10 Places for Wildlife Volunteering Online
Ramp up the laptop and fill the kettle because it’s time to save the planet
While most wildlife volunteering is associated with expensive flights to far-flung corners of nowhere or stomping around in the rain in your home patch, there are plenty of ways to be an online conservation volunteer for free! It can be challenging to indulge in your passions when you are a nature lover stuck indoors, so as well as watching wildlife live streams, I’ve put together this resource of places you can volunteer for wildlife online! So get out of your pyjamas, change into your slightly more sophisticated day time pyjamas, and get stuck in. Whether you want to live the dream as a researcher (without the grant applications, sleepless nights and deadlines that go with it) or utilise your current skills, there are a variety of ways you can volunteer online for wildlife.
1. Zooniverse
This is probably the most well-known platform for online nature volunteering. Zooniverse lists projects from professional researchers that need your help, whether it be to identify manatee calls, help climate scientists understand rainfall patterns, or transcribe a herbarium collection, you’re guaranteed to find a project that interests you! Maybe you’ll even become fluent in manatee.
From the Thames Estuary to Costa Rica and the plains of Africa, scientists have set up cameras all over the world to track the animal species present and live stream their behaviour. ZSL Instant Wild needs volunteers to tag species from these camera images. Don’t worry if you can barely tell a snail from a slug, there are handy interactive field guides to help you narrow down the species.
3. GivingWay
This is probably my favourite resource for volunteering opportunities. This fantastic platform allows local organisations from all over the world to upload specific, usually one-off, volunteer tasks, which you can then complete remotely. For example, right now, a mangrove restoration organisation in the Philippines needs a logo designed, an environmental education charity in Rwanda needs their website updated, and an environmental NGO in Bangladesh needs someone to create a fundraising video.
This foundation works to conserve the Togean islands, which are part of Indonesia. They protect the land and ocean ecosystems of the islands through restoration projects, working with local communities and lobbying the government. They have a variety of online volunteer roles available to support them, including campaigning, communications and translation (maybe that manatee will come in handy).
You can help the Smithsonian museum by transcribing field notes, specimen labels, manuscripts and more into digital records. People who are good at reading crap handwriting (I’m looking at you, teachers… particularly any who have taught me) may be particularly talented at this task.
6. Idealist
This site has some fantastic online wildlife volunteering opportunities listed. For instance, Aeon for Ocean (founded by a 7 year old! I was so invested in Pokemon at that age I’m not even sure that I knew real animals existed) is currently advertising a variety of volunteer roles, including in marketing, illustration and tech. Saving Monkeys is looking for social media assistants, and The Urban Garden Initiative is looking for curriculum developers.
The United Nations have online volunteering roles available for a variety of projects, including environmental projects. At the moment, they are looking for social media and website assistance for the Flight of the Osprey project (which, if you don’t know about, please go and check out right now. It involves a flying woman).
8. Do It
This volunteering website hosts many different environmental charities advertising a wide variety of roles, including in social media, research, website coordination, design and many, many more. It also has a strong focus on local organisations in the UK, so if you’re based in the UK and looking for a role specific to your area, you’re likely to find it here!
This is an Australian website with a host of online volunteer roles advertised. The Orangutan Project is looking for a Digital Advertising & Strategy Warrior (body armour optional but preferred [I assume]), and Mandurah Wildlife Rescue needs help with admin tasks and fundraising.
10. RSPB
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has a variety of at-home volunteering opportunities for local groups. Roles range from membership officers to translators and fundraisers. So if birds are your jam, check them out.