Overseas Conservation Education and research: the new colonialism?

ABSTRACT

The overseas field course is a common feature of European and North American undergraduate degrees and increasingly students are seeking out volunteering opportunities abroad in order to gain career-related experience in the overcrowded conservation sector. We argue that, without careful consideration, both activities run the twin risks of becoming ‘parachute’ science and perpetuating harmful neo-colonial attitudes. We propose a series of guidelines for those running overseas university field courses and volunteering activities to reduce these risks.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• parachute science
• neo-colonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.