Conservation Volunteers Australia, Fremantle, Help Make a Difference

By Luke Pellegrini //

The future of Australia’s ecosystems are in good hands.

Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) in Fremantle is an organisation that inspires change by connecting people with nature.

Conservation Officer Hannah Gulliver said this is done by “…connecting local communities to projects in their area, around the state, around the country.” She said.

The organisation works with “project partners” (Council Governments, Government organisations or local community groups) who “manage areas of land.” Gulliver said.

“…What we do is we bring extra hands,” she said “we bring a team of volunteers to help out on projects that need extra help.”

CVA in Fremantle do different kinds of trips, depending on how much time you have to volunteer.

There are “daily trips” where a volunteer can spend a day helping out at a venue “within an hours drive of Fremantle” Gulliver said.

Additionally, there are “residential trips” where a group of volunteers go to Regional Western Australia and will either be “camping or staying in dorm rooms” over a period of three to 12 days.

These trips are funded by “a number of sources” Gulliver said.

“…we have lots of different project partners and through these project partners we apply for funding, either by writing grants as conservation volunteers or providing letters of support for our project partners to look for funding as well…” she said

On these trips volunteers will partake in either environmental conservation or heritage conservation, with a large majority of the work being environmental conservation.

“I’d say 95 per cent of our work is the environmental conservation…” Gulliver said.

The efforts of the people within this organisation toward conservation are a reflection of their attitudes and feelings for environmental conservation.

“Conservation is very important to me,” Gulliver said “I think through my studies doing environmental management and through working with conservation volunteers and just my experiences, I’ve realised how much we’re losing and how important it is to protect what we have left…”

CVA Volunteer Paul Desmond said “Conservation as saving habitats and species and animals and plants is very important…” He said.

This was echoed by CVA Volunteer Camila Bedulli Do Carmo “Conservation is important,” she said “I care a lot about the environment…”

Conservation Volunteers Australia in Fremantle have many volunteers.

“we get all age ranges we can have anyone from seven to 80 years of age, we get both genders and we get people from all types of backgrounds…” Gulliver said.

On average over the course of a year CVA in Fremantle will reach “over the 4000 mark” of volunteers.

Some of these volunteers can be regulars to the organisation.

A regular to the organisation is Mr Desmond.

“I’ve been volunteering all of this year. Most of the times, three to four times a week” Said Desmond

CVA Volunteer Paul Locowitz is another regular to the program.

“I do about two days a week in summer and three days a week in winter…” he said

Conservation Volunteers Australia, Volunteers and Conservation Officer by the water in Bibra Lake. Camila Bedulli Do Carmo (Volunteer) pictured left, Hannah Gulliver (Conservation Officer) pictured second from the left, Paul Locowitz (Volunteer) pictured second from the right, Paul Desmond (Volunteer) pictured on the right.