Here we go

The greatest danger to our future is apathy.

— Jane Goodall

Insert cliché post about how I’ve never done a blog before but will give it a try because I’m about to do something cool, blah blah blah…

As much as I feel like these intro posts exist on every single blog published by privileged Americans traveling for extended periods, I probably should actually introduce my project a little bit. I’m FINALLY less than a week away from going to Sierra Leone to do my capstone for my master’s degree. This trip has been pushed back not once, not twice, but three times due to medical and family issues. And now that it’s so close, I’m doing crazy stuff like treating my clothes with permethrin and crossing my fingers that my visa and passport will be all set before I leave.

I’m also still working on trying to nail down the details around my project. I’m partnered with the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, an amazing organization that is part of a network of great ape sanctuaries across Africa. They do a lot of incredible work around community education, as well as rehabilitating and reintroducing chimps to the wild. Their most recent goal is to start an anti-poaching program. Currently, we think that bushmeat hunting and pet trade demand account for most, if not all, of the poaching happening in the National Forest around the sanctuary. To confirm this and to gather background data around how best to proceed with an anti-poaching program, sanctuary staff and I will most likely be conducting wildlife valuation surveys in the villages nearby. This is the very first step in creating an anti-poaching program because the surveys will hopefully inform what kind of approach will be most effective in getting local people to be invested in anti-poaching.

Stay tuned for updates on whether or not I actually make it to Sierra Leone, how the project goes, and what this beautiful country is like in person!