Things are going well for the Epicocity Project these days. This week, they were informed by the National Geographic Society that, for the second time in a row, their application for a Young Explorers Grant had been approved.

The grant will help fund an expedition to China, where the Epicocity team will paddle the last unexplored section of river flowing off the Tibetan Plateau, a 150-mile class V section of unknown rapids on the Salween River. The team will then expand to include Chinese officials and environmentalists as they paddle a section of whitewater threatened by an ambitious 12 dam project. EP will be working with the China Rivers Project, a non-profit, to raise awareness to the value of free-flowing rivers in China. This two-month project is slated to begin in March.

Jennings’ first Young Explorers Grant was awarded in the spring of last year for a proposed two-month kayaking and caving expedition to New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The mission was a complete success, with the crew first descending two rivers, a fifty-foot waterfall, and exploring six miles of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest cave system. The team also collaborated with a group of California-based scientists to begin the process of developing a conservation plan for the region.

These missions are part of a three-stage project called Rivers in Demand. The aim is to promote environmental stewardship and healthy watersheds by connecting adventure, exploration and conservation. The third stage will take the team to Gabon, West Africa, where a National Geographic team is already working in collaboration with The Wildlife Conservation Society and the country’s government to establish a 10,000 square mile national park. The goal of the project is to protect wildlife by establishing an ecotourism industry to replace the current logging, mining and poaching industries that currently utilize the land. The Epicocity Project team will document and assist this project and also become the first team of paddlers to explore the Ivindo River, which flows through the newly protected land.

Coverage of the Rivers in Demand Project will air on National Geographic’s domestic and international TV channels, National Geographic radio, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, Canoe and Kayak Magazine and online at www.epicocity.com.