Raise donations for OpWall Transylvania Expedition 2016 - Helen Davison whenever you shop online

About our cause

I currently read zoology and am in my 1st year. On 13 July 2016 I am going on an expedition with Operation Wallacea to Transylvania. This will be a fantastic opportunity to get involved with a project that has global significance. Operation Wallacea (http://opwall.com/) is a network of academics from European and North American universities who organise research expeditions across the world. In Transylvania we will be carrying out biodiversity surveys in the Tarnava Mare Natura 2000 Region of the Carpathians. This is an area of land that is extremely important to preserve as it is one of the last medieval landscapes in Europe. It is exquisitely picturesque, with its 85,000 ha of lowland meadows and Saxon villages. Currently, there are schemes in place which preserve traditional farming techniques in order to help maintain biodiversity of the local ecosystems. I will be part of the team helping to carry out an annual biodiversity survey in partnership with ADEPT, a Romanian based NGO. This survey will help determine whether implemented schemes are having an effect. We will be hiking across the region, travelling from village to village in order to take these surveys. The expedition itself will cost £2250 but with additnal costs like flights and equipment it's more around the £3000 mark.