an expedition to study biodiversity in Zambia.

For one year, Mr. Raine will lead 14 Greenforce volunteers in Kafue National Park, 200 miles west of Lusaka, the capital and near the border with Zimbabwe.

He will act as scientific coordinator while the team is in the bush and will direct studies of flora, fauna, reptilians, mammals, and birds.

The group will focus on the status and characteristics of the African Elephant which is rapidly facing extinction.

The expedition will begin in January and Mr. Raine is in London presenting lectures and training his team on the research techniques that they will use.

A graduate of St. George's Preparatory School and Saltus Grammar School, he holds a Bachelor's degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Guelph, Canada, and a Master's degree in Conservation from the University of London.

Mr. Raine's Master's degree thesis was written on the critically endangered Bermuda Rock Lizard or Skink, and in it he confirmed the existence of several small but viable populations.

He also noted differences between the various groups and he highlighted the urgent need to protect the island's only endemic terrestrial animal.

Mr. Raine is also the Bermuda National Trust's Young Conservationist of 1998, for work he did in 1997 when he raised a Bermuda Petrel or Cahow chick until it could fly.

He is the son of Jill and David Raine of Devonshire.

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