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Volunteer role at the project:
Each week combines lectures with dives and activities that have a specific conservation focus. These may include:
- Reef health surveys (Ecological Monitoring Programme)
- Biorock coral rehabilitation and coral nursery
- Artificial reef construction / maintenance
- Mooring buoy installation
- Giant clam nursery
- Sea turtle ‘head starter programme’ and releases
- Surveys and monitoring of specific species including seahorses, invertebrates and coral predators such as crown of thorns starfish
- Water testing
- Coral spawning capture and culture programme
- Erosion control
In addition to the regular project focuses there may be special activities such as working with community groups to raise awareness and beach and underwater clean-ups.
If you are a beginner diver on arrival you will spend your first week training and achieving your SSI Open Water and Advanced Adventurer certification. SSI (Scuba Schools International) is an internationally recognised dive standard equivalent to PADI.
During your placement you will also obtain conservation course certificates including Ecological Diver.
How the project is making a difference:
The Marine Conservation team is active on two fronts; surveying the reefs and collecting data in Koh Tao, as well as implementing a range of restoration projects and community engagement initiatives. They work in partnership with local government authorities and universities to provide data for key decision makers in marine conservation, coastal protection and fisheries in Thailand.
Why volunteers are needed:
Research and restoration activities are labour intensive and as such volunteers are a valuable addition to the team. Working under the guidance of the Marine Biologist and experienced interns at the project, volunteers can contribute a great deal to the ongoing research. In addition to this, volunteers with an interest or experience in conservation can bring a new perspective to research.
We are an award winning non-profit organisation arranging ethical, inspiring and supported volunteering opportunities around the world since 2001. Volunteers are needed from 2 - 12 weeks for animal, conservation, child care, education, teaching, building and community volunteering projects in Asia, Africa and Central & South America.
In this time of uncertainty during the current Coronavirus outbreak, we are monitoring the global situation closely in conjunction with the UK FCO and our local teams on the ground. The health and safety of our volunteers is our primary concern and we will only restart placements when it’s safe to do so. It’s not yet clear when this will be but we aren’t accepting new bookings for placements before 1 August 2020.
We want to reassure volunteers that you can feel confident booking an overseas volunteering placement with us and we have introduced extra flexibility to help with this.
Flexible payment terms
We are giving added flexibility on payments. Normally we ask for final payment by 8 weeks before start date, but we are reducing this to 1 month before start date for placements with start dates in 2020. This takes some pressure off volunteers and allows us to see how the situation evolves over the coming months.
Flexible date changes
If any of our volunteers want or need to reschedule (regardless of whether it is related to Coronavirus or not!), we are happy to reschedule for up to 18 months. You just need to let us know 1 month or more before your placement date and it can be open ended if you aren’t sure when you want to reschedule to. We are keeping this free of charge for maximum flexibility!
Booking flights – wait for now
We normally recommend that volunteers book flights as soon as possible after their placement is confirmed to secure the best deals, but with the current uncertainty, it’s best to wait until travel restrictions are lifted and the airlines can confirm their schedules before booking flights and making other arrangements.
We’d love to help organise your next volunteer adventure, ready for when the world has returned to some kind of normality!
En savoir plus sur nos critères de sélection pour choisir nos organisations partenaires.