Involving People in Science and Sustainability in the Pantanal Wetlands of Brazil - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 200

volunteers to support the field research, often through their participation in active,
community-based monitoring programs (Chandler 2004).
The funding aspect is something that Earth Watch has developed strongly with
volunteers contributing about $2,000 toward their participation. Half of this amount
goes to the organization of the research projects, and half goes to the researcher for
arranging accommodation. This represents an important source of funding for both
the research as well as the local economy. And in the end, the researcher has a team
of interested and dedicated participants to help with running the project.
Through its activities, Earth Watch has become involved in developing tourist
economies in some places where previously such did not exist, thereby enabling
large numbers of tourists to visit such locations. Especially, at some future date, in
a place like Iraq, which may have a perception problem, such an experience may be
a critical first step toward establishing international tourism. There are four con-
stituencies that Earth Watch uses to lay the groundwork for enabling such a tour-
ism industry to become established (Chandler 2004): the scientific constituency, the
academic community, the volunteerism network of concerned individuals, and the
educational component. Pioneer tourists visit somewhere like the marshes of south-
ern Iraq and help develop the infrastructure, and lay out some of the groundwork, the
training, and so on that is then followed through with a sort of larger scale market
approach. In this way, Earth Watch volunteers and volunteerism in general initiate
a fledgling tourism economy in a local area which over time can mature to a viable
local economy.
Clear benefits accrue to Earth Watch volunteers, including everything from
forming a new awareness about the environmental issues to building specific skills
through participation in the projects. There's an opportunity to share cultures in a
new environment among the individuals who participate, leading to the develop-
ment of both a local and a global perspective. Earth Watch uses teams of between
eight and a dozen volunteers who work in the field for about two weeks at a time.
Depending upon the composition of the team, a good deal of exchange and personal
growth occurs among team members through their combined work efforts. In several
different kinds of projects, alumni networks have developed, allowing volunteers to
continue the experience through shared information (Chandler 2004).
Typically, Earth Watch supports three to five teams a year on a research project,
some of which are based on ecological restoration. This has become an issue of
increasing interest amongst Earth Watch's own volunteer network (supporting the
thesis developed in chapter 2 about the attraction of engaging in such activities) as
well as being a subject of widespread interest among many thousands of potential
volunteers wishing to participate in the postwar rebuilding of Iraq (France 2007a;
see also chapter 2).
Some of the key aspects in terms of getting the most out of engaging volunteers
actively in field research are establishing realistic expectations and preparing people
accordingly in order to create a more beneficial experience (Chandler 2004). Earth
Watch has also developed mechanisms for engaging schoolchildren (see chapter 16
for similar efforts by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan).
Their “Life in the Field” web-based reports allow teacher-volunteers participating,
for example, on projects in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil to be able to communicate