Overview

Volunteer Vacations in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Located on the island of San Cristobal, 1,000km west of mainland Ecuador, is this fascinating biological station whose aim is to help preserve the natural habitat of the island and introduce new organic farming methods to the islanders. Depending on the station?s needs, your conservation work on the Galapagos Islands may include helping plant new crops, assisting in light building activities, or helping maintain the trails around the island. Plus local staff will lead you on various hikes to nearby lagoons, forests, beaches and local villages to explain the ecological and human dynamics of Galapagos. The Galapagos Islands have been voted one of the new Seven Wonders of the World by over 3,500 readers of Wanderlust travel magazine! They really do have to be seen to be believed and make a fantastic addition to a sabbatical or year out.

Project details: The Jatun Sacha Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation which has been running since 1985. The Foundation is dedicated to the research, conservation, and management of ecologically important habitats, as well as environmental education and community development. Consistent with past work, one of the objectives of this Jatun Sacha station is to develop the technology to reconstruct the native habitat in the highlands on San Cristobal, and to serve as a centre for similar projects in the highlands on other populated islands in the Galapagos chain. In addition the foundation will be working collaboratively with local landowners to develop clean agricultural alternatives for the production of vegetables and fruits to sell to local universities, restaurants, and hotels.

Why the project needs volunteers: The highland forests of the populated Islands in the Galapagos chain have been greatly altered due to the introduction of exotic and invasive species of animals and plants. Highland conservation, development and poverty issues have been almost completely neglected by conservation, development and government agencies. As a result of the lack of fruit and vegetable production on the Galapagos Islands, boats from the Ecuadorian mainland unload fruits and vegetables to hotels, restaurants, and markets on a daily basis. Quarantine regulations are consistently ignored and at least two exotic and/or invasive plant or faunal species enter the islands each day. Importantly, the local population, lacking most government services and suffering high unemployment levels, is almost completely excluded from working in and benefiting from the tourism industry: tour operators do nearly all their business from their boats, ignoring business possibilities with local Galapaguenos.

About i-to-i
i-to-i specialise in providing meaningful travel experiences and short course TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training. We send over 5,000 people a year to work with important volunteer projects on 5 continents, we've trained more than 50,000 people to teach English as a foreign language and in the last 12 months we have helped more than 1,000 people find well paid teaching jobs overseas. We believe that travel should be beneficial to everyone involved, which is why we work closely with locally run projects and travel partners. All of our travel experiences involve an element of volunteering. Travel with i-to-i and you'll spend time with local people, work with locally run volunteer projects and live in locally run accommodation. You'll have a truly unique travel experience and return home knowing that you have made a real and lasting difference to the lives and futures of the friends you've made along the way.
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