Charity, Volunteer and Global warming

What link them together? Sure…travels!

If you need a new way to travel and help the environment, then read this list of unusual ideas to join your work with charity activities.

With this form of travel you can link together the concepts of ecotourism and volunteer travel with adventure activities.

No matter if you travel as a volunteer or tourist, the main goal is to transform your vacation in a source to help the environment and other people.

I took the idea from our 1° Charity Challenge organized last year on the Etna mountain. It was a complete 3 days tour of the volcano by trekking.

The term “Charity Challenge” is used to represent a challenge organized to:

• Set responsible tourism standards
• Minimise the impact on the environment
• Collect resources to use for the local communities visited

They offer a list of great activities in different destinations:

Mountains

• Aconcagua Summit Trek - Argentina
• Avenue of the Volcanoes - Ecuador
• Everest Base Camp - Nepal
• Kilimanjaro Summit Climb - Tanzania
• Simien Mountain Trek - Ethiopia
• Stok Kangri Summit Trek - India
• High Atlas Summit Trek - Morocco

Trekking

• Brazilian Trek and Kayak Challenge - Brazil
• Escambray Encounter - Cuba
• Etna Volcanic Adventure - Italy
• Family Escambray Encounter - Cuba
• Family Great Wall Discovery - China
• Family Thailand Jungle Expedition - Thailand
• Footsteps of the Maasai - Tanzania
• Golden Triangle Hill Tribe Trek - Thailand
• Grand Canyon Explorer - USA
• Great Wall Discovery - China
• High Atlas Summit Trek - Morocco
• Icelandic Lava Trek - Iceland
• Mountain Kingdom Adventure - Lesotho
• Sahara Desert Trek - Morocco
• Sapa Hill Tribe Trek - Vietnam
• Thailand Jungle Expedition - Thailand
• Trek to Machu Picchu - Peru
• Trek to The Home of the Dalai Lama - India
• Trek Transylvania - Romania
• Thailand Jungle Expedition - Thailand

Biking

• Andes to Amazon Bike Ride - Peru
• Cuban Revolution Cycle - Cuba
• Cycle Kathmandu Valley - Nepal
• Great Wall Cycle Challenge - China
• London to Paris Bike Ride - UK, France
• Mexico Volcano & Jungle Challenge - Mexico
• Pilgrimage on Wheels - Egypt, Israel
• Rajasthan Tiger Challenge - India
• Saigon to Angkor Wat Bike Ride - Vietnam, Cambodia
• Vietnam Experience - Vietnam

Volunteer travels

Another great example of travel for charity purposes is Volunteering. You can travel very low cost and then use your work to contribute to a project.

Thanks to Parksy

Some examples are:

• Footpath repair holidays- Help to improve the landscape and to conserve local flora and fauna on a footpath repair holiday.

[i.e. For the American Hiking Society , volunteers get the opportunity to repair trails and footpaths around the country.]

• Spend some time volunteering in local community projects.

[i.e. Teaching to students in a rural African; help research scientists save endangered sea turtles from extinction; assist nurses at a children's clinic in Romania; help build a home for a homeless family and so on...]

• Habitat conservation holidays
• Help reduce global warming
• Restore Coral Reefs
• Save the Rainforest
• Save Vanishing Wetlands
• Save Bottlenose Dolphins
• Protect Endangered Animals
• Help Park Services Preserve National Treasures
• Organic Farming: Help Promote Sustainable Agriculture

List of charity organizations in environment

For those of you not interested in travel for charity, here a list of the best eco-friendly charity organizations and their websites to see how to donate them.

www.climatecare.org - Climate Care offsets your CO2 by funding projects around the world. These involve: Renewable energy – this replaces non-renewable fuel such as coal; Energy efficiency – this reduces the amount of fuel needed; Forest restoration – this absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere as the trees grow. So as well as taking steps to reduce your ‘carbon footprint’ you can offset what remains, helping to promote low-carbon technologies where they have the greatest impact.

www.conservation.org - We have never been more focused on protecting the environment than we are today. For 20 years, we’ve stuck to a vision that the natural world must be saved in order for future generations to thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically.

www.coopamerica.org - Co-op America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982. Our mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

www.environmentaldefense.org - “Our top priority is to pass national legislation that caps global warming pollution and creates a flexible emissions trading market. That will open the door to a green technology revolution.” — Steve Cochran, director of our national climate campaign

www.arborday.org - We inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees.

www.environet.org - NET’s public education campaigns use modern communication techniques and the latest scientific studies to translate complex environmental issues for citizens. Furthermore, NET works in states across the country to localize the impacts of national problems, as well as to highlight opportunities for Americans to engage in the policymaking process.

www.nrdc.org - We use law, science and the support of 1.2 million members and online activists to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.

www.nature.org - We’ve protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide — and we operate more than 100 marine conservation projects globally. We address threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems.

www.ran.org - RAN is campaigning to break America’s oil addiction, reduce our reliance on coal, protect endangered forests and Indigenous rights, and stop destructive investments around the world.

www.rainforest-alliance.org - The Rainforest Alliance works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.

www.sustainableharvest.org - Founded in 1997 by Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Florence Reed, Sustainable Harvest International addresses the tropical deforestation crisis in Central America by providing farmers with sustainable alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture.

www.ucsusa.org - The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.

www.wri.org - The World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people’s lives. Our mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

www.worldwildlife.org - But WWF members travel with us for another reason: By participating in our tours, they are contributing WWF’s conservation efforts worldwide. When you travel with WWF, you don’t just hear about those efforts-you see the results firsthand.

www.charityguide.org - The Charity Guide volunteer directory makes it possible for busy people like you to make a difference at anytime, from anywhere. Even if you have an unpredictable schedule, you can volunteer for your favorite cause, including: animal welfare, children’s issues, community development, environmental protection, healthcare, and overcoming poverty. The volunteer projects featured at CharityGuide.org can be successfully completed: in 15 minutes, in a few hours (once, or each week), or during volunteer vacations.

stopglobalwarming.org- The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-partisan effort to bring citizens together to declare that global warming is here now and that it is time to demand solutions.

google.org - Google.org aspires to use the power of information to help people better their lives. We are an experiment in active philanthropy. In addition to financial resources, we are fortunate to be able to engage Google’s entire family of people and partners, information technologies and other resources to address three major growing global problems: climate change, global public health, and economic development and poverty.

www.foei.org - Friends of the Earth International is the world’s largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 70 diverse national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, we campaign on today’s most urgent environmental and social issues. We challenge the current model of economic and corporate globalization , and promote solutions that will help to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.

www.thec-changetrust.com - The c-change trust gives business and individuals the opportunity to acknowledge and offset their carbon emissions through charitable donation. In return we will invest 75% of all donations into funding projects that will reduce carbon emissions, educate the young on climate change and create new woodlands right here in the U.K.

Link to multiple charity lists

• List of stop global warming charities provided by Just Give. Dedicated to creating tools and services to make charitable giving part of our everyday lives, JustGive is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase charitable giving by connecting people with the charities and causes they care most about.
• Search for eco-friendly charities
• Other charity organizations in environment
• Use a website to evaluate environmental charities. It’s one of the most comprehensive databases of U.S. charities belongs to Charity Navigator. This site uses a four-star rating program to assess organizations.

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