Hello Ecolog-ers This email thread seemed relevant to my own experiences and after skimming through to see some depressing responses sprinkled with some overly dramatic pessimism and discouragement, I thought I would give my own take on this.
I'm a 4th year PhD student working on a research/conservation project in tropical forest/farmland ecosystems in the Dominican Republic. I have been in and out of Latin America for field work on different projects since 2012 when I was just an undergraduate. Since I was about 16 years old, I had myself convinced that I would make my career as a scientist working in conservation of tropical ecosystems and their flora/fauna. I did a Bio/Spanish double major at my college. So, I was not only focused on ecology, but also Latin American culture and I came out already having studied and practiced Spanish language for about 8 years. Out of college, I applied for LOTS of jobs, not just tropical stuff. Over 90% of those applications, even to volunteer stuff, ended in rejection. I ended up doing two volunteer positions, each for 3-6 months. Those gigs did not charge a fee, you pretty much just had to get yourself there and then most things were covered. I didn't have too much college debt, and I had saved up enough money from my summer jobs to make this happen. Soon after, I got a paid job in the tropics doing forest censuses. It wasn't much, but it covered airfare and a modest stipend. I did a couple of jobs in the US too that paid before starting my program. Currently, I have fairly solid grant funding for my research project, not from my advisor nor hardly from my university, but as a result of having, myself, developed and submitted over 30 grant proposals to organizations/agencies of all kinds. Through these funds and plenty of collaboration with local partners, I have been able to keep some sort of field work and data collection going for over 24 months mostly uninterrupted. Some of these grants have even made it possible for me to hire/contract field assistants. I've had 3 Dominican techs and 5 assistants from outside the country (mostly Americans). A lot of grants available to graduate students explicitly prohibit you using those funds on personnel... often it's limited to equipment expenses, lab expenses, transportation, or other consumables. Some of my pools of grant money have been fairly flexible, in that I have been able to use them to support my field crews. One of my main funders is oriented toward conservation research in developing countries, and they are *thrilled* to see that money spent on developing young homegrown (in this case Dominican) professionals to the extent to where I have been able to offer all expenses covered and compensation for these people. This is not the case for Americans, but I have been able to justify limited funding to cover almost all basic costs for American volunteers since qualified, serious candidates who are up for intensive field seasons are difficult to come by in this region. Additionally, there have been times where I simply could not work within my budget if I had two paid people instead of one paid and one volunteer. >From my perspective on people from relatively prosperous countries trying to do work in developing countries -- a perspective limited to working with entry-level ecologists (e.g. college undergrads or recent grads) interested in getting their feet wet in tropical ecology -- paying these people is difficult to justify. Sure, outside institutions and researchers like myself can (hopefully) do great work and make a real difference in advance the conservation/research agenda. But the reality is the best way to sustained progress is when things grow within local communities. Unfortunately, that growth is being set back in many cases by political and economic priorities that don't align with that growth. So, international collaboration is crucial. Having been in the position of a volunteer, even fluent in the local language and having a fairly strong background in science outdoors, I recognize that none of my previous education and training really mattered that much. I was not necessarily a skilled/essential asset on any field crew in the beginning. At the entry level, I firmly believe, that you can train just about anyone with good attention to detail and work ethic to be a good field ecologist. It does not make sense to spend time, effort, and resources training such a person when the world would be much better off training local people... with which you have less unnecessary expenditures for relocating people and a greater possibility that they will continue on that path. Furthermore, there definitely is a healthy chunk of applicants out there that are not really all that committed to the the work, but rather are just looking for a cool experience or maybe one that will separate them from others in future job applications. You could argue, they damage the image of people who really are brimming with passion. Having said all that... I believe creating a business model (even a non-profit operation) around charging volunteers fees and whatnot is just plain nonsense to me. If the work is important enough, you should be able to find at least *some* money for it. And if you can't find enough to sustain that project, other avenues need to be explored. That is... reducing costs or scale of the work, finding collaborators who can help support you, or getting yourself a different occupation. The ability and willingness to write grant proposals cannot be understated. Maybe someone out there could provide a rational defense for the volunteer fees thing, but I just can't see it. I don't necessarily expect that when my PhD is done that I'll get a paid job working in the tropics. My experience has been that when the path is not clear to where you want to get to, you have to cut one for yourself. I can remain hopeful that my work ethic, track record, and growing expertise will afford me the opportunity to stay involved and develop other projects in the future. If I'm really productive and with enough luck, maybe some day I could get a faculty position where I could command a more powerful platform from which to bring in funding for graduate students or local NGO's. That's obviously a very narrow trajectory, but it's a start. I'm convince there are lots of other ways keep at it, it's just a matter of identifying them. I have gotten as far as I have by doing my best to network and cast a wide net with the work that I want to do and the projects I want to develop. Based on my limited experience, I think a career in ecology/conservation is all about opportunism. Find out what you're good at, leverage it, figure out how to spot opportunities, and be prepared to make sacrifices to get there if it's what you really want. In any case, this line of work is definitely extremely demanding and not very financially prosperous. Starting out getting paid nothing or next to nothing is just the way it is apparently. That's my piece. Hope it is worth something to someone. On Fri, Jun 29, 2018 at 10:32 PM, Jason Hernandez < jason.hernande...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Now that the academic year has ended, the big wave of seasonal field jobs > has abated, as have the inevitable posts by graduating students hoping to > find one. And I have to admit, I have gotten a little jaded. I put myself > in the shoes of one of those young people... > > ...Tropical rainforests have had a lot of exposure for many years now, it > is no surprise when a young person is inspired to pursue a career in > conservation, with hopes of making a difference in the tropics. But as you > search for opportunities, what do you find? Every opportunity in a tropical > environment is a volunteer position or an unpaid internship. Some cover > your expenses; some expect you to cover your own airfare; some even charge > you a fee. But, you rationalize, it's an investment in your future; you > will gain a new skill set and valuable experience for your resume, make > contacts in the conservation world for your network.. So you take the > unpaid job. You have a wonderful experience, you learn a lot. But then you > begin to notice that every season, it is the same. Every position in the > tropics is unpaid. If you were an organization with limited resources, why > would you pay someone when there is a steady stream of idealistic young > people eager to work for free? As the young person, how many of these > unpaid jobs can you afford before you have to give up and go mitigate > wetlands for a strip mall developer, or count dead bats on a wind farm? > > It can't possibly be that way for everyone. I am interested in the stories > of young people who succeeded in pursuing this dream sustainably. How did > you make it happen? > > Jason Hernandez > -- Spencer C. Schubert Ph.D. Student Department of Biological Sciences Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23529-0266 Cell #: 1-815-222-9551 (USA) Cell #: 1-829-808-1269 (República Dominicana)
