Biodiversity: what if your vacation helped fund it?

Every year, millions of travelers spend their vacation budget without knowing where their money goes. Meanwhile, biodiversity is the great forgotten cause when it comes to major investment. Choosing eco-volunteering means redirecting that money toward biodiversity restoration: your time, your effort and your money go directly to projects that study and protect the living world.

Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and we all depend on it. Faced with this reality, many people feel powerless. Yet the way we travel is a concrete lever that everyone can pull.

The sixth mass extinction is underway

Scientists are referring to the ‘sixth mass extinction’: a collapse of life comparable to the major crises the Earth has experienced, but happening much more rapidly.
The figures speak for themselves:

• 73 per cent: this is the average decline in the populations of wild animals monitored between 1970 and 2020, according to the WWF’s Living Planet Report 2024. Freshwater species have been hardest hit, with a decline of 85 per cent.
• One million animal and plant species, out of a total of around eight million, are threatened with extinction, many of them within the coming decades, according to IPBES, the ‘IPCC of biodiversity’.
• 75 per cent of terrestrial environments and 66 per cent of marine environments have been profoundly altered by human activity.

The causes are well known: habitat destruction, over-exploitation of species, climate change, pollution and invasive species. In other words, the crisis is man-made. The solution, therefore, can be too.

Our health, our economy, our resources: everything depends on life itself

Biodiversity is not just a ‘bonus’ reserved for nature lovers. Every day, it provides us with free and irreplaceable benefits, which scientists refer to as ecosystem services.

• Food. Three-quarters of the world’s food crops depend, at least in part, on pollination. Agricultural production directly linked to pollinators is worth between 235 and 577 billion dollars a year, according to IPBES.
• Breathing and drinking. Forests, oceans and wetlands produce oxygen, filter water and store carbon.
• Protecting ourselves. Mangroves, coral reefs and dunes help to mitigate the impact of storms and flooding. Their disappearance leaves hundreds of millions of people living on the coast vulnerable.
• Treating ourselves. A large proportion of our medicines are derived from molecules discovered in plants, fungi or animals. Healthy ecosystems also help to limit the transmission of diseases from animals to humans.

The economy is no exception. According to the World Economic Forum, 44,000 billion dollars – more than half of global GDP – is moderately or heavily dependent on nature. Tourism is, in fact, one of the sectors most at risk. Without unspoilt beaches, forests and wildlife, there would be no travel.

Your holidays: a financial outlay to be redirected

Biodiversity is the great neglected area of investment. According to the UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature 2026 report, in 2023, $7,300 billion was spent on activities that degrade nature, compared with just $220 billion on solutions that protect and restore it. For every dollar invested in nature, more than 30 dollars are spent on destroying it. The United Nations’ message is clear: financial flows must be redirected. And this does not only concern governments and banks.

A traditional holiday involves a lot of money changing hands: flights, hotels, restaurants, activities. Only a small proportion of this goes towards regenerative projects. Unfortunately, this type of tourism often even contributes to the degradation of biodiversity (coastal urbanisation, pressure on water resources, waste).

Eco-volunteering changes where this money goes. When you take part in a mission, your contribution funds a regenerative project:

• food and care for the animals at a rescue centre;
• patrols monitoring sea turtle nesting beaches;
• tree seedlings from a reforestation programme;
• scientific equipment for monitoring species;
• the wages of local staff, who are often local residents.

For many organisations working on the ground, the contribution of volunteers is an essential resource. It is what enables them to carry on their work all year round. It also sends a strong economic signal to local communities: a thriving forest, a protected beach or a healthy primate population become a source of income. Protecting nature is becoming more profitable than destroying it.

On the ground, extra hands to restore the natural world

As well as money, eco-volunteers contribute their time and energy. Conservation projects often lack the manpower needed for simple but essential tasks:

• replanting trees and looking after young saplings;
• to feed and care for rescued animals before they are released back into the wild;
• collect data on flora and fauna for scientists;
• cleaning up beaches and mangroves;
• to raise awareness amongst schools and local residents.

You don’t need to be a biologist: most placements are open to everyone, with on-site training provided. And the impact continues long after you return. Many volunteers change their outlook on nature and their consumption habits, and become ambassadors for the projects they’ve supported. What’s more, when you set off on this adventure, you come back a changed person: you’ve spent time with committed people, you’ve learnt a lot and, above all, you return filled with wonder!