Forest Research work in Borneo completed! After 5 grueling rounds of data collection spread over 8-months ( read more about Stage 1 , Stage 2, Stage 3 here ) involving the collection of all above-ground trees (>10cm) and dead wood in 22ha of virgin, degraded and plantation forest, Michael has finally completed the data collection stage of the research and will now move on to the final stage of data analysis and write-up.

During the final data collection, Michael and his team journeyed to Sapulut Forest Development (Tibow district) and Sabah Forest Industries (Sipitang district) which saw the team clock an impressive 9 hours of walking/hiking a day that averaged 11km a day! Tidak Jauh!! (not far!!)

“It is a feeling of accomplishment that my team faired so well in the field. Considering the distance traveled and its weight, I am very impressed by both the professionalism and determination the team displayed throughout this period. This was by far, the most challenging phase of the research, and to finish so strong is an understatement” stated Michael. “The boys did a wonderful job learning about the forest, the species, its composition and how it represents a true potential to climate change mitigation. The core team demonstrated their sincerity towards proactive forest management and have all pledged to submit applications for service in the Sabah Forestry Department. This is truly a fantastic outcome of the research” he continued.

The next phase of the research will consist of data analysis and interpretation with acute guidance by the PhD supervisory and advisory panel. “The next phase of the research is going
to be really exciting as the information will then be able to tell how the story finishes. I truly hope it is positive” stated Michael. The final research stage may be completed within the next 10-12 months that will see the completion and publication of the PhD to the global community.

Camps International will continue to support Michael’s research through proactive engagement where Michael will be presenting his work to the international community in the upcoming months. This in turn will provide the impetus to increase the awareness of forestry and climate change and proactively endorse the presence of Camps International and our programs to communities and countries further afield.

Well done Michael and team, keep up the good work!

Those wishing to learn more may contact us at info@campsinternational.com or Michael directly  at m.v.galante@sms.ed.ac.uk.

I have just returned from a 2 day trip to Mantanani where we opened the Community Learning Centre (CLC) which we have been building for the past 2 years or so as part of our ongoing Borneo Project Work.  I started my opening ceremony speech with “wow” which was ably translated for the local audience also as “wow” and I think that sums it up very nicely.

During my 8 or so years in Borneo I have been privileged to see some great things and also to be part of constructing many buildings in rural villages.  But I have to say the CLC on Mantanani is perhaps one of the most impressive and beautiful buildings I have worked on.  From the outside the bamboo paneling forms a protective shell which is intriguing to the eye – from the inside the different designs of panel allow varying levels of light through, creating a mosaic or light and shadow, making the interior fascinating to just sit and be inside of.  These panels combined with the huge towering drift wood columns around the outside make this building a truly iconic and inspiring place.  The design is innovative and unique; the craftsmanship impressive; the intensity and passion of all those who have worked on the building is apparent.  I would like to personally thank everyone involved in the building – the architect interns and permanent team from Arkitrek who have overseen the plans and construction throughout; the skilled labour of Albi, Hashim and Normin who have toiled everyday to complete the construction work; and of course every single volunteer, whether they be gap students or school team, who has put blood, sweat and tears into making this an awesome building, something to be really proud of – thank you all.

It was also a time for reflection after 4 years of working on Mantanani, part of our ongoing Borneo Project Work – my first visits with Mel where we discussed our plans with Albi, and we walked along the seafront where our camp now is (and the Mari-Mari buildings).  There was nothing there then, just a winding track and loads of driftwood on the beach with the occasional cow going past – we paced out into the undergrowth what Albi thought was the extent of the land that was available for us to rent.  We discussed with Albi what Camps was all about and I don’t think he really understood it all, but in true Albi fashion, after looking slightly serious and if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, he smiled broadly, we shook hands and hugged – the deal was done.  Its been a long road since then, often challenging and difficult, mixed with some mistrust and resistance, uncertainty and problems.  But it finally struck me that slowly, very slowly, things are changing, and changing for the better for those on Mantanani, whilst also holding onto their identity and sense of belonging.  It was the little things – our team of cooks, 4 girls, thick as thieves, giggling to each other as they prepared our food, working hard but happy, earning some money, learning, growing in confidence.  These same girls led the dancing at the opening ceremony – and where initially a year or two ago the dancing was limited, wearing their company T-shirts, shy and embarrassed, slightly awkward, yesterday it was vibrant, confident, in full costumes and proud – proud to be there performing their traditional dance, proud to be an “Orang Baju Laut”, bursting with confidence, leading 4 young girls from the school who were also part of the dance.  Their eyes caught mine, sat as the main guest in the front row, but instead of shying away, they held my gaze, brimming with pride.  It brings tears to my eyes and makes the hair stand up on the back of neck to consider and write this now, and I hope you can share and feel that with me.  And to cap it all they performed again in front of the whole village and a plethora of visitors and big wigs during a huge “Community Policing Programme” yesterday – and they were awesome again, young and old in the village captivated by their moves.  And it was then that I realized, we were making a difference, an intangible difference, and that its not about the buildings and facilities we construct, but simply about our presence, our love and giving people a sense of their own power and abilities.  Wow!

Win £100 Cotswold Outdoor Vouchers! May Prize Draw.

If you’re looking to book your expedition with Camps International this month we have a fantastic prize draw on offer for anyone who confirms their place by the end of the month.

Book any Life or Gap trip with Camps International this month to be in with a chance to win £100 Cotswold Outdoor gift vouchers!

Save yourself £100 of essential travel equipment. Just choose your Gap or Life destination and book before the end of May 2012 (5pm GMT on 31st May 2012) to be included in the draw.

As usual with our monthly prize draws, we will choose the winner from a hat and post the video on our Facebook page so that you can see the draw. The prize draw will be held on the 1st June 2012.

So what are you waiting for? Enquire now to find out more about the trips available to you, or book online now! You can also give us a call on 0844 800 1127 to have a chat with one of the team. This prize draw only applies to new Gap and Life bookings made during April 2012.

Ok so we are not quite at the end of the year, and are currently hosting several Australian school teams in Borneo,  but this week we staged our end of year party for all staff.  Its an annual tradition to get together and have some fun, usually centred around some dancing (both cultural and “modern”) and some singing (normally a mix of dreadful and amazing karaoke renditions).  This year there was the added twist of fancy dress (super heros meets cultural attire) – more about that and some embarrassing pictures in another blog I am sure!  So we managed to get nearly all our camp staff down into Kota Kinabalu (which is no mean feat!) for the evening and had circa 60 people present.  Normally the gathered crowds have to endure a speech from yours truely and this year was no exception – although i thought this year i would keep it simple with a summary of the year in numbers.  I have copied it here for people to see the size of the operation we are now running in Borneo:

Total number of pax coming through Borneo = 764

Total number of days spent in our camps = 14,936

Total number of days spent working on our projects = 7,613

Total different nationalities = 19

(Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Belgian, Australian, British, Pilipino, American, New Zealand, Botswana, Ghana, German, Bruneian, Japanese, Indian, Taiwanese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Korean)

Total welcoming and leaving dances danced = 117

Litres of water drunk = 59,744

Meals cooked = 44,808

Rubbish collected from beaches on Mantanani = 320 kg

Litres of air used doing scuba diving = 98,600

Trees planted = 8600

Money spent on our community projects = RM 97,300

Money spent in direct support to these projects & locally within Sabah = RM 2,850,000

There are some pretty juicy numbers here and it illustrates the hard work the team have put in this year as well as some of the great achievements we have done.  And whilst the figures are impressive my main message to the team was not to loose that little special something that everyone experiences when they come to Borneo – that special feeling of being part of the family, part of the community, mucking in and sharing those great little moments with people.  Thats what makes Borneo such a special place and the staff we have such mind blowingly awesome people – they work hard of course but they are willing to share and welcome people into their lives and families.

One of The Best things in our line of work at Camps is the people we meet. People who makes the effort to travel thousands of miles away and volunteer to make a difference. NINA CAPEK, came out to Borneo a year ago this month and she explains it here, on her return…. This time [...]

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The world knows that something is desperately wrong with the climate these days and it’s top of the agenda for global leaders and policy makers. This year thousands of bloggers came together yesterday to bring together a global voice for action to be taken against Climate Change. In Kenya, we don’t have to be told – we can see it and feel it. Two years of drought followed by El Nino floods in parts of the country. Phrases like carbon footprint and offsetting carbon have become for many a part of our daily lingo. Thankfully it is not all doom and gloom (at least not in our generation), as the rains have finally arrived…but it is certainly a wake-up call to all.

Where we are at

The bottom-line is we can all do our bit and we at Camps would like to think that we are taking a road less traveled. We have been planting trees for years thanks to all our volunteers who share our mission for being responsible travelers. Recently, we have been trying to take it one step further. At Camp Borneo, the team has been busy building a prototype bio gas collector (yes, there is a whole lot of energy that comes out of rear  ends!)

And in Kenya, we have had a long standing relationship with WWF to protect local forests and support alternative ways for communities to create an income without having to cut trees down. It’s not enough to tell people not to cut trees when they can barely feed themselves and we understand this. The local Farmer’s Center at Muhaka has become a buzz of activities for finding alternative eco-friendly fuels like jatropha as a biofuel to replace paraffin at homes (afraid there aint no electricity around here!) and now we are well underway with piloting our organic charcoal briquette project:

Where we are going

But we still know that there is so much more we can do and we want to do. So when some friendly chaps from a company called CO2balance came knocking at the door, we were quite excited to learn about the various projects they support across the world to find sustainable and financially viable ways for individuals to massive corporates to offset their carbon footprint. And right in our own backyard!

Best to let them explain what this is all about…

co2balance is working with local social groups in the Ukunda region of Kenya, East Africa to replace the use of open fires for cooking with energy efficient cooking stoves.   Our energy efficient stoves are made entirely in East Africa and utilise the ‘Rocket stove’ technology which offers a good balance between cost, life expectancy and efficiency.  These stoves reduce firewood consumption by half and save in the region of 3.05 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, 15.25 tonnes over the 5 year life span, in comparison to traditional cooking methods.

In addition to the saving in greenhouse gas emissions, the reduced need for firewood and the burning of rubbish leads to a corresponding reduction in the amount of time spent collecting cooking fuel.  The recipients of the energy efficient technology also gain considerable co-benefits such as reduced costs and a considerably improved environment from a health and safety perspective.

This is another example of co2balance seeking projects with a wide range of additional benefits to the receiving community, including health, financial, social and environmental. In this way, we can maximise the project’s achievements beyond simple carbon saving.

(If you would like to read more about this particular project, click HERE)

The ball began to roll a few months ago when CO2balance was keen to get a fuel-efficient stove program going in and around the Tsavo ecosystem so we helped to arrange various meetings with key community leaders like our good friends at Imani Women’s Group. In a couple of months over 400 stoves were built at individual homes and there are plans for another 1200!

As Ruphence (above) states: “This is a great stove. It works very good and very fast. Now I only use 2 k of charcoal when I was using 5. I can cook my beans and my ugali very quickly, so there is always food ready and none of my customers have to wait. They are all saying that Ruphence has the best café here and they are right. I have a good stove and I love it very much. I hope that I can get another one because then I can make this place bigger. It is a very very good project. I want to say Asante sana (thank you very much) to co2balance”.

What we can all do

For those of you that travel with us, you all know that our projects come first and foremost (ok, ok and a bit of fun too!) and thus, we have every intention of working with CO2balance to build as many stoves for communities that we work with in Kenya to start with so there is a lot to look forward to next year. But we want to take this one step further and do realise that taking responsibility starts at the very beginning of the journey if not before and whilst we will be busy planting many more trees, building stoves and bio-gas collectors, we would like to offer anyone who wants to, the option to offset their carbon from air travel. The journey starts at home and we hope that this will be a road more travelled…

Here’s some more pictures taken on Wednesday this week!

The road to the homestay:

Front view of home:

Community working hard – pulling wheel barrel filled with bricks up to kitchen area:

Back view of home:

Living room:

Kitchen:

Side view:

Toilet & shower:

Unfortunately we were unable to get any good pictures of the ongoing build at our new homestay style accommodation at Kipouvo due to a serious downpour during a recent visit this weekend.  However it did have the roof on, almost, I promise! Usually once the floor and main joists are down, the roof is the next thing to go up, obviously on the supporting beams and uprights.  This means once the roof is complete the carpenters can work underneath without being affected by the weather.  And obviously in Borneo this can be one of two things – either the searing heat of the midday sun or the torrential downpours which occur most afternoons for an hour or so.

What I can show you however is some pictures of Mel (our Homestay Coordinator) working with the ladies of Kipouvo on some basic tourism principles and issues.  She spent most of Sunday (such dedication!) working with the ladies, helping them to come together and start to plan how they are going to manage the homestay when our first guests arrive in early April.  They are all a little nervous so much of Mel’s job is to reassure them that they are very capable and will do a great job – and although they are a little apprehensive they are all extremely excited and raring to go – this is a huge huge undertaking for them and they are eager to get it right from the start.

That’s all for now but hope to get some more pictures up here for you soon.

It is with an immense sense of pride and excitement that I can show you some pictures of our small eco-tourism project taking shape in the small community of Kipouvo.  We have been working with the community for a while now, making plans and preparing for the construction of the small homestay style building.  And finally we are under way – it is great to see the building starting to take shape.

These pictures show the main supporting posts and trusses being laid as well as the concrete/brick work for the washing/toilet area.

We are obviously using local community members to do the work.  I was a bit nervous that they could achieve it all in 6 weeks but they were adamant it could be done – after all they have been building these type of buildings all their lives and know the layout inside out.

And so here it is – I hope to keep you posted of progress each week so you can see it really take shape.