Volunteer: Sustainable Agriculture, Food Systems, and Conservation in the Galapagos Islands

Duration: Minimum 1 month (flexible for min. 2 weeks depending on intern s qualifications), Maximum 1 year

Start Dates: Project is ongoing, and you can join at any time, depending upon availability

Cost: $485 USD for the 1st week + $285 for each additional week (2 month minimum is recommended)

Fee Includes: all food, accommodation, pre-departure + in-country support, orientation and all project related activities

Does not Include: flights, airport pickup, travel insurance, personal spending, visas and vaccinations

Please note: This opportunity is designed to give you the contacts and experience to help further your career. You are not replacing any member of staff, but helping alongside them, whilst learning new skills.

Benefits

• Collaborate with an indigenous women s association of midwives and traditional medicine healer
• Live with one of the midwives and her family in a rural community home stay
• Increase your herbalism, plant medicine, and other medical speciality skills.
• Hands-on experience in the fields of Midwifery, Plant Medicine, Herbalism, Ethnobotany, and Public
• Health, along with the opportunity to learn about agriculture, indigenous rights, women s empowerment, grant writing, online marketing/media and more.
• Option to collaborate part-time in a health clinic, hospital, or governmental public health assistance organization working alongside local doctors and support staff to compare traditional versus mainstream public health practices.
• Opportunity to experience the unique interculturality of the Ecuadorian health sector
• Numerous research +amp; dissertation opportunities available with partner organizations and universities, if requested.
• Participate in and help develop cultural exchange events including ecotourism, medicinal plant remedy workshop, farm to table Amazonian forest foods meals, and guayusa tea ceremonies.
• Flexible placement, tailored according to your interests and abilities.
• Keywords: traditional medicine internship, herbalism, ethnobotany, clinic, midwifery, hospital placement, flexible serious internship, public health, medicine, emergency medicine, traditional healing, indigenous rights, agroforestry, biodiversity, sustainable development, research, community development, economic development, climate change, women s empowerment.

Internship Benefits

The Galapagos Islands are one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, home to one-of-a-kind species such as Galapagos penguins and giant tortoises. While there are many local and international efforts to protect the Galapagos and its inhabitants (including native peoples), the islands suffer many challenges, such as a lack of food security, a reliance on imports, invasive species consuming local resources, and a lack of seed-saving practices for native species. This internship is an opportunity to collaborate with a farm that has been researching how to achieve autonomous, resilient, chemical-free, regenerative, and profitable agriculture in the Galapagos islands. The farm is also an agro-ecology school and arguably the founder of the first local seed bank (of edible species) in the Galapagos.

• Learn methods of sustainable agricultural production and food systems from experts
• Contribute to the islands food security, soil conservation, and regeneration
• Gain experience in the maintenance, design, and implementation of sustainable agriculture systems and permaculture systems
• Forge meaningful relations with locals while living with a host family
• Participate in an on-going project at the farm, such as:
• Building rain water collectors
• Contributing to the bio-diesel project
• Supporting the main house, garden, and cafe on the property
• Researching new permaculture systems

Daily Life

At the start of your program, you will have an orientation on the island of Santa Cruz where the farm and your host family are also located. During orientation workshops, you will start learning about the culture, people, and geography of the region as well as other tools to support you in your internship abroad.

In addition to your collaboration at the farm, you will be able to participate in the daily lives of your host family members, forming meaningful connections with them and exchanging knowledge. You may even have the chance to participate in local customs and traditions during your stay.

At the farm, interns will be able to learn about the reality of the Galapagos Islands, participate in daily customs and rituals, and experience the culture of the community on the island of Santa Cruz. Interns are expected to work about 4-5 hours per day, 5 days per week, and regularly assist with the daily maintenance of the main house and the gardens. Interns are free to visit the island in the afternoon and go exploring on the weekends.

Some Potential Activities Include

• Maintain the vegetable seedbeds
• Assist with seed germination processes and take care of the seed banks
• Construct apparatuses and design new permaculture systems
• Assist with the maintenance of the garden by weeding, excavating, making compost, pruning, applying natural fertilizers, and more
• Reforest native or endemic plants
• Conduct personal research or study:
• Water use and conservation; new water captation systems
• Improvement of soil texture
• Improvement of soil nutrients (regeneration of soil)
• Human or natural innovations to control pests such as rats and wild cats
• Support the farm s marketing and social media
• Conduct language tutoring exchanges with staff and community members [English, Spanish]

Your main internship can be combined with personal research. We can connect you with our network of experts to create an independent project researching a topic of your interest that relates to agriculture, sustainability, conservation, etc.

Please note: all information above is subject to change. Please check the most up to date information on the Global Nomadic website when applying.