What keeps NZ’s conservation volunteers motivated?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-04-22 03:00

New Zealand

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Volunteers are an essential force behind many NZ conservation projects, and the government is increasingly relying on volunteers to help achieve biodiversity goals and drive national conservation initiatives, such as Predator Free 2050. However, many groups struggle with recruiting and retaining people. Researchers spoke to community-based conservation volunteers in the Manawatū region about their motives. It might be no surprise that the key long-term motivation factor was ‘to care for the environment’, but over the long term, volunteers were also increasingly driven by a desire to socialise with others. For this reason, researchers suggest conservation projects are designed to allow time for people to socialise with others, and that projects should provide a range of tasks that cater for different motivational factors.