Volunteer in Tropical Coastal Rainforest in Ecuador

  Ecuador

• All Other Regions of Ecuador: 
Rural Areas

Term: Throughout the year 
Durations of Program: 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks and 9-12 weeks
Typical Duration of Program: 9-12 weeks

Description:
* Ecuadorian Tropical Coast Community Kids Project

Vocational Training and Educational assistance.   
Volunteers will assist the local staff to teach English, assist in environmental lessons, play sports, arts and fun activities, teach the children vocational skills such us manual work, handicrafts painting, decorating, gardening, etc.

Community library.
A place for children, ages from 6 to 100 to come, and enjoy the infinite possibilities of the reading universe. Each book even each page of a book will provide them a gate for receiving new impressions and explore new people, places, characters, cultures and the possibility to awaken into new ideas and concepts. The library provides children a safe and quiet area where they can do their homework, read, learn, and research on a wide variety of texts, magazines and encyclopedias.

A friendly help from the volunteers with positive reinforcement will provide the children an opportunity to engage and share with other children while playing learning games that develop thinking skills.

Volunteers will read with the children, assist with homework, organize games and fun activities for the children, teach, improve the project facilities and assist local staff.

Free English Education Programe.
Volunteers will teach English inside the school and at the community library.

Vocational Training.
The vocational program teaches the children the skills they can use to earn a living for themselves and their families in the hope of breaking the cycle of poverty. The children are taught Environmental education, flora and fauna identification, English (eco tourism related), computer skills, cooking, weaving, ceramics, recycling paper into sellable products, etc.

* Tropical Agroforestry and Sustainable economic solutions Project: Community plant and seed Nursery

The management and administration of the community tree nursery, stationed in the Camarones, from which all seedlings to be planted by participants will be drawn free-of-charge and designated trough the volunteers according to the systems that will be developed. Volunteers will prepare the compost; organize the seed bank, planting, watering, weeding, administration, documentation.

Permaculture.
Ecological design, dry composting toilets, natural building, appropriate technology, bio pesticides, landscaping, alternative energies, green houses, family orchards management, documentation, etc

Agroforestry
Agroforestry adds a mix of crops to the farmers' palette which both enables them to diversify their income stream and enhance degraded soils by restoring nutrients. An added benefit of such techniques is that they maintain forest systems, soils, and biological diversity at a far higher level than do conventional agricultural approaches.
Volunteer's activities include: planning and designing, assistance in the implementation of the system, documentation, family fruit orchards, agroforestry businesses, market research and development, product development, etc.

Small Scale Sustainable businesses
Many of the raw materials produced by Agroforestry systems can also be refined into products of higher value, such as producing chocolate from cacao, high quality coffee, jams, marmalades, organic soap, etc. Volunteer activities include training and workshops for entrepreneurs, in fields such as: handicrafts, fruit processed products (marmalades, jams, dry fruit, juice pulp) cattle products, (milk, cheese, yogurt,) general cooking for business, hostel administration, other products (mushrooms, handicrafts, organic soaps and cosmetics, fruit wine, conserves, honey production, apiculture, aquaculture, tourism guiding, etc

Monitoring and assistance to the community
Technical assistance and project support. Documentation

* Coastal Rainforest Conservation at Jama-Coaque protective forest Project
-Agroecology and agroforestry:: Learning and implementing the basic theory and strategies of tropical permaculture and sustainable agroforestry, in order to develop and maintain a sustainable food production systems, with emphasis on the planting and maintenance of fruit-trees and other food-producing vegetation Learning about tropical agroecology, creative ecological design and implementation, possible risks and practical solutions.
-Park ranger duties: including trail maintenance and monitoring, making and installing signs and fences, monitoring and assessing human impact, and helping design reserve zoning
-Eco-Tourism: Helping in the training of local nature guides, designing and maintaining eco-tourism trails, designing and implementing strategies to manage human impact on the reserve
-Documentation of results: This is necessary to keep a record of the experiences and projects developed by the volunteers in order to build a tropical permaculture guide for possibly replicable solutions for the surrounding communities. Documents might include, personal diary of processes, photo documentaries, data collection, inventories, etc.
-Reforestation: collecting and storing seeds of endangered native trees, planting seeds in the tree nursery, transplanting seedlings of native trees into degraded areas, assisting natural regeneration of secondary-growth areas
-Forest Exploring and Mapping: exploring distant and remote sections of the reserve, as well as rainforest outside the reserve, for assessment and mapping, and for sure sheer pleasure
-Appropriate technology identification and implementation under the concept of living and working inside a natural laboratory, with the use of natural material to invent, design and implement practical solutions for a harmonic human ecology inside a tropical rainforest.

Volunteer activities
Tropical permaculture, ecological design, appropriate technology, bio pesticides, landscaping, alternative energies, compost management, seed bank, planting, watering, weeding, gardening, fruit orchard management, harvesting, food processing, fermentation, maintenance of house and for-human areas in the reserve (trails, miradores,), documentation, photography, handicrafts, cooking, artistic activities, etc.

* Tropical Ecology Research, Investigation and other Studies Internship

Highlights:
* Ecuadorian Tropical Coast Community Kids Project
This project focuses on the young members of the community of Camarones and it aims to provide assisted tools to help them in finding new alternatives for their development and helping them in building an intellectual patrimony related to natural resources valorization, sustainable agricultural practices, forest conservation, wild life, flora, art, languages, etc; to provide them an alternative vocational skill so that they have more opportunities to contribute responsibly to their families and society.

The project includes a free environmental education program, English lessons, and performing arts: drawing, painting, theatre, dancing, handicrafts, etc; library, community project and vocational training.

* Tropical Agroforestry and Sustainable economic solutions Project
The project aims to provide the communities that live in and adjacent to the last remnants of tropical rainforest and dry forest in the Choco-Manabi Biological Corridor with the economic incentive and technical assistance to shift regional land-use patterns from illegal logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and cattle ranching--the principal activities that account for deforestation--to sustainable agroforestry and economic solutions. Enhancing the productivity and profitability of the members of the community by assisting the preparation and implementation of small scale sustainable business in the community

* Coastal Rainforest Conservation at Jama-Coaque protective forest Project
The higher objective of this project is to help prepare the next generation of conservation leaders throughout the world. The specific focus is to provide a practical learning and working experience in the various aspects of tropical forest conservation, including reserve management, biological and ecological research, permaculture, agroforestry, sustainable food-production, reforestation of endangered native trees, and forest exploration and mapping. The project is hands-on, in the forest, learning why and how to conserve native ecosystems as critically-valuable assets for humanity and the planet at large as well as local communities.

* Tropical Ecology Research, Investigation and other Studies Internship
The Jama-Coaque Reserve is the last line of a biologically wealthy and ecologically unique ecosystem; there is much for humanity to learn here, and thus far most of it is still unstudied:
- Flora and Fauna inventories
- Tropical Ecology research and/or studies
- Natural medicine research and development
- Other

Qualifications:
* Volunteers need to be minimum 18 years old.
* No previous experience or qualifications are necessary
* We require volunteers to be respectful and open minded to the cultural differences they will encounter in Ecuador.
* Application process
* Fill out an application form you will be notified by email in a maximum of two weeks.
* Pay your deposit to secure your place.
* Arrange your flight, visa, vaccinations, etc.
* The full amount of the required donation must be paid 30 days before your arrival.
* We will send you more information about Ecuador and a full project information before your arrival, as well as useful phone contacts and any useful information.

Cost in US$: 500

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: Interns at the Jama-Coaque Reserve are encouraged to take on high-impact and dynamic projects; we are a young organization and a young reserve, we live off the grid and are constructing a sustainable rainforest research and living settlement with our hands. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done and experience to be gained for interns and for us. Above all, creativity and innovation is the basis for our intern program. And our objective, as lofty as it sounds, is to find, prepare, and join forces with the next generation of practitioners and leaders in the field of ecologically sustainable human progress. We believe the strength of our intern program is the balance between support and guidance from 3MAlliance directors and staff, including a structured program, combined with a wide range of responsibilities and the encouragement of interns to give free reign to their own creativity. If you have experience in permaculture or ecology, you will be given the chance to really apply it to build and design systems. If you do not have experience, you will enjoy a steep learning curve and will not leave the reserve without having achieved a level of practical and theoretical knowledge and experience that will serve you for the rest of your life.

Age Range: 18 +

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel to Ecuador Independently or in Groups

Application Process Involves:

• Online Application plus Application Assessment

Third Millennium Alliance's Mission Statement: Regenerate, reforest, and restore the Chocó-Manabí Biological Corridor in western Ecuador Starting with The preservation of the last remnant of rainforest and cloud forest in and surrounding the Jama-Coaque Reserve By means of A pragmatic, multi-faceted approach to establishing balance between human needs and rainforest survival Which will Provide a practical, feasible, and attractive exemplar of human-ecology integration that will help ignite and guide sustainable human-ecological renaissance in other bioregions throughout the world

Year Founded: 2007