Tag Archives: North Carolina

environmental volunteers, park rangers, Robert Barossi

Volunteers Working with Rangers

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Through the Trees

by Robert Barossi

I found out this morning that today is World Ranger Day. Along with environmental volunteers, Park Rangers are on the front lines of conservation efforts around the world. Rangers do a wide variety of jobs, including many tasks which are directly related to environmental protection and preservation. They are often, if not always, the ones who train and lead the volunteers who work alongside them.

There are numerous examples of volunteers and rangers working together. Here are just a few of them that popped up this morning: In Wyoming, both volunteers and rangers work to keep people using the parks safe. In Tennessee, volunteers are working alongside rangers to remove invasive species. The same kind of work is happening in Great Britain. A volunteer in this story from North Carolina notes that the volunteers support and assist the rangers by doing “necessary work that the park rangers don’t have time to accomplish.” And on the Delaware River, rangers and volunteers worked side-by-side to clean up the river during a large annual cleanup event.

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environmental volunteers, Robert Barossi, voluntourism, voluntourists

Volunteer Tourists

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Underwater Leaves(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Lately, while searching out stories of environmental volunteers, I’ve noticed the term voluntourism pop up again and again. I realize that this idea has been around a long time. For many years, people have traveled to an area as a tourist and spent their time there working as a volunteer, often for an environmental cause. It seems that lately, the idea is picking up steam and gaining popularity. Here’s one story out of North Carolina, where voluntourists are helping sea turtles.

While these traveling environmental volunteers may be helping out and making a real difference, many are skeptical. This article from NPR discusses the trend and asks “Who is it helping most?” And this article from ABC News in Australia asks more questions about the potential benefits, what they are and who gets them, of voluntourism. And finally, this post on Huffington Post says right in the title, “helping abroad isn’t always helping.”

Interestingly, it’s easier to find stories debating and vilifying voluntourism than find stories about volunteer tourists really helping the environment. I can’t help but think, though, that these traveling environmental volunteers are doing some real good in some places. The question is whether or not that good is outweighed by a number of negative impacts caused by their travel to and presence in a foreign place.