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Papers:
Adaptive
management (Hornbill 1998)
Local communities(Pakse 1999)
Comanagement(Hornbill 2000)
Recreation(Johor 2001)
Lincoln programme
(Manila 2003) |
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Learning materials
Small populations
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GPS course |
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2001 | |
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 In November 2001
I made a 10-day trip to Lincoln University in
Aotearoa (New Zealand). The main purpose of the trip was to get to
know the place and the people there, putting faces to the names on
the emails! Most important was meeting the people who will be
teaching on the Diploma programme in 2002-3 and making some headway
with plans for the Diploma modules, though much will have to be done
by email later when the Sarawak Government has clarified its plans.
Apart from these 'work' aspects, I got to see a bit of NZ. Pat
Devlin took me around the Banks Peninsula to Akaroa, where we had
good views of a group of Hector's dolphins. Kerry Straight organised
a trip across to the west coast: I crossed the Southern Alps to
Greymouth by train via Arthur's Pass and Kerry brought me back via
Punakaiki rocks and Lewis's Pass.  |
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The final stage of the Certificate programme is the
individual research which each student has to carry out and write
up. Over forty students had completed the taught modules, and
supervising and assisting students with research reports took up a
great deal of my time from July right up to late September. Lincoln
University held an International Convocation in Kuching on 15
October, and 38 students who had completed their reports received
their Certificates from the Chancellor, Hon Margaret Austin. In
early November, they all presented their research findings at the
National Parks and Wildlife Division annual staff workshop. |
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A large chunk of the year was taken up with "more modules."
We ran Interpretation and Ecology modules for the third intake of
students; they have all come a long way since their first modules,
overcoming the difficulties that many of them had initially with
English. And Tim and Ian came in to run an Engineering module for the second
intake, including building a second side-bay along the Bako
plankwalk.
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The first run of the
Parks and Reserves Engineering module (27 March to 8 May) went very
well, thanks to the major contributions of Tim Davies and Ian
Domigan from Lincoln, each of whom came over for two weeks teaching.
The course covered a range of practical and theoretical stuff, from
systems concepts and hydrological mechanisms to septic tank design
and repairing small engines. During the practical work, we stressed
the safety and health aspects, from the point of view of both
visitors and staff. A major project carried out by students during
the course was the design and construction of a side-bay along the
mangrove plankwalk at Bako National
Park; this will be used for
interpretive displays. Three such side-bays are planned along the
plankwalk.
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I squeezed in another
trip to Korea between two Lincoln modules, from 24 Feb to 13 March.
This time my brief was to help the Korean authorities to begin
preparing a management plan for the Mt Myohyang protected area. Most
of the work involved discussions and meetings with those involved in
management at the Chongchong hotel just outside the protected area.
The lack of opportunity to go into the forest was less of a
handicap, as I had been able to see some of this during my previous
visit. By the time I left, most of the snow had gone and there was
little ice left on the river in Pyongyang.
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My first task as coordinator
of the Lincoln training
programme in Sarawak was to help in organising and teaching the
Protected Area Management and Planning module for the third group of
students to come through the Lincoln course, from 15 Jan to 26 Feb
2001. This module involves a lot of material on recreation and
ecology, the bases for managing and planning protected areas. Some
of this was covered in the classroom, but the course spent two of
the six weeks at Bako National Park, looking at geology, soils,
forest ecology, wildlife management, and gathering data on
recreational activities. I was involved in teaching some of the
wildlife material as well as units on Quality Conservation
Management and Adaptive Management.
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| © 1999-2004 Michael E Meredith | |
In between teaching on the modules, I managed to get to an
IUCN workshop on World Heritage karst sites held in Mulu and to the
Malaysian forestry conference in Johore, where I presented a paper
written jointly with Pat Devlin on ecotourism. I also squeezed in a
10-day trip to see the family in the UK. 
