Reserva Pacuare
Focus: Conservation and Marine biology.
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Project Description
Our Reserve is a working Reserve and our projects need your support and enthusiasm! We need volunteers to help protect the beach, run with our recycling and grow our reforestation programme. We are open and welcoming to volunteers from any walk of life, with any range of enthusiasm and experience. The volunteer program may be particularly useful for those who are thinking of a profession in conservation or ecology.
– Volunteering is not a vacation; it is a reciprocal arrangement between the volunteer and the reserve. We want all our volunteers to have a wonderful time, and one of the best ways to ensure this is to make sure they understand their role at the reserve.
– You will be required to work for 5 hours per day, which is timetabled, with slots of free time and optional activities
– You must be prepared for a simple life during your time at the reserve. Wifi is very limited, accommodation is basic, and you may be moved around during your stay between the North and South stations at the reserve (which are about 30 minutes from each other) according to which area needs most assistance. You will share a Cabana with one other person.
– Volunteering with your children can be hugely rewarding but you must be sure that they are old enough to do the five hours of work. Some of our most enthusiastic volunteers are under 18.
Volunteer Information
Costs & Benefits
Requirements
Contact information
Project Summary
You will receive a brief introduction to the work on the beach and join the night patrols. After some days of beach patrolling, accompanying a biologist/field assistant you will be able to monitor the nesting Leatherback turtle, recording nest location, dimensions and other useful data. You might walk up to 6km and the patrol will take up to 4 hours depending on the number of turtles.
It sounds a lot but you will be so excited and inspired when you see these amazing creatures nesting that you will forget the kilometres you have walked. From May onwards you will help to monitor the hatchlings. You will count them as they come out of the nest and run to the sea and you might dig out the nest for stragglers. Out of 1,000 hatchlings only one will return to nest! You will also do recycling, maintenance, composting, reforestation and assisting researchers and field assistants with environmental education.
During the day there is a lot of work to be done in reforestation, recycling and in helping field assistants in their visits to Primary schools. Some employees in the Reserve are very interested in learning English and volunteers can give conversation classes. Volunteers are also important in our Environmental Education program. You will accompany the biologist and field assistants on local school visits and be involved with the children when they come to the Reserve to learn about the turtles and the forest. You’ll love it. We need you!
Field assistants do not pay. Volunteers pay $210 per week room and board. Add $20 for boat transportation. Student groups are accepted with a minimum stay of 3 days.
No qualifications needed except for research assistants, just good physical condition to be able to walk the soft sandy beach. Volunteers must be aged 18 years old and over.
Reserva Pacuare
Avenida 10 (entre calle 27 y29) N.2550
San José, Costa Rica
Tel: 00 506 2234 5890
Email: info@pacuarereserve.org or fdezlaw@racsa.co.cr
Website: www.pacuarereserve.org
Location:San José, Costa Rica
Average cost per day: $30
Focus: Conservation and Marine biology
Skills needed: Volunteers must be at least 18 years old
