Adventure volunteering or volunteering for adventure: The use of volunteers for environmental management

Land management agencies are frequently between a rock and a hard place due to the increasing gap between the resources required for effective environmental management versus the resources actually available. Adventure volunteering has the potential to assist land managers by providing a pool of effective, motivated and experienced workers, whilst also providing volunteers with positive and rewarding experiences so that they remain in the program and long-term follow-up works are performed. This paper will discuss these issues, outline a set of criteria that need to be met for programs to be effective and provide examples from groups doing remote area weed management in Tasmania.