Role Overview

The Galapagos Islands are world-famous for their conservation efforts.  With rising tourism, the Galapagos National Park has an increased role to play in mitigating human impact on local flora and fauna while also fostering tourism and educating visitors to the island.  Learn about the balance between ecotourism and conservation, and conduct work that will help the park understand how to better serve tourists while also improving conservation efforts.  Most people who visit the Galapagos only do so by boat; come live on the islands to get a better understanding of the local community and their role in conservation and learn about the pressures of local and visiting populations on the ecosystem.  

As a Ecotourism Volunteer, and according to your specific skills and experience, you will help the Galapagos National Park in tasks related to:

• The management and monitoring of visitors and visitor sites nearby Puerto Villamil

• Translation and design of English language visitor information

• Graphic design for promotional and educational material

• Running satisfaction questionnaires to visitors from different nationalities

• Registering tourism related information, as well as generating statistical databases from your surveys

• Design of maps, signs, canvas, etc. for those volunteers with Acrobat Illustrator design experience

  • IOI nor the park has a computer available for this use so in this case the ideal scenario would be that the volunteer bring their personal laptop with licensed AI (IOI would not be able to take responsibility for any damage to technology that is brought out with the volunteer).

This volunteer position is flexible and can be tailored to your skills and interests as well as the park needs. The information collected will help the National Park to make decisions in tourism management that can be crucial for Galapagos wildlife preservation and sustainable long term tourism.

Requirements:

• Conversational to intermediate level of Spanish in order to communicate with fellow workers and visitors.

• Ability to communicate and act with care and patience.

• Ability to work independently as well as in a team.

• Flexible schedule that accounts for the day to day needs of working with a local institution.

• Physical ability to work outdoors with potentially high sun, element, and temperature exposure.

• Ability to independently collect and register data.

• Recommended to bring a laptop for data collection.

• Closed-toed shoes recommended, and appropriate clothing to interface with international visitors.