Volunteering overseas should twin the needs of the individual volunteer with the country"s requirements. The overall goal to maintain a sustainable environment and good relationships must be at the forefront of the volunteer"s mind.
Companies such as GVI work with government bodies and charities to support community projects in countries like Mexico, Kenya, Romania, South Africa, Thailand and Sri Lanka. These charities and government bodies are given help through the volunteers, direct funding and by raising awareness of the projects themselves from volunteer companies.
"Meaningful travel" is becoming very popular. This is where people want to do volunteer trips rather than just going on holiday. It is really possible to make a difference and gain experience when joining a team for any amount of time as long as the project is well constructed, organised and the goals are made very clear from the outset.
Here are three top conservation
volunteer trips for the overseas volunteer traveller.
Conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Living in a forest will become the norm as you work alongside researchers and fellow volunteers to log indigenous species while teaching English to the local children. You will gain an incredible amount of knowledge on tropical wildlife and research techniques, as well as the conservation of the Amazon. You will come away from this volunteer trip feeling like you have been part of saving this unique, and highly endangered, environment.
Marine Conservation in Fuji
If you are a qualified diver then this is the
volunteer overseas program for you. While living in Fuji you help a team to protect marine biodiversity. One of the main tasks will be identifying areas which need the development of new marine conservation areas. It is important to ensure there is food security for future generations of marine life, and a key aspect of the task is logging where it is beginning to become depleted. Along with this part of volunteer work you will help raise awareness of marine conservation through local schools.
Jaguar Conservation "" Costa Rica
You"ll be living in a rainforest national park which is next to the beach; it"s also an extremely important area for turtles. There is little known about the feeding habits and habitat of jaguars worldwide and you will be collecting information which will be fed back to national and international data sources. The other important part of this project is the patterns of the jaguars and their predatory relationship with the turtles and what threat is there. This is a great opportunity for the volunteer to really get to know a rare species.
