internship – MEMANTA

If you’re studying biology, ecology, environmental sciences or even geography, you might want to consider doing an internship at a conservation initiative abroad. Whether it’s a voluntary internship that’s ought to benefit your personal development and career or a mandatory, academic internship that is needed to get ECTS points – a conservation internship abroad lets you contribute to real-world environmental protection, gain hands-on experience, and develop skills that are increasingly valued in many sustainability-related careers.

As I have been there and done that myself and am now running a center for sea turtle conservation in Nicaragua where interns are a highly valued asset, I know what the common fears, challenges and pitfalls are when choosing a reputable project.

This is why I wrote this guide which hopefully helps you decide whether a conservation internship abroad could be the right fit for you. Towards the end of my blog post, I will show you how to find a suitable project and where to look for offers worldwide.

What involves a Conservation Internship Abroad?

A conservation internship abroad is a structured program offer by an environmental organization or a grassroots conservation project. It combines:

Practical conservation work (field research, species protection, habitat restoration)
Learning and training under experienced staff or researchers
Cultural immersion in another country

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Good to know

7 things to consider before you volunteer with sea turtles

March 6, 2025 Daniela

Releasing baby turtles at sunset on a heavenly beach with coconut palms and white sans is really fun. But the work with sea turtles involves a little bit more than just doing the picturesque, instagramable stuff.

Are you thinking about becoming a sea turtle volunteer or conservation intern abroad? Then check out this list with 7 things to consider before you book your trip!

1. Money

Be ready to invest some money when you want to volunteer with sea turtles!

The great majority of wildlife conservation projects have a pay-to-work model in place. Well, they call it “pay-to-work”, but it mostly is a “pay-to-live” model.
Because the providers – which are usually NGOs on a very tight budget – give volunteers a place to sleep and three meals a day plus drinks and water.
But that’s not all: Receiving volunteers requires staff to train, supervise and care for them, especially when the volunteers are no experts in their field but rather just learn new skills. And because wildlife projects are mostly off-the-grid, the providers also take care of their general well-being and leisure activities.

So you volunteer for free (that’s why it’s called volunteering and not working), but you pay for your housing, food, convenience and leisure.

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Turtle season

A sea turtle season to remember

February 18, 2023February 18, 2023 Daniela

A lot has happened since the last blog post. And I mean A LOT. So where to begin? I’ll probably try to tell our story about the 2022 turtle nesting season in chronological order, even though I might forget a few things.

Let’s start with July!

Earlier in June, Melvin and me decided to double the size of the hatchery as we prepared ourselves for Hawksbill nesting season (this species starts to nest sooner than all the others). Remember: The Eastern Pacific Hawksbill turtle prefers to nest on the small beaches in the Padre Ramos estuary which we don’t patrol ourselves, so we only buy a small portion of the nests while the big majority goes to the other turtle project called “Casa Carey” – those guys have been around for several years already and specialize on the protection of the critically endangered Hawksbills.
Our very first Hawksbill nest was delivered to us on the 2nd of July, and altogether we incubated 17 nests of this species.

Also in July, we received our first intern for the season: Tammy from China who is studying biology in the UK and found out about us through her university. Tammy was super passionate about nature photography and birds, while she had never worked with turtles before. Having lived in big cities for all her life, she was astonished by the clear night sky full of (shooting) stars, and a little bit frightened by all the critters and mammals living on our property. With Tammy, we started going on night patrols and also had some very first encounters with our beloved Olive Ridley turtle – we buried the first nest of this species on the 29th of July.

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Off season

Let the fun begin!

June 2, 2022 Daniela

Slowly MEMANTA is turning into what we’ve imagined it to be over all these years. With more and more interns coming from overseas, the occasional tourist stopping by and exciting projects being realized, we are growing and improving every single month.
Here’s all the updates you need to know!

THE SEA TURTLE SEASON CAME TO AN END

Lennard still got busy with the babyturtles

Even though a new year had begun, we still had quite a few nests in the hatchery – both from Olive Ridleys and Green Turtles. Fortunately there were some helping hands around, first the Berg family and then Lennard, a brave soul from northern Germany who decided to do a 3-month internship in the field of geography! Even though Lennard’s focus wasn’t sea turtles, he got trained in nest exhumations and releases. We didn’t go on any more night patrols, but that didn’t stop him from witnessing one legendary nesting event right in front of our property! He saw the turtle dragging herself out of the water, totally unexpected, in the middle of the day, when he was having his midday beach break. What a lucky guy! He immediately called us and we collected the eggs together – it was the last nest of the 2021/2022 season!

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Tag: internship

Conservation Internship Abroad: What to Know and Where to Go

What involves a Conservation Internship Abroad?

7 things to consider before you volunteer with sea turtles

1. Money

A sea turtle season to remember

Let’s start with July!

Let the fun begin!