Volunteer: Amazon Conservation Project in Peru

Location: Peruvian Amazon, Cuzco region

Duration: 6 months placement

Start Dates: enquire with us when applying.

Cost: $7,200 USD

Fee Includes: all food, accommodation, pre-departure + in-country support, orientation and all project related activities

Does not Include: flights, airport pickup, travel insurance, personal spending, visas and vaccinations

Benefits

• An ultimate 6 month experience which will teach you enormous amounts about Conservation work in the Amazon and set you up for a career in the field.
• Get involved in Sustainable Initiatives which work with the local community
• Get hands on field experience and help implement conservation projects which make a real impact
• Work on various projects ranging from Avian monitoring, Agroforestry, Butterfly monitoring,Community Development initiatives.
  
  

Please note: This opportunity is designed to give you the contacts and experience to help further your career. You are not replacing any member of staff, but helping alongside them, whilst learning new skills. Simply click the APPLY Button to submit your application, and ask as many questions as you need.

Introduction

This internship set in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon offers you the opportunity to actively participate in important conservation and sustainable community development initiatives . We offer a career development programme designed to provide you with a deeper level of engagement in not-for-profit conservation work where you will gain extensive practical experience in field techniques and leadership skills, enabling you to effectively advance your career and ability to make a difference. You will be immersed in a structured learning course which is delivered via one-on-one mentoring and numerous training workshops . We focus also on the professional and personal skills which will prove immensely valuable when you go on to apply for jobs and further your career.

Founded in 2002, our Foundation has worked to establish sustainable practices throughout the Amazon. True sustainability encompasses all areas of life in the rainforest people, plants and wildlife. We take a holistic approach which values environmental stewardship ; we look at real issues faced by local people and try to develop practical, sustainable alternatives. We envision a sustainable Amazon where education and learning is the forefront for driving understanding and change. The Amazon is under constant threat from many processes that cause habitat destruction such as logging, agriculture and mining. Our sustainable initiative projects provide alternative forms of income that can help protect the rainforest as well as give people a livelihood. This means that we help protect one of the most biodiverse places in the world, preventing the extinction of species, and other associated effects of rainforest destruction, such as climate change.

All our projects focus on two main areas; Environmental Research which focuses directly on the rainforest, and Sustainable Initiatives where we work with local Communities. The Manu Biosphere is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, with millions of species awaiting study, and numerous local communities living nearby.

In Manu we have a great opportunity to study conservation and biodiversity issues on micro and macro scales; from endemic species of frogs that are not found anywhere else to a larger ecosystem approach. By studying animal distribution and ecology on our reserve, looking at where they can be found, at what times and what weather conditions, we can begin to understand the relationship between the forest and the wildlife. The people that live in Manu face issues of poverty, low education standards, malnutrition and lack of resources. In trying to provide for their families, people can sometimes end up in dangerous, unsustainable jobs like slash and burn agriculture and illegal logging. Our community projects were set up to investigate and provide alternative, safe, sustainable ways to earn their money and feed their families.

Research

The Amazon is a delicately balanced ecosystem, however, human destruction of the rainforest is happening at such an alarming rate that these pristine environments are being systematically destroyed.

So What Happens When a Patch Of Destroyed Rainforest Is Left Alone, When The Jungle Is Allowed To Reclaim It And Life Slowly Returns? Our Project Is Uniquely Placed To Investigate This, As For Many Years Now Our Reserve Has Been Naturally Regenerating From When It Was Once Farmland. Nowadays, The Rainforest That Covers The Land Falls Into Three Main Categories Based On What Logging Pressure And Agricultural Impacts It Has Experienced

• completely cleared and regenerating,
• partially cleared and regenerating, and
• selectively logged now regenerating.
  
  

Our biodiversity monitoring plan is investigating the value of regenerating tropical rainforest for biodiversity and how species move back to forest that has a history of human disturbance. This is the challenge we have set ourselves to answer through the Research Monitoring Programme, which is run in partnership with leading universities such as the University of Glasgow and Oxford University. By developing long-term comparative studies we can understand how forests regenerate that have experienced different types and levels of disturbance. We examine how the diversity of life can return if we promote and nurture successful rainforest regeneration. As agricultural and industrial activities move into new areas to exploit, the biological value of regenerating forests is becoming increasingly important and our studies aim to investigate this.

Our scientific research programme has 3 main areas of focus:

• Biodiversity
• Ecosystem-Services
• Socio-economics
  
  

Please note: all information above is subject to change. Please check the most up to date information on the Global Nomadic website when applying. Simply follow the link on the Apply Button above.