Forestry as a passport to international adventure

摘要

Few people would expect forestry training to act as a passport to international adventure, but the reality is that many foresters enjoy great adventures at home and abroad, as part of their work. Many careers involve travel, but an added attraction offorestry is that it usually involves field visits often to places with striking scenery. It's not easy to offer an overview of the typical experience, because of the diverse pathways that foresters may take: some foresters spend years living in remote areas, while others 'fly in, fly out' as visiting consultants; some volunteer or take a modest local wage, while others thrive as development executives. What's common is that most of us love our work, and thrive on the experience. As a young forester, Ihadn't thought about working overseas, but my employer asked me to assist with a forest inventory in Vanuatu. Part of the work was rather routine office work, but done from an exotic location in Port Vila. Field work was more arduous and exotic, and at one point involved camping on an island beach, and making long boat trips and hiking in verdant forest to visit remote inventory plots. Such trips were not without drama: returning to camp one evening, the propeller struck an object in the water and disabled the engine, leaving us adrift in a small boat in the middle of Big Bay, without propulsion or communication (in the days before mobile phones). A few loose boards provided makeshift oars, and we reached our camp very-late at night after a long row, along beachwalk and a night-time wade across the River Jordan. But this didn't discourage me, and my experience led to other offers, so I soon enjoyed short-term engagements in PNG, Malaysia and (as it then was) Burma.