Coronavirus now a pandemic, but signs of recovery in China and South Korea

With the WHO declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic and countries increasingly going into lockdown and closing borders on the one hand, but also signs that the rate of new infections and deaths is continuing to fall in China and South Korea  and of China beginning to return to a new normal, the situation remains fluid.

We continue to monitor the situation daily, but our intention remains to run all expeditions, because conservation efforts must continue and because local partners rely on our support in collecting data and running projects. This includes the next three forthcoming expeditions to the Azores in April, and to Costa Rica and Armenia in May.

For some expeditions this may mean running them with a skeleton local staff and with citizen scientists who are willing and able to attend.

We will continue to update everyone via this blog. Because the situation is so fluid at the moment, we will make final decisions and announcements a few days prior to the start of an expedition only, but will of course continue to supply regular updates via this blog.