Cloudforest Conservation and Teaching

Product Details

The Maquipucuna foundation manages 6000 hectares of primary cloud forest which is a part of the Amazon rainforest It is home to a great variety of species including 2000 plants, 325 birds (this represents 35% of all known birds in North and South America), 45 mammals (including the armadillo, anteater and spectacled bear), 250 species of butterfly and countless species of invertebrates. Volunteers working on one of the Maquipucuna projects must be eager to learn about a new culture and environment and lend a hand to protecting an endangered Andean habitat containing two of the worlds top five ‘biodiversity hotspots’. There are three different project locations and one research station on the reserve: Maquipucuna, Yunguilla, Santa Marienita and Orongo. The communities are close to each other and volunteers normally divide their time equally between the different locations. This is probably the most varied of the Outreach projects. It allows volunteers to participate in conservation work, teaching, organic farming, building and eco-tourism.

Maquipicuna
Maquipucuna is the name of the whole reserve and also the name of the reserve headquarters. There is a carefully designed ‘eco-lodge’ in the heart of the cloud forest which can accommodate up to 30 tourists. Through eco-tourism initiatives, income is provided for its maintenance and to conserve the surrounding primary rainforest. Volunteers are needed to help maintain the impressive array of trails, develop ‘educational’ activities for tourists, help with reforestation of selected areas, and under the supervision of centre staff assist villagers with organic, sustainable farming. Volunteers would be asked to spend approximately eight hours a week teaching in the local primary school, also growing vegetables and fruit for the eco-lodge. Help is also needed with the maintenance and construction of buildings, bridges and paths through the forest. In addition, individuals are encouraged to develop their own project and carry out research. This might be related to the Inca ruins that have recently been found nearby or into a more biological subject.

Volunteers would live in a wonderfully designed timber lodge, situated in a remote spot surrounded by massive rainforest trees. This is set apart from the eco-lodge built for the tourist group. Parrots and toucans are regular visitors and the endangered spectacled bear inhabits the surrounding forest. Meals are eaten in the eco-lodge.

Yunguilla. Conservation, Teaching, Art & Craft
Yunguilla situated at 2800 metres is a village with 300 inhabitants in the cloud forest. Like Maquipucuna there is a wonderfully designed eco-lodge where volunteers and tourists can stay. This is managed by Germane Collaguazo and the villagers. The setting is impressive on the side of a steep hill overlooking dramatic forested valleys. Amazingly it is only 30 miles from Quito! Volunteers are needed to help a woman’s group with a variety of initiatives including organic gardening, jam making, paper recycling. The paper is used for making cards & ‘designer’ envelopes. Volunteers with skills in art and design are needed to show local women new designs and methods of making interesting cards. These are sold in village markets and taken to Quito. Help is also needed gathering seeds from the forest for the tree nursery. In conjunction with this there is a reforestation programme that needs volunteer help. The village school has 50 children aged 6 - 12 years. Help is needed here teaching English, basic computer skills, games and extra curricular activities (particularly environmental education).

The Yunguilla project is multi faceted and requires volunteers with plenty of energy prepared to lend a hand in a range of activities around the village. It would provide a great opportunity to become a central figure in a traditional forest community. A working knowledge of Spanish would be useful and volunteers would be obliged to spend two weeks in Quito participating in the intensive language course organised by Outreach International.

Accommodation would be in the eco-lodge or staying with a local family. The family would wish to involve the volunteer in the daily running of their farm (imagine an early Victorian farm and you have an idea of the way farming works in this part of Ecuador).

Santa Marienita Research Centre, Conservation Art and Teaching
The research centre is set in a spacious building on a hill overlooking the forest community of Santa Marienita. The architect has combined traditional wooden materials with glass to produce a ‘state of the art’ cloudforest dwelling. Volunteers would live in this building.

Volunteers with a variety of interests are needed to help the village community. These include teaching English in the small school and opening up the community through eco-tourism initiatives. A day a week would be spent on the reforestation programme, gathering forest seeds, planting young trees and working at the tree nursery. Artists would be encouraged to help the woman’s group design craft artefacts and jewellery using traditional materials such as tagua seeds, bamboo and ratan for weaving. Researchers from all over the world journey to the centre to study the forest eco-systems. Volunteers with an interest in biology would be encouraged to assist these highly qualified scientists with their work.

This would be the ideal project for volunteers wishing to immerse themselves in a traditional Ecuadorian, forest community and by implication learn Spanish. Although isolated, Santa Marienita is only 35 miles from Quito. There are internet facilities at the centre and a vehicle journeys to Quito most days.

Orongo Ecological Farm
This covers an area of 220 hectares, situated at 1400 metres in the foothills of the Andes. Half of this is cattle pasture and on the remainder coffee, citrus fruits, bananas, sugar cane and tropical hardwood trees are grown as crops. The soil is fertile but due to steep mountain slopes and high rainfall erosion can be a problem if the land is not carefully managed. Organic, permaculture practises are strictly abided by. Fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are all made from local plants.

Volunteers are needed to assist with the research into farming techniques, help with the impressive plant & tree nursery and assist with a reforestation programme. It is also hoped that volunteers will be able to teach English, extra-curricular activities and environmental education in the local primary school.

Volunteers would live with Marco de la Torre and his wife Yolanda Vargas in their hacienda overlooking the village of Orongo. There are rooms for up to eight volunteers, a hot shower and communal area. Meals would be eaten with Marco & Yolanda. Neither of them speak English so volunteers would need to learn Spanish. You would normally spend a week a month at Orongo and the other three weeks divided between Santa Marienita, Yunguilla and Mauipucuna all of which are just a few miles apart.

You would be given eight days off each month. This time could be taken at weekends or as a single block of time. Maquipucuna is remote but its proximity to Quito means that it is easy to travel to the city for a short break or to check emails. You would have plenty of opportunity to meet other volunteers and would be invited to participate in the weekend trips organised by Outreach International.

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Our users say... In Orongo you live with the family who run the farm which does wonders for the Spanish and gives you a true insight into an Ecuadorian family - Kerri McGuiness.