Voluntary work in different environmental education activities
Full Solution
Students interviewing PA staff
J Fukuda
Voluntary work has been a good way to building teams and especially engaging local people on environmental efforts in two protected areas. We have benefitted from the need for college and university students to perform extra-curricular activities to complete their courses to attract volunteers. We have also developed a partnership with an NGO to recruit volunteers in urban centres to carry out specific activities. Volunteers are designated for projects in schools, communities and headquarters.
Last update: 27 Mar 2019
5224 Views
Photo and video gallery
Context
Challenges addressed
lack of awareness, limited budget and staffing These federal protected areas are located in the 12-million-people Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region. Thus, the duty of protecting mangroves and Guanabara bay waters is challenging, and staffing and governmental budget is limited. Local knowledge and awareness about the importance of the area is not widespread. Besides, doing voluntary work is not very common in Brazil.
Location
Brazil
South America
Process
Summary of the process
Brazil is a country that just recently reached a middle-income level. Public budget for protected areas implementation is still low but due to rising educational opportunities, volunteering culture has become more usual. A legal framework for volunteering has been built in the last two decades. Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute (ICMBio) launched its volunteering program in 2009 recognizing the importance of the voluntary work. However, as the protected area headquarter is located in a low-income region and far from urban centres it is difficult to attract people for volunteering. Thus, seizing the opportunity that many college and universities require their students to do extra-curricular activities to get their degree, we have received many students to develop qualified volunteer activities. These activities are important ways to publicize the importance of this protected area and its ecosystems. Moreover, they are a communication channel with the local population. Another component that contributes is promoting partnership with NGOs to organize and finance activities for urban volunteers. Through this initiative, more than raising awareness, we can attract skilled volunteers.
Building Blocks
Institutionalization of the volunteering program
Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute (ICMBio) is the governmental institution responsible for the federal protected areas in Brazil. Besides the federal legislation concerning to volunteer work, ICMBio has a regulation for volunteering at the institution, which is public and official. Sending uniform to the volunteers is essential for society to identify and values the volunteers, who will have more pride to do his/her activities. The formalization process of the voluntary staff is simple so no one feels discouraged with unnecessary bureaucracy.
Enabling factors
Specific and enthusiast team to deal with this subject at the institute main headquarters. Specific and enthusiast person to deal with this subject at the protected area administration
Lesson learned
Explaining to the interested person in being a volunteer, as soon as possible, the constraints of the work, reduces the chance of early withdrawal. For example, the long distance and the non-possibility of affording meals are conditions that are always addressed in the very first contacts. Encouraging the volunteers to create new activities for the local students in their free time allows them to donate their best abilities. Creating a whatsapp group for all the volunteers make them feels closer to each other and more cheerful for the work.
Resources
Attracting university and college students
Disclosing the volunteering program in nearby colleges and universities that require students to accomplish hours of extra activities to graduate is a good strategy to recruit new volunteers. From these places we can get qualified labor for the required activities. In 2014 we have received 25 students who have been essential for the development of two long-term environmental education programs, two events for local people and communication products.
Enabling factors
Educational culture to require extra-class hours from the students. Otherwise, the disclosure strategy had to be different. Institutional local personnel to lead and supervise the volunteers. Promoting regular meetings with the volunteers to check the difficulties and promote motivation as they come for an obligation. Turning this duty into a pleasurable and responsible work is very important as they carry many activities by their own.
Lesson learned
As the volunteers that come in this way are interested in accomplishing their needed extra-class hours, they usually stay for a short time. Consequently we spend more time recruiting and training new volunteers. It is a constraint we have to deal with. If we guarantee that they work at least all the time they have initially proposed to stay, in a happy and healthy atmosphere, most of them come even some days more than they needed to accomplish their hours.
Resources
Projects in schools
There are two main projects that have been developed by volunteers. The first is the “Citizen Education” Project, which has been developed in four classrooms of three elementary schools. The 96 students are generally from families of fishermen and crab catchers. The project goal is to awaken young people to issues like citizenship, ethics, social responsibility, working in groups and to present activities that are not peculiar for them like classical music and permaculture. This project is mainly conducted by two volunteers with aid from other volunteers.
The other project is named “Guapi-Mirim Environmental PA Goes to School”. It has been developed in 46 schools that are within or very close to Guapi-Mirim EPA. Around 6,000 students, from kindergarten to high school, have been participating in 30 to 45-minutes activities with environmental approach. These activities are specific for each age. The aim is to aware the students about the importance of the conservation of these protected areas and the local ecosystems. There are eight volunteers who take turns to promote the activities twice a week, in morning and afternoon periods. More than twenty volunteers have participated in this project so far.
Enabling factors
- Spendind a long time to explain, indicate texts to read and go with the volunteers in the first activities
- Volunteers’ high commitment to the project,
- Development of practical activities
- Support from other volunteers for specific activities
- Regular meetings with the voluntary
- Encourage the volunteers to develop new activities in their free time
- Availability of vehicle drivers from the institutional personnel
- Sending a concise and objective project to the school directors in advance.
Lesson learned
- It took us a lot of patience and persistence to gain the trust of the students. After about three activities they have come to love more and participate in activities
- We programmed only one class in each morning or afternoon, which was great for focusing all the attention for each class.
- At the end of each round in all classes, there is a specific day for evaluation and (re)planning the next issue
- We do not know who the volunteers are and their personality. It is advisable to designate at least three volunteers to deal with the students because of the great responsibility of this action
- Regular meetings with the volunteers is essential. The activities are quite repetitive and in some classrooms is difficult to have the attention of all the students. The meetings is a way to recognize their efforts
- It was a good practice to have some activities prepared for each classroom even having time to develop one of them.
Projects in local communities
We consider environmental education is really effective when the public is the same for some time. In this way we have develop projects in local communities where the goals are: maintaining traditional people in the area, adding value to local products, improving the environmental and life quality and strengthen the relationship with the community. Volunteers have helped organizing the activities, documenting, cooking and participating in the activities.
Enabling factors
- If there are choices to be made they must be as much participative as possible
- Budget for the meals when the activities last the whole day
- Promoting the activity in advance through different ways like phone calling, oral messages and written notes
- Search solutions or help the communities problems on what concern to us
Lesson learned
- It is fundamental to invite the community through different ways.
- Is very advisable to hand in printed material about what is being worked so the participants can show to other communitarians and check the material in future occasions
- We always have to think about different days and times for the activities considering also the their family and religious activities
- Projects in communities is a good theme to have partnerships from NGOs and local level governments
Open events with environmental activities
In the last three years we have developed two public events per year that are heavily supported by volunteers. “EPA Guapi-Mirim Environmental Workshops Week” is held in school vacations in July. On each day there are two turns of workshops about themes like vegetable garden, dry toilet, first aids, handcraft reusing material, communitarian radio. The workshops are free and the teachers are from partner institutions. Each year there are around 500 people, mainly from the local community, attending the activities. “EPA Guapi-Mirim Anniversary Celebration” is held in the protected area headquarter. The main activity of the day has been recuperating river margins with young trees planting. Each year involves around 300 participants. These events are excellent opportunities to publicize the importance of this PA.
Enabling factors
Encouraging the volunteers to take turns and participate in the events activities - Publicizing the events through the media and returning it to the volunteers is a form to recognize and thank to their efforts - Inviting for the events the schools where these student volunteers study. The students’ teachers recognition on the results of the activities is very rewarding.
Lesson learned
It is needed to plan each event with more advance than it would be with institutional colleagues. It takes time to explain the aims, the partnerships and the development of each event. Offering certificate to the volunteers as participant of the events organization committee has a special value for them, who are beginning their professional careers. Preparing evaluation questionnaires for the events participants promotes indicators for improvements, including voluntary work, for the next year
Creating materials and promoting means of communication
Our staff is composed by professionals with technical graduations such as biologists, engineers and social sciences but there no special admission exams for communication professionals. The role that should be done by journalists, designers, publicists are done by the ones previously mentioned. In order to cover part of this gap volunteers with communication experience have given some important contributions. In this case the work is not necessarily done in a regular basis. Some products we have had so far include: logo modernization, media collection organization, promotional material creation, high-quality pictures production and social networks fostering.
Enabling factors
- Allow some activities to be sent by volunteers from home
- In the beginning it is even more important to explain to the volunteers about the institution mission and the importance of the work as: a) they have not usually had specific training in environmental issues and b) they can do part of the work out of our headquarter so they do not experience much of the daily routine.
Lesson learned
- Sometimes time expectation for the products to be concluded must be much longer than if it was done by a company as the volunteers from this knowledge area are usually very busy
- Social networks fostering is a powerful mean of communication with the society from different ages, localities and income levels. Young people usually deal very easily with new technologies. We can have help from them to make our work more effective.
Impacts
Through different actions involving volunteers some important impacts have come out: better relation with the local population and more public awareness about the importance of these protected areas for mangrove conservation. These impacts are evidenced by some project results such as: - Contact with 25 schools around these protected areas, comprising around 4,000 students from kindergarten to high school. One of the results of these school activities was the increase of self-esteem and the recognition of mangrove importance among local kids and teenagers that tended to consider the mangroves as dirty and stinky. - Volunteers have also taught students to write and develop their own projects, which resulted in arising young citizenship and improved quality of life for the local people. - Another outcome was engaging urban population through a nature work-day experience involving river banks forest recovery. Besides raising environmental awareness among them, a spillover effect was to attract qualified professionals to voluntarily develop other projects for which there was no public budget.
Beneficiaries
nature, local school students, volunteers, local people, teachers
Story
Brought up in a rural family, Maria Lidia Novaes Correa had to start working early. To support her family, she has worked for more than 15 years cooking in restaurants . When her children grew up and financial need decreased, she decided to go after her dreams: studying and working in the environmental area. She finished high school at age 46 and then took several technical courses. Seven years later she was admitted for two universities, in undergraduate courses in environmental management and biology. At 54, she heard about Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute (ICMBio) volunteer program and became interested in being a volunteer in Guapi-Mirim Environmental Protected Area and Guanabara Ecological Station because she had spent her childhood in the region. Even spending two hours to arrive in the office, she worked as a volunteer in these protected areas for about 18 months, once a week, maintaining the plant nurseries and organizing some public events. On her own initiative, she guided and built a worm composting system with the help of another volunteer. Since then, all raw fruit and vegetable skins from the employees and volunteers lunch is put there, and the fertilizer is used in the headquarter’s organic garden, which is an attraction for visitors. One of the maintenance employees learned the importance and how to do the system, and has lectured on the subject. Some months ago Correa was invited by an elementary school in the region to develop a garden with students. This school, one of those where volunteers run the Guapi-Mirim Environmental Protected Area Goes to School Project, is situated in a very poor region. Many of the school students have a fragile family structure. She says that when she arrived many students fled the school in free time, and now a majority of them is very involved with gardening activities. Although Maria Lidia cannot come over every week anymore, we often invite her for collaborating in other projects. According to her, “it was a great opportunity for me to learn more about protected areas and how they are managed. It was also meaningful to realize that my knowledge was important for others and for the environment. The volunteering experience was relevant for my academic studies, too”.
