Q: How did the Global Brigade integrate environmental protection into its mission?
A: Global Brigades integrate the mission of environmental preservation and conservation into its mission throughout all of its programs and its overall infrastructure. We also have a program very specific to environmental preservation that we conduct in Panama, where we currently mobilize hundreds of students interested in environmental studies and environmental preservations to work with micro-enterprises and under-resourced communities on teaching them the importance of environmental preservation, conducting reforestation projects, and delivering an outline map, environmental map of the communities to be able to protect biodiverse regions of the communities. Global Brigades work in — the author has chosen Panama as one of the most bio — because of it’s one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, with beautiful, lush rainforests and ecosystems unparalleled within the world. Students would be able to travel and live in these rainforests for their environmental brigade, to work on reforestation projects and other environmental projects in conjunction with other international development organizations, to get on-the-ground field experience in the field of environmental advocacies, and work and be able to work hand in hand with other community members, and be able to be within the natural beauty of the environment and the community itself.

Q: I don’t have any prior experience in environmental protection. What will I be able to do as a volunteer for the Global Brigades?
A: If you don’t have any experience in environmental studies or protection, you will still be utilized a great deal within our programming. Our program is meant for someone who is only just passionate about environmental preservation. Our programs are very sophisticated to be able to take any volunteer interested in this, and apply them and make them useful on the ground, and get hands-on — and gain the hands-on experience that they want in that field. Any capable person can go into the field to understand the issues and help perform educational workshops on environmental preservation. If your body is capable, you can go into and perform environmental reforestation projects, working with community members to replant trees and other natural plant life. These projects are extremely important to empower the communities to be able to start preserving their land, and so that they know not to start overgrazing, overeating it for cattle, that it currently has been devastating the rich biodiverse regions of Panama over the last 100 years. Our goals as an organization is to provide them not to eliminate development, but to offer alternatives, and to provide educational-based, environmental advocacies, so the people are aware of the rich resources that they currently have, and not just cut them down for short-term profit.

Q: I’m excited to be doing more in terms of education for environmental protection. Can you give me some examples of how the Global Brigades is educating local farmers to farm in a way that is environmentally sensitive?
A: Global Brigades works with other international development and environmental organizations on the ground such as Earth Train, Peace Corps, many others who have hundreds of, or decades of years of experience in environmental preservation, and education of alternatives to sustainable farming and development for these villages. They develop workshops in conjunction with our in-country directors that students will be able to[inaudible] translate and give to the community members to provide them with these types of alternatives, and also become aware themselves of the many alternatives to agritourism, to sustainable farming that are available out there, that communities need to be educated on implementing

Q: How receptive are local communities to the ideas of reforestation and environmental protection?
A: Well first, we don’t go into any community that hasn’t invited us into. We do not push our agenda or our solutions onto anyone. We work through an RFP process where either the community has already identified the need for this environmental education, or is working with another international development organization or environmental organization that has identified it. The agency — the other international organization will have approached us through our RFP process, and we count on our volunteers to mobilize, to bring resources, and to host community meetings, and be able to also raise funds to add and to implement the reforestation projects in the communities. We also work with organizations that already have bought the land to preserve, that just need now people to come back in and to help reforest, and to help educate the other communities in the outlying areas on the importance of the preservation of the land.

Q: Is it safe?
A: There is risk associated with any international travel and community work. Risk experts within the international volunteer industry approximate that an organization may experience one catastrophic incidence such as death or permanent injury for every 100,000 volunteer months spent in-country. Most common are from car accidents and or extra-curricular activities participated in outside of programming. Each Global Brigades grantee entity in Honduras, Panama and Ghana have a strong track for risk practices and do regular staff meetings to ensure emergency policies are known by every coordinator.

Q: Have there been any major incidences?
A: The most common ailment on a brigade is upset stomach, experiencing cold/flu like symptoms, or sprained body parts. In the last five years, there have been a few cases where Global Brigades volunteers have broken body parts and contracted malaria or other tropical diseases. There is one report of a permanent injury. There have been two reported incidents of female volunteers being advanced on unwillingly by a community member and one hired bus driver from a contracted vendor (which was fired immediately). No rape cases have been reported. Global Brigades urges all volunteers to remain in their groups at ALL times and only participate in activities that are a part of the program itself. Global Brigades will continue to make safety and risk management its top priority for all its volunteers and although every participant is an adult (over 18), every volunteers’ cooperation when given instruction by their coordinators will reduce risk.