Conservation Volunteers Research Articles

Volunteer commitment and longevity in community-based conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT Committed volunteers are the driving force of successful community-based conservation initiatives. However, many groups struggle with recruitment and retention of volunteers. This research adds to the limited knowledge on what motivates community-based conservation volunteers to become committed to a conservation initiative, by carrying out a case study on community-based conservation volunteers in the Manawatū region of New Zealand. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with key members of community-conservation groups were carried out along with a survey distributed to all local community-based conservation groups. This research showed that the key long-term motivation factors are ‘to care for the environment’, ‘to help the local community’, ‘to be outside, or amongst nature’ and to have ‘a connection to nature’. There was minimal change between long-term and initial motivation factors, with only three motivation factors increasing in importance; ‘to socialise with others’, ‘for stress relief or escape’ and ‘to help the local community', and one decreasing in importance; ‘to learn new skills and knowledge’. In order to enhance commitment of volunteers there is a need to take motivation factors into account within project design and management, allow time for socialisation, and provide ongoing training, education and recognition.

Conservation volunteers’ experiences of connecting with nature during the COVID-19 pandemic: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant negative implications for individual wellbeing and many people accessed green spaces to help them cope with the demands of national lockdown restrictions. In response, the current study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to investigate the experiences of ten UK based nature volunteers whose activities had been disrupted due to the UK COVID-19 lockdowns throughout 2020. Each nature volunteer participated in a semi-structured interview held on a virtual platform which invited them to explore their experiences in nature during the pandemic. Analysis identified three main themes. ‘Sensations of nature’ explored the sense of presence and oneness with nature that the volunteers felt when mindfully engaging with the sensations found in nature. ‘Stability from nature’ investigated the ways in which the volunteers found meaning in nature and the sense of comfort, stability and hope this provided. Finally, ‘Changing relationships with nature’ examined the greater environmental awareness that the volunteers experienced and the ways in which this led to a desire to give back to nature. It is argued that mindful engagement with nature enhances a sense of personal wellbeing and cultivates a connection to nature which encourages environmental concern.

Benefits for visitors provided by protected areas in Bulgaria and willingness to become a conservation volunteer

Protected areas in Bulgaria (PAB) provide valuable ecosystem services. Maintaining of ecosystem health is of great importance for human wellbeing. The environmental volunteering is a valuable tool in solving local ecological problems. The main objective of the present research was to identify ecosystem services offered by PAB and attitude to participation in conservation volunteering using online survey and face-to-face interviews. Most respondents regularly use ecosystem services offered by PAB. Being well-informed about significance of maintaining ecosystem health, a lot of them declared willingness to become conservation volunteers. Online surveys could be used not only for data collection, but as also as a tool to involve people in environmental protection.

Negotiating the volunteer role: a qualitative study of older volunteers’ experiences in woodland conservation

This paper explores the exchange relationship between older conservation volunteers (aged over 50 years) and paid group organisers. Using qualitative interview data from seventeen adult volunteers and four organisers recruited from three conservation groups in the North West of England we argue that the psychological contract is important for understanding how organisations can manage and retain volunteers. Our findings highlight the importance of the psychological contract between volunteers and the group organiser, with each party recognising the mutual benefits they bring to the relationship. Participants’ accounts revealed that they chose to take on the often physically challenging conservation work because the natural environment was important to them, but also because there was no obligation for them to attend. Thus, being a conservation volunteer allowed them to retain control over their voluntary time commitment and avoid the pressures of responsibility associated with having people depending upon them. At the micro-level, organisers appreciated the expectations and abilities of individual volunteers, managing and adjusting their own practices accordingly to encourage volunteer retention. We consider the implications of our research in terms of both volunteer and psychological contract theory and discuss the potential implications for organisations in terms of managing and retaining older volunteers.

Increased Wellbeing following Engagement in a Group Nature-Based Programme: The Green Gym Programme Delivered by the Conservation Volunteers.

The wellbeing benefits of engaging in a nature-based programme, delivered by the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector, were examined in this study. Prior to attending The Conservation Volunteers’ Green Gym™, attendees (n = 892) completed demographics, health characteristics and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Short-Form Scale. Attendees (n = 253, 28.4%) provided a measure on average 4.5 months later. There were significant increases in wellbeing after engaging in Green Gym, with the greatest increases in those who had the lowest starting levels of wellbeing. Wellbeing increases were sustained on average 8.5 months and 13 months later in those providing a follow up measure (n = 92, n = 40, respectively). Attendees who continued to engage in Green Gym but not provide follow up data (n = 318, 35.7%) tended to be more deprived, female and self-report a health condition. Attendees who did not continue to engage in Green Gym (n = 321, 36.0%) tended to be less deprived and younger. These findings provide evidence of the wellbeing benefits of community nature-based activities and social (‘green’) prescribing initiatives and indicate that Green Gym targets some groups most in need.

Attitudes and motivations of New Zealand conservation volunteers

Biodiversity conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand is of high importance, and efforts to protect vulnerable populations from decline has garnered broad public support. Conservation efforts have been further highlighted with the 2016 announcement of Predator Free 2050, a nationwide goal to eliminate key invasive mammalian predators from New Zealand by the year 2050. Hands-on labour is often needed to complete conservation initiatives, and New Zealand conservation volunteers have shown themselves to be an abundant, effective, and oft-used workforce.

Understanding people who volunteer with marine turtles: motives and values for engagement in conservation

ABSTRACT Volunteers play a key role in the conservation of many threatened species, yet volunteer motivations for participating in conservation and strategies used for attracting and retaining volunteers remain little studied. Iconic and charismatic megafauna species, such as marine turtles, attract the attention of conservation volunteers worldwide, making this species an ideal case study to explore volunteer motivations. We developed a novel values-based framework that examines the motivations and values of people volunteering with turtles in Queensland, Australia by harmonizing insights from Values Belief Norm (VBN) theory and intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values. We found that although motivations for these volunteers are multi-faceted, common factors underpinning volunteering decisions included values alignment with the organization, social influence, the ability to learn, and optimism. Awareness of these characteristics can assist organizations with designing more effective voluntary programs and further scholarly understanding of drivers of pro-environmental behaviors among a key group of environmental stakeholders.

Sea turtle conservation: volunteers’ experience of symbolic threat

Most research on environmental conservation organizations addresses volunteers’ motivations. A few studies analyze volunteers’ production of ecological knowledge and their contributions to science. There is scant research into organization members’ experiences as they perform their roles as conservation volunteers. This study examines the processes through which conservation volunteers derive meaning from their experiences using a case study of a volunteer sea turtle conservation group. Data from semi-structured interviews and field observations reveal conflict-ridden interactions between members of the conservation organization and three other groups: tourists, beach vendors, and the local tourist development council. Conservation volunteers perceive symbolic threat, in the form of value violations, from the other three groups. Symbolic threat influences volunteers’ emotions and behavior. An increased understanding of volunteers’ experiences of threat can suggest ways to make their experience more rewarding, thus increasing their likelihood of continued participation, and ensuring the sustainability of the conservation organization.

What motivates communities to participate in forest conservation? A study of REDD+ pilot sites in Cross River, Nigeria

Market-based forest governance mechanisms such as reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) are implemented in many forests rich countries to conserve biodiversity and mitigate against global climate change. The assumption is that communities will be better motivated to participate in forest conservation if monetary payments are provided to compensate for past efforts or future improvements against pre-defined carbon reference levels. In this paper, I utilized Q methodology to identify discourses of forest values and motivations for forest conservation in selected REDD+ pilot communities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Data from interviews and focus group discussions are also used to support the analysis. The aim is to examine communities' motivations for practicing conservation initiatives and the extent to which such motivations are shaping their participation in the REDD+ program. The analysis uncovers five main discourses namely: forest for survival, forest is beautiful, no pay no care, conservation volunteers, and we care but pay us. I discussed these discourses around three themes: livelihoods dependence, financial incentives, and place attachment and social norms. Results indicate that the reasons why communities practice conservation are complex and subjective, and payment of monetary incentives or lack thereof will not necessarily motivate them to participate in the REDD+ program. I suggest that values such as place attachment, nature connectedness and social norms matter in the success of REDD+ particularly in communities that have long history of practicing voluntary conservation initiatives.

Exploring Environmental Volunteers’ Perceptions of Health to Design a Health-Related Impact Measurement Tool

This article aims to explore the use of the user-centered design (UCD) method, mental model approach, of those who engage in environmental volunteering to work toward the development of a health-related impact measurement tool. It reports a case study which explores the use of one UCD method, a mental model approach. This is an understudied area of research that would be considerably valuable for practitioners in the voluntary sector who wish to create their own health-related impact measurement tool. Focus group interviews are used to explore how volunteers perceive the term health, their conceptual understandings, terminology used, and the attributes to measure it. This study is reported from the perspective of U.K. environmental charity, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV). Findings from this article can be used by other voluntary organizations and charities to help shape their own health-related impact measurement tool and the ways in which these tools can be tailored to suit their individual needs.

A Reflection on the Fair Use of Unpaid Work in Conservation

With increasing demand for large-scale data and effective, wide-spread action, conservation volunteers can play an important role in tackling the global biodiversity crisis. Cost-cutting pragmatism aside, the recruitment of volunteers into diverse roles within conservation organisations also responds to growing public concern for the environment and demand for 'meaningful' engagement in people's pastime. Here we argue that this auspicious premise of a win-win transaction fails to acknowledge a range of emerging ethical issues regarding the management of unpaid workers. This lack of critical examination frustrates the development of solutions that are effective for conservation and fair to volunteers. We focus our attention on three archetypal cases—citizen science, voluntourism and unpaid internships—to highlight the complex and value-laden trade-offs that need to be negotiated to ethically manage unpaid work in conservation. We identify opportunities to redress the balance between volunteer needs and conservation goals. Ultimately, we hope to stimulate further, more open debate on the effective and fair use of the available labour force in conservation.

Conservation for digitisation: A collaboration between the Palestinian Museum and the British library

Since 2018, the Palestinian Museum in Ramallah has been digitising items from small institutions and private individuals in Palestine as part of their Digital Archive project. In 2019, a partnership was established with the British Library in London with a view to setting up the first paper conservation studio in the West Bank at the Museum. Library conservators provided training for a conservator and conservation manager from the Museum in paper conservation skills specific to the demands of digitisation projects. Initial training in London was followed up by ongoing distance mentoring as well as a visit by British Library conservators to Ramallah, in which conservation volunteers were also trained. This article details the aims of the collaboration, the challenges of putting together appropriate training programmes to be delivered in very limited time frames and the outcomes of the project thus far.

Exploring the use of user-centred design methods to inform the development of impact measurement practices: lessons learnt in the environmental volunteering sector

This paper reports on the findings of a research project delivered in collaboration with the UK environmental charity, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), which evaluated the applicability and effectiveness of user-centred design (UCD) methods to assist voluntary organisations designing impact measurement tools. The findings indicate that there is scope for these methods to be applied more broadly within the voluntary sector, in particular by organisations wanting to critically examine their existing impact measurement practices, or by those seeking to develop and implement approaches to monitoring and evaluation that are more user-centred.

Conflicts and solutions related to marine turtle conservation initiatives in the Caribbean basin: Identifying new challenges

Conflicts among and between local, national, regional and international stakeholders involved in marine turtle conservation are increasing. Often, they arise because of different socio-economic backgrounds of the people or groups involved. Here, we identified and assessed the conservation-based conflicts occurring in 24 of the 39 Caribbean countries, including their frequency, level of severity, number of stakeholders' groups involved, the degree to which they hinder conservation goals, and potential solutions. Using a cross-sectional social survey, we evaluated the presence and details of conservation conflicts provided by 72 respondents. The respondents included conservation-based project leaders, researchers, people involved in policy-based decision-making, conservation volunteers (community-based conservation groups), and species experts with experience working on marine turtle conservation programs in the Caribbean. The respondents identified 136 conflicts, and we grouped them into 16 different categories. The most commonly mentioned causes of conflicts were: 1) the ‘lack of enforcement by local authorities to support conservation-based legislation or programs’ (18%); 2) ‘legal consumption of turtles by one sector of community clashing the conservation aspirations of other sectors of community (14%); and 3) ’variable enforcement of legislation to limit/prohibit use across range states of the species (10%). From our data it is also apparent that illicit activities in the region are also likely to impact the future success of conservation or monitoring based projects and programs. Overall, an exhaustive review was carried out, and the potential solutions were gathered. Due to the level of severity (physical violence) that some conflicts have reached, achieving solutions will be challenging without mediation, mutual cooperation around shared values, and adaptive management arrangements. Achieving this will require combinations of bottom up and top down collaborative governance approaches.

Unbounded place meanings and embodied place identities for conservation volunteers in Scottsdale, Arizona

Following Williams' (2014) call for a more thoughtful approach to the study of place meaning, the present study employs a phenomenological research paradigm to elicit deeply personal meanings formed through conservation volunteerism. A photovoice protocol (n = 18) and life history interviews (n = 53) explore meaningful places for volunteer “stewards” in Scottsdale, Arizona's McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. Inductive thematic text analysis reveals how these volunteers form identity-expressive meanings that transcend and traverse geographic place scales. Results suggest that the concept of place identity is more than a sub-construct of place attachment, and requires further theorizing as a phenomenologically-embodied experience. Nonprofits and municipalities can learn from the organization's success in fostering an environmental steward identity as a means of community building.

Understanding the impact of volunteering on pro-environmental behavioural change

This article examines whether there is an association between engaging in environmental volunteering activities and pro-environmental behavioural change. Utilising self-reported surveys, the article explores the potential impact that environmental volunteering has on people’s pro-environmental behaviours over time, using The Conservation Volunteers’ two volunteering programmes – Green Gyms® and Action Teams – as a comparative case study. The findings show a positive association between environmental volunteering activities and a person’s self-reported pro-environmental behaviours over time. Further, volunteers presented improved impact across almost all of the eight pro-environmental behaviours measured, with differences observed between the two volunteering programmes as well as sociodemographic groupings.

Manuscript conservation volunteers in Tokushima Prefecture

Manuscript conservation volunteers in Tokushima Prefecture

Exploring Engagement Characteristics and Behaviours of Environmental Volunteers

Environmental volunteering and environmental citizen science projects both have a pivotal role in civic participation. However, one of the common challenges is recruiting and retaining an adequate level of participant engagement to ensure the sustainability of these projects. Thus, understanding patterns of participation is fundamental to both types of projects. This study uses and builds on existing quantitative approaches used to characterise the nature of volunteer engagement in online citizen science projects, to see whether similar participatory patterns exist in offline environmental volunteering projects. The study uses activity records of environmental volunteers from a UK environmental charity “The Conservation Volunteers,” and focuses on three characteristics linked to engagement: longevity, frequency, and distance travelled. Findings show differences in engagement patterns and contributor activity between the three UK regions of Greater London, Greater Manchester, and Yorkshire. Cluster analysis revealed three main types of volunteer engagement profiles which are similar in scale across all regions, namely participants can be grouped into “One-Session,” “Short-Term,” and “Long-Term” volunteer. Of these, the “One-Session” volunteer accounted for the largest group of volunteers.

The role of conservation volunteers in the detection, monitoring and management of invasive alien lionfish

Across the Caribbean, targeted fishing is gaining momentum as a cost-effective method to control invasive alien lionfish (Pterois volitans and Pterois miles) by suppressing population numbers below site-specific threshold levels i.e. a population density that is predicted to cause declines in native fish biomass. Yet in marine reserve no take zones (NTZs) or reefs at depths of >18 m) where commercial fishing is either not permitted or impractical, alternative methods of lionfish control are required. This study evaluates the potential for conservation volunteers to act as citizen scientists monitoring invasive lionfish populations and to support removal efforts in Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve (BCMR), Belize. Two underwater visual census techniques were trialled with conservation volunteers, each with associated benefits and drawbacks. A log of opportunistic lionfish sightings on SCUBA dives has been used to record sightings per unit effort (SPUE) data 2011–2015. In 2014, more rigorous lionfish focused searches (lionfish-adapted belt transects) were introduced. Opportunistic lionfish sightings contributed to a five yearSPUE dataset that suggests that lionfish population growth rate has slowed in BCMR, where a lionfish removal program was also carried out by conservation volunteers over the same timeframe. However, lionfish focused searches showed that the mean density in 2014 was high (mean = 27.05 ± 8.77 fish ha-1, 1–30 m) relative to lionfish populations in their native ranges, particularly at sites at depths > 18m (mean = 43.39 ± 13.76 fish ha-1, 18–30 m). Drawing on lessons from Belize, we discuss the potential for conservation volunteers to support invasive alien species (IAS) monitoring and control efforts in marine environments.

Appealing to Goodwill or YOLO-Promoting Conservation Volunteering to Millennials

Volunteer travel opportunities are more plentiful than ever and are now offered worldwide, with conservation projects being an increasingly popular choice. Some of the emerging questions in this field are concerned with the effective communication of these opportunities to young people. One theory that could guide the creation of these persuasive campaigns for conservation volunteering is regulatory focus theory. By adopting this theory, we reveal yet another possibility for understanding motivations of conservation volunteers. Results of the experiment suggest promotion messages are better received (more persuasive) because they induce expectations in line with general view of conservation volunteering as a hedonic experience. Moreover, this study is the first one of its kind to show this important effect of environmental attitudes on individuals’ responses to promotional messages about conservation volunteering travel.