Award-winning, non-profit and ethical wildlife conservation volunteering. Advancing citizen science and conservation since 1999 – for nature, not profit.
For Loulou Ojjeh, Biosphere Expeditions played a pivotal role in her journey towards becoming an ecologist when she joined its Maldives expedition in 2025.
Despite having completed only 20 dives and questioning whether she was truly ready, Loulou quickly realised that she was far from being an anomaly. ‘Many participants shared similar doubts’, Loulou recalls finding out.
Shaha Hashim is a pioneer in the conservation movement in the Maldives. Her passion started at a young age when she ‘was lucky enough to be selected for the school snorkelling club where I witnessed the vibrant beauty of the corals before the 1998 bleaching event devastated over 90% of them.’
Many corals have grown back since and Shaha never lost her dedication to them. In 2014 Shaha joined Biosphere Expeditions, an international non-profit citizen science organisation, which supercharged her conservation career.
Are you thinking about volunteering abroad and interested in wildlife conservation?
Whether you want to help monitor whales, survey coral reefs, or support wildlife researchers in remote national parks, these volunteer projects offer the chance to contribute to real conservation work while experiencing a destination in a much deeper way.
But, volunteering abroad is very different from a typical holiday.
In this article I’ll walk you through what wildlife volunteering actually involves, what daily life looks like, and how to know if it’s the right fit for you.
Continue reading “Volunteering Abroad for Wildlife Conservation: What Should You Expect?”We are delighted to once again collaborate. with Dr. Alan Lee as the expedition scientist. After successful expeditions with him to the Peru Amazon from 2011 to 2016 and South Africa from 2015 to 2017, we will be back with him in his native South Africa on an expedition entitled “Much more than just leopards: Surveying biodiversity in the Cape Floral Kingdom of the fynbos mountains of South Africa.”
This expedition will focus on documenting biodiversity in the western Baviaanskloof wilderness area, with a particular focus on threatened and elusive Endangered mammals such as the riverine rabbit and Cape leopard, as well as birds and other fauna recorded through Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcount (CAR) transects. The work supports long-term monitoring obligations within the Cape Floral Kingdom (fynbos), a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its exceptional biodiversity.
Continue reading “South Africa: Expedition with Dr Alan Lee returning in 2026”Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition
Group 2 is now also qualified – well done – and checking those reefs.
The stories are as mixed as has been the weather. There are some quite healthy reefs and some that are sick.
Fish are scarce, especially grouper, because there is immense fishing pressure due to (over)tourism and a very active grouper fishery that sells them off as food fish, mainly to Hong Kong as live fish for restaurant aquariums there.
Continue reading “Maldives: Sickness & Health”Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition
Here we are back again with a smaller, but equally keen group 2.
The weather has turned and it’s more windy, greyer and rainy now. But underwater it’s wet anyway.
We’ve done our check-out dive and are well into our training sessions now. Lectures, pointy dives and fish test today. The proof will be in the pudding.
Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition
Group 1 has checked all the reefs on its schedule, well done!
All were repeat surveys to track reef health and development over the years, one of the great advantages of citizen-scientist-funded expeditions, which can fund projects sustainably and reliably for many years (since 2011 in the case of the Maldives), generating long-term datasets that result in many insights and scientific publications.
None of this would happen without the many, many citizen scientists over the years who come to fund and help with this research and conservation work. Thank you!
Continue reading “Maldives: Stable recovery”Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition
We’re in the groove now and checking those reefs like clockwork – well done team 1.
We moved to Alifu Dhaalu (South Ari) atoll and studied a couple of sites there, as per our schedule. They were outer sites and coral cover was unchanged from when we visited them last in 2023 (still few fish, as has been the case for more than a decade now – they are just being overfished). The good coral cover, however, is positive news, showing some resilience.
Continue reading “Maldives: Mantas and corals”Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition
Team 1 is delivering and so is the weather – and the reefs.
After two days of intensive training, we’ve checked our first reef, well half of it, were it not for our very own two Daft Punks reeling in the survey line whilst people were still busy with the survey :))
But that’s exactly what the very first survey is for – after 48 hours of crash coursing – to get familiar with how it all comes together underwater. So no sweat and same again this morning, as per ze schedule, ja!
Continue reading “Maldives: Half checked”Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition
Expedition scientist Simon and I have arrived on our liveaboard base in the Maldives and are setting up as we speak.
The liveaboard harbour is – against expectations – still here and has not been filled in for housing. We have a quiet corner amongst other liveaboards although there is some hammering and shouting going on as I type this as last minute repairs are done.
Continue reading “Maldives: On board”
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