Conservation Work & Environmental Education

  Ecuador

• All Other Regions of Ecuador: 
Pichincha

Durations of Program: 1-2 weeks, 2-4 weeks and 5-8 weeks
Typical Duration of Program: 5-8 weeks

Description: Despite preventative legislation, hunting and land invasion for agriculture is common in areas of Protected Forest in Ecuador. It is a mark of Santa Lucia's success that the local community respect the limits of our reserve and there is no hunting or clear-felling in our forest. In addition, through our reforestation programme, with support from volunteers we have planted native trees in twenty hectares of degraded land in the reserve.

We currently need your help with the following:

* Organic gardening - the garden supplies the lodge with fresh produce
* Trail maintenance - essential to ensure that the trails don't cause erosion and that they are safe to hike
* Agroforestry - maintaining our organic coffee, sugar cane and bananas and making panela (sugar) and coffee (seasonal) the traditional way
* Treeplanting - mainly the endangered cedro tree
* Orchid Garden - we need help maintaining and enlarging our orchidarium
* Working with children - teaching English, environmental education, and other after-school enrichment programmes. Also working with under-fives.

Highlights: Live in a beautiful reserve in the Andean cloudforest and contribute to the development of a conservation and community development cooperative.

Qualifications: No qualifications are required.

Cost in US$: USD 15 per day for first month and goes down for longer stays

Experience Required: yes

Typical Volunteer: Most volunteers live in the cloudforest in our reserve and participate in variety of conservation activities which include trail building and maintenance, agroforestry, organic gardening, conservation monitoring and more. Other volunteers may stay in our volunteer house and teach environmental education, english, and run other enrichment programs for young people in the nearby town of Nanegal

Age Range: open

Participants Travel to Ecuador Independently

Typically Participants Work Independently or in Groups of From 2 to 15

Bosque Nublado Santa Lucia's Mission Statement: Bosque Nublado Santa Lucia is a community-owned and community-run organisation whose mission is to conserve its cloud forest, provide sustainable employment opportunities and to work in such a way as to benefit the local community.

Year Founded: 1999