Gap Year: Environmental Conservation in Latin America

What is the Gap Year: Environmental Conservation in Latin America all about?

Informally known as the forgotten continent use your gap year to explore some of the world’s most unchartered rain-forests and coastlines in Latin America on our environmental conservation gap year programme. In doing so, volunteers will be able to contribute to innovative initiatives, which incorporate environmental conservation work with interaction with local communities to find sustainable solutions to environmental issues in the region.

You will first travel to Costa Rica to volunteer on our sea turtle conservation project, which are an endangered species due to poaching, introduced and natural predators. This project aims specifically to protect female turtles, their nests and eggs to ensure the survival of the species. Volunteers can actively contribute to their conservation by undertaking a number of activities on this project including nest patrols and releasing hatchlings into the sea. Volunteers may assist in the collection of scientific data into turtle behaviour to aid conservationists improve techniques that will protect the species in the future.

For your next destination you’ll be heading into the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest to take part on our agro forestry and environmental conservation project in the Mindo Cloud Forest. Human activities as well as global warming have ruined large chunks of Ecuador’s rainforest. This project aims to achieve sustainability through agriculture and eco-tourism and focuses on maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems.

Finally you will be heading for the world renowned UNESCO world heritage site Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peru to participate on a biodiversity monitoring initiative. This project is truly sustainable, and it simultaneously works to protect and monitor the natural world whilst working with local communities on environmental education and environmental issues facing local people. It is the perfect way of examining the human impact on the environment and to look for sustainable environmental solutions whilst being surrounded by spectacular natural beauty and local culture. This diverse gap year programme really offers you a great insight into the challenges and solutions facing wildlife today.

Gap Year Travel Packages

For this gap year package you will spend 4 weeks volunteering on each of the following projects:

Role of the Conservation Volunteer

As a volunteer your role will depend on the needs of the project. In Costa Rica following one week of intensive Spanish lessons, volunteers will head to their project where they may collect eggs, go beach patrolling, maintain the beach, collect research and data amongst other activities. In Ecuador volunteers may undertake activities linked to conservation and sustainability through education, collection of seed, work in a nursery and the management of trails. In Peru volunteers may get involved in pit falling, mist netting, mammal transects, bio-gardens, agroforestry, camera traps. vegetation mapping, biomass project participation, amphibian bamboo trapping, sustainable land management and other tasks.

What skills do I need to be a Conservation Volunteer in Latin America?

• In Costa Rica the project will require volunteers to be in close contact with turtles, and volunteers must be comfortable with this.
• To undertake these projects a B1 Independent User level of CEFR Spanish is required. Volunteers will attend 1 week of intensive lessons in Costa Rica at the start of their gap year. Additional classes can also be arranged in Quito and Cusco before your placement for an additional cost.
• In Ecuador those with a strong background in natural sciences are sought
• In Peru a basic level of fitness is required as well as an interest in conservation.

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Where will I work in Latin America?

Latin America is home to the most diverse and incredible natural landscapes on the planet as you will see on your volunteering projects, but there is so much more to see and do while on the continent. Trekking through Parque Nacional Corcovado, a biologically rich coastal rainforest, in Costa Rica is famed for wildlife spotting opportunities as well as a visit to Arenal volcano, one of the western hemisphere’s most active volcanoes. There are fantastic cities in which to sample urban life with a mix of bars and restaurants in San Jose with cultural attractions such as Museo de Oro Precolombino, which houses over 2,000 pre-Colombian gold pieces. In Quito, Ecuador, the second highest capital in the world, there is a unique blend of urban and indigenous cultures. Volunteers may will also find snow covered Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world appealing or visiting the Galapagos Islands where Darwin was inspired to write his theory of natural selection. Outside of Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peru, volunteers can undertake rainforest canopy walks, make a visit to the Uros Islands and see these ancient floating villages, the Ballestas Islands, Peru’s answer to the Galapagos. Why not take in the glacial mountain range or Cordillera Blanca, the lost Incan city Machu Picchu or soak up some high culture in the capital Lima. An amazing adventure for your gap year.