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Written by Michelle Rydberg   
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Friday, 21 November 2008

Volunteering: Opportunities to Help the Environment

Have you ever wanted to experience a different culture, discover a new way of life, and make difference? Are you interested in preserving the environment as part of this experience? If yes, then you will be excited to know that environmental volunteer opportunities are out there!

Volunteering not only means that you are performing charity work in an altruistic and selflessness fashion; volunteering has a whole new meaning in this day and age. Consider volunteering as something you do for people who are not as fortunate as yourself, think of it as an exchange of ideas and a cultural experience. Being a volunteer, a person can personally benefit as well as give back to the community by not only helping others, but by you helping yourself as well. Through volunteering you can develop and learn new skills which can help build your resume, improve your interpersonal skills, communication skills, managerial skills, fundraising skills, and knowledge of the world. You can make great career contacts and life long friendships.

Contributing to society can make you feel better about yourself because you are taking the initiative to make a difference in the world. By getting out of your daily life or daily routine, you are able to experience a life you would have never known otherwise.

So where can you start for an exotic, unique, and awesome volunteering experience? Here are some great environmental volunteer opportunities:

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms volunteer program
 (WOOFF - http://www.wwoof.org/)

Imagine working on an organic farm in South America and learning how to live a more organic lifestyle. This program teaches people how to become more environmentally friendly and to give consumers more agriculture options. WWOOF is part of a world-wide effort to link volunteers with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.

There are over 700 organic host farms and each one is different, so the rules and work schedule will vary. Those who decide to participate in this program tend to work half-days in exchange for meal and housing accommodation. A volunteer can stay as long as 1 week or several months anytime of the year, and the cost is around $25 dollars depending on the farm. Volunteers run the farm and are assigned daily chores such as harvesting, preparing soil for planting, milking cows, cleaning pens, digging trenches, maintaining fences, and more. Other projects on the farm may include building straw-bale structures, bee-keeping, land restoration, dairy operations and cheese making, seed saving, animal husbandry, wild crafting, and more.

A potential WWOOFer should contact a host from the website to see about getting started eco-volunteering!

Volunteer Latin America
(http://www.volunteerlatinamerica.com/index.html):

For volunteers with a good heart on a budget, Volunteer Latin America is the perfect solution for a free or low cost experience in South or Central America. Their mission is, “to help protect Latin America’s flora and fauna, its biodiversity, and to offer the most cost effective way to become an environmental or humanitarian volunteer in Central or South America.” 1

Travel to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, or Peru and learn Spanish while helping street children, monitoring wildcats such pumas and ocelots, Monitoring Parrots in the Amazon Rainforest, and many more projects.

Here are just a few programs to choose from:

•Teach English in the Amazon
• Green Sea Turtle Conservation
• Volunteer for Weaving Cooperative
• Trekking Volunteer and Horse Trekking Adventure
• Plant Trees and visit Machu Picchu
• Earthquake Relief Project
• The Flying Doctor: providing free health care in rural areas
• Rock Art and Cultural Heritage


And many, many, many more!!!

Depending on what you want to do or dream of doing, this volunteer service can provide it. Each project is different and requires a firm fixed commitment and can range from a number of weeks to months. Typical projects last from about one to three months, but volunteers can also opt for a shorter period of 1-3 weeks or longer periods from 6-12 months. Most projects require a small fee, but the fee is mainly to cover the cost of room and board and meals. Free projects require that the volunteer pay their own travel expenses such a room and board.

In order to participate in this program one must cover his or her flight, insurance, vaccinations, and other travel expenses. There are a multitude of exciting and once in a lifetime experiences waiting for you, and the added bonus is that you will be part of a large community working together to protect the environment!

Patagonia Volunteer with Asociación MAPU
(http://www.patagoniavolunteer.org/; http://www.asociacionmapu.org/)

The Patagonia Volunteer program takes place in the Patagonia region of South America, located in Argentina and Chile, with the goal of supporting the environment by working with the locals and learning about their way of life. Volunteers are able to participate in many different programs such Culture and Educations Volunteer Work, Human Rights of the Patagonia communities, Environment in Patagonia, Natives of the Argentinean and Chilean Patagonia, International Cooperation with Patagonia, and International Cooperation with Patagonia. This is a more formal program, with an application process involving a letter of intent, curriculum vitae, an intermediate level of Spanish, and an application fee of 250 Euro. A volunteer must be able to commit to stay as a minimum of one month, and the maximum stay is flexible.

Volunteers can join anytime of the year, and the application fee keeps your spot with the program and is directly deposited to the Patagonia Volunteer programs.

Volunteer Brazil
(http://volunteerbrazil.com/amazonrainforestconservation.html)

Work in the Amazon Rain Forest—a great way to gain hands-on experience and learn about the ecology and culture of Brazil while meeting fun and interesting people from all over the world! The goal is to replant 50,000 hectares of endangered plants per year, but thus far they have only managed to plant 2,000 hectares per year.

Volunteers are needed to replant and protect the remaining trees and other plants in the rainforest. The program consists of collecting seeds and fruits from these endangered plants and replanting them in a “nursery environment.” It is a 3 month process for newly planted trees and/or faunas to grow and then they are put back into the Amazon Rainforest.

Volunteer Brazil’s Mission statement:

“We strive to ensure that all our volunteering work projects in Brazil promote a positive impact on the communities which they serve and that all projects have well defined impact evaluation and performance indicators. We want our volunteers to have a unique experience of volunteer work, participating actively on the development of the persons and communities tended, towards the construct of a fairer world for all.” 2

This is an on-going project, and volunteers are welcome the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month and one may volunteer for up to 12 weeks. The cost of the program is $150 per week which includes housing, 2 meals per day, and airport pick-up. A volunteer also has the option to live with a Brazilian family or in a small hotel.

If traveling abroad does not interest or is not an option for you, then there are plenty of volunteer opportunities in the United States involving the environment.

Hands on Bay Area
(http://www.hoba.org)

Hands on Bay Area is a volunteer group that encourages the community to be more environmentally involved and aware, and is based in the Bay Area of California.

Over 120 projects per month have been created to get people motivated and active with the environment with plenty of leadership opportunities. To become a volunteer, one must register online and complete the online orientation which takes only about 15 minutes.

You can view available projects on the community calendar. If a volunteer were to chose environment, environment clean up, or environment conservation then a scrollable activity such as Spruce up the SF Zoo or Spruce up at Overfelt Gardens may pop up and once you click on that link details of the Agency, description, impact area, interests, skills, date, time, location, and leader of the group will appear. A volunteer can drop-in to a volunteer program at anytime. This is the perfect volunteer program for those of you who are curious about getting started with volunteering but are not yet ready to take on a long-term project.

Volunteer Match
(http://www.volunteermatch.org/)

If you want to volunteer but don’t know where to start, then Volunteer Match is a great one-stop shop. The website will ask what location you would like to work in and what type of environmental interest you have and it will immediately connect you with the closest match.

I typed in San Jose, CA for the location and environment for the type of volunteer search and over 100 volunteer opportunities popped up. Volunteer opportunities, such as the Wildlife Center of the Silicon Valley, Deer Hollow Farm Weekend Docent, or Think Green, Teach Green –Menlo Park, were available for anyone who wanted to participate. The website is very flexible and highly organized. By clicking on a link, a potential volunteer will learn about the organization, location, interest, date, and description of the work or requirements. Depending on the organization, you commitment level may vary.

So get out there and start researching what interests you!

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1http://www.volunteerlatinamerica.com/mission/index.html.
2 http://volunteerbrazil.com/projects.htm.




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