Our Local Ecology Unit will commence with volunteer projects in the beginning of 2011, to help protect and restore the nature in and surrounding Tasikoki.
We are currently developing projects in partnership with local organisations, institutions and dive resorts covering the following aspects:
- Forest and Mangrove Restoration (ongoing work of the Masarang Foundation)
- Coral Reef Restoration
- Sea Turtle Conservation (first volunteer team starting in April in collaboration with ENRICH)
All of these involve not only technical restoration work of the natural habitats as well as data collection to scientifically monitor the progress, but to a large extent will focus on specific education programmes to adjust the behaviour of the local populations, whose activities may be unsustainably impacting their local ecology.
Further in the future we aim to establish projects in the following areas as well:
- Seagrass Bed Restoration Projects to protect and preserve habitat for the local dugong population
- Coastal Ecology Projects related to mitigation of the effects of climate change and sea-level rise (in collaboratoin with ITM “Institut Teknologi Minehasa”)
More details will be published here soon.
Volunteers will initially reside in the same dormitory accommodation as our wildlife care volunteers, although later we hope to develop one of the three beach houses into accommodation specifically for the marine/coastal ecology work. The Governor of North Sulawesi has already donated a survey boat, which is moored at Tasikoki beach for survey work.
If you are interested in participating as a volunteer, please contact us via volunteer@tasikoki.org with your dates of availability. Please note, some projects may only run on specific dates depending upon number of participants.
Volunteer fees, to cover the cost of your meals and accommodation on-site as well as a contribution towards running the projects, will be similar to our wildlife care rates. Please see the volunteer FAQ for more details. We offer all applicants advice on how to fund-raise to cover these fees rather than paying out of the volunteer’s own pocket.