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Here at the Centre for Rainforest Studies, we have entered into the last phase of the program, where we focus on our Directed Research projects (DR projects). We have divided into three groups, one under the supervision of the Natural Resources Management professor, one under the supervision of our Rainforest Ecology professor, and one under the supervision of our Environmental Policy professor. I chose to be in the Environmental Policy and Socioeconomics research group. For the past two weeks, each of the groups has been collecting data on their research topics.

We all have an overnight in Cairns this weekend as a quick break before we all hunker down and start analyzing our data and writing our research papers. One thing that is interesting in Australia is the fact that most people in Australia get Good Friday off and Monday off as well. So most people get a four-day weekend! After we finish the week and a half of write-up, we have seminars in which we present to our professors and a Community Night where we present our research to the community.  This is especially important for all the community members that have collaborated with us and assisted us with our research. And then we are done with program and have to say our goodbyes. I am definitely going to be taking advantage of my last few weeks here to take walks around the property and enjoy my time in the rainforest since I don’t know when I’ll be in a rainforest next.

Site where the rangers who we are working with are restoring the land and repairing the ecosystems.