Month: October 2021

Thank you so much for successful fundraisers that ensured Biosphere Expeditions’ survival and helped our partners around the world. This is why we can write about 2022 expeditions here now.

The coronavirus epidemic was declared a pandemic in March 2020. From then on, no more expeditions ran. Almost immediately, in April 2020, we started to run a fundraiser that was all about getting our local conservation partners through the crisis. This ran until the end of 2020 and raised € 50,000 thanks to the generosity of many donors (see their honour roll below). Examples of what this money achieved include

• our Azores whale & dolphin scientist Lisa Steiner being able to be out on and off the water from April to the end of the season in November
• community expeditions to keep the science and conservation efforts going in Costa Rica (sea turtles), the Tien Shan (snow leopard) and Germany (wolf)
• instigating a new coral reef conservation project in the Maldives, using coral nurseries to grow baby corals

A full overview is on this blog and in the 2021 Magazine.

In February 2021 we announced that there would be no expeditions in that year either. This meant that there was to be next to no income for us for close to two years. With this, our survival was at stake, so we started our own survival appeal, which ran until October 2021. Once again, many generous donors (many of them repeat donors from the coronavirus fundraiser – see the honour roll below) stepped up and we were able to raise € 30,000 to ensure our survival through the crisis. 

HONOUR ROLL

It is thanks to the people below that we were able to help our partners and ourselves weather the storm. All of us at Biosphere Expeditions cannot thank these generous donors enough. It is our pleasure to honour them publicly via this honour roll.
Dr Matthias Hammer, Executive Director.

The following contributed to our fundraiser for local partners (€ 50,000 raised)

H Agner (Germany)
S Amos (UK)
N Barber (UK)
C Beisel (Germany)
H Below (Germany)
M Benner (Germany)
J Benz (Germany)
S Birkholz (Germany)
K Blecker (Germany)
J Blomgren (USA)
S Bollinger (Switzerland)
S Bordier (UK)
D Bownan (Australia)
K Bunting (UK)
R Charters (UK)
A Collins (UK)
H Coogan (UK)
J Craven (UK)
S Dittmann (Germany)
A Down (France)
S Dräger (Germany)
U Dräger (Germany)
J Dutz (Germany)
V Ellenrieder (Germany)
J England (UK)
J Evans (China)
U F (Germany)
I Fritz (Germany)
A Geimer (Germany)
M Gilbert (USA)
A Giles (Germany)
T Gillon (UK)
J Gödecke (Germany)
N Goodall (UK)
P Goodman (UK)
J Graser (Germany)
A Guth (Germany)
K Haan (USA)
I Hellwig (Germany)
M Herold (Germany)
J Hill (USA)
G Hodgson (UK)
D Hofmeister (Germany)
G Hogben (UK)
S Hughes (USA)
G Humphreys (UK)
C Hurfar (Germany)
B Hussey (UK)
J Ignorek
T John (Germany)
A Kasseckert (Germany)
L Kennedy (USA)
K Klatt (Germany)
G Koßmann (Germany)
S Lahtinen (Finland)
T Lanigan (Ireland)
D Lansch (Germany)
C Lee (South Africa)
P Löbel (Germany)
J Long (USA)
A Mätzig (Germany)
M Mannaert (Germany)
R Meloni (Switzerland)
K Melrose (UK)
T Merrie (UK)
A Morris (UK)
A Munkel (Germany)
U Pamler (Germany)
C Peffer (Luxembourg)
H Pekkarinen Rieppo (Sweden)
P Pilbeam (UK)
P Poley (Germany)
J Polson (UK)
A Prelle (Germany)
P Ransome (UK)
J Rawnsley (UK)
B Rees (UK)
N Rice (UK)
G Risbirdger (UK)
M Roberts (UK)
F Rohart (Germany)
A Rohlf (Germany)
S Rowling (UK)
J Rüdenauer (Germany)
M Sax (Germany)
C Schneid (China)
S Schöttle (Germany)
J Schweitzer (USA)
P Serail (Netherlands)
N Seshadri JAPAN
M Shepstone (USA)
K Silverthorne (UK)
M Simpson (UK)
J Skinner (UK)
P Smith BELGIUM
O Soubreyand (France)
M ten Veldhuis (Netherlands)
N Thobois (France)
P Thoem (Canada)
V Thürey (Germany)
J Tondu (USA)
G Treherne THE (Netherlands)
L Trudel (USA)
R Tunstall (UK)
R Vlak (Netherlands)
E Westbrook (USA)
T Whaley (Germany)
S White (China)
L Wiedemann (Germany)
A Wienhöfer (Germany)
M Zuckert (Germany)
and anonymous donors

The following contributed to our Biosphere Expeditions survival appeal (€ 30,000 raised)

H Agner (Germany)
L Bailey (Canada)
C Beisel (Germany)
H Below (Germany)
A Berendts (Netherlands)
S Berger (Austria)
S Birkholz (Germany)
J Biekehör (Germany)
R Boughton (Hong Kong)
D Bownan (Australia)
K Bradley UAE
R Bunce (UK)
K Bunting (UK)
U Burkhardt (Germany)
C Cockburn (UK)
J Collins (UK)
A Coogan (UK)
S Daugherty (USA)
A Dean (UK)
A Deegan (USA)
J Dhawal (UK)
U Dräger (Germany)
E Durell (Germany)
V Ellenrieder (Germany)
K Engelhardt (Germany)
J Evans (China)
M Fink-Schneider (Germany)
A Geimer (Germany)
V George (Germany)
M Gilbert (USA)
N Goodall (UK)
B Gowdy (USA)
D Gunz (Switzerland)
D Hahn (Germany)
B Henning (Germany)
M Herold (Germany)
E Hess (USA)
M Hiklemeier (Germany)
J Hill (USA)
D Hofmeister (Germany)
B Hussey (UK)
P Joiner (USA)
U Klingner (Germany)
K Klatt (Germany)
G Koßmann (Germany)
A Krimmel (Germany)
U Kürsten (Germany)
D Lansch (Germany)
L Lynch (USA)
S Macharg (UK)
S Mehnert (Germany)
R Meloni (Switzerland)
M Mucke (Germany)
K Penkuhn (Germany)
P Pilbeam (UK)
S Pinson (Australia)
A Prelle (Germany)
C Ramirez (USA)
P Ransome (UK)
B Rees (UK)
M Roberts (UK)
S Salih (France)
H Scharpff (Germany)
R Schauls (Luxembourg)
J Schweitzer (USA)
C Scroope (Australia)
K Silverthorne (UK)
B Singer (Canada)
R Skybey (Australia)
H Stecher (Austria)
S Strohschein (Germany)
B Styner (Canada)
S Sultanova (USA)
M ten Veldhuis (Netherlands)
S Thiede (Germany)
P T (Canada)
A Tilekeev (USA)
G Treherne (Netherlands)
A van Eck (Netherlands)
R Vlak (Netherlands)
T Volk (Germany)
C Wates (UK)
Ormskirk Clocktower Rotary (UK)
and anonymous donors

Third and final fundraiser under way

Our third and final fundraiser connected to the coronavirus pandemic is all about vaccinations for our local partners: In some of our expedition countries, vaccines are an expensive luxury. We want to make sure that all our local support staff and helpers (and their immediate family) are vaccinated. We need € 4,500 to achieve this. All donations – large or small – are very welcome and highly appreciated.

Please help via www.biosphere-expeditions.org/appeal

Restarting 2022

We are preparing to re-start expeditions in 2022, commencing with Arabia in January – have a look at our portfolio for all other expeditions throughout 2022.

Vaccinations required

Our procedures for expeditions in 2022, at least at the beginning of the year, will be:

1. Only fully vaccinated people (with certifications proving their vaccination status) will be allowed on the expedition. All available vaccines will be accepted.
2. Those that are not fully vaccinated may be allowed to take part if (a) there is a certified medical reason why they cannot be vaccinated – in that case they must provide a negative rapid / lateral flow / antigen Covid test immediately prior to the expedition commencing and will need to be re-tested at regular intervals during the expedition, or (b) if their country of origin has not offered vaccinations to them – for local staff we will try to compensate for this via private vaccinations where they are available; where this is not possible, the testing scheme as above will apply.
3. We will also require a rapid / lateral flow / antigen Covid test from each expedition member immediately prior to the expedition commencing and may repeat this test at regular intervals, as needed.

At the time of writing, only three people have complained about this and have been removed from the expeditions until such time that they see sense or that anti-vaxxers no longer present a danger to others.

Numbers

Numbers for expeditions are looking good. There are lots of deferrers from 2020/2021 now scheduled to go in 2022 and people are daring to sign up to expeditions again in greater numbers. You can see the traffic light status of each expedition on our portfolio.

Staff & vaccinations

Expedition leaders will also be fully vaccinated. As far as possible, we require all others (scientists, rangers, cooks, all other support staff who will come in contact with our citizen scientists) to be fully vaccinated too. For countries where this might be an issue, we are working on testing regimes and/or a vaccination fundraiser for our local partners to acquire vaccinations via private healthcare, where this is possible. Also see our fundraiser for this purpose.

Expedition-specific procedures

Although there will be common threads (vaccinations, tests, hygiene procedures) on all expeditions, the exact procedures will vary from country to country. We will publish what the exact procedures are about six to seven weeks before the expedition starts, alongside your reminder to start preparing and settle your balance. 

The good news is that the pandemic is predicted to end sometime in 2022. We will of course keep monitoring the situation and adapt our procedures accordingly, and keep everyone updated.