Federation University students have taken their studies out of the classroom and across the globe over their summer break, assisting in conservation and wildlife projects in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
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From comforting orphan rhinos to understanding how local communities use their forests the students have experienced the reality of the environmental and climate issues, practices and projects they study in class.
Two separate tours, one to Nepal with a forest management and wildlife focus, and one to Sri Lanka looking at tropical biodiversity and conservation, have opened the eyes of students studying environmentally-focused science degrees at the university.
Fed Uni conservation biology and dean, graduate studies Professor Wendy Wright said it was the third trip to Nepal, but the first since 2020.
"In Australia most wildlife conservation is top down, is government and national park driven, but in Nepal most of the forest management and wildlife conservation is done by local communities through a model called community forestry," she said.
"The community own their local forest, have rights and access and it's their responsibility to manage it."
But many communities are in poverty and use the forest to collect resources, fodder for animals, vegetables and other elements for survival - putting them in conflict with wild animals.
"Going in to the forest they are exposed to dangerous animals like tigers, rhinos, elephants and many people get killed, which is often followed by angry retaliatory killing of the animal so even though the forest is owned by the community, we need to minimise the amount of time people are spending in the forest."
Part of that is developing alternative livelihoods for people living near and dependent on the forests, and helping improve communities.
Among the projects are teaching locals how to do beekeeping, mushroom farming, teaching felt making and other skills and products that can be sold rather than relying on subsistence living.
"Seeing different models gives (students) the ability to think outside the square and look at different ways of doing things."
The tour group spent most of their time in the Terai area before heading to the Himalayas to the Annapurna Conservation Area which their hosts, the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), also manage.
Dr Kushan Tennakoon led the Sri Lanka study tour where students took part in community-based forest restoration programs, looked at the impact of cash crop cultivation such as tea and herbal medicines, learned about human-elephant conflict and explored tropical ecosystems.
"It's a really important experience because not many students have travelled to places that are tropical biodiversity hotspots," Dr Tennakoon said.
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"It's important these students get to know about the restoration activities of developing countries and biodiversity hotspots and the impact of this forest degradation in the overall change of climate because climate change is not country-specific - it's a global thing and when these students are exposed to this kind of impact on tropical biodiversity outside Australia they know how this should be address from a global perspective.
"This first-hand experience will empower them when they are employed, or become researchers or educationalists, as they will know the global anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems in our neighbourhood."
The study tours were part of the federal government's New Colombo Plan which supports students to take part in semester-based or short-term study, internships, mentorships, practicums and research in 40 host locations across the Indo-Pacific.
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