Jet Destination, Hong Kong, January 2017

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Beats the view from any desk; photo by Biosphere Expeditions 无可匹敌的景观，照片由生物探索协会提供

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开启义工假期

CHOOSING THE ULTIMATE

WORKING HOLIDAY

Voluntourism is an appealingly altruistic way to travel but you need to think carefully about your motives and those of the host organization before selecting a project. 义工旅行是理想的利他主义旅游模式，但参加之前，一定要仔细想想您 的动机，以及主办机构的用意。 Text by Steve White

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Left page: Idyllic field base and survey site in South Africa’s Western Cape; photos by Biosphere Expeditions 左页： 南非西开普省的田园野外基地和调查站，照片由生物探索协会提供

Right page: S chools outreach is often key to a project’s lasting legacy; photo by Biosphere Expeditions 右页： 学校外展工作往往是项目为当地社区带来长远裨益的关键， 照片由生物探索协会提供

T

here are some things you just can’t unlearn. Like being told that cat poo has pointed ends, while dog poo is rounded, for instance.

This choice factoid was imparted to me at a briefing for a wildlife survey project in Sumatra in early 2015. I was among the first group of paying customers on the project aimed at looking for tigers and their prey species in the Rimbang Baling area of Sumatra. The seven of us – six Western Europeans and one Aussie – were all volunteers who had paid for the privilege of contributing to essential fieldwork.

This sort of conservation-based project is just one example of volunteer tourism, or voluntourism for short. It’s a niche of the travel industry that has grown quickly in recent years, though no one is quite sure just how much or how big it has become as it is difficult to tease apart from true volunteer work.

Earthwatch are the longest running and biggest name in the field, having sent around 100,000 people out to close to 1,400 projects since its founding in 1971. They run seven offices around the world, funnelling volunteers into 50 to 60 projects at any given time. Many of these have a focus on the natural world or climate change, but others target archaeology or cultural fields.

Since the 1970s, the field has ballooned. Besides generalist organisations like Earthwatch that act like altruistic temping agencies, connecting a pool of motivated and paying labour with qualified projects, there are thousands of far tinier dedicated operations. Focused on specific issues or communities, these tackle everything from conservation to poverty reduction and disaster relief.

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One example is the Marine Conservation Programme run by the Song Saa Foundation in Cambodia. Ben Thorne, project director, says: “We initiate projects that support local communities and environments of the Koh Rong Archipelago.

Our volunteers aid the conservation of local marine resources whilst engaging in community engagement activities, such as children’s education, organic farming, health and well-being, and beach clean-ups.”

My own experience in Rimbang Baling was set up by Biosphere Expeditions, who fit somewhere in the middle, sizewise. They specialise in conservation-based trips around the globe, often working together with a local partner, in this case WWW-Indonesia. Matthias Hammer, founder of Biosphere says, “The market splits itself into two segments: one is gap year – young people – and the other is adults with jobs who want to dip their toe in, to ‘give back’.”

They all face a challenge in choosing an organisation with an approach that optimises the impact of their skills and commitment. Hammer says they often get enquiries from people who have done trips with other groups. “Sometimes they say it was brilliant because the scientist was very good, but often they say ‘I would never go again because I wasn’t really needed, I didn’t understand the contribution I was making, they were just after my money.’”

Dismayed by the misinformation out there, Biosphere offers its own top 10 tips for would-be volunteers. “For me it's visceral,” Hammer says. “We are not a company, we are a non-profit.

That's right at the top of the 10 tips: look at what set-up they have. Are they a non-profit? Do they publish their results? Is the

有

些知识就是会让人终身记得，就好像是告诉您，猫粪的尾部是尖 的，狗粪是圆的等等。 2015年初，在苏门答腊一项野生动物调查项目简报中，这些

资讯深深地植入我的脑海中。我是第一批付款参加项目的游客，目的是在苏门 答腊Rimbang Baling野生动物保护区寻找老虎和它们的猎物踪迹。我们当中有 七位同伴，六位西欧人和一位澳大利亚人，他们全都是志愿者，自资来这里参 加重要的实地考察。 这类以保育为大前提的项目只是义工旅行的其中一个例子。这种小众旅游 方式近年迅速崛起，但由于很难将其跟真正的志愿工作划分开来，所以没有人 可以肯定其利润和发展的规模。 地球观察是行内运营最长、也是最知名的机构，自1971年成立以来，至 今已派出约10万名志愿者参与近1,400个科研项目。该机构在全球设有七个办 公室，可以随时派出志愿者参加50至60个科研项目，当中许多项目都专注于 研究自然世界或气候变化，而其他则以考古或文化研究为重点。 自1970年代起，该行业已经蓬勃发展。除了像地球观察这些类似临时义 工组织的大型机构会派出一群有抱负的自资志愿者参与合格的项目外，还有数 以千计规模较小的专门机构，他们专注于具体的问题或群体，解决一切从保育 到扶贫和救灾等工作。 其中一个例子是柬埔寨颂莎基金会推行的海洋保育计划，项目总监Ben Thorne表示：“我们发起了多个支持瓜隆群岛当地社区和环境的项目，我们的 志愿者帮助保护当地的海洋生物资源，同时参与社区活动，如孩子教育、有机 种植、健康和医疗、以及海滩清理工作等。” 我在Rimbang Baling野生动物保护区的探险体验是由中型机构生物探索协 会主办，他们专门筹办以保育为主题的全球旅游，经常与当地合作伙伴携手 合作，而Rimbang Baling野生动物保护区的体验就是跟世界自然基金会印度尼 西亚合作的例子。生物探索协会创始人Matthias Hammer说：“参与者大致上 分为两类：一类是正处于空挡年的年轻人，另一类是希望回馈社会的在职成年 人。”

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website full of people cuddling animals which you shouldn’t do?

Are they transparent, do they show where the money goes?”

With many voluntourism projects costing £1,000 a week, the money can be transformative if enough of it is passed on.

But don’t be fooled by a high price tag. In early 2014, a study

by Leeds Metropolitan University, published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, looked at comparable volunteer tourism products on a price-per-day basis, and found that the more expensive the product, the less it communicated about its responsibility.

The lead author of the study, Victoria Smith, also cautioned that being a non-profit is no guarantee of the organisation’s integrity: “It cannot be assumed that a charity automatically demonstrates better practice, or that a for-profit business automatically is worse. The credibility that being an ethical business can bring in this market is strong, so organisations like to portray themselves that way, but it cannot be assumed they actually are.”

As for the difference between voluntourism and pure volunteering, that is often, but not always, apparent in the length of commitment. Framing it as a form of ‘travel’, albeit a working holiday, usually implies a period of days or weeks, rather than months. To its critics, this is one of voluntourism’s biggest failings: that the commitment is too short, that it is too much tourism and not enough volunteering, that is not much more useful than hanging your hotel towels back up or leaving your bed unchanged for a day or two.

Such criticism has organisations looking to distance

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themselves from the term ‘voluntourism’. Like Biosphere, Coral Cay Conservation uses ‘citizen science’ to collect the data needed to drive better management and conservation of underwater habitats. Tessa Dawson, volunteer coordinator with Coral Cay says: “Voluntourism covers such a broad spectrum of activities. In addition, the balance between volunteering and tourism activities is different for every single organisation . . .

Coral Cay Conservation has its own mission and projects and we employ scientists to manage them . . . Although we have set start dates, volunteers can join us for as long as they wish.”

Often key to this question is what skills need to be imparted to volunteers before they are able to do what is required. In Song Saa’s case, the minimum requirement is a four-week commitment: “This allows us to complete the required reef ecology training before they go into their survey dives,” says Thorne. Biosphere’s land-based survey in Sumatra required little more than basic familiarity with the equipment, which was taught in a morning’s introduction session, so our two-week commitment was still enough to make a worthwhile contribution.

There are even cases where voluntourism may be worse than doing nothing at all. Natural disasters typically produce a flood of enquiries from do-gooders wanting to rush to help. Yet their skills may be a poor fit. There have been instances when groups of volunteers have helped build or rebuild schools and homes in impoverished places in the world only to have them taken down again later as poorly built or not fit for local needs.

This is an especially important issue where people, and particularly kids, are involved. Volunteering in orphanages,

但参与者都面临着同一个挑战，就是如何选择一个最能发挥他们的技能和抱负的组织和项 目。Hammer表示，他们经常收到参加过其他组织举办的活动的人士查询。“有时候他们会说活动很 棒，因为参与的都是一流的科学家，但他们往往会说：‘我不会再去了，因为他们根本不需要我，我

QUESTIONS TO ASK 要问的问题

不知道自己有什么贡献，他们只是想要我的钱。’” 外间有很多被误传的消息让人产生疑虑，生物探索协会向有志成为志愿者的人士提供十个建 议。“对我来说，这是一种发自内心深处的呼唤。”Hammer说： “我们不是一家公司，我们是一个 非营利组织。最重要的建议是：看看他们的公司架构。他们是否非营利？有没有发表过他们的研究结 果？他们的网站是否放满了人们抱着不应该抱着的动物相片？他们的透明度高吗？他们有没有交代收 到的钱用到哪里去？” 许多义工旅行项目收费是一个星期1,000元英镑，适当用于保育工作的话，可以带来重大的贡 献。但不要被高昂的价格标签所愚弄。2014年初，利兹城市大学在《可持续发展旅游业杂志》发表 了一项研究，按收费比较不同的义工旅行产品，发现越贵的产品越少履行其相关责任。 该研究的主要作者Victoria Smith还提醒，作为一间非营利组织不保证其拥有高的道德操守。“慈

Where will my money go?

Look for transparency about their finances on their websites and ask for details specific to any project you are interested to join. Typically you are paying for your room and board, but the larger the organisation, the greater the chance that you are also contributing towards their overheads. Not necessarily a black mark, but better you know.

善机构不代表其做法更好，营利性企业也不一定较差。成为一个对市场有贡献的道德企业可以建立强 大的声誉，所以企业都希望为自己塑造这样的一个形象，但不代表他们表里如一。” 义工旅行与纯志愿工作之间的差别，通常取决于履行工作的时间长短，但这也不一定。以“旅 游”为名义的工作假期通常只是维持数天或数周的时间，而不会长达数月，这也是义工旅行最为人诟 病的地方：服务的时间太短，旅游的成分太多，志愿工作做得不够，不比退回酒店毛巾、一两天不换 衣服有用很多。 这种批评让一些组织希望跟“义工旅行”一词撇清关系。像生物探索协会那样，珊瑚礁保育以“ 公民科学”的名义收集所需的数据，以推动优化水中栖息物种的管理和保育。珊瑚礁保育的志愿者协

What does the host community gain?

This could mean in a purely financial sense, but ideally would include a transfer of useful knowledge or skills. In some cases, there are also broader benefits in the connectedness your presence offers: the idea that someone out there in the rest of the world cares.

调员Tessa Dawson说：“义工旅行的活动范围非常广泛，此外，每个组织在拿捏志愿服务和旅游活动 之间的尺度都不一样......珊瑚礁保育有自己的科研任务和项目，我们会聘请科学家来管理...... 虽然我 们设定了开始日期，但只要志愿者愿意，可以随时加入我们。” 当中最关键的问题往往是，志愿者在履行任务之前，需要向他们传授什么样的技能。以颂莎基金 会为例，最低要求是四周的服务时间。Thorne说：“这让我们可以在他们潜入水中进行调查之前，完 成所需的珊瑚礁生态培训。”Hammer说：“生物探索协会在苏门答腊岛进行的陆地研究需要参与者

What have previous projects achieved?

Organisations should produce reports that they can share and you can also use their social media channels to question past volunteers.

对装备有多一点的基本认识，我们会在上午的简介会上进行培训，因此我们为期两周的服务仍然足以

Contrasting arenas for conservation: the Sumatran jungle (left) and the desert of UAE (right); photos by Biosphere Expeditions 保育区比较：苏门答腊的丛林（左）和阿联酋的沙漠（右），照片由生物探索协会提供

What are the aims of the project and how will its impact be measured? Are the benefits lasting and sustainable?

This should include whether the project leaves a legacy of dependency in the host community, or even whether the work done by volunteers might mean less paying work for locals. 我的钱会用在哪里？ 在其网站上寻找他们公开的财务资料，并询问你 感兴趣参加的任何项目的具体细节。通常您要付 食宿费，但组织的规模越大，收取的行政管理费 用越高。当中不一定会出现贪腐的情况，但您最 好了解清楚。 当地社区有什么得益？ 这可以是纯粹经济意义上的得益，但最好能够包 括传授有用的知识或技能。在某些情况下，现有 的服务可能带来更广泛的益处，这是世界其他地 方的人关心的问题。 以往的项目实现了什么成果？ 机构应制作可共享的报告，您也可以通过其社交 媒体渠道与过去的志愿者交流。 该项目的目标是什么，以及如何衡量其影响？其 带来的益处能否持久和是否可持续发展？ 这应包括项目能否为当地社区留下长远的依靠， 甚至是志愿者参与的工作会否削减了当地人的支 薪工作。

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Underwater survey work; photo by Pash Baker 水下测量工作，照片由Pash Baker提供

for example, is best avoided. The last thing that children who have been abandoned need is an endlessly revolving set of new people in their lives. Yet the desire to work with such kids is so strong that unscrupulous operators have set up bogus orphanages. Haiti is one example, where there was a lack of orphanages before the huge quake in 2010. Once entrepreneurs there saw how outsiders reacted to the sight of thousands of parentless kids, they set up fake institutions, even recruiting kids that had parents. Cambodia is another case in point, where NGOs and child protection services have had to start telling tourists to stop connecting with ‘orphanage tourism’.

Ideally of course, the majority of the knowledge and skills transfer should be to the benefit of the host community, rather than the volunteer. Everyone knows the adage about teaching someone to fish, rather than simply gifting them fish, but the truth is that in less developed parts of the world, many people know how to fish – or build their own home using locally available materials, say – better than someone from a more privileged background. The skills and knowledge most of us have to offer are more likely to be connected to what we do for a living back home.

In my case in Sumatra, skills as a writer and editor were not in high demand. Our task was simple, slogging up and down the forested hills to improve WWF-Indonesia’s knowledge of the habitat. We were there as willing labour, at the beginning of a multi-year effort, the size of which became apparent early on.

The terrain was so difficult and access took so long that often we could survey only a single new 2x2km cell in a day.

That points to another area of concern: is the project’s lifespan long enough to achieve measurable results? Wildlife surveys are among the most straightforward projects in many ways, especially in areas with low human population, but may still require years of effort.

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Coral Cay’s Dawson says: “We keep a maximum of three permanent sites at any one time and these are long-term projects lasting for an average of around five years.”

Hammer of Biosphere gives the example of a project in Poland: “There was a dispute between the hunting lobby and the biologists about how many wolves they had in a national park. The hunters said, ‘120, so we can shoot 50 and we’ve still got lots left’. The biologists said, ‘50’. So we came in as an independent body to do a survey. It took us two years and at the end we said, ‘You are lucky if you’ve got 30’, so no licenses for hunting were issued. The full process took three years and that is a really quick result.”

In May this year, Biosphere issued a report detailing the 2015 season. The most accessible terrain closest to base had been surveyed and no tigers – or even tiger poo – was found. But there was a stream of anecdotes from those living in the park’s several villages, or working on oil palm and rubber plantations, about tigers. That suggests the next phase will split into groups doing deeper surveys, and others focusing on trust building with communities to better understand their needs and to work with local schools.

I think quite often of my time in Sumatra and hope one day to return to Rimbang Baling. In such a populous country eager for development, the area faces real pressure from poachers, loggers and others. Volunteering there brought me face-to-face with aspects of conservation I had previously only read of. I certainly gained from that.

Ultimately though, you should volunteer for what it does for the host community, for the stakeholders on the ground. Selfinterest is fine to a point but ‘making a difference’ is not about making yourself feel good, it should be measurable. Think of voluntourism as more like choosing an employer, than a holiday.

提供有价值的贡献。” 甚至有些情况是，义工旅行比什么都不做更糟糕。每次发生自然灾害，都 会有一大群好心人自动请缨前往灾区帮忙，但他们的技能可能派不上用场。其 中一个实例是多个志愿者组织曾帮助贫穷地区建立或重建学校和家园，但由于 建造不善，又或者是不符合当地的需求，最后又被拆卸下来。 这对于涉及普罗大众，尤其是孩子的项目来说，是一个特别重要的问题。 比如孤儿院的志愿工作可免则免。被遗弃的儿童最不需要的，就是不停有陌生

见过老虎。因此在项目的下一阶段，我们将分成小组进行更深入的调查，而其 他人专注于与当地社区建立信任，以更好地了解他们的需求，并与当地学校合 作。 我在苏门答腊的时候经常在思考，并希望有一天能再次回到Rimbang Baling野生动物保护区。在这样一个人口众多、渴望发展的大国，该地区面临 着偷猎者、伐木工和其他方面的严峻威胁。在那里的志愿工作让我可以真实认 识以往只可以在书本看到的保育方面的问题，我的确获益良多。

人出现在他们的生活之中。然而，这么多热心的人强烈希望能够帮助这些儿

归根究底，您的目的应该是为当地社区、当地持份者带来好处。考虑自身

童，以至于有不法经营者建立起假孤儿院，海地就是一个例子。2010年海地

利益没有问题，但“作出改变”不是为了让自己感觉良好，而是应该作出一些

大地震之前，当地只有很少孤儿院，看到外地人对数以千计失去父母的孤儿的

实际的贡献。应该将义工旅行视为一份工作，而不是一个假期。

反应后，一些投机商人就成立了假的机构，甚至招聘有父母的孩子来假扮孤 儿。柬埔寨是另一个例子，当地的非政府组织和儿童保护服务机构不得不劝喻 游客停止参与“孤儿院旅游”活动。 当然，最理想的情况是能够传授为当地社会而非为志愿者带来好处的知识 和技能。人人都知道“授人以鱼不如授人以渔”的格言，但事实上，在世界许 多落后的地区，很多人都懂得钓鱼，或使用当地的材料建造自己的家园，比许 多来自发达地区的人更擅长，我们来这里传授这些知识和技能，似乎是外行人 教内行人。 以我在苏门答腊的体验为例，我作为一位作家和编辑的技能在当地没有什 么用处。我们的任务很简单：穿梭于密林山丘之中，帮助世界自然基金会印度 尼西亚更好地了解当地人的生活。我们在那里是志愿劳动力，这是一个为期多 年的计划的早期阶段，规模仍然很小。当地的地势相当陡峭，要花很长的时间 才可以到达，所以我们通常每天只能探索2 x2公里的新范围。 这指出另一个值得关注的焦点：研究项目的寿命是否足以实现可衡量的结 果？野生动物调查在许多方面来说是最直接的项目之一，尤其是在低人口的地 区，但可能也需要多年的努力。 珊瑚礁保育的Dawson说：“我们每次最多运行三个永久研究站，这些都 是长期项目，平均维持五年左右的时间。” 生物探索协会的Hammer举出一个在波兰的项目例子：“猎人与生物学家 之间因国家公园内有多少头狼产生争论，猎人们说：‘120头，所以我们可以

FURTHER INFO 更多信息 Biosphere Expeditions, www.biosphere-expeditions.org Coral Cay Conservation, www.coralcay.org Earthwatch, www.earthwatch.org Song Saa Foundation, www.songsaafoundation.org

捕猎50头，我们还剩下很多。’ 生物学家说：‘50头’，所以我们以一个独 立机构的身份来到这里进行调查。我们花了两年，结果我们说: ‘幸运的话， 你可以找到30头’，所以我们拒绝发放任何打猎许可证。整个过程历时三年，

For further inspiration see www.inspiredescapes.com or search the database of smaller projects at www.grassrootsvolunteering.org

是一个非常快的结果。” 今年五月，生物探索协会发表一份报告，详述2015年的情况。最接近山 脚的最可达盆地经调查后发现没有老虎，连老虎的粪便也没有，但很多生活在

想进一步了解，请登录www.inspiredescapes.com或 浏览www.grassrootsvolunteering.org搜寻小型项目详情。

公园内几条村庄的居民，以及开采棕榈油和在橡胶种植园工作的工人均表示看

Walking to work 走路上班

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