Volunteering

Ecological Expeditions with EcoTeach

EcoTeach Guide with a Sloth

Image source: Flickr.com

This week I’ve been exploring the interesting intersections between tourism and learning. In some cases, like Return to Freedom (the American wild horse sanctuary) and the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute, volunteer tourists learn directly through work. They help take care of animals, help with research, work on the farm, and help conceive of new sustainable projects. In other cases, like the Texas A&M Volunteer Entomology Training Program, volunteers learn in the traditional way, in the classroom. At EcoTeach, the subject of today’s article, volunteer tourists learn in a combination of ways—through wilderness expeditions (a classroom in the forest), conservation work, cultural exchange, and guided exploration.

Agri-Tourism With the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute

VISFI Farmer Teaching Volunteer and Kids

Image source: Theaccidentalfarm.com

In the future, I think we’re going to see a world full of sustainable farms. Our current techniques are unsustainable. We deplete the soil with single-crop harvests. Year after year we grow corn on the same land and each year that land loses more of its vitality and biodiversity. As the microorganisms die, flooded by artificial fertilizers and pesticides, the land becomes increasingly barren. Eventually, that land becomes infertile and we move on, abandoning one wasted farm after another until we have nothing left. Barren soil is prone to erosion from wind and rain. As the last of the life-giving dirt is lost to runoff, the farm becomes a desert. This is how we will lose our green spaces, our food, and our future, unless we start farming responsibly. The Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute is doing just that.

Explore Wild China

Miao Village in Leishan

Image source: Wildchina.com

WildChina is a sustainable travel company that brings travelers and volunteers to a wide variety of locations across the country. They are an ecologically sensitive operation, focused on sharing China’s unique culture and heritage, but they are also a model for-profit organization with a broad spectrum of opportunities for all sorts of travelers. They offer a unique combination: 100% customization, deep-seated networks of opportunities and programs, and commitment to education. WildChina is passionate about China and that passion is infused in all of their trips. Their overarching mission—to teach travelers and volunteers about the beauty, culture, and history of China—is served by their focus on individualized itineraries. Each traveler—vacationer, volunteer, or student—has a unique WildChina experience.

Volunteers Learn Entomology, Then Become Educators

Praying Mantis

Image source: Buglogical.com

I love bugs. All bugs. Creepy crawly spiders (yes, I’m calling arachnids bugs for the time being), annoying mosquitoes, destructive termites, stinging wasps, even the terrifyingly fascinating bot flies of Central and South America (they lay eggs under your skin and the larva hatch, their fat wormy bodies bursting forth like the Aliens in Alien.) I’ve never been particularly squeamish and I find the little creatures fascinating. There are so many insect species—more than any other group of animals on earth—and they’re startling diversity is matched by their startlingly clever survival mechanisms. Some of them are intensely social, like bees and ants, while others are brutal loners, like the praying mantis or black widow. They live in all but the most severe climates. They pollinate our flowers, provide us with delicious foods (like that honey in your tea), and feed a dizzying array of other animals.

Return to Freedom: American Wild Horse Sanctuary

Wild Horses Runnig through Tall Grass

Image source: Returntofreedom.org

I started riding horses when I was six, just a gangly little girl with eyes that were too big for my face. I cried the first time, not from fear but from pure excitement. I was overwhelmed with emotion, as only a little girl can be. I’ve always loved horses—the way they run, the strong muscles beneath their rippling flanks, the swish of their tails—and I’m not alone. I don’t know that I’ve ever met a little girl who doesn’t love them, even if she’s never seen one in person. It’s just magical that there is an animal willing to let people ride it. The relationship between people and horses is ancient. Horses are depicted in the 25,000 year-old paintings of Chauvet Cave in France. Their influence is obvious in our culture. Horses were pivotal players in our great western migration and in our most famous battles. What better animal to help teach people the value of nature and the importance of conservation than man’s age-old companion, the majestic horse?