Costa Rica Update

Want to help the conservation of endangered animals?

Volunteer in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is open to *some* travellers and volunteer.

The three pillars in which we built AEI are: safety, ethical practices and authentic conservation activities.
In the last 6 months we have been working hard at making sure none of those pillars crumbles or falls.
This has meant with some countries opening up we have had to make hard decisions. We need to keep local communities and our clients safe- and how do we do that in a pandemic while they desperately need help and donations?
Most of our programs are still closed but we are happy to announce if you are from Canada, some American states or some countries in Europe, you can volunteer in Costa Rica on our sea turtle conservation program!
We will be writing more about this in a newsletter today and of course updating all the details on the website. But if you want to travel to authentically help turtles, we can make sure you do it safely, and of course ethically.

How can you volunteer in Costa Rica?

• Canadian, Australian and European passports are accepted. Sadly, no Americans are allowed just yet- this also includes those who transit through America. 

• You must be able to show a negative Covid 19 test taken within 48 hours of travel

• You must complete an online epidemiological form provided by the Ministry of health.

How can this be safe?

• All volunteers must wear masks while volunteering. Hand sanitizer is provided and social distancing while volunteering is required.

• Social distancing at home and off time is more than possible since you live in your own cabin in a small community with a very low population density. 

• Volunteering activities take place outside and with other participants who have been cleared of risk (through national and regional requirements of testing).

• Our travel insurance partner covers Covid-19 complications. 

If you want to help sea turtles in Costa Rica check out our website or contact us today. We will be more than happy to talk to you about the realities of volunteering in 2020. 

When Can We Travel Again?

The TL;DR is: we don’t know.

The long story is we don’t know because every country and company is going to be a little different. There will be different restrictions at borders, there may be quarantine mandates based on your passport, there will be different commercial flight availability for each country, there will be changes. It will be be different. Will it be different forever? We also don’t know.

To be travel experts and to not know doesn’t feel great but we have been signing up for every single travel talk, industry webinar and community meeting possible. We don’t love getting you to travel, we love travel, too! We want to help you travel safely but we also want to travel safely!

What we do know is that when travel opens up again ( probably at a trickle to start as countries and travel companies figure out their specific plans) we will be there right with you to make sure you are as safe, confident and comfortable as always. We have have always been proud of our clean safety record- more than 800 people have traveled with us safely to more than 20 projects! Remember, we go to all the placements first to make sure they are safe, they are ethical and they care authentically helping animals. We will not blindly be sending clients back into the field to help animals. We will be making sure everyone will be safe every step of their adventure.

We also have been in regular meetings with all our placements. There are already policies written to help keep you safe. Quarantine friendly housing is just the beginning! Don’t worry, like I said, when you are ready to travel, when the world is ready to have you travel, we will be sharing with you the plans we have developed and agreed on.

In the meantime, I am still here! Answering questions, helping ease anxieties and working on travel plans (for myself and others traveling in 2021 and beyond), if you have questions send me a message!

We won’t be sheltering in place forever so allow yourself to dream. Think about where you would like to go, who you would like to volunteer with, what animals you would like to meet when this is all over. Because, it will be over, we aren’t sure when but it will end.

Travel will be safe, it will be fun, it will be an adventure, it will be later.

Nora

How to Virtually Help All Animals... Remotely.

We are all going to be home for a bit longer so do you want to help animals from your backyard, phone or even computer? You are in luck because I wrote an article all about it for Fanimal. Check out all the different ways you can be a citizen scientist and help animals from bumble bees in your backyard to penguins in Antarctica! Read How to Virtually Help All Animals… Remotely. and then share it with your friends and family. Come back and tell us how you helped animals!

Be safe y’all, with your insides and your outsides.

Nora

Helping Animals During the Covid-19 Crisis.

During this time of uncertainty and fear, we want to highlight a few ways that we can help each other and the animals we care about, without putting anyone at risk. Sadly all of our centres around the world have temporarily stopped taking volunteers - so the ways we can help won't involve travel at this time. This is about all of us pooling our collective resources to help the animals we all love so much. 

Many of the conservation and domestic animal centres that we support have volunteer donations as their main source of income. The hands-on work of the volunteers means programs can run, that animals are being cared for, that conservation efforts can go forward. It also frees up the time of staff, scientists and veterinarians so that they can do specialized work such as providing medical support to the animals or working on conservation research. The volunteer fees help buy things like food and medication, fund the rescue and release of wildlife, fund spay and neuter programs and other essential work. In this completely unprecedented time with no volunteers at these centres (both now and for the foreseeable future) our partners are at a loss as to how to operate. Their work continues - there are locals on the ground who are leading these efforts and they have some contingency funds. But if we don't support them in this time of need the consequences will be disastrous. Animals in the care of the centres will NOT suffer, but debts will grow and conservation and welfare groups who go out to tag wildlife, protect sea turtle nests and vaccinate dogs will have to stop. This will harm conservation efforts now and into the future.  

Many of us are looking at the coming months with trepidation. But we want everyone to remember, we are all in this together and we can all help each other during these challenging times. Provide hope by making a donation to a centre where you have volunteered, or one where you are heading to in the future or dream to go one day. Every little bit will help. Any donation will remind our conservation and animal welfare partners around the world that they are not alone. 

Donations are needed for our elephants and wildlife rescue centre in Thailand; our sea turtle conservation group in Costa Rica, for European dolphin conservation, Guatemalan wildlife rescue, Spanish galgo efforts, Spanish horse rescue, Southern African wildlife rehabilitation, and all the other important programs that we and our amazing volunteers support. We are all hurting and we are all a little scared, so let's spread the love today and donate to these centres who even in this crisis are animal and conservation heroes. To donate directly through our website select "Pay Fee" and then select "Donate" letting us know which program you would like to support. Or contact us for more information.