A productive student conference in Cambridge, UK

I have just returned from a 3-day Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) at the University of Cambridge, UK. I was also fortunate enough to be awarded a bursary, which means that my return air tickets, accommodation and food were all provided for! :D

A day before the conference began, participants were taken on a guided walk around Sheep’s Green and Coe Fen, a park by the River Cam. Ms. Monica Frisch, a member of the Cambridge Natural History Society (CNHS), led the 2-hour walk and pointed out things of natural history interest. After the walk, a group of us took on a punting tour down the River Cam. Our punter, from New Zealand, pointed to us most of the points of interest (mostly churches and colleges) along the river. He even sang us a song under the bridge! :D

This year, some 200 delegates from 63 countries participated in the student conference, and topics that were covered ranged from the conservation of land, lions and livestock in India; to the relationship between scared sites and conservation in Tibet; to the conservation status of an endangered frankincense tree in Ethiopia. The talks were interesting and the speakers were inspirational, considering most of them were non-native English speakers and to at least one of them, it was his second time presenting a talk in English!

I presented a poster entitled “Participation of the local community in saving the critically-endangered river terrapins”. The poster demonstrates how we are involving the local community in the river terrapin recovery project that we are carrying out in the Setiu River. It is our hope that the local villagers would be able to continue taking care of their natural heritage even after we have expanded and moved to a new locality.

My poster was very well-received; in fact, quite a number of interested participants came forward with questions and I was able to share my experiences in more detail with them. A few of them were so impressed with our work that they have indicated their interest in making a donation to the project! :D

I would like to thank the conference sponsors and organizers for providing bursaries to students from developing countries (like myself), for without these sponsors, I wouldn’t be there. Special thanks go to Ms. Shireen Green for making the necessary arrangements (flights, meals, accommodation). My appreciation also goes to Prof. Chan for her invaluable inputs in the poster, and to Meg Perry for alerting me about the conference :D

Note: The Student Conference on Conservation Science is designed for young conservation researchers (targeting mostly graduate students) from biological, environmental and geography departments of universities as well as conservation and resource management agencies. If you would like to participate in such a student conference, check out SCCS Banglore (dates to be announced) and SCCS New York (12-14 October 2011).