Oxford, UK - Heloise Goodley, an HSBC employee from London, is heading to the Bahamas to take part in two weeks of wildlife conservation. Her expedition is part of Investing in Nature, a £11 million, five-year eco-partnership between HSBC and environmental charity, Earthwatch.

Heloise, a Corporate Banking Assistant, will leave her desk in the London office behind to help Earthwatch scientists collect data on the endangered whales and dolphins living in the waters off the Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.

Heloise will spend time working on the turquoise waters, where she will be spotting and identifying whales and dolphins, using skills acquired on the first few days of the trip. With her team she will note and video the mammal's behaviour as well as taking details of the surrounding environment. On dry land, Heloise will be kept busy with data entry, developing film and scanning identification photographs.

Heloise said; "I am very excited about my trip to the Bahamas and working on a real field research project, alongside Earthwatch scientists. This is a once in lifetime opportunity for me to give something back and really make a difference. The work I do on the trip will help establish conservation guidelines for the future and help save species like the bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales. "

Heloise is just one of 500 HSBC Environmental Fellows who will work on conservation projects ranging from Australia's Vanishing Frogs to the Blue Swallows of South Africa in 2004. By 2006, 2,000 employees will have contributed the equivalent of a century of environmental research. These Environmental Fellows will also be eligible for a grant of up to £400 to initiate a local environmental project on their return home.

Frank Vorhies, Chief Executive of Earthwatch Institute (Europe), said: "The first two years of the Investing in Nature partnership have been extremely successful . Over 500 HSBC employees have joined Earthwatch projects across the globe, contributing over 25 years of vital environmental research. This year Heloise will be among another 500 employees that will have the unique opportunity to get directly involved in environmental research."

Richard Spence, General Manager Southern Division, said: "The Investing in Nature partnership has come a fair way over the past two years. This partnership has raised the level of awareness of environmental issues at all levels in HSBC and been an entirely beneficial experience. Already we have introduced an environmental reporting system in our main markets which is now being extended to rest of the Group."

Investing in Nature is a partnership between HSBC, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), Earthwatch and WWF. It is the largest ever-single donation to environmental charities and is well on the way to meeting its five-year targets.

Editor's Notes:

1. Investing in Nature
Investing in Nature is a US$50 million, five-year partnership funded by HSBC, working with Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Earthwatch and WWF. Launched in February 2002, Investing in Nature will protect 20,000 plant species from extinction, breathe life into some of the world's major rivers, and send scientists and HSBC fieldworkers around the world.

For more information, please visit www.hsbc.com/investinginnature

Key achievements of the partnership include to date:

• 500 HSBC staff have provided vital support to scientific research, and 176 young scientists and botany specialists from Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, Indonesia and Malaysia have been trained;
  
• Cultivated 50 per cent of the most endangered Chinese trees in botanical gardens. The wild stock of some are down to one or two surviving trees;
  
• Conserved over 8,000 threatened plants in 350 botanical gardens;
  
• Contributed over 193,000 hours of work to 42 conservation projects in 22 countries;
  
• Established a taskforce on river basin management for the Yangtze River;
  
• Opened a water laboratory to discover why thousands of fish die each year in the Sao Joao River basin and set up a network of regional councils to maintain sustainable fish levels;
  
• Set up a river protection trust in Pembrokeshire to involve local communities in river management;
  
• HSBC has implemented an environmental reporting system (ERS) in the UK, France, Brazil, Singapore, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, India, Australia and Malaysia to measure its direct impact on the environment;

Earthwatch

Earthwatch

Earthwatch Institute is an international environmental organisation whose mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment. Earthwatch currently supports over 130 environmental research projects in 50 countries by providing funds and paying volunteers who work alongside leading field scientists and researchers.

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