Volunteer placements
The EDO coordinates the placement of Australians to work with public
interest environmental organisations in the Pacific and South-East Asia.
The EDO partners with AusAID's Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development
(AYAD), Volunteers for International Development Australia (VIDA) and
Australian Volunteers International (AVI) programs to create funded placements
in the region for up to two years. Volunteers typically work in environmental
law, science or policy.
 Most
of the land in the Solomons is held under customary land tenure
and uncontrolled logging is having a devastating effect on the
environment and communities. LALSU was created in 2009 to address
these issues, and Elaine has been assisting local lawyers in the
establishment of the Unit.
Elaine has been supporting local lawyers
in running legal education workshops on laws relating to forestry,
environmental impact assessment, ownership of foreshores, climate
change and other topics for customary landowners, giving advice,
preparing casework, sourcing new clients, seeking further funding,
and building up a set of legal resources for landowners on environmental
law issues. |
| Photo: AYAD volunteer, Elaine
Johnson, has been working with lawyers in the Landowners Advocacy
and Legal Support Unit (LALSU) at the Public Solicitor's Office in
the Solomon Islands. |
Current placements include:
- Environmental lawyer with the Public Solicitor's Office in the Solomon
Islands
- Climate Change awareness officers with Live and Learn Environmental
Education in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Vietnam. For more information
about Live and Learn, see: www.livelearn.org
- Climate Change policy officers with the Department of Environment
in Fiji, the Department of Environment in the Solomon Islands and the
Department of Environment in Tonga
- Environmental lawyer with the Ministry of Environment, Lands & Agricultural
Development in Kiribati
- EIA policy officer with the Department of Environment in Fiji
- Environmental lawyer with the Centre for Human Rights and Development
(CHRD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. For more information about the CHRD,
see: www.chrd.org.mn/english.
 In 2009, the EDO placed nine volunteers with Pacific governments and NGOs to help them to prepare for and participate in the UNFCCC climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. |
| Photo: Taniela Faletau from UNSW and Will McGoldrick from the Climate Institute with AYADs during pre-departure training on climate change policy in the South Pacific. |
Partner organisations for previous placements include the Community Legal Education Centre in Cambodia, the Centre for Human Rights and Environment in Argentina, the Wantok Environment Centre in Vanuatu and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Regional
Office for Oceania in Fiji.
Click here for information
about placements currently being advertised, or contact
for information about new placements being developed.
For more information about AusAID's volunteer programs, see: www.ayad.com.au, www.vidavolunteers.com.au, www.australianvolunteers.com and www.lawyersbeyondborders.com
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