Our aims
Our primary aim is to provide the link to the current knowledge held by scientists in the 'front-line' of ecological and conservation research, and to access remote areas of primary rainforest by foot.
Jointly, through business with scientific establishments, local skilled personnel and community-based organisations we aim to provide worthwhile financial input into conservation initiatives and local communities.
We are striving to satisfy our aims by acting as a quality provider for University level ecology courses (accessible to those with and without an ecological background), and for remote jungle trekking expeditions with an emphasis on camp-craft skills, whilst using local skilled guides, local botanists and community homestay initiatives.
We aim for all of our ecotourism operations to be in line with current academic knowledge in the field of ecology and conservation.
Ecology Expeditions is a Welsh Spinout company from Bangor University supported via a Welsh Assembly Government European KEF scholarship.
The vision of the co-founders of Ecology Expeditions is to fuse knowledge, understanding and adventure with community based ecotourism projects such as homestays. Our first destination is Malaysian Borneo.
The co-founders, Alex and Michel met on the MSc Ecology course at Bangor University, North Wales in 2006. Prior to doing their Masters in Ecology, both Alex and Michel were teaching and had built up a wealth of expedition and travel experience, so it was only really a matter of time before the Ecology Expeditions vision was born and began to develop and grow.
 Alex’s background is in both expedition leadership and science teaching. Alex is Mountain Leader (Summer) qualified and has worked for World Challenge Expeditions leading expeditions in both Vietnam and Borneo, as well as UK based expeditions as a freelancer. He has extensive mountain and jungle trekking experience across Europe, the Caribbean, Australasia and Southeast Asia.
Alex’s second profession is in teaching, in which he was a college biology lecturer and a secondary school science teacher over a period of four years - most recently with the Catholic High School Chester. Part way through his teaching career, Alex was funded by the European Social Fund to take a year out of teaching and complete a Masters course in Ecology at Bangor University.
For Alex, one of the lasting impressions of this intensive year of study (MSc Ecology) was the depth of knowledge that our Universities are amassing with so little of it being truly accessible to the general public. Soon after completing the MSc Alex returned to teaching but quickly realised that the MSc Ecology course had shown him a new path – Ecology Expeditions!
Since then Alex’s aim has been to open up this bank of knowledge and understanding in ecology to anyone who is interested.
 Michel moved from France to Malaysia to take up an English/French teaching post and remained there for five years. There, Michel developed his love for the outdoors and soon launched and managed his own business based around herpetological fieldwork in rainforests throughout northern peninsular Malaysia. Michel trained and employed approximately five local Malaysians at any one time over a period of three years. Through this experience Michel cannot only speak Malay, but can also speak a range of the local languages and dialects of peninsular Malaysia.
Michel’s superior knowledge of reptiles of the Malay peninsular led him to Bangor University after meeting one of the MSc Ecology course organisers in Malaysia. |
