There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer at one of Croatia’s national or nature parks, here’s how!
The Ministry of Environment and Energy, through the integration of the project EU Natura 2000 (NIP), has developed and launched a volunteer program at the eleven nature parks and eight national parks in Croatia. The volunteer program is titled “Development of volunteer programs in the Croatian national parks and nature parks”, reports HRTurizam on March 12, 2017.
A total of 31 volunteer programs have been created, and the activities for volunteers include everything from collecting data on biodiversity to being dry stone wall masons and amateur photographers. All programs are in line with the management plans for the parks and are designed to contribute to protecting the environment.
The volunteer program was first launched in 2016 with public institution NP Krka. This year, the park is offering two volunteer programs which include boat hosting and opinion seekers. A particularly memorable story includes two young Croatian students who volunteered for one month at NP Krka as boat hosts for Skradinski Buk – Visovac – Roski. Through the program they gained incredible work experience in one of Croatia’s protected areas and enriched communication with numerous visitors to the park.
“We are pleased by the fact that among the young people there is great interest in nature, and that awareness of the importance of its preservation is highly developed among them. We believe that this year there will be many volunteers, whether they want to be educated as future experts for the protection of nature or they are just lovers of nature – everyone can join this program. Based on feedback from the volunteers we could improve communication, offer even better facilities, and provide even better protection of nature for NP Krka,” said Krešimir Šakić, Director of NP Krka.
The list of all the programs and job descriptions can be found here.
