You don’t have to be Jane Goodall to make a difference

Text message [24/8/21 13:34]: Do you mind writing a blog?

My initial reply was “Sure!” then I stopped and thought “What do I write about?! The volunteer blogs are all about the field and working on the projects and seeing the lorises in the wild. I don’t go to the field! I don’t work on their projects! I don’t see the lorises in the wild! I’m allergic to cats, I can’t even touch a loris!”

Now, while a lot of that is true, a lot of it also isn’t. I don’t go in the field, and I don’t see lorises in the wild. But I do work on various projects, and like our social media followers, I get to see the lorises in the wild from the videos and photos from the team. 

People have this idea of conservation, and it tends to be in two groups: in the field or in the pockets. By that I mean, people often think if they aren’t directly in the field, in the mud and muck, touching the animals, then they aren’t contributing to conservation. Or if they aren’t donating to a cause, which is always a worthwhile thing to do, they also aren’t supporting conservation.

“Ariana, where are you going with this?” Don’t worry, I’m making my way to my point and volunteer experience, I promise.

For more than four and a half years I’ve had the joy of working with Little FireFace Project, with Director Anna Nekaris and the ever-growing team of coordinators, researchers, students, and volunteers. I’ve done all this from my spider, snake, and leech free environment in the UK, which should tell you how I feel about getting into the muck and mud for myself. I’ve gotten to work on so many exciting research projects with the data collected by the team in Java and from that I found a real love and interest in the faces of our beautiful slow lorises. This has meant I got to present at conferences, share research with the public and even got my name on some excellent papers (not that I’m biased at all).

Getting to take the work done by the rest of the team in Java, where let’s be honest most of us are not going to visit, and moulding into something that can be shared with the wider world is an amazing feeling. Of course, it hasn’t been all cute pictures and great milestones during my time with Little FireFace Project. Sometimes I’m back and forth with admins and airlines and Little FireFace staff because I have to get them booked a plane and travelling on a certain date. On a few lucky times, I’ve been one of those people having to travel on a certain date (flashback to AAPA Cleveland 2019!). Sometimes I’m sitting and cutting down character counts, so things fit on Twitter and then deleting them to repost because for some reason there is no edit button(!). There’s outreach and fundraising and getting to spread loris love in normal, not covid-social-distance times. I have a lot of fun answering, “Is that a bear?” from young children when they see the photos or plushies. Maybe one of them will be the next Professor Nekaris and develop a lifelong love and protection of a small, often overlooked, species.

Maybe my experiences and volunteer presence aren’t the pinnacles of importance, but that’s ok. I love what I do, what I get to see and do and the different ways I get to impact slow loris conservation daily. It’s rewarding for me. It helps the team in whatever needs doing that day. Most importantly, it ultimately helps the slow lorises and that’s what it’s about.

What am I trying to say and share about my volunteer experience? There’s no one way to be a conservationist. You don’t have to be Jane Goodall to make a difference. Just get involved, in the field, in the pockets or by doing whatever needs doing on the day to support the rest of your conservation team!