Source: School of Life Sciences
Written by: School of Life Sciences
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Recently, Gamma Group, a student team from the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, has successfully obtained a grant of $9,700 from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund with their project “Community-Involved Reptile Conservation in Karst Forest of Southern China”. In the following months, the Gamma Group will research three kinds of Leopard Gecko in karst forest of Southern China. In the meantime, the team will also carry out educational promotion activities to popularize the knowledge relevant to species conservation and habitat environmental protection in the local community.

The instructor of the project, Yingyong Wang said, “This project of the Gamma Group will not only help the conservation work of the Leopard Gecko in karst forest of Southern China, but also lay a foundation for the conservation and science popularization activities in local community. It is of great significance for the conservation of Leopard Gecko.”

The Gamma Group was founded on January 4th, 2014. The team aims to popularize the knowledge of species conservation and species diversity. In the beginning, the team had 9 members from the School of Life Sciences, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, and School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University. Now, the number of the team members is up to 14. In 2014, a subproject of the team, “say no to a taste of wildlife”, won the first prize in the competition of The Second Life Science Camp in Sun Yet-sen University, which granted them scientific research funds from the School of Life Sciences, cutting edge equipments, and resources from professional researchers for guidance.

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund is a significant philanthropic endowment, founded by United Arab Emirates for the global environment and ecology diversity. Since its establishment, the foundation has been committed to discover and cultivate future leaders of species conservation, by globally providing fundings to organizations working on species conservation. As a result, it offers individualized strategies on global species conservation and has played a significant role in the species conservation and the species diversity. To date, the fund has provided grants to over 1,000 teams to protect a diverse range of species across the world.