South Africa National Park internship

These long term volunteer positions offer independent, ambitious volunteers the chance to work for one year in and around South Africa’s most famous national parks.

If you are seeking a change of direction or a long term, highly immersed experience in the field of conservation and environmental education these long term internship positions are for you. South African National Parks (SANParks) manages a system of 20 national parks that represent the indigenous flora, landscape and associated cultural heritage of the country. You will be placed with the ‘People and Conservation’ department according to priority projects and where your skills are most needed.

Interns play an integral part in the implementation of new policies and programmes developed by SANParks to integrate local communities into the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage sites within the parks. These national parks offer diverse adventure tourism opportunities such as game viewing, bush walks, canoeing and a chance to experience the history and culture of South Africa. The work carried out by interns is essential for the long term conservation of these areas which are both important to South Africa and the people who live alongside them.

Highlights:

• Opportunity to gain experience in environmental education and conservation within a high profile organization
• Be instrumental in the development of South Africa’s National Parks
• Receive comprehensive training programme at the Kruger National park
• Long term opportunity for cultural immersion
• Possible opportunities to be involved in many other aspects of a National Park such as; guiding on interpretive trails, game drives, community activities, game counts, presentations.
• Live and work in beautiful and remote parts of South Africa.

Upon arrival the volunteer team will be grouped together for a training course, the majority of which will cover aspects of environmental interpretation, education and a background into SANParks. Also included in the training is identification techniques of fauna and flora and a first aid course.

Depending on your allocated park, you will live within beautiful landscapes from wild savannahs to mountains and coastal plateaus. All volunteers will have basic accommodation in the parks, which may be shared with other park staff. The majority of the accommodation has electricity and running water and you will buy and prepare your own food.

Each volunteer will be assigned to the resident Social Ecologist or interpretative officer. The projects the volunteers will be involved in vary in each park, some are more interpretation based, some more culturally orientated. However most of the parks need assistance in the following key areas:

• Environmental education: Development and implementation of relevant environmental education resource material & programmes.
• Interpretive services: Data assimilation, handling of conservation enquiries, circulation of information (talks, exhibits, films, video and slide displays, etc.), organising and presenting of environmental interpretation activities for visitors to park, interpretive displays, brochure planning, external promotion displays, media guiding in parks. In some parks you may have the chance to accompany on interpretative trails and game drives.
  
  
• Community facilitation: This is the responsibility of the social ecology staff member and involves community involvement and the facilitation of community development, i.e. the establishment and maintenance of sound relations with surrounding communities. As a volunteer you will get exposure to this aspect of Social ecology and be on hand to support the social ecologist in this role.