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My journey into eco-volunteering
In 2006–2007, I spent 11 months travelling around the world, looking for a different way to discover new places — one that was more meaningful and aligned with my commitment to protecting the environment. At the time, eco-volunteering was still relatively unknown in France. I decided to experience it for myself and joined five conservation projects during my journey: protecting Hermann’s tortoises in France, monitoring griffon vultures in Croatia, volunteering at a wildlife rescue centre in Florida, helping protect mangroves and iguanas in Honduras, and taking part in conservation projects in Australia and Tasmania.
I also turned the journey into an educational project, sharing my experiences with three primary school classes throughout the year.
From traveller to founder
When I returned to France, I created Eco-volontaire.com in 2009 to share what I had discovered and help other travellers find meaningful environmental volunteering opportunities. Over the years, the project grew into a trusted resource for eco-volunteering in France. I wrote a guide to eco-volunteering, contributed to the development of an eco-volunteering charter, built long-term relationships with conservation organisations and spoke about the subject in schools and universities.
Today, I draw on more than 20 years of experience in eco-volunteering and conservation travel.
Carefully selected projects
Eco-volontaire is now a platform connecting travellers with carefully selected environmental and conservation projects around the world. I work with NGOs, non-profit organisations and trusted partners involved in genuine biodiversity conservation, wildlife protection, scientific research and responsible tourism.
The aim is simple: to make it easier for you to find meaningful projects, save time and connect directly with the organisations behind them.
You can explore the projects, ask questions directly to the organisation and decide whether the experience is right for you.
Biography and Expertise
My career has taken me through geography, journalism, healthcare and, for the past 20 years, eco-volunteering and environmental education. This diverse experience has shaped the way I approach the relationship between people, nature and the organisations we live and work in.
Today, I bring these different perspectives together through the projects I have created to help build a more resilient and sustainable future: Eco-volontaire and Atelier WRW.
My professional life in brief
- Master’s degree in Geography, specialising in natural hazards. My dissertation explored the impact of human activity on a valley floor over three centuries, using flood risk as a way of understanding how people interact with their natural environment. At the time, biodiversity loss was rarely discussed, but scientists were already questioning the relationship between human activity and the environment.
- Trained journalist, with 15 years of professional experience. Journalism took me across France and to places including Polynesia and Honduras. It taught me the importance of fieldwork: meeting people, listening to different perspectives and understanding projects from the ground up.
- Qualified occupational health nurse, with additional training in travel medicine and traveller’s health. Working in large companies gave me another perspective on people’s relationship with work — and on the importance of meaning, purpose and the freedom to contribute to something they believe in.
- Founder of Biodiversity Care, which brings together two projects: Eco-volontaire, a platform connecting travellers with carefully selected environmental and conservation projects, and BIODIVERSITY CARE, a workshop exploring how organisations can prepare for and adapt to major changes ahead.
Is ecovolunteering the travel of the future?
Like many of you, no doubt, the sixth mass extinction and climate change deeply trouble me. The more crises follow one another, the stronger the certainty grows that we must collectively create a more ecological and solidarity-based world. How can we travel while reducing our carbon footprint? How can we avoid the degradation of natural environments linked to mass tourism? How can we protect biodiversity while still enjoying the pleasure of observing wild animals? How can we volunteer with an environmental conservation organisation without displacing local jobs?