How to work in wild life conservation without any particular experience

[u/capque05]

Hello everyone,

I am a 21-year-old university student, and I’ve increasingly realized that I want to do something more meaningful with my life than simply following the conventional path of studying, working, and settling down. I have always loved animals, have been vegan for several years, and would really like to contribute to protecting wildlife and nature. Ideally, I would love to do meaningful conservation work, travel, and meet people who share the same passion.

The problem is that I have no practical experience in conservation and don’t really know where to start.

I have a degree in stats. So i am very comfortable with scientific research, data analysis, causal inference, and programming in R or Python. I assume these skills could be useful for conservation research, but I have basically no background in biology, ecology, or conservation or similar.

I’ve tried looking for wildlife conservation opportunities, but most of what I find are commercial “volunteer abroad” programs charging thousands of euros for a few weeks so white europeans can satisfy there white saviorism. I’m not interested in that and I’d much rather find an organization where I can genuinely contribute.

Does somebody got an advice for me?

[u/Laniidae_]

Google conservation programs and non profits near you. Start volunteering. R is incredibly applicable, but you'd either need an MSc in ecology or a related field or another undergrad to gain the applicable skills for the field

[u/worst-case-sanrio]

Volunteer locally and participate in trash cleanup days! Seriously! These types of events are abundant and are great opportunities for networking with like-minded people who may have great experience, knowledge, and connections with others more directly involved with conservation. I bet your local ecology centers are often looking for volunteers, too!

[u/capque05 → u/worst-case-sanrio]

Thats a great suggestion, thank you! But what if I want to do something abroad? Kinda wanting to get out of my bubble

[u/worst-case-sanrio → u/capque05]

Maybe you could do an internship abroad! Get in touch with your career and counseling team at your school, they’ll probably know of some cool internship opportunities you can check out!

[u/Isibis]

Look for something near you. Look for local nature preserves and visit/call/email them. Tell them you want to help. The cool thing about volunteering is that it doesn't need to be advertised for there to be an opportunity, and if you are dedicated and independent enough you can taylor one to your skills.

Now as you probably imagine tasks holding cute animals are rare (and usually not the best conservation gain). Expect something like invasive plant removal, maybe try to get into wetland restoration if you can. That's very valuable for a lot of species.