When I first came on this trip, I told myself that it would be over soon. At times, it didn't feel like it would ever end. However, now that we're at the last stage of our trip, I feel strangely sad that our time here is coming to an end. Yes, at times this journey has seemed impossible, but every tropical rainstorm and whiff of rotting fish bait has ultimately only added to the experience. 

On our last day of fieldwork, we emerged from the forest dirty and bedraggled, but smiling, a far cry from our first, when I was too tired to even think about how breath-taking the Amazon truly is. On that last day, I no longer cared about the irritating mosquitos, the knee-deep bogs and the waist-high logs we had to clamber over. I only felt a profound sense of pride and wonder that I had been lucky enough to be able to see this incredible place.

Preparing to leave, we pack up bags and boxes and memories, snatching a last few precious moments with the friends we have made here. It's strange to even think about going home, but I am excited to see how the work we have done here translates into results and conclusions over the next year, and the impact this research could have in helping preserve this amazing place.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to come here, and also so proud of what we have achieved here. And, after seeing so much of the natural beauty this place has to offer, from flowers and trees to macaws and jaguars (!!), I can only hope that more people join the fight to help preserve such a rich and diverse habitat as the Amazon. I certainly hope that, in our time here, we have helped make a difference.

I'd like to close with a quote that I think perfectly encapsulates our time in Peru - "In spite of the filthy surroundings we strike out with the butterfly-net and are glad to succeed in taking the animals without having seriously befouled the instrument. But even so we notice the remains of the disgusting meal on the surfeited animal, and with a feeling partly of loathing partly of pleasure we drop the butterfly into the bag. When opening it in the evening, however, our olfactory nerves once more remind us of the joy and sorrow of catching butterflies in the tropics." (Bernard D'Abrera)
 
Mahika

It is rather surreal coming home; the comfort, safety, clean water, small things we normally take for granted now feel like such luxury.
 
Its satisfying too, knowing that we have completed what we set out to do. The expedition was an enormous success and we have heaps of interesting and valuable information; butterfly data, logging data, data on canopy openness, temperature and humidity, all which will help us understand the impacts of logging on butterflies and forest microclimate.
 
I start my MRes in a couple of weeks and will spend the next year analysing our findings and communicating our results to the scientific community, GreenGold Forestry Group and the public. I have every hope that this project will inspire the civic and scientific community, help inform sustainable forest management strategy and provide a foundation for future research in our study area…this is just the beginning!
 
Personally, if I can communicate the serenity I felt staring in wonder up at a 150ft giant, spying the ecosystems hidden between its limbs and at the end of its far-flung branches, then I have achieved something. If I can propagate the associated disappointment, sadness and frustration I feel that anthropogenic actions threaten this unique forest ecosystem, perhaps more people will try to break our habit of overexploiting nature. I wonder how many more generations will live in a world with clean air, towering trees and beautiful butterflies, when our demand for energy and resources is so high that we destroy the rainforest at an annual rate of 18 million acres? When eventually the lungs of our planet become so thirsty they cannot breathe – what then? And though this concern fires my enthusiasm to take action within my own capacity, I can’t prevent the pessimistic and underlying question, will our efforts ever be enough?
 
Through scientifically-informed forest management and collaborative conservation action, I have every faith they can. The combined support and efforts of people with a heart for nature, the influence of inspirational figure heads and willingness of organisations such as GreenGold Forestry Group to adapt their enterprise to minimise ecosystem damage and biodiversity loss, gives me hope for the future. A future, not for our planet, since our behaviour will not stop it turning, but to safeguard the kind of world we want to live in. 

​Tish