 but on top of this I will need to pay for flights (£800-£1000), jabs (up to £450), internal travel (£200) and other spending money for the month. As a university student with limited funds available, I am looking to fundraise as much as possible. This will include this page as well as interactive public events I will organise in early 2018.

Below gives a more in depth description of what the 4 weeks will involve;

The first week is split between jungle skills training (including an optional canopy access experience*) and learning about Wallacean wildlife and ecology from lectures and field based practicals, which are carried out in the forests around a small rural village in central Buton. In the second week the group will be moved to the primary forests in the little studied northwest corner of the island and will help a team of biodiversity researchers targeting bird communities, large mammals, bats, reptiles, amphibians and forest structure. The third and fourth weeks will be based on Hoga Island in the Wakatobi. If you are already dive trained when you arrive you start your third week on this Indo-Pacific reef survey techniques course and then join the team of marine scientists working on a range of projects including stereo video surveys of reef fish, 3D mapping of coral reefs, behaviour studies on cleaner fish and fiddler crabs and many other projects.