 Conservation expedition
If you are someone who is passionate about the environment and would like to get involved with a volunteer project on your gap year a conservation expedition is an excellent solution. If you travel on a conservation expedition it's possible to combine fun and rewarding conservation work with adventurous travel ‘off the beaten track.' Travelling on a conservation expedition on your gap year gives you a chance to ‘give something back' to some of the countries you visit by helping to care for the environment. Being able to say that you have been involved in a conservation expedition also looks great on a CV and, if you fancy a future career working in this field, the new skills and knowledge you acquire on a conservation expedition could prove invaluable. Our ‘Conservation Expedition' takes a look at some of the options you could consider.
Conservation expedition - South America
Some of Real Gap's most exciting and intrepid gap year programmes are the ‘Real Gap Year Expeditions Abroad' programmes. These programmes combine the essential sights of a country with more adventurous travel away from the usual tourist trail as well as a volunteer placement - providing the ultimate ‘real' travel experience. What's more if you travel on an expedition abroad to any of the South American countries available it's easy to convert it in to a conservation expedition by choosing a suitable volunteer placement. For example, you could:
- Travel on a gap year expedition to Ecuador to get involved on a conservation expedition in the Galapagos Islands with a project raising awareness of environmental issues among local school children through a series of discussions, workshops and reforestation activities.
- Travel on a conservation expedition with the gap year expedition in Peru and volunteer on a number of amazing projects. Venture deep in to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest and take part in turtle conservation, help to protect endangered dolphins and other marine life on Peru's pacific coastline, monitor tour agencies operating on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
- Travel on a conservation expedition to Venezuela and care for animals at a National Park.
Conservation expedition - Tailor made
If you like the idea of going on a conservation expedition, but not to one of the above three countries, an excellent solution is simply to tailor-make your conservation expedition. Real Gap has a superb choice of rewarding volunteer conservation programmes throughout the world and it's possible to combine one or several of these with travel in the region to create your own individual conservation expedition. The best starting point for choosing a volunteer programme for your conservation expedition is to spend some time exploring all the options on the Real Gap website. Once you have a few ideas you can then call one of Real Gap's team of expert travel advisers who will be able to answer more detailed questions you may have and help you out with putting together the itinerary for your conservation expedition.
Here are just a few examples of some of the activities you could get up to on a tailor-made conservation expedition:
Conservation expedition - Sponsorship
If you are planning a conservation expedition for your gap year or career break it's well worth considering getting hold of some sponsorship to help raise the necessary funds for your project. For ideas and advice on how to go about raising funds for your conservation expedition visit Real Gap's ‘Gap year fundraising, saving for a gap year' page.
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