This April has seen the launch of 2 brand new volunteer opportunities as The Great Projects branch out to South America’s Amazon rainforest. We have partnered with CREES, a research foundation based on the peripheries of Peru’s Manu National Park; a UNESCO recognised biosphere reserve and World Heritage Site located not far from the historic Inca capital Cusco. Our partner’s aim is to create a truly sustainable Amazon, jointly focussing on wildlife research and rehabilitating ecosystems, as well as on the local communities with whom all initiatives are coordinated.

The Amazon Conservation Project runs from 2 to 12 weeks year-round and will give volunteers an unforgettable experience. They will play an integral part in conservation and sustainable community initiatives in a remarkable environment, working with fascinating wildlife and alongside local people. Assisting experts, volunteers will be participating in varied research methods in the Manu Biosphere, one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. It is home to over 1000 species of birds – an astounding 10% of all the world’s species – as well as large mammals such as jaguar, tapir, sloth, giant otter and many types of monkey.

Our other new Amazonian project is The Great Jaguar Expedition, a one off 3-week adventure into Manu National Park to track and study the continent’s biggest cat this coming September. This is a unique chance to get actively involved in frontline conservation research as part of a study that will shape jaguar conservation across South America. The jaguar is generally defined as an umbrella species meaning that its home range and habitat requirements are sufficiently broad that, if protected, numerous other species also be protected as a result, making this expedition a chance to make a hugely positive impact on the Amazon.

Here's a little treat for you guys from everyone here at The Great Projects...

It has been another busy month for everyone here at The Great Projects with the launch of a fantastic new wildlife conservation project!

It is an amazing endangered species monitoring program in Zululand, South Africa. With work supported by and in conjunction with organizations including the WWF, Endangered Wildlife Trust and Wildlands Conservation Trust, The Zululand Wildlife Conservation Project has tight-knit teams of volunteers participate in vital research across a number of reserves. The project currently focuses its efforts on three priority species; the African wild dog, cheetah and critically endangered black rhinoceros, while monitoring of elephant, buffalo, lion, hyena, leopard and white rhino takes place on a more ad hoc basis. Volunteers can join for multiples of 2 weeks with prices starting from £995.

Book a volunteer placement with The Great Projects between September 1st and November 30th and through us help change the life of a deaf/blind child in Uganda or help save an endangered orangutan in Indonesia.

For the next three months, for every booking that we receive The Great Projects will either sponsor a child from the Kisoro Demonstration School in Uganda or an orangutan at the International Animal Rescue Centre in Indonesia for a whole year. This sponsorship program is in addition to the donation elements that already exist within all of our projects.

We have chosen the Kisoro Demo School because volunteers on The Great Gorilla Project visit here twice a year and from this we have been made aware that the children are in desperate need of help. At a school with very little funding; we know that this sponsorship will make a huge impact on the childrens’ future. Therefore, each child we sponsor will be able to attend school and have all of their food provided for the entire year!

To start with every person from within The Great Projects' team has sponsored a child from the Kisoro Demonstration School

For those volunteers who opt for us to sponsor an orangutan; we will be doing this through IAR as they are a charity partner with whom we work so closely on our IAR Orangutan Project. The orangutan sponsorship money will be spent on things from food for the animals, an increase of staff to help with rehabilitation and materials for the construction of the new centre.

So when you book this month you will be asked whether you would like us to sponsor a child or adopt an orangutan for a year on your behalf. During the next year we will get continual updates on the children/orangutans progress which will be uploaded to the website for all to see. So please join our facebook group to learn more and to see how things are going.

Please see the video below taken during this years Great Gorilla Project with Ian Redmond of the children of Kisoro Demonstration School:

Competition winners Natalya Welch and her mother have just returned from their Orangutan and Tribes trip which they won with us in conjunction with Tourism Malaysia and responsibletravel.com earlier this year. Below is a lovely email which she has sent to us to describe their time on this project.

To all at Great Projects and Responsible Travel,

It’s Monday and I'm already trying to fight off the holiday blues after returning from what my mother and I have both said was the most incredible experience we’ve ever had. Not only was Borneo a magical and beautiful place full of the most diverse wildlife and species that I didn’t even know existed, but everyone we met were just the most inspiring and wonderful people.

The majority of our time was spent with Francis and Dom who really made our trip the fantastic experience that it was. I won’t ever forget Francis’s jokes which kept us all giggling. As mum and I are both veggies, I thought we’d struggle with food,  I was totally wrong. Francis always ensured that there were plenty of options for us and we never went hungry! The food was great!

I know that I wont just be speaking for myself when I say that I couldn't’t thank Dom enough for how he looked after us all and especially mum on the jungle treks. The dedication that Dom has to the conservation of Orangutans and his passion for them is truly inspiring. Having Dom around made us all feel so safe, even when Killer Bees were hovering and Leeches throwing themselves at us! His cooking is also totally delicious!

There wasn't a single part of the trip that I didn't love and given the chance, I would go back in an instant. I wish we would have had more time at Matang, because working there was yet another amazing experience and great fun to muck in and learn about the animals and most importantly, the conservation efforts. Although we didn't get much time with Natasha and Leo, it was humbling being with them and just fascinating to listen to their stories. In the few days at Matang I really learnt a lot.

Spending time in the jungle with the Chief and his family in their longhouse was incredible and not like anything I've ever experienced. They couldn't have been anymore welcoming and although language was a barrier, we all had such fun and it was emotional saying bye.

The trip was truly memorable and the best few weeks I've ever had, there were watery eyes when our group had to go separate ways. I'm sure I've made life-long friends. Thank you all again for picking my name and giving myself and mum this experience, I loved every moment of it.

I've attached a few pics from the 1500+ that I took, but I will of course send some more over soon.

Thank you all so much again and I can't wait to book another Great Projects adventure!

Kindest regards,

Natalya x

For more information on this project please click here!

Last week The Daily Mail posted an article online all about the IAR Orangutan Project. In particular it is making reference to the a particular orangutan named Mely. Mely was taken from her mother 16 years ago, chained up and kept as a pet. When news of this story surfaced our charity partner International Animal Rescue were green lighted by the Indonesian government to go and rescue her. The money raised by The Daily Mail, a little over £8,000 from its generous readers was used to transport Mely from captivity into her new home at the IAR orangutan centre in Ketapang.

Now the need is even more evident for volunteers to visit the IAR orangutan project in Borneo to look after the orangutans already there but to mainly help with the construction of the new centre that IAR are constructing so that many more orangutans like Mely can be rescued and given a new happy home.

Below Mely can be seen having a rest on a hammock at her new enclosure within IAR. Please join us to help give many more orangutans like mMely a chance for a happy life!!

Click here to view the IAR orangutan volunteering Project

To view the whole story click below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2121776/Building-work-starts-new-jungle-house-Borneo-rescued-orangutan-Mely-pals.html

The Great Projects is proud to announce the winner of our 2012 competition in conjunction with Responsible Travel and Tourism Malaysia, Natalya Welch! She will be attending our Orangutan and Tribes Voluntour on the 3rd May with her mother.

Below is Natalya's response when we told her that she had won:

"Are you really sure that this is not a hoax? Im still in disbelief that I have not only won a competition, but the chance to go on the most amazing adventure to my absolute dream destination with my bestest friend, my mum.

My love of animals, especially of the Ape variety and the chance to visit beautiful Borneo is so very exciting and I cannot wait to don my hiking boots and get there!

So the dreaded Leeches aside, I’m most looking forward to experiencing a way of life that I know so little about, immersing myself in the tribal culture, spending time being a jungle Jane and exploring the rainforests is yet another goal to tick off the wish list.

I feel incredibly fortunate that I will be able to see the magnificent Orangutans in their natural environment, which in the future may so sadly be no more. I’ll be sure to keep a grip on my camera as I’ve heard that Orangutans have a rather cheeky side and fancy themselves as photographers! Camera firmly attached, I’ll come home with an array of breathtaking photos to bombard the wonderful people who have made this fabulous trip a possibility with. I cant thank you all enough and will of course be eternally grateful! Is it time to go yet?"

As you can tell Natalya is extremely excited to go and we here at The Great Projects could not be more excited to give someone as enthusiastic and keen to help with our conservation efforts as Natalya, the chance to go to Borneo and fulfill a dream of hers. As all past volunteers will know this trip is very fulfilling and we are sure she will come back with many wonderful life long memories!

We would like to give one final thank you to Responsible Travel and Tourism Malaysia who have helped give everyday people the chance to live with the native Bornean Iban tribes and understand the challenges associated with the conservation of the orangutans!

We look forward to hearing all of your stories upon your return!!

Last year we here at The Great Projects, in conjunction with Tourism Malaysia and Responsible Travel, ran a competition to send two people to Malaysia to partake in our Orangutan and Tribes Tour for 2 weeks.

The competition ran for about a month on Responsible Travels website and we got a record 1765 entries showing peoples serious interest in wanting to travel abroad responsibly to help save the orangutans native to Borneo. The winners will embark on an unforgettable orangutan jungle tour of the island of Borneo visiting 2 orangutan centres - the Matang Wildlife Centre and the Semenggoh Nature Reserve and 3 national parks - Bako National Park, Kubah National Park and Batang Ai National Park.

This voluntour was crafted to raise awareness of the conservation efforts made in Sarawak, Borneo, to bring harmony between people and orangutans. The 14-day/13-night voluntour  gives the traveller one-day "back stage passes" to see captive orangutans being rehabilitated at Matang Wildlife Centre and the released semi-wild orangutans of Semenggoh Nature Reserve. Around this they will visit the seven different habitats of Borneo in the amazing National Park at Bako and engage in a one week trip into the rainforest. Here they will meet the descendents of the legendary headhunters of Borneo - the Iban tribes - now the custodians of the wild orangutans of Batang Ai National Park.

To celebrate the lucky winners' chance to experience this life changing opportunity we will be holding an event in London to welcome them onto this Great Project. This will be a chance to meet past volunteers to learn more about what they can expect as well as being a great chance for past volunteers to meet up again to exchange stories and catch up with each other. We will soon be announcing the winners and the location for this event here so mind this space!

We would finally like to take this chance to thank Tourism Malaysia for this amazing opportunity to collate our mutual views on responsible travel to then encourage people to travel to see the amazing sites Malaysia has to offer.

Since last year we have been working closely together to try to promote Malaysia as a destination in hope that others will share our enthusiasm for the travel destinations in this country, namely those based around orangutan protection and welfare. As our past volunteers know we run some fantastic projects there including our flagship Great Orangutan Project. So if you are a past volunteer or are considering a trip to Malaysia we urge you to consider the fore mentioned project, and invite you to be part of our community of people who on their own hope to, and together with us DO make a serious impact on both the conservation of orangutan front as well as the continued community support of the local Iban tribes.

Wrapping travel around a cause like conservation or community development at destinations like Borneo, Africa and the Amazon is the shape of travel tomorrow. Get ahead and choose from our latest specially crafted collection of luxury wildlife safaris and ecotours but with that developmental twist.

We have experienced that luxury travellers today are very clear about what they want in a holiday. No longer drawn by ostentatious services, they have moved towards an understated luxury, and plan their trips with a focus on authenticity and a privilege to get behind the scenes of local people’s life abroad. Life enriching travel is the essence of The Great Traveller and with charity donation built into the package, you are ensured that travel with us means you are helping save endangered animals or helping local communities create wealth from an ethical travel.

Choose from our new The Great Traveller collection and make a difference, whilst still enjoying your creature comforts abroad.