Overview

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Adventures, education, mangoes and monkeys

Conservation and Forestry Field School in India

The class at Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Joanna Lee and Laura Third are students in the Faculty of Forestry’s undergraduate program in Natural Resources Conservation. They spent part of their summer attending a newly launched field school in India. The month-long intensive forestry and conservation field course was organized by Dr Suzie Lavallee (Department of Forest and

Conservation Sciences) as part of the program in Natural Resources Conservation. The course was established through a well-formed partnership between the Faculty of Forestry and colleagues in India, including the Wildlife Institute of
India. Every year, researchers from the Indian Forest Service visit UBC and tour BC’s forests. They helped Suzie  Lavallee set up an itinerary and connect with institutions across North and South India.

Joanna: I’ve always hoped that my undergraduate degree would take me far away from Canadian comforts to explore a foreign and exquisite country, although I never had a set destination or timeframe in mind. In November 2012 I heard Dr Suzie Lavallee’s pitch to run an international forestry and conservation field school in India the following June, and within a day or two I was running to her office to talk travel. After urging Laura to join in on the adventure and 6 short months spent giddy with excitement and nerves, the 2 of us and 3 other UBC students gathered at Vancouver International Airport to board a 20 hour flight to Delhi, India.

Laura: Take 5 eager, travel-hungry students. Add a foreign country. Combine with a 6 credit course, field work, and an incredible array of wonderful people – and you’ll get the best time of your life. India was the first country Joanna and I
had travelled to outside of North America – and we were ready for the adventure. There’s something alluring about India that cannot simply be summed up by its delicious and aromatic cuisine or the exotic culture. It was the chaos of humanity surviving alongside an immensely diverse landscape that proved to be exceptionally mind boggling to my
own Canadian perspective. As I strived to make sense of this paradox, each day presented to us a new and exciting experience – from walking in the tracks of tigers and elephants, to visiting the highly regarded and beautiful Forest Research Institute, to wild tuk-tuk rides to Buddhist temples and colorful marketplaces. All of us agree, however, that with the help of translation some of our most heartfelt and valuable memories stemmed from being able to communicate with local village peoples affected by forestry practices.

Black Langor monkey in a banyan tree, Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand, India

Joanna: We spent the first 2 weeks of our trip at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and
the last 2 in the southernmost state of Kerala. I don’t think any of us were prepared for the diversity we would find
within this vast country – where culture, language, food, attire and climate can change so drastically as you cross
the landscape. Compared to the blistering heat of Uttarakhand, southern India was balmy and lush, with rolling hills of
thick rainforest and healthy plantations of tea, spices and rubber. At Periyar we learned from the Munnar people
about eco-tourism, conservation and how their lives have changed over the years of running the reserve. The
time we spent interacting with tribal peoples, researchers, officials and students was not restricted to our field
of study, as conversation often drifted from conservation and forestry to family, religion and goals in our respective
countries. There is really something to be said for how much more you can learn from immersing yourself into a
lifestyle and culture, rather than studying it from halfway across the world.

Laura: We left India with a new inspiration for community forestry, and we all gained valuable knowledge: a completely new perspective on forest management, site monitoring, and conservation planning strategies. If
you’re an undergraduate in the UBC Faculty of Forestry, we already know you like the outdoors. We will also then
safely assume you hold some affection for exploration and adventure. If you’ve been looking for the perfect way to travel halfway around the world and live to tell the whole, wonderfully educational tale – then traveling to India for this conservation field school is an incredible option for students interested in conservation and forestry.

For further information about this course, visit http://cons453.forestry.ubc.ca/or contact Dr Suzie Lavallee at
suzie.lavallee@ubc.ca.