Activities
- 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.
- 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 projects related to Yasuni National Park´s conservation.
- Work in the organic farm: growing and harvesting different products (legumes, tomatoes, 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…)
- work with the community on specific projects related to food sovereignty.
- 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.
- 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 the 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 Cuyabeno, etc…) and different tourist attractions. This might be an opportunity to spend some time on your own. If you decide to stay in the Botanical Park Los Yapas, you can do any activity you want. The group may choose to do something together and we can organize excursions.