The Royal Scottish Geographical Society
Exploration and Discovery 2006
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The Royal Scottish Geographical SocietyExploration and Discovery 2006 |
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Each year the Socirty offers grants to expeditions organised by young Scots setting-out to gain a greater understanding of the world. On 22nd February 2006 the RSGS Expeditions Committee, chaired by Professor Peter Furley, reviewed 22 grant applications from school, community, and university groups. It was decided to support the expeditions listed below.
Zambia 2006
A group of 16 undergraduates from the Institute of Biology at Glasgow University heads for the Kasanka National Park to carry-out fieldwork for six weeks under the leadership of Dr Kevin Murphy. They will carry-out socio-economic studies and a biogeographical habitat survey of freshwater and wetland systems that will add to work on sustainable development being carried-out in the park with support from the UK Darwin Initiative.
Project Southern Andes
Edinburgh University postgraduate geologist Andrew Hein leads an international group of experienced scientists studying glaciation in South America across a range of latitudes. Their work will shed light on the timing of mid-Quaternary glaciations in southern South America, and add to our knowledge of past climate change and landscape evolution.
Upper Raspaculo Valley Expedition
A group of botanists and biologists from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, undertakes the first baseline study of plants in a remote valley in the Maya Mountains of Belize in Central America. They will work with undergraduate students taking part in the Natural Resource Management Program at the University of Belize to provide much-needed data for the conservation management plan of the area.
Glasgow Academy Greenland Expedition
A dozen Glasgow Academy pupils accompanied by four experienced mountaineers undertakes leadership training in the rarely-visited Milne Land, East Greenland. They aim to ascend unclimbed peaks, learn about Inuit life, and collect samples of the Greenland Seed Bug (Nysius Groenlandicus) during four weeks in the field.
Mamaco 2006
A group of six zoology students from Glasgow University, working with Bolivian scientists, carries-out an extensive biological survey of an area of previously unexplored varzea forest along the eastern side of the Rio Negro in the tropical Beni region of Bolivia. The data collected will contribute to the development of a protected area plan, and help conserve the threatened Wattled Curassow, known to the local Tacano people as Mamaco.
Ecuador 2006
An international group of Scottish, Irish, English, German, Austrian, and Ecuadorian zoology and anthropology students, led by third-year Glasgow University undergraduate David Holt, travels to the Sumaco National Reserve in the tropical Napo region of eastern Ecuador to collect data on wildlife in a 'biodiversity hotspot', and to carry-out an ethnographical study among the Payamino community.
Cameroon Cultural Survival Expedition
A team of six students from Newcastle and Dschang Universities travels to the Yokadouma region of Cameroon to record and map cultural reliance on the rainforest. They will be the first in the field to test a new manual for the Rainforest Foundation UK, which will aid future work.
Project Bosque
A multifaceted research expedition to the tropical forests of Bolivia will engage students from the University of Edinburgh in studying the social impact of deforestation in the Amboro National Park, logging efficiency and the distribution and abundance of vascular epiphytes in the La Chonta Forestry Reserve, and the possibility of creating an environmental education programme aimed at promoting sustainable forest management.