Environmental volunteering

Environmental volunteers conduct a range of activities including environmental monitoring (e.g. wildlife); ecological restoration such as revegetation and weed removal, and educating others about the natural environment. They also participate in community based projects, improving footpaths, open spaces, and local amenities for the benefit of the local community and visitors. The uptake of environmental volunteering stems in part from the benefits for the volunteers themselves, such as improving social networks and developing a sense of place.[1]

Volunteers at Sure We Can clean McKibbin Street on Earth Day, 2021

Type of Environmental Volunteering

Environmental volunteering can take many forms:

  1. Practical: Perhaps most well known are practical forms of environmental volunteering. Volunteers may be involved in practical habitat management, vegetation cutting, removal of invasive species etc.
  2. Fundraising: Many environmental organisations are charitable in nature and thus rely on donations for financial support. Volunteers may be involved in the raising of funds on the grounds.
  3. Administrative: volunteers with professional skills, such as legal or PR knowledge, may volunteer in a support role using these skills to provide administrative support.

Motivation

Like other types of volunteering, environmental volunteers are motivated by a range of different factors, some of which are altruistic and others are for personal interest and development.[2] The principal motivation behind participating in environmental volunteering in to improve the environment. Surveys have found that those engaged in environmental volunteering care deeply about the environment and wish to improve the environment in which they live within. Recognised motivations are:[3]

  1. making a contribution to community: As illustrated by the 'Big Society' concept promoted by David Cameron.
  2. promoting social interaction,
  3. personal development, Volunteering is also seen as helping employment prospects. Employers frequently cite volunteering as enhancing job applications. A variety of studies have found that the personal health of those engaged in volunteer work improves. In particular volunteering improves personal mental well-being. Environmental volunteering enhances community cohesion and improves society. This was notably recognised in the UK and the promotion of the 'Big Society' concept of the David Cameron government.[4]
  4. learning about the natural environment: volunteering is seen as a method to promote knowledge about the environment.
  5. a general ethic of care for the environment.
  6. Health: Environmental volunteering has also been associated with helping those with mental health conditions, as physical activity and fresh air benefits some sufferers. Volunteering has many physical and mental health benefits,[5] and it can help tackle loneliness. For example a survey of over 2000 volunteers found that over 90% had had a positive experience due to volunteering

The advantages to the environmental sector from volunteering are obviously financial. Much of the work required can not be funded and would not be performed if needed to be paid. Another important benefit that the environmental sector gains from volunteering is that it enhances community engagement in conservation; those having participated in volunteering remain commuted conservationists.

Tactics

Citizen Science
This section is an excerpt from Citizen science.[edit]

Citizen science (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the general public (who are sometimes referred to as amateur/nonprofessional scientists).[6][7] There are variations in the exact definition of citizen science, with different individuals and organizations having their own specific interpretations of what citizen science encompasses.[6] Citizen science is used in a wide range of areas of study, with most citizen science research publications being in the fields of biology and conservation.[6][8] There are different applications and functions of citizen science in research projects.[6][8] Citizen science can be used as a methodology where public volunteers help in collecting and classifying data, improving the scientific community's capacity.[8][9] Citizen science can also involve more direct involvement from the public, with communities initiating projects researching environment and health hazards in their own communities.[8] Participation in citizen science projects also educates the public about the scientific process and increases awareness about different topics.[8][10][9] Some schools have students participate in citizen science projects for this purpose as a part of the teaching curriculums.[10][9][11]

This is a picture of an open laptop on a desk. The student using the laptop is not pictured but you can see one hand on the keyboard and one hand on the mouse pad as if they are in the middle of using the computer. The website on the laptop says EyeWire in rainbow colors at the upper left of the screen and there is a menu option bar across the top of the webpage. The webpage has a black background with a large picture of what appears to be a neuron structure (which looks like branches of purple squiggly lines coming from a small, spherical component). To the right of the screen is where you enter login information and the top left it says, "What is EyeWire? Play a game to map the brain."
High school student contributes to citizen science project EyeWire from a laptop as a part of a neuroscience course. (Spokes America Documentary B-roll) (license: CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)
The first use of the term "citizen science" can be found in a January 1989 issue of MIT Technology Review, which featured three community-based labs studying environmental issues.[6][12] In the 21st century, the number of citizen science projects, publications, and funding opportunities has increased.[6][8] Citizen science has been used more over time, a trend helped by technological advancements.[6][8][13] Digital citizen science platforms, such as Zooniverse, store large amounts of data for many projects and are a place where volunteers can learn how to contribute to projects.[14][6] For some projects, participants are instructed to collect and enter data, such as what species they observed, into large digital global databases.[8][15] For other projects, participants help classify data on digital platforms.[8] Citizen science data is also being used to develop machine learning algorithms.[13][6] An example is using volunteer-classified images to train machine learning algorithms to identify species.[13][6] While global participation and global databases are found on online platforms,[15][6] not all locations always have the same amount of data from contributors.[13][16] Concerns over potential data quality issues, such as measurement errors and biases, in citizen science projects are recognized in the scientific community and there are statistical solutions and best practices available which can help.[15][17]

Internships

Internships are typically longer term voluntary placements, aimed at graduates wishing to gain the experience required to work in the environmental sector. Internships last typically for six months but can last as long as a year. Interns often work on a specific project, working in a full time manner. Internships are often formalised with contracts and specific job roles.

Internships are seen as method for graduates to gain the required work experience to work in the environmental sector. However, there has been increasing concern about unpaid internships generally. The Taylor Report into working practises advocated the banning of unpaid internships as they were seen as a barrier to those entering professions from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Specific concerns relating to Internships in the Environmental sector are more based reducing the number of level entry posts, exploitation for menial tasks.[18] The concept of 'voluntary credentialism' with extended periods of volunteer work being seen as required for paid roles, whether of relevance to the post or not, is being seen.

Clean-ups
This section is an excerpt from Clean-up (environment).[edit]
Volunteers at recycling center Sure We Can clean-up McKibbin Street on Earth Day, 2021

A cleanup or clean-up is a form of environmental volunteering where a group of people get together to pick-up and dispose of litter in a designated location.[19][20][21][22] Cleanups can take place on a street, in a neighborhood, at a park, on a water stream, or other public spaces.[23] Cleanup events are often volunteer run.[19] The cleanup volunteers make sure the waste picked-up is disposed of in its appropriate place.[23] Cleanup events are often community-centered and led.[24]

During the COVID-19 pandemic litter picking participation has greatly increased in the UK. [25] There are a vast range of reasons that people take part in litter picking activities. These include: clearing up unsightly areas; protecting wildlife; keeping people safe, connecting with nature, finding valuables, being part of a community, mental & physical health benefits and acting to protect the environment. [26]

See also

References
  1. Gooch M. (2005) ‘Voices of the volunteers: an exploration of the experiences of catchment volunteers in coastal Queensland, Australia’, Local Environment 10(1), pp. 5-19.
  2. Bruyere, B. and Rappe, S. (2007) Identifying the motivations of environmental volunteers. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 1, 50(4): 503-16.
  3. Measham T.G. and Barnett, G.B. (2008) Environmental volunteering: motivations, modes and outcomes, Australian Geographer 39(4) pp. 537-552
  4. "Building the Big Society". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  5. Das-Gupta, Indira. "'Positive effect' of volunteering". www.thirdsector.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  6. Katrin Vohland, ed. (2021). The Science of Citizen Science. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-58278-4. OCLC 1230459796.
  7. Gura, Trisha (April 2013). "Citizen science: Amateur experts". Nature. 496 (7444): 259–261. doi:10.1038/nj7444-259a. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23586092. S2CID 20840626.
  8. Kullenberg, Christopher; Kasperowski, Dick (2016-01-14). Dorta-González, Pablo (ed.). "What Is Citizen Science? – A Scientometric Meta-Analysis". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0147152. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1147152K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147152. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4713078. PMID 26766577.
  9. Steven, Rochelle; Barnes, Megan; Garnett, Stephen T.; Garrard, Georgia; O'Connor, James; Oliver, Jessica L.; Robinson, Cathy; Tulloch, Ayesha; Fuller, Richard A. (October 2019). "Aligning citizen science with best practice: Threatened species conservation in Australia". Conservation Science and Practice. 1 (10). doi:10.1111/csp2.100. ISSN 2578-4854. S2CID 202327827.
  10. Doyle, Cathal; David, Rodreck; Li, Yevgeniya; Luczak-Roesch, Markus; Anderson, Dayle; Pierson, Cameron M. (2019-06-26). "Using the Web for Science in the Classroom". Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science. WebSci '19. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 71–80. doi:10.1145/3292522.3326022. ISBN 978-1-4503-6202-3. S2CID 195777103.
  11. Soanes, Kylie; Cranney, Kate; Dade, Marie C.; Edwards, Amy M.; Palavalli-Nettimi, Ravindra; Doherty, Tim S. (February 2020). "How to work with children and animals: A guide for school-based citizen science in wildlife research: School-based citizen science for wildlife research". Austral Ecology. 45 (1): 3–14. doi:10.1111/aec.12836. hdl:11343/286605. S2CID 209579318.
  12. R. Kerson (1989). "Lab for the Environment". MIT Technology Review. Vol. 92, no. 1. pp. 11–12.
  13. Lotfian, Maryam; Ingensand, Jens; Brovelli, Maria Antonia (2021-07-20). "The Partnership of Citizen Science and Machine Learning: Benefits, Risks, and Future Challenges for Engagement, Data Collection, and Data Quality". Sustainability. 13 (14): 8087. doi:10.3390/su13148087. ISSN 2071-1050.
  14. Simpson, Robert; Page, Kevin R.; De Roure, David (2014-04-07). "Zooniverse". Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web. WWW '14 Companion. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 1049–1054. doi:10.1145/2567948.2579215. ISBN 978-1-4503-2745-9. S2CID 7165317.
  15. La Sorte, Frank A.; Somveille, Marius (January 2020). "Survey completeness of a global citizen‐science database of bird occurrence". Ecography. 43 (1): 34–43. doi:10.1111/ecog.04632. ISSN 0906-7590. S2CID 208584815.
  16. Bird, Tomas J.; Bates, Amanda E.; Lefcheck, Jonathan S.; Hill, Nicole A.; Thomson, Russell J.; Edgar, Graham J.; Stuart-Smith, Rick D.; Wotherspoon, Simon; Krkosek, Martin; Stuart-Smith, Jemina F.; Pecl, Gretta T.; Barrett, Neville; Frusher, Stewart (2014-05-01). "Statistical solutions for error and bias in global citizen science datasets". Biological Conservation. 173: 144–154. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2013.07.037. hdl:11343/217145. ISSN 0006-3207. S2CID 86728145.
  17. Resnik, David B.; Elliott, Kevin C.; Miller, Aubrey K. (2015-12-01). "A framework for addressing ethical issues in citizen science". Environmental Science & Policy. 54: 475–481. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2015.05.008. ISSN 1462-9011. S2CID 152813310.
  18. Walker, Mark D. (2018-01-01). "'Own Transport Preferred': Potential problems with long-term volunteering and internships". Ecos.
  19. Hudson, Edward (1972-04-30). "Volunteers Pluck Litter From Park". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  20. Miller, Anne (2011-12-14). "Volunteers Lend Hand on Gowanus Cleanup". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  21. Garcia, Sandra E. (2019-01-08). "'It Belongs to All of Us': Volunteers Help Clean Up National Parks in Shutdown". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  22. Bruyere, B. and Rappe, S. (2007) Identifying the motivations of environmental volunteers. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 1, 50(4): 503-16.
  23. Gianluca Mezzofiore (2019-11-15). "How hundreds of young adults mobilized to clean up Venice amid devastating flooding". CNN. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  24. Leah Asmelash. "Volunteers remove more than 9,000 lbs of trash from Tennessee River". CNN. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  25. "Positive News (W3C)".
  26. "Why Do People Litter Pick (W3C)".
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