The 22 participants in the Volunteer Programme contributed to ecosystems restoration, deepened on the natural heritage of the landscape and became ambassadors of the Iberian Highlands. And more than 80 applications have been received to join the programme in 2025 season, to start next February.
Rewilding Spain launched last spring a volunteer programme to enable people from all over Spain and elsewhere in the world to come to the Iberian Highlands and discover rewilding on the ground.
The first season of the new programme was sucessfully developed from June to November, with the participation of 22 volunteers coming from ten countries: Spain, Lithuania, Switzerland, Namibia, Belgium, Portugal, Chile, United Kingdom, Germany, United States and France. Most of the volunteers were young people aged between 20 and 29 who wanted to learn and get involved in ecosystem restoration, biodiversity enhancement and the generation of synergies between nature restoration and rural development. Several of them were university students who took advantage of this opportunity to complete their undergraduate or master’s degree internships, or to include the work done in the preparation of their doctoral thesis, with the tutoring of Rewilding Spain’s technical team.
Rewilding Spain’s volunteer programme in the Iberian Highlands comprises stays from one to three months, during which participants are involved in relevant Rewilding Spain’s day-to-day work, such as monitoring and tracking reintroduced large herbivores, GPS tagging, removing obsolete barbed wire, placing electric shepherds, waste removal, infrastructures maintenance, camera trapping, and collecting and analysing data on wildlife populations, among others.
The volunteers are supported by Rewilding Spain in accommodation, commuting, insurance and all the practical tips and information they may need. During their stay, they have been accommodated in private houses in the Alto Tajo and in the rural hostel Finca de Solanillos, in Mazarete (Guadalajara), managed by Apadrina un Árbol Foundation.
Iberian Highlands’ ambassadors
From a practical point of view, the volunteers’ involvement allows for faster progress in various tasks, but the importance of their commitment goes beyond that. Their stay in the landscape allowed these young people to get to know rewilding in greater depth, to understand how this approach to nature can contribute to mitigating the current major environmental problems, and to consider an active professional future in this field. Furthermore, this volunteering also provide the participants with the opportunity to learn more about the great natural and cultural heritage of the Alto Tajo, the Serranía de Cuenca and the Sierra de Albarracín regions.
Volunteers and trainees not only add value to Rewilding Spain, their presence also helps to boost local economy, as they stay in our villages, go shopping locally and visit places of interest in their leisure time. In some cases, family or friends also paid a visit, so the young volunteers actually became ambassadors of the landscape and their stay contributed to extend the knowledge about the Iberian Highlands and nature lovers sustainable tourism.
Next February, the first volunteers will arrive for the 2025 programme, which will run until November and for which more than 80 applications have already been received.
Want to know more?
- Youngsters coming from four countries start out the Volunteer Programme in the Iberian Highlands
- Further info about the Volunteer Programme and how to apply
