I want to do volunteer work for a year , specifically rain forest or marine related work , where do I go ?

Question

I am interested in doing perhaps a year of volunteer work to help protect rain forest / marine life. Which organizations do I turn to and what skills are generally required?

Answer 1

If you have a high-degree of skills, training and experience in forestry, marine biology, government policy advocacy, international relations, etc., particularly via a master's degree and work experience, you look for jobs with research institutes, your government's aid and development arm (in the USA, it's USAID), UN agencies, etc.

If you have no skills regarding forestry, marine biology, or any areas of specialization that might be needed by these organizations, no experience abroad, no language skills other than English, and less than a bachelor's degree, you need to be prepared to pay for this experience you want. You will need to pay for your transportation, accommodation, security, training, staff to supervise you, etc.

There is a listing of the more-than-30 member organizations of the International Volunteers Program Association (IVPA) that is a good place to find reputable volunteer-for-a-fee programs -- programs where you don't need to have much experience. Placements are just for a few weeks or months:

http://www.volunteerinternational.org/

The Learning Abroad Center Work, Intern, Volunteer (WIV) Database, hosted by the University of Minnesota, allows you to search work, internship and volunteering opportunities all over the globe. There are more than 500 programs to choose from, and you can search by keyword, region, type of program, etc.

http://www.umabroad.umn.edu/programs/wiv...

You can also go to web sites of organizations that are focused on helping with preserve rain forests or marine life/habitat, and go through their job and volunteer boards.