Leek College Lecturer Returns to Jungle
Added to website: 05 August 2006
Published in the Leek Post and Times on the 2nd August 2006
Andrew Farmer, a biology lecturer from Leek College, will be leaving the sunny Moorlands in September to live with the people of the Waria Valley in Papua New Guinea for a year.
‘The project looks at assessing the biodiversity of the area by surveying the plants and animals of the rainforest and using the information to develop sustainable use of the environment for local people,’ he explained. ‘Basically I will be living with a tribe with no electricity or roads, looking at wildlife and helping to set up schemes to use forest resources without destroying them for the future.’
He has just returned from a similar project in a remaining fragment of rain forest in the Philippines. He was there as a science officer with Coral Cay Conservation at the invitation of local project partners on the island of Negros. The project was originally set up in response to severe flooding and land slides due to deforestation.
‘We spent four days a week sleeping in hammocks; not washing; eating rice and counting birds, bats, butterflies, small mammals and trees. The rest of the week we spent sorting out kit, analysing data, training volunteers and relaxing.’
The unpaid work has proved very valuable to the province by raising the status of the area from a forest reserve to a Natural Park, which provides more powers against illegal logging and hunting. The project also provides a small income for the local villagers who work as guides and cooks.
‘The base camp was completely integrated into a small village and over six months you really become part of the community. The villagers were always smiling: as they said it is better to laugh than cry, even if you are crying inside.’
The work in Papua New Guinea is being funded by a grant from the Darwin Initiative and supported technically by project partners in country and in the UK. It is an ambitious project in a remote area. The aim is to provide means to preserve critical habitats and wildlife alongside local people instead of being destroyed for short term material gain. Surveys of plants and animals, such as the elegant and varied birds of paradise, will be partly carried out by local and international volunteers. There will also be some construction work of a simple lodge to encourage Eco-tourism. The project manager co-ordinates all these activities as well as local liaison and education programmes, and initiating ideas gained in the field. This is all whilst living in a remote and isolated village in the forest for a year.
‘I am excited and apprehensive about the role, but feel it is a privilege to be able to carry out important work motivated by positive outcomes rather than personal gain.’
