Operation Wallacea Ecology Field Skills Courses
Operation Wallacea (Opwall) is a biodiversity and climate research organization. For 25 years it has run biodiversity field expeditions to support the research of hundreds of academics and funded from tuition fees paid by students that then gain experience of working with publishing scientists.
Given the pandemic travel restrictions that have restricted international travel for the last 2 years, Opwall has put together a series of training courses in the UK.
These training courses are based in field camps as you would experience on expedition, and are aimed at developing skills for wildlife careers, and at those looking to benefit from an increase in wildlife management and climate change opportunities in the UK. These practical activities include:
How to quantify bird populations
Camera trapping for large mammals
Invertebrate pollinator surveys
How to calculate the biodiversity value of a site
There are three different courses available at Knepp:
A 5-day course in Field Skills for Wildlife Management Careers
A 5-day course in Ecology Survey Techniques and Data Analysis
A 2-week course that combines Field Skills, Ecology Survey Techniques and Data Analysis
Each course is an immersive experience run in collaboration with Operation Wallacea. You will spend your time camping in the Southern Block of Knepp, completing practicals with experts, and taking part in evening lectures and discussions.
In the evenings there will be presentations from professional ecologists and climate change specialists about career development, as well as in depth lectures about UK land use policy, the voluntary carbon market, and the developing biodiversity uplift credit market.
There is also the opportunity to take part in a canopy access experience and see Knepp Estate from the treetops. This is an optional extra course which costs £170 and is provided by Canopy Access Ltd. You can choose to do this half-day practical instead of one of the other sessions offered on the course.
