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Volunteer tourism differs from regular tourism in its purpose. The trip combines sightseeing, relaxation, and exploration with charitable and volunteer activities such as environmental protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, and contributing resources to support educational activities or build infrastructure like schools and housing. This means that participants in the journey are both tourists and volunteers.
Hon Cau Island (Ninh Thuan province) - one of the islands chosen by volunteers for their annual experiences.
The journey began on a summer day.
Every year, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), in collaboration with Con Dao National Park, organizes a volunteer campaign to participate in sea turtle conservation during the peak nesting season from June to September. This is a great opportunity for young people who love travel, scuba diving, and environmental protection.
The marine environment is pristine and shows few signs of human impact.
A starry night at Bay Canh Island (Con Dao)
Uyen Vu, a volunteer, shared with Travellive that nearly a thousand applications are submitted each year, but only about a hundred volunteers are selected to assist on the islands of Bay Canh, Hon Cau, Hon Tau, Hon Tre Lon, and Bai Duong. For turtles to choose a beach to lay their eggs, it must have a pristine, unspoiled environment with minimal human impact. Therefore, each beach here is preserved in its original, untouched state, making anyone who visits want to spend a part of their youth exploring the pure and unspoiled beauty of nature.
Uyen Vu - Volunteer for Sea Turtle Conservation and Rescue at Hon Cau, Binh Thuan, Phase IV 12-18/09/2020
Long trips on a tight budget.
Unlike the privilege of choosing prime travel locations, volunteer tourism offers a simple and rustic experience, allowing you to stay in the homes of local people, cook and eat with them, and use their transportation. Compared to a typical trip, volunteer tourism costs only one-fifth the price. For example, tourists visiting Con Dao Island have to rent a private speedboat, book a tour with a travel company, or arrange a tour through the National Park to reach the islands, while volunteers are assisted by the National Park's forest rangers with pick-up and drop-off at Bay Canh Island and Cau Island.
Bay Canh Island, with its pristine beauty, is a suitable nesting ground for turtles.
In addition to the sea turtle conservation project, Con Dao National Park is also implementing a tourism model that combines activities like releasing baby turtles to raise awareness among visitors about animal and environmental protection. On average, over 450 mother turtles come to the sandy beaches of Con Dao each year to nest and lay eggs. As a result, approximately 150,000 baby turtles are rescued, hatched, and released back into the sea annually, accounting for 80% of the total number of turtle eggs in Vietnamese waters. However, only 1 out of every 1,000 baby turtles released into the sea survives and grows to adulthood. Therefore, protecting turtle eggs to increase the hatching rate is crucial.
Increasingly harsh living conditions are the main reason threatening the survival of sea turtles.
When tourism is linked to work and experiencing local life.
On Bay Canh Island, as a sea turtle volunteer, a new day begins according to the schedule and activities of the forest ranger team. During the day, volunteers assist the rangers in planting trees, collecting and disposing of ocean waste, decorating and cleaning the station grounds, and guiding tourists on tours and turtle release experiences.
The activity of releasing baby turtles is receiving a great deal of support from tourists.
Most participants in this journey are young people who love to travel. After hours of active pursuits, trekking to isolated lighthouses or scuba diving experiences, they all gain knowledge and hear stories about the people and nature of this place.
"Up on that isolated lighthouse, there are three soldiers on guard duty, accompanied by 18 scrawny, emaciated dogs that look very pitiful. We truly admire them for overcoming all inconvenient conditions to fulfill their duties and silently contributing to guarding and protecting our homeland's seas and islands," recounted Thuong Huyen, a volunteer at the Sea Turtle Conservation and Rescue Center in Con Dao, Batch IV.
A forest ranger in charge of the egg burial pit, with a gentle smile.
And the most special activity is snorkeling to see the coral reefs. Snorkeling equipment such as life vests, goggles, snorkels, and fins can all be borrowed from the ranger station or from local residents. The rangers here also diligently teach you how to use your hands and feet to avoid damaging the coral and prevent coral cuts.
The volunteers learn to swim and snorkel together every morning.
Scuba diving activities take place almost every day.
Characterized by its shallow waters and crystal-clear surface, just 4-5 meters below the surface you'll encounter a variety of colorful corals, from branch coral and brain coral to soft coral and cabbage coral. Schools of fish swim freely, sea cucumbers abound, and various types of shellfish with impressive shapes, such as conch and elephant ear shells, will leave anyone overwhelmed by the rich beauty of nature.
Huyen happily told Travellive that cooking time is also the most joyful time when everyone pitches in to prepare a home-cooked meal. Most of the food is either home-grown or sourced locally, so every meal is very fresh and delicious.
Fresh and delicious seafood is a specialty of the coastal region.
Simple meals with fried eggs
Nights spent listening to the waves and watching turtles give birth.
Most activities take place late at night or early in the morning, coinciding with high tide. Mother turtles follow the tide ashore and return to the sea before the tide recedes. The number of turtles coming ashore to lay eggs varies depending on the location. For example, at Bay Canh beach, nearly twenty mother turtles come ashore to lay eggs in a single night, requiring volunteers to divide the work among themselves. Within six hours of laying the eggs, the volunteers and the staff will dig up the nests that the mother turtles have covered and move them to the incubation pond at the station. This prevents other animals from eating the eggs, or another mother turtle from accidentally digging up the newly covered nest, or worst of all, preventing humans from stealing the eggs to sell.
Mother turtles are very sensitive to light, so avoid shining lights directly into their eyes.
And as dawn breaks, if baby turtles emerge from their hatched nests, the volunteers will begin their work for the day: releasing them back into the sea. Holding a baby turtle in her hands for the first time was incredibly moving, as she felt she had contributed to the birth of these tiny lives. The volunteers will place the baby turtles about 2-3 meters from the water's edge and let them crawl out to sea on their own. This distance and time also helps them remember the area and return when it's time to breed.
Volunteer tourism is always a worthwhile journey.
Bringing baby turtles home is not just a simple volunteer tourism activity, but also a deeply immersive experience with nature that few other tourism services can offer. Once the baby turtles have swum far from shore, they will surface and look towards the beach as if to express their gratitude to those who nurtured and cared for their nest, allowing them to hatch and return home. Or perhaps they want to remember where they were born, so that one day they may return when they are grown. This gaze is nature's way of communicating with all those who strive to protect the life of this earth.
Baby turtles are memorizing the unique magnetic field of their birthplace and will return there in about 30 years.
Volunteer tourism is predicted to become one of the great travel trends for nature lovers who want to rediscover themselves in the vastness, tranquility, and positive energy of the sea.
