In 2006-2007, I embarked on a long-haul journey lasting 11 months. I was looking for an original way to travel, off the beaten track and in line with my convictions, particularly regarding environmental protection. I discovered ecovolunteering when purposeful travel was still in its early days. In France, only two organisations offered the opportunity to travel while making a commitment to the plane
During this round-the-world trip for the environment, I joined five different projects: conservation of Hermann’s tortoises in the village of Gonfaron, protection of griffon vultures on the island of Cres in Croatia, volunteering at a wildlife rescue centre in Florida, protection of mangroves and iguanas in Honduras, and conservation work in Australia and Tasmania. These missions gave rise to an educational project with three primary school classes, with whom I exchanged regularly.
The creation of eco-volontaire.com
Back in France, and enriched by a year full of experience, I decided to create a website about ecovolunteering: eco-volontaire.com. It was a way of sharing my experience and giving other travellers the opportunity to live what I had lived. I must say that the success of the site exceeded my expectations! I first became the go-to blogger in ecovolunteering. I then wrote the Guide to Ecovolunteering, participated in the ecovolunteering charter, built many links with associations, and gave talks in schools and universities.
The selected missions platform
Thanks to the relationship of trust I built with the various players in the ecovolunteering sector, I created a platform with a selection of missions whose fieldwork is serious and reliable. The idea behind this platform is to make it easier to find trustworthy solidarity and participatory travel opportunities and to save time. It allows you to get in touch quickly and simply with organisations that enable you to commit to the preservation of biodiversity.
Biography and Expertise
I have a singular professional trajectory in service of a One Health vision: one single health for humans, ecosystems and, I would add, organisations. Trained as a geographer with a specialisation in natural disasters, a journalist for fifteen years, then an occupational health nurse, I have been committed for over twenty years to ecovolunteering and raising awareness about the challenges of living systems. Today, I have chosen to put this transdisciplinary trajectory at the service of impact entrepreneurship, by creating projects to build the world of tomorrow: Eco-volontaire and Atelier WRW.
My professional life in brief
- Holder of a Master’s degree in Geography. I wrote a dissertation on the impact of human activity on a valley floor over a period spanning three centuries, using flood risk as an analytical framework. Biodiversity erosion was rarely discussed at the time, but scientists were raising real questions about the relationship between human beings and their natural environment.
- Trained in journalism at the Centre de Formation et de Perfectionnement des Journalistes. Journalism is a profession that took me travelling extensively across the regions of France, as well as to Polynesia and Honduras. It taught me to approach social issues through fieldwork, by listening to the various players in local life as well as project leaders.
- State-certified nurse specialising in occupational health and travel medicine (University Diploma in Travel Medicine and Traveller’s Health). By working as a nurse in large companies, I came to understand that human beings need meaning and freedom in their work — that they wish, above all else, to have the opportunity to act for a better world.
- Founder of Biodiversity Care. Biodiversity Care runs the eco-volontaire.com platform and the Atelier WRW workshop.
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?