What Is a National Park Volunteer?
Volunteers at national parks undertake activities such as providing commentary at nature-viewing events, beautification and cleaning, and simple maintenance and repair of facilities. The aim is to promote public awareness of nature conservation by seeking public participation.
About Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park Volunteers
Volunteers take part in providing information to visitors, beautification and clean-up activities, and extermination of invasive species and also carry out measures aimed at preventing road accidents involving wild animals in Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park, where many kinds of endemic rare wildlife inhabit the rich natural environment made up of subtropical forests, mangrove forests, tidal flats and coral reefs.
What Are the Main Tasks?
- Extermination of invasive alien species such as cane toads and bitter vines
- Assisting with nature-viewing events
- Assisting with patrolling and surveying activities in the national park
- Providing information to visitors to the national park
- Clearing weeds alongside prefectural roads to prevent road accidents involving wild animals such as the Iriomote cat (in the case of the Iriomote district)
- National park beautification and clean-up activities.
As for the Iriomote district, volunteers meet every second Saturday of the month, and carry out such activities as invasive-plant and roadside-vegetation removal.
