6th Learning Exchange (Germany/Iceland)

How to manage an international group of volunteers, meeting in the middle of nowhere, in pure wilderness, all of them willing to do something they never have done before?

This is a very different context for managing volunteers than Stephanie Schubert (EUROPARC Germany) and Heike Kirchner (Junior Ranger Assistant) at the biosphere reserve Rhön) are dealing with in Germany.  They both worked associated to an international volunteer group at Vatnajökul National Park in Skaftafell (Iceland) for ten days. Working alongside the volunteers, they have assisted the volunteer team leaders and rangers and directly exchanged knowledge about volunteer management in Iceland and Germany.

„The most striking difference to conservation volunteer management in Germany was to observe that local groups were coordinated by other international volunteers who have participated in previous years and that such a strong team spirit arose within just a few days“, embraces Stephanie Schubert that intense period of time – a topic that has begun to be discussed in Germany as well but has not turned into praxis yet.