Operation Wallacea

Operation Wallacea

Operation Wallacea (known as Opwall) is an organisation funded by tuition fees that runs a series of biological and conservation management research programmes operating in remote locations across the world. These expeditions are designed with specific wildlife conservation aims in mind - from identifying areas needing protection, through to implementing and assessing conservation management programmes. What is different about Operation Wallacea is that large teams of university academics, who are specialists in various aspects of biodiversity or social and economic studies, are concentrated at the target study sites giving volunteers the opportunity to work on a range of projects. The surveys result in a large number of publications in peer-reviewed journals each year, have resulted in 30 vertebrate species new to science being discovered, 4 'extinct' species being re-discovered and $2 million levered from funding agencies to set up best practice management examples at the study sites.

These large survey teams of academics and volunteers that are funded independently of normal academic sources have enabled large temporal and spatial biodiversity and socio-economic data sets to be produced and provide information to help with organising effective conservation management programmes. Depending on the country, Opwall normally operates both marine and terrestrially based research expeditions, with a variety of research themes, whether they be biological, geological, geographic or social science projects.

In 2012/13, the expeditions are operating in 11 countries: Indonesia, Honduras, Egypt, Cuba, South Africa, Mozambique, Peru, Madagascar, Guyana, Mexico and Romania. In each country, a long-term agreement is signed with a partner organisation (e.g. ICF in Honduras, Fund Amazonia in Peru, Wildlife Ecological Investments in South Africa, Nature and Science Foundation in Egypt, Fundatia ADEPT in Romania) and, over the course of this agreement, it is hoped to achieve a survey and management development programme at each of the sites. Occasionally, a competent local partner organisation is not available. In these cases, Operation Wallacea mentors the formation of a new NGO comprising local staff who have provided successful input to the expedition surveys (e.g. Lawane Ecotone for the Indonesian forest, Lembaga Alam for the Indonesian marine sites and Expediciones y Servicios Ambientales de Cusuco for the Honduran cloud forests).