How to be an environmental volunteer: 10 opportunities around the world

In recent years the need to go out and travel the world has increased considerably while people search for different places and experiences to take them out of their day-to-day routine. 

Calm and natural destinations have been a tendency for traveling; on the other hand, these spaces need to be preserved. As a way to give something back to nature and not just to explore it, being an environmental volunteer is perfect!

Volunteering allows us to share different perspectives and learn new things, as you're gonna see in this article.

Some ways to be an environmental volunteer are growing plants, recycling, innovating with natural resources or simply caring about our ecosystem.

Here's how I have made this possible and how you could do it too.

Check out this guide to learn more about How to find volunteering opportunities around the world using Worldpackers.

My experience doing environmental volunteering 

This year I volunteered through Worldpackers, which opened up a lot of possibilities for me and left me with a great deal of knowledge. 

On a small hill in Chiapas, Mexico I ventured out to do bio construction, something that I had not experienced before for fear of not being prepared.

However, the best lesson I got from this volunteer position is that you don't have to be an expert to have a great impact on the conservation and positive management of our natural environments.

With this project, we built a small house using only recycled resources such as glass and plastic bottles, clay walls, and cow feces, wood, among others. The most brilliant thing about this environmental project was the green roof! Yes, we made life grow on the roof of this little house. 

All hands contributed with something. Those who did not know how to build knew how to listen and work as a team, in the end, we all contributed with something wonderful. 

Learn more about rural tourism and its benefits.

Environmental volunteering opportunities 

Just like my experience, there are thousands of activities you can do to have a positive influence, share experiences and skills. 

• If you are interested in gardening, there are such amazing positions of environment volunteering for you in this area, like this organic farm in Samoeng, Thailand, away from the noise of the city.
• Wouldn't it be great to live in an Eco lodge in Hawaii, US? That allows you to visit Big Island Waterfalls, connect with nature and help Hamakua Rainforest keep alive.
• You can also help an Eco Village with construction and woodwork while enjoying a vivid community life in Sammatz, Germany.
• Or maybe help with advertising in Santa Marta, Colombia, to motivate people to join the culture of ecological awareness.

Check out 15 amazing Worldpackers experiences to volunteer with animals and the guide for working on a farm.

• Besides Mexico, I was also an environmental volunteer in Pillapalu, Estonia and it was so awesome! I spent three weeks in the forest caring about nature, promoting ecotourism and medicinal mushrooms.

• You can find a lot of  volunteering options in which you will have a diverse number of tasks to help nature, cultivate life and care about the earth, like this permaculture project in Celendín, Peru.

• There are also programs that need artists, like this position in Wyoming, US that is a top host with lots of good reviews. You would help with painting and decorating, or being a handyman.

•  Some volunteers offer the position to help with social media, so you have the opportunity to share crucial information to keep working positively with our natural spaces. You might want to take a look at this multimedia role in Porto Seguro, Brazil. 
  

• If your goal is to meet people from other cultures, you have the perfect chance with this environmental volunteering position to help with gardening and even cooking on a farm located at Palmer, United States.
  

How to be an environmental volunteer?

Volunteering is an incredible way to start spreading conscientious ideas about how cool is to help the environment if we do some teamwork.

Keep reading: The best environmental volunteer opportunities around the world with Worldpackers

After great experiences I would tell you my top ideas about how to easily become an environmental volunteer, and that is:

1. Subscribe to Worldpackers 

Worldpackers is the safest community for traveling and volunteering. Its online platform connects millions of conscious travelers with thousands of welcoming hosts around the world.

It has a small fee of US$49.00 for an annual subscription. It means you are free to apply and do unlimited volunteering experiences for a year! 

2. Care about nature

Environmental volunteering means to care about your ecosystem, and what’s a better way to do it if not being informed? 

Explore places where you can connect with nature, flora, fauna, and people that are already acquainted with it and can share with you so much interesting information.

3. Be around conscientious people

Begin with getting closer to people that are already familiar with this rational thinking, people that can already guide you in how to be a responsible traveler and volunteer. People that you can share skills with and have a nice approach to new ideas.

4. Be a responsible volunteer

Being an environmental volunteer begins by being a responsible person and traveler, caring about how you travel and how you leave in the place, what you have left behind, and the impact that you are going to cause in the environment.

Always travel to enjoy and learn, and most important: be respectful with nature and with other people!

After reading these opportunities we can agree that even the smallest contributions bring crucial consequences in the conservation of flora, fauna, and the natural ecosystem. That’s why you should have no doubts and start being an environmental volunteer right now!