Description

Help us facilitate a peaceful co-existence through our pioneering & innovative initiative to Save Elephants by Helping People. Obtain an experience of a lifetime that you won't get anywhere else..

The programs give a great overview of our efforts to develop effective measures for human elephant conflict resolution, biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, and sustainable livelihood development in areas, where the need for innovative sustainable development strategies are critically needed.

Why you should Help:

Volunteers can join in the field to participate in ecological research on elephants, assess human elephant conflicts, biodiversity mapping using surveying techniques, community integrated human elephant conflict resolution, sustainable rural livelihood development, assist in implementing sustainable land use initiatives, using GPS, remote sensing and GIS techniques to develop conservation strategies to help conserve elephants, leopards, other wildlife and their habitats in Sri Lanka.

Through our programs volunteers not only experience the wilderness and get to contribute to field research and environmental protection in meaningful ways but also get to experience Sri Lankan culture. Your involvement will help to safe guard the wilderness and promote cultural practices that are thousands of years old.

Volunteer Activities:

* Tank Monitoring: The team will check around tanks (irrigation reservoirs) situated outside the National Park for elephant dung. The aim is to find out whether there are single males and/or herds present outside the Park, what their dispersal patterns might be and what kind of food they eat (for example crops or native plants).

Conditions: Need to bike about 10 kilometers and then walk up to 5 kilometers around the tanks. Need to take water.

* Trail Transects: The team will spend a session walking along a trail and recording dung found alongside the trail. The aim of the trail transect is to investigate elephant abundance outside the Park, seasonal variation of abundance and habitat preference.

Conditions: Need to bike about 5 kilometers or take a vehicle to where the transect starts, from there the team will walk/hike up to 12 kilometers. The terrain can be steep and undulating. Need to take water.

* Park ID: The team will spend a session in a vehicle in the National Park randomly looking for elephants and then observing and photographing them. The aim of the elephant ID is to build up a catalogue of individuals as a basis for numbers, social organization and movement inside/outside the Park. As we drive through Wasgamuwa National Park you will observe other wildlife and also learn about the different vegetation types and there importance. You will visit sites of ancient battles and search for herds of elephants while looking for the elusive leopard and sloth bear.

Conditions: Entire activity is in vehicles except at designated sites where the team can alight from the vehicle to take a break/swim. Need to take water.

* Electric Fence Monitoring: The team will check the state of solar powered electric fences erected to stop elephants from entering villages so that this information can be relayed to the local fence committees, who maintains and operates the fences. It also enables us to see what goes wrong with fences so that their design and management can be improved.

Conditions: Need to bicycle up to 5 kilometers and then walk up to 8-12 kilometers around the fences. Need to take water.

* Elephant & Human Elephant Conflict Observations: The team will spend an evening in a tree hut located in an elephant corridor waiting for and recording elephants that pass nearby to it and how the villagers and elephants interact as they both use the area. The aim is to collect data on the spatial and temporal distribution of the elephants in this area and to record the intensity of human-elephant interactions.

Conditions: The team will be driven to the tree hut in the early evening around 3 pm and then brought back to the field house in the late evening in time for dinner. Need to take water.

* Community-based Sustainable Land use and Livelihood Project Monitoring: Agriculture is one of the main contributing factors to human-elephant conflicts. We have established several sustainable land use and livelihood projects to develop agriculture based measures that are compatible to sharing land with elephants. You will learn how important the involvement of communities is for sustainable conservation. You will help to monitor and evaluate innovative landscape management systems designed by us to buffer communities economically from elephant raids and to minimize such raids.

Conditions: The team will be driven to the villages where these projects have been established and then walk in the project area to monitor the various activities. Need to take water.

* Data Entry: The team will spend time at the camp/field house entering the data that has been collected and help in initial analysis. Volunteers will be expected to present a short update of results of the work they have done every month/before their departure. All data collected must be digitized within 1 week of collection.

Conditions: In the field house.

Highlights

* Get close to the elephants & track them in herds
* Spend your evenings up in a tree house,
* The sunrise walk & birding trail, - never to be missed,
* Delicious local meals with a array of Sri Lankan flavours
* Work along side our local team members & learn about conservation & community issues
* Get immersed in the local culture
* Witness & experience daily lives & routines of local villagers in most rural part of the world
* Camping inside the jungle & trek through... most of all experience wilderness at it's best
* Hike across cloud forests and mountain paths

Qualifications

No specific skills or qualifications required.

* Calm temperament, patience and concentration
* General interest on conservation & Elephants
* Willingness to learn & interact
* Willingness to participate in all of activities & contribute positively
* Ability to work with locals as part of a team
* Ability to adopt to tropical weather conditions
* Ability to think of ideas for your work and how you could implement them.
* Ability to live sometimes alone with a family or project staff & other interns
* Enthusiasm self - motivated and hard working.

Intern Types

Type of Programs

• Community Service / Volunteerism
• Cultural Exploration

Languages

• English

Cost in US$:

starting from USD 1,265.00

Cost Includes:

• Food
• Housing
• In-country orientation/Training
• In-country staff support
• Registration fees
• Written materials abroad
• Written materials pre-departure

Program Fees Include:

2 Weeks USD 1,265.00
4 Weeks USD 1,940.00
6 Weeks USD 2,640.00
8 Weeks USD 2,955.00
12 Weeks USD 3,685.00

Experience Required

no

Volunteer Types

Age Range

16 - 70

This Program is open to

Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals.

Typical Living Arrangements

• Home-stays

Participants Travel

Independently or in Groups

Typically Participants Work

Independently or in Groups

Application Process Involves

• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Phone/Video Interview

Typically The Application Process Time is

24 hours

2nd Partner's Mission Statement

2nd Partner is a "for Impact" organisation that strives to provide solutions to existing community & conservation needs where the contributing problem stems from a lack of skills, expertise and funding. Our purpose is to mobilize and direct global citizens & to provide travelers from around the world a chance to have a lasting impact on the communities they visit and an opportunity to experience meaningful adventures in most exotic & remote locations.

Year Founded

2011