Volunteer Abroad at Tortuguero National Park - Costa Rica

Description

Volunteers who are interested in working with sea turtles will love to work here. Tortuguero beach is the most important nesting site of the endangered green turtle in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, you will have the opportunity to work with other species such as the Hawksbill, Loggerheads, and Leatherback sea turtles.

Tortugeuro National Park is seeking volunteers to work at their sea turtle patrol stations. These patrol stations are important because many of the sea turtles who nest in this area are endangered species. For example, the Green turtle are near extinction because their meat and eggs are considered a delicacy. The green turtle population is believed to have come perilously close to extinction in the 1960s when nearly every female turtle arriving to nest in Tortuguero was taken for the export market for turtle soup.

Since the 1950s, ecologists and volunteers have conducted extensive nest monitoring programs every year in Tortuguero and shared the findings with Costa Rican park managers. In 1995, volunteers began monitoring the Tortuguero beach during the spring months (March to May) for nesting leatherback sea turtles. In 2000, during the green turtle nesting season (July through October) over 2,600 green turtles were tagged. This is a significant increase from 1999 when only 2,002 greens were tagged. Through this research it is evident that volunteers are making a difference and are needed to continue monitoring the sea turtles and conducting research.

Volunteers can help in maintenance of paths, cleaning and maintenance of the installations, customer service (in case of a good Spanish), protect the park together with the park guard, make polls to the tourists

Volunteers will be expected to work 6 days per week, from 8:00am to 3:00pm each day.

Requirements:
Although there are no specific skills required to assist at this park, it is certainly an asset if interested volunteers have an enviromental background.

It is important that volunteers are able to adapt to the varying conditions often found in rain forests. A good attitude is also important when helping with the conservation of natural resources.

Volunteers may have a hard time if they are inflexible or unwilling to adapting to basic living conditions (although there is electricity and drinking water!).

Requirements

Language

English