Zoo Conservation Volunteering: A Unique and Meaningful Experience

By Lindsay Marston, Volunteer Manager

Whilst on a visit to a zoo or an aquarium, you might be surprised to see people volunteering their time to enhance the visitor experience, gardening or getting involved with animal care. In fact, across Britain there are thousands of people, giving their time as volunteers in zoos and aquariums.

The wonderful thing about volunteering for a zoo or aquarium is the diverse ways people can contribute their skills and time. Depending on the organisation, volunteers can get involved with a wide range of activities from visitor engagement, youth volunteering, education volunteering, animal and plant care, gardening, conservation action, research, the opportunities can be endless.

Making a difference is one of the top reasons people give for starting volunteering in their local communities and other organisations. What people might not expect through volunteering is friendship, a sense of community, skills and experience and positive changes to their mental health and wellbeing.

For people looking for experience in conservation careers, volunteering in a zoo and aquarium can offer essential training, hands on experience and professional links. It can be a way for people to gain a deeper understanding of environmental challenges and ways they can help care for the natural world in their personal and professional lives.

Accredited zoos and aquariums play an essential role in solving conservation challenges, often leading the way in excellence in animal and plant welfare, with leading experts in conservation, education, and research. Chester Zoo is amongst the world's leading conservation-based charities, with decades of experience and highly respected levels of expertise. At Chester Zoo, we value the contribution volunteers make to our mission of Preventing Extinction. Here are just some of the ways volunteers are making a difference to our work in the zoo and our local community:

Visitor Engagement Volunteering

Visitor Engagement Volunteers are positioned at key habitats in the zoo, often near some of the world's most critically endangered species. Volunteers support visitors to have a wonderful day out and learn interesting information about animals and their conservation challenges. For example, the demand for palm oil has caused extensive habitat loss across South East Asia. Through our work with Malaysian Conservation charity HUTAN and our care for critically endangered orangutans at Chester Zoo, volunteers can share our work to promote the demand for rainforest-friendly sustainable palm oil to visitors. Volunteers talk to visitors about how sustainable palm oil can reduce deforestation and protect orangutans and other endangered species. Through information and awareness, volunteers help visitors to identify the RSPO Sustainable Palm Oil logo and the Rainforest Alliance logo on a range of products including toiletries, make-up, food and drinks, empower visitors to change their shopping habits to purchase products containing sustainably sourced palm oil. Volunteers further spread awareness about ways visitors can make a difference by promoting the PalmOil Scan app. The app can be downloaded onto a smart phone, helping visitors to scan barcodes on their shopping to see how manufacturers source their palm oil ingredients. Visitors can alert companies to let them know they are checking their scores and potentially changing their shopping habits as a result!

Youth Volunteering

Young people can volunteer at Chester Zoo from 14 years of age through the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and through participation in summer or weekend youth volunteering. Youth volunteers are buddied with experienced Youth Champion adult volunteers, who are trained to support young people to settle into their roles, increase their confidence and make a meaningful contribution to conservation through volunteering. Youth volunteering is a fantastic way for young people to meet new people, try something new, develop skills and have practical experience to put on their CV. We also have a youth board of young people aged 18 - 25 years. The group is made up of a diverse group of students and young professionals who provide a voice for young people in conservation and support us to develop activities that appeal to teenagers and young adults.

Community and micro-volunteering

Through community volunteering activities, families, students, schools, and community groups take conservation action where they live to improve habitats for wildlife. These community volunteers are involved with a range of activities including restoring hedgerows, developing new pond areas, planting trees, pollinating plants, and creating spaces that benefit wildlife and people. Chester Zoo staff support these volunteers and groups by offering specialist training and ongoing support. These champions for wildlife can join a network facilitated by the zoo to share learning, skills, and resources with each other.

Community volunteers can also get involved through one-off conservation activities. Often these are habitat restoration or improvements like hedge laying, orchard pruning and tree planting with some actions surrounding the monitoring and recording of UK wildlife species. Volunteers can contribute as little or as often as they want by signing up to the volunteering activities they are interested in.

Research Volunteering

Our Research Volunteers are great for people who prefer to be a little more incognito in their volunteering and enjoy the chance to observe behaviour. Our current research role focuses on how and for how long people engage with educational signage and interpretation at the zoo. This vital role supports us to assess the effectiveness of our interpretation and identify successful approaches and inform our interpretation in future, helping us share conservation messages more effectively. There are so many ways people give their time and skills for conservation and roles like these are a perfect example of the diverse ways people can make a difference.

Education Volunteering

Every year we inspire more than 265,000 children and young people through our education programmes, including 50,000 children from underprivileged areas who are given the chance to visit the zoo for free. Education Volunteers support the educational engagement of the students, helping them to navigate their way to classrooms and habitats and handle interesting artefacts! Education volunteers attract a wide range of people. For some it offers essential experience in working with school children and young people which can be invaluable for people trying to get into education and conservation careers.

About Chester Zoo

Chester Zoo is one of the world’s leading conservation zoos and the most visited zoo in the UK. Chester Zoo | Start Your Adventure | Creating Unforgettable Experiences

How to find out about volunteering

The best ways to find out how you could volunteer at a zoo or aquarium is to visit the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums website. It lists available volunteering opportunities and how to contact organisations on their website BIAZA - British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums | BIAZA.

Some organisations recommend you contact them directly for the most up to date information about opportunities and how to apply.

Lindsay Marston

Lindsay is an experienced volunteer management professional with experience leading high-quality volunteer engagement in the charity sector and Chair of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) Volunteer Management Working Group. Chester Zoo holds the Investing in Volunteers Award for best practice in volunteer management.

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