Earthwatch supports long-term scientific field research that tackles the world's most pressing environmental problems.
Earthwatch is one of the largest private funders of scientific field research.
Each year, we support as many as 100 field research projects with grants, and provide as many as 3,500 volunteer field assistants to scientists conducting research around the world. Earthwatch support not only provides scientists with valuable people-hours of data collection, it also helps scientists communicate the importance of their work to motivated volunteers who in turn share their experiences with friends and family.
Currently supported projects include everything from measuring the release of greenhouse gasses in the Arctic to preserving the ancient culture of Fijian seafarers to studying the crocodiles of the Zambezi River, and range across ecosystems as diverse as Brazil's Pantanal, the Greek Mediterranean, and the Mongolian steppe.
A Strategic Approach to Research
Earthwatch supports research projects that address the world's most pressing environmental and cultural issues, and focuses its support on applied research where our citizen science model can most effectively make a significant difference in these central global ecological and cultural challenges:
- Ensuring the sustainability of coastal, forested, agricultural and freshwater ecosystems through optimization of multiple ecosystem services.
- Managing protected areas and species at the landscape and seascape levels to enhance biodiversity and provide local and regional ecosystem services.
- Restoring, revitalizing, and conserving our global cultural heritage through a better understanding of socio-cultural links to natural resource use, environmental management and biocultural diversity.
- Addressing the challenge of climate change and its threat to global sustainability.
Earthwatch supports research projects in four key areas: Ecosystem Services , Climate Change, Oceans, and Cultural Heritage. These priorities will shape our activities over the next 10 years and address critical global ecological and cultural issues that span a range of threats to environmental sustainability.