Hi, if you found this page you are interested in knowing more about the MAPA Project’s volunteer mapping programme for 2010 & 2011.  The application form download is at the bottom of the page but please read through this first!

This page is long, but this isn’t a job for people who want instant gratification!

Background

The MAPA Project does all sorts of things – most of which you can find out about on this website.  What we are talking about here is the volunteer mapping programme.

During the latter part of 2008, and throughout 2009, MAPA had volunteers on the road visiting parks and reserves.  Their job was to ‘map’ all the roads and relevant waypoints in those parks.  Wouter Brand of Tracks4Africa would advise them to ‘model’ the parks and gather any information that might be useful to those who come after them.

Those volunteers worked in Southern and East Africa.

The way it worked was as follows:

• Each volunteer team consisted of two persons

• Each team was tasked with visiting a list of ‘target’ protected areas.

• Each volunteer shift averaged one month.

• The teams operated in relays – cars were sometimes on the road for 6 months, with new teams travelling to handover points. E.g. some volunteers drove out of Johannesburg, others met their cars in Addis Ababa

• Volunteers usually – but not always – used MAPA equipment including vehicles and camping equipment

Volunteers were unpaid but the following expenses were covered:

• budget accommodation (camping unless unavailable),
• fuel,
• all vehicle repairs
• border fees, ferries, park fees, etc
• Basically everything except personal expenses

The following expenses were not covered:

• Food for volunteers (rangers’ food and courtesy entertainment are covered)
• Personal medical insurance
• Visas
• Travel to and from the pick-up point.  If the pick-up point was not a well-serviced international airport we contributed the connecting fare.
• Speeding fines!

Volunteers for 2010 / 2011

We are now ready to tackle West Africa and we need volunteers to map for us between October 2010 and July 2011.  The main mapping expedition will consist of  two cars working together for 10 months.

We have found that most people are not able to sustain more than 4-6 weeks of mapping (more about that later).  Therefore, I am looking for approx 20 teams of 2 people  ( 2 cars for 10 months). Although some teams will do more than one shift, others will fall out at short notice.

The terms will be the same as for 2009.

Reality Check

Much of West Africa is not like Southern or East Africa.

First, there are only a few parks and reserves that can be driven extensively, and which have large populations of game.  Indeed most have little visible game.  That is not to say that the parks are not ecologically important – they are.  But you don’t see lowland gorillas, or mandrills, or desert elephants from a car.  Birds, beauty, people, new places – but not teeming herds

Secondly, the beaurocracy is often slow and frustrating.  If you are the sort of person who gets cross at the post office counter, the Matadi border post may not be for you…..

Finally, don’t discount the human factor.  Last year a couple of teams went for two months without a break and it was hard.  We will consider people who want to map for more than one leg – in theory it would make life easier for everyone – but it needs to be thought through carefully.

Having said all of that, this is an opportunity to take part in adventure that is a step up from driving yet again up the Tete Corridor to Lake Malawi.  It will also be fun –  we ask a lot of volunteers but we wouldn’t send them up to Mali without routing them past the great mosque at Djenne or the Dogon villages!  Everyone will get some good stuff.

So what’s the plan?

I am currently working on the exact routing.  It is highly dependent on rainy seasons and support from the national wildlife authorities.

The picture below is a very rough approximation of what needs to be done.  It will certainly change,  before and during the mapping exercise.  However, I need to start getting a handle on volunteers, regardless of the exact route, so here we are.

What do volunteers do?

There is a download at the bottom of this page with last year’s Procedures Manual.  That should give you some idea of what the daily homework is.

Typically a month’s work involves travelling to a capital city in one country, with a list of perhaps 7 protected areas.

You are given a routing and a task list but you are in charge of your itinerary.  If you find a reserve that we don’t know about, or can see how to improve the routing, that is great.

You might spend a few days at each reserve, or ½ hour.  Some parks will only have a gate and hiking trails, others might be a few days camping.

Your map data will be used by conservationists to plan and manage their operations into the future.  It will also be used by tourists to travel safely in your area.  Some of your map data and photographs will be used on Google Earth to illustrate the places that you have been to.

Not all shifts are the same but you should assume that you will be doing a lot of driving.  Depending on your location you will probably cross one or two international boundaries.

Vehicles and Equipment

The two vehicles for this expedition are:

• Land Cruiser 105.  It has a petrol engine which is horribly thirsty but reliable.  This is not a new car but is battle hardened (above in Angola, below in Uganda….). It came back to Cape Town from Ethiopia in December.  It has OME suspension, dual battery rig, well-designed drawer system, air con, winch, 2^nd spare, roofrack, spade, etc  – all the standard bits and pieces that that any of us hope to have on our overlanding vehicles.

• Land Cruiser 70 Station Wagon.  This car will be bought in the next month or so. It is difficult to get good ones second hand so it will probably be new.  It will be outfitted as above

Each car has a good set of tools and spares sufficient to mend tyres, make running repairs to bodywork, electrics and simple mechanics.  Spares include fuel filters, belts, fuses, hoses, shocks, gasket weld, etc. Again, standard stuff.

The camping equipment is good; full kitchen pack for 4 persons, tents, mattresses, gas bottles, braai grid, built-in water tank, etc.

The camping gear does not include hot showers, portaloos and that next level of convenience!

Each vehicle will have a Carnet and all the necessary supporting paperwork.

Who can volunteer

We have learnt a lot in the last 18 months and we think we know what makes a good mapping team.  You will need to send us the application form which you can download from this page.  Here are some guidelines:

• Teams of two:  Each car will have two team members, male or female.  When the vehicle is inside a reserve, there will often be a ranger or game guard in one of the cars.

• We did not have success with matching singles up last year so preference will be given to teams of two.  You will get tired, hungry, ill or irritable at some stage – it is important that you pick a partner you are not going to fight with!

• Both team members must hold current, valid, driver’s licenses and passports.

• Overlanding experience is essential. When we started, we wrongly thought that mapping skills were the most important thing.  But we can teach mapping and many of you know more about mapping than I do.  What we cannot teach are the things that you have picked up on the road over the years.  There are far too many to list but we need teams who instinctively know to tackle the typical overlander’s challenges

• • chaotic and sometimes criminal border posts,
  • how to adjust tyre pressures,
  • knowing when it’s more important to have cash than to get into a fight over bad exchange rates,
  • the importance of recceing river crossings,
  • the value of knowing which rattles matter and which do not,
  • understanding that strong suspensions are not a license to drive like Rambo,
  • dealing sincerely with all the people who you meet on the road.

• Mechanical aptitude.  Ideally each car needs someone who can work on vehicles. Have a look at the application form to see our thinking here.  At the very least, each two-vehicle team needs someone who can wield a socket set and who knows which drive shafts can be taken off, and which cannot…..

• Organisation.  During a volunteer month, thousands of dollars may pass through your hands.  It will all need to be accounted for, slips filed and written up on the expense sheets.  Mapping data and photos must be saved to the laptop daily, however long the day is.  Of course, all of this can be done with beer in hand and steaks on the fire but there is a job to be done

• Technical savvy.  Anyone reading this should be fine.  You will see on the application form the sort of things that we encounter.

• Local knowledge.  In this case we will be needing French speakers on some of the legs.  They don’t need to be brilliant linguists but a working knowledge will be a great advantage

• Decency.  I trust our volunteers absolutely, otherwise we couldn’t send them out.

• • Most importantly, volunteers often hold the safety of each other in their hands.  We have had some difficult times, nearly always caused by strong personalities not working with the team.  Strong personalities are great but we all need to do the right thing when the chips are down; drive well, support each other, make sensible decisions.

• • Volunteers are in charge of a lot of money, a valuable vehicle and plenty of equipment.  They can easily rip the project off.  It has happened once and it was devastating for us.

• • Volunteers are also representing the MAPA Project and all the organisations that have put their support behind us.  I spend many, many hours forging relationships with politicians, beaurocrats and conservationists.  We really need our volunteers to buy into that collaborative ethos.

Enough of all that.  This is a chance to travel in a part of Africa that most of us cannot afford the time/money to drive to.  MAPA pays for everything except your travel to and from your pick-up point and your personal expenses.

Nothing like this has ever been tried before and it is working.  We have been very lucky with our main sponsors and both Tracks4Africa and Google are legends in their own spheres of influence.



Remembering why we are doing all this

The MAPA Layer is now thought to be the richest and most informative layer available for Google Earth  – and we aren’t finished yet. It is being done by Africans for Africa, to make sure that the whole world can see the richness and diversity of our conservation landscape.

Phase 2 of the MAPA Project – West and Central Africa – covers perhaps the most ecologically important and vulnerable parts of the continent.  Let’s show the world what we’ve got.

Tracks4Africa make the best African overlanding maps available.  They are very generous in their support of MAPA’s work and our data is included in that dataset, making Africa more accessible to the thousands of people who might not otherwise believe what is possible on this continent.

If you’d like to be a part of this project, apply now to help make West Africa more visible and accessible. It’s not quite a holiday but it’s not quite work either!  It will definitely be something you will never forget.  We won’t be able to accept everyone, if only because there will be so many applications, but we will be fair.

Look forward to hearing from you.

March Turnbull

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