Peru and Costa Rica are two of the most bio-diverse countries in the world. Opportunities abound for conservation projects in the Rainforests of Costa Rica and Peru and in Peru’s Andean mountains. Máximo Nivel offers unique, tailor-made volunteer projects including:
 Biodiversity inventories
Eco-Tourism work in protected areas
Turtle Project (Costa Rica only)
Animal Care
Re-forestation
Eco-Agriculture
REFORESTATION
These projects help rural communities and small villages to reforest areas that have lost native flora or fauna – encouraging and working with the local inhabitants to recover native species of trees, plants, and animals.
Volunteers work with professional environmentalists and other professionals, and project work includes some travel as well as office hours for planning and study. Depending on the volunteer’s ability to conduct themselves in the Spanish language and the expertise they demonstrate, the project supervisors will let you work as independently as possible.
ANIMAL CARE
Volunteers work on special projects including biodiversity inventories, turtle and/or bird conservation and other protection projects for rare and endangered animal species. These projects take volunteers from high in the Andean mountains to the warm and tropical Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and include university-run zoos designed to protect, breed and re-introduce certain species back into the wild.
Volunteers work with professional organizations and perform their duties side—by-side with scientists and other volunteers who are dedicated to these critical animal protection projects.
AGRICULTURE (PERU ONLY)
Volunteers work in a small mountain community called SallaFalla. The project is an eco-agro project, which was originally begun by the University in Cusco and the McKnight Foundation in the U.S. The project is based around the large number of potatoes that exist in the mountains, and which provide the basic sustenance for the mountain communities. Growing methods and the sharing of seeds has become a major issue, resulting in widespread loss of knowledge from generation to generation and loss of seed stocks in many regions.
Volunteers work with the villagers during their annual harvest and planting seasons (depending on the time of year), and will work side-by-side with them as they tend their crops. Most villages speak some Spanish, but it is their second language; their native language is Quechua. Volunteers on this project must be prepared to rough it.
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