International Conservation Working Holidays in Fukuoka, Japan and Strategy of BTCV in United Kingdom

摘要

International Conservation Working Holidays (ICWH), which were carried out in cooperation with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV), were held nine times between 1997 and 2005 in Kurogi-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. They were investigated in this study. Firstly, questionnaire surveys were conducted among the Japanese participants to evaluate the activities done during the ICWHs. Secondly, the number of repeat volunteers from previous years and the number of staff with their assigned responsibilities were analyzed. Finally, changes in the BTCV's international strategy as a result of having launched the Conservation Volunteers Alliance Accreditation Program are described. The purpose of this investigation is to clarify various problems related to the ICWHs and to demonstrate the necessity of commencing leadership training and of establishing self-sufficient regional organizations to overcome these problems. The number of valid responses to the questionnaire survey was 207 which represents 80.9% of the total number of returned questionnaires. The highest response to the question regarding activities was "Interaction with other people", although the highest reason given for participation was "Do actual environmental conservation work". It is conjectured that the safe and pleasant management not only enabled conservation tasks, but also fostered communication. Regarding the repeats status of volunteers, between 80 to 90% of the participants intended to participate in the ICWH program again, while 10% were interested in being involved in project management. The actual number of repeat volunteers increased each year from 1998 to 2005. The re-participation rate was approximately 10% and the proportion of return volunteers who returned as staff (as opposed to a normal participants) was approximately 50%. Thus, it is apparent that the activities done on ICWHs not only encouraged volunteer participation but also promoted training. However, relatively few participants chose to do conservation tasks on a regular basis or to participate actively as local leaders. Distinct roles were assigned to ICWH staff and a large number of staff (between 22 to 52) attended due to the fact that we lacked a trained leader and a large number of participants were involved in the project (between 50 to 80). However, the international nature of the project combined with the need to employ a lot of staff increased the cost of the project preventing it from continuing and extending to other regions. Consequently, commencement of leadership training and reconsideration of the number of volunteers needs to be done to ensure the continued operation of ICWHs in the future. Furthermore, recently BTCV have decided that it would be more efficient if volunteers were dispatched to just one host group that really requires their support in each country. On the other hand, International Conservation Volunteer Alliance (ICVA) commenced the ICVA Accreditation Program in 2006. Japan is expected to form core-organizations, which could manage leadership training and environmental conservation projects.