Volunteer and Internship in Amazonian Rainforest Conservation Project

Field work on conservation projects requires a lot of physical and mental effort. We need you to achieve our goals and restore the rain forest.

One way to make your visit to the tropics a valuable experience for yourself and for the environment too, is to volunteer at Los Yapas Botanical Park. This allows you to discover field work.  You can use your professional skills to help the recovery of the rain forest and/or discover new skills useful for environmental conservation.

A volunteer/internship program in the Botanical park Los Yapas can help you discover the inner you, make new friends and make part of the adventure of protecting the Amazon rainforest. Finally it is a unique experience showing that living in direct contact with nature is a way to be happy.

The beauty, the peace and the harmony of the Park provides you a place for healing on a very deep and spiritual way. Restore ourselves while we restore our Mother Earth. Restore ourselves to support conservation.

Botanical Park Los Yapas needs volunteers and interns to lead projects related to reforestation, food sovereignty, human security, agroecology, organic agriculture,rainforest restoration, coaching, personal restoration, etc. People can collect seeds and plant saplings, monitor reforestation progress, maintain saplings, identify plants, birds, insects and fungi; help with trail building and the constant maintenance and development of the infrastructure, work with children on environmental education projects, develop organic farming techniques and give worshops.

We provide accomodation and all the basic services (hot water, wireless, washing machine, etc..), volunteers and interns colaborate with $20 per day to cover organic food.

Volunteer Activities, according to the interest and wills of the volunteer:

• Reforestation, experimental silviculture of tropical trees, development and maintenance of the botanical park. This involves working with machetes, planting trees, park upkeep and other such manual work.
• Make photos and short films or documentaries for publicity.
• Develop marketing on the social netrworks
• Hiking in the surrounding jungle, collecting seeds, plants and learning about taxonomy and the Amazon from a local guide.
• Identify plants, birds, insects and fungi.
• Work in specific project related to Yasuni National Park´sconservation.
• Work in the organic farm: growing and harvesting different products (coffee, exotic fruits, etc…), making natural homemade pesticides, compost and herbicides, doing soil management and weed control (by hand weeding and natural herbicides). One of our desires, with the help of our volunteers, is to create a vegetable garden where volunteers will be able to pick their own vegetables for cooking as well as maintain it for future volunteers and staff.
• Aid in the design of the herbarium collecting, storing, labeling, describing plants and fruits.
• Aid in the environmental education of local children (painting, cooking, recycling, etc…)
• Teach English, French or German to primary school aged children. This project is for long term volunteers of 2 months or longer.
• Office activities associated with the development of a conservation project.
• Improve the web page and the inbound marketing of the project
• Improve social media communication of the Park 
• Develop ecotourism and self-sustaining projects
• Give workshops on the topics they are specialized (coaching, yoga, meditation, agroecology, ect.)
• Trail and infrastructure building and maintenance.

Most working days run from around 9 am to 5 pm. The work schedule consists of 4 hours in the morning and 2 or 3 in the afternoons depending on the weather and what activities. During your free time you can play guitar, run, dance, read, watch TV, practice Yoga, use Internet, share time with local people, and enjoy the attractions from the Park.

Cooking and other chores are done on a voluntary rota basis.Saturday and Sundays are days off. You can visit close towns (Baños, Puyo, Tena, Macas, and even take 3 or 4 days to visit ecological reserves like Yasuní, Cuyabeno, etc…) and different tourist attractions.

Volunteer requirements

Volunteers need no scientific background, just bring a sense of adventure, good humor, your enthusiasm, willingness to learn and be prepared to get your hands dirty!

We welcome everyone over 18 and at all fitness levels. The doors of Botanical Park Los Yapas are always open; there are no deadlines, schedules or timetables to meet. If you have your own project ideas, we can discuss them and we can help you to make your ideas come true.

If you are interested, please fill the form, where you can find extra information you may need:

http://losyapas.com/sites/default/files/u1/Application_Pack_Volunteer_2016.pdf

You can also find more information in our webpage: http://losyapas.com/volunteering/requirements

Internship program:

Interns can make their college or university practices on topics such as:

1) in vitro propagation of fungi.

2) development of medicinal products based on native plants.

3) Permaculture, agroecology, organic food production.

4) development of ecotourism, gardening and decorating.

5) human security, food sovereignty, nutrition and health.

6) alternative medicine.

7) coaching.

8) marketing, publicity and social networks management

9) Fotography and film making

Intern requirements:

Interns need a backgroud in the field they want to carry out their internship and the permission of a supervisor. For more information contact us.

If you are interested, please fill the form, where you can find extra information you may need:

http://losyapas.com/sites/default/files/u1/Application_Pack_Internship_2016.pdf

You can also find more information in our webpage: http://losyapas.com/volunteering/requirements

Apply by e-mail to: gabigipsy@gmail.com with ¨Volunteer¨ or ¨Intern¨ in the subject line.