Earthwatch supported scientists talk about the experience of working with volunteers:
"Without the contribution from the volunteers we would not have been able to band this many birds. The focal tree and edge foraging watches would also not have been possible without the volunteers."
- Dr David Freudenberger, Return of the Dawn Chorus
"Earthwatch volunteers are an integral part of the leatherback project. The intensive research and conservation effort provided by this project would not have been possible without the assistance of 1,337 Earthwatch volunteers who over the past twenty-three years have contributed over 105,892 hours patrolling over 91,024 miles of beach."
- Jeanne Alexander, Saving the Leatherback Turtles
"Our project would be difficult to fund from conventional granting agencies such as NSF, at least at the beginning. Earthwatch is probably the only organization that is willing to fund projects over many years, which enables researchers to obtain unique, long-terms data. I am very pleased with the quality of data we are obtaining, the enthusiastic assistance of the volunteers and the great support from the Earthwatch organization and staff. I look forward to continuing this project."
- Randall Davis, Sea Otters of Alaska
"Saskie has started analyzing the data and writing this up for publication and her thesis. For those of you I have not leaked this to yet - she found no difference between the data collected by volunteers and the project staff! In other words you can do our job after one day's training. I wonder if we would fit into banking, medicine, management, mineral sorting, coal truck driving, stockbrokering, gerontology, etc as easily?"
- Michelle Hamer, South Africa's Hidden Species
"Earthwatch uses an extremely innovative and effective approach to supporting field research. Its ability to find interested volunteers and to encourage them to invest in the future of the planet- both in cash and in kind-is amazingly effective."
- Geoffrey Mwachala, Rare Plants of Kenya
"The largest crocodile captured was a hefty 3.96 meter male. Thank goodness we had an Earthwatch team in camp at the time, as it required the strength and dedication of every team member to process the animal."
- Alison Leslie, Crocodiles of Okavango
Featured Articles:
Earthwatch & the Value of Volunteers
Earthwatch Support of Women in Science: Perspectives of several Earthwatch Principal Investigators
Reference:
Newman, C., C.D. Buesching, and D.S. MacDonald. 2003. Validating mammal monitoring methods and assessing the performance of volunteers in wildlife conservation - "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodies?". Biological Conservation. 113(2), Oct 2003, pp 189-197.