Introduction

This past year was full of unaccustomed fear and overpowering excitements in Bolivia. I was 21 when I moved and turned 22 there. Over a year ago, it was confusing to even understand how I would come to navigate through the sprawling jungle and the vast traffic but gradually, the small and large decisions made over the past 10 months left me with more stillness and pertinacity. Working with WWF, over the next course of 2 to 3 months, I can’t wait to share the neighborhoods and cities of the country that I learned to appreciate and fall in love with.

 

Making the Big Move

After I got off the interview with Alejandra, the Communications director of WWF Bolivia, I remembered thinking to myself what life would be like on the other side of the world. At the time, I was in Taiwan visiting my family, and the polar distance between Asia and Central America made all these thoughts even more distanced and unimaginable.

 

Fast forward three weeks later, I was packing and getting ready for my internship in Bolivia.

 

As a Canadian, I needed to apply for a temporary tourist visa and apply for a work visa when I arrived. Weeks before my departure, I had sent in my application to the Bolivian embassy in Ottawa and patiently checking the progress on the website every day. Fourteen days. Ten days. Seven days. Five days before I took off to Toronto, I started to grow nervous and worried that my passport and visa wouldn’t arrive on time. The next day, I received a phone call from the embassy that it is on its way and it should arrive over the next two days. I still remembered frantically phoning every post offices and mail control centers in my city, tracking down my passport. That afternoon, I walked out of the post office, waving the massive brown envelope with a victory smile.

 

But this tiny yet inconvenient incident was just a beginning of the story and the rest was just about a hundred times harder. Of course, at the time, I wouldn't have known about any of this.

 

After three lengthy layovers (Texas, Miami, and Buenos Aires), I finally arrived at Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Although I haven't slept in a day and a half, I was so excited to see the city. Stepping out of the airport gate, the air was hot and humid. The landscaped covered in brick dust, small shacks and large mansions, and a few high rises.

 

Alejandra sent a taxi driver to pick me up from the airport. On the way, I was told that the city is organized into rings. The office is located between the second and the third ring of the city and my apartment (which is not yet ready) is also situated on the second and third ring of the city, but on the opposite side. My driver took a peek from the mirror and saw that my face was clouded with confusion. He laughed and said that I would get used to it.

 

It's better, he said. This way, you can never get lost.

 

He was right.

 

Speaking at the Global Issue Network Conference

 

Two month before my departure, I had the opportunity to talk to the delegates as a keynote speaker at Bolivia’s first Global Issue Network Conference at the International Cooperative School of Santa Cruz. To be completely honest, I was a tad bit nervous. I wanted to represent the organization well.

 

I drafted up pages and pages of words and ideas. There was just so much that I wanted to share. Having the opportunity to work with the younger generation was valuable to me, and I wanted to deliver as much information as I can, for them to gain access to more opportunities to advocate for our environment.

 

WWF Mission and Strategies

I started off by introducing WWF and our mission statement. As ambitious as our mission statement sounds,

 

We also discussed the importance of ecological hotspots, areas rich with biodiversity due to their exceptional ecosystems. Many were surprised that by prioritizing these habitats, we have the potential to protect some of the critically endangered species around the world.

 

Situated in Central America, Amazonia is one of the most diverse hotspot in the world. As part of our initiatives, not only do we set out to protect it, we want to manage it in a way that is ecologically, biologically, and culturally sustainable. In addition to sharing part of the Amazonian rainforest, we also co-shared (with Brazil and Paraguay) the largest tropical wetlands in the world, el Cerrado Pantanal.

 

WWF Bolivia’s Strategies and Sites of Focus

Within these regions, WWF Bolivia works in specific sites such as Manuripi reserve, San Matias protected area, and Parque Itenez. Bolivia is considered as a rapidly developing country and it's often impossible to stop the development of these places entirely, nor would it be fair. However, we do want to ensure that these places are sustainably developed, exerting minimal human footprint on nature while economically benefiting the local community.

 

Specifically, we developed four strategies to achieve our goals: freshwater, responsible markets, sustainable cities, and forestry. With each initiative, we carried out actions that would hopefully mitigate or even reverse the situations.  For instance, we focus the majority of our work on water cycles within the eleven RAMSAR sites in Pantanal, as these wetlands are some of the most productive ecosystems, but unfortunately, one of the most vulnerable sites to climate change.

 

 

 

Often times, the most vulnerable habitats housed some of the most endangered species on this planet. Unfortunately, they are also one of the most impoverished places. The consequences are often suffered by those with the most to lose. With each campaign and initiative, we have the potential of creating larger ripple effects across the entire ecosystem. The bufeos conservation program is a perfect example to illustrate this. The bufeos (pink dolphins) are freshwater species and their population serves as an indication of the quality of the freshwater. When the population of the bufeo increase due to our conservation efforts, the increase in numbers also benefits the health of the people as the quality of drinking water improved. Together, these factors can be the key to  thriving sustainable tourism industry. When people find other ways to depend their livelihood on, the burden on nature can be re-distributed.

 

Youth and Communications

Many were interested in what a day of a typical WWF intern is like in the office and I had the opportunity to share my day with them. I explained that everyday is a different from campaign strategizing to fixing up powerpoints presentations for scientists working in the field. Working in communications also gave me an opportunity to be involved with local organizations and stakeholders to have a closer peek at how WWF Bolivia manage partnerships with corporate companies and the government. The experience is invaluable.

 

Every day, I am also inspired by the people at the office who are deeply passionate about the same issue as I am and it’s reassuring to be surrounded by professionals who have previously walked the same path that I am about to embark on.

 

From working with some of the most comprehensive scientists at the forefront of research to some of the most experienced publicists and campaign managers, the operation of the office requires all sorts of experts from all areas of field and this fully exemplifies that environmental advocacy can come from all path of careers.

 

 

 

A Day in the Life of a WWF Intern (Part 1)

How do you spend your day? I’ve been asked this question by many people over the last year, by locals, by friends, by family (hello mom and dad)....

 

The truth is, everyday is a little different with different meetings and campaigns. But today, you are going to get a first hand look of what working for WWF Bolivia as a communications intern is like!

 

8:30 am - Getting into the Office

I usually get into the office around 8:30 am. Occasionally, I’ll be in the office at 8:00 am if I have a conference call booked (since there’s major time difference between Bolivia and Singapore and Europe!). Erica, our office secretary, would buzz me through and we would often chat about our mornings. If you are lucky, everyone will be in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee and catching up with each other. Bolivians will rarely ever let you go without asking about your day, especially if they are from Santa Cruz (Cruceñas) as we say, are known for their kindness and hospitality.

 

8:45 am - Meeting Prep

I have a meeting with Arne at 9:30am today! Arne, our fundraising coordinator, works in our office in La Paz. Every month or two, he would fly from La Paz to Santa Cruz to work with us. Fundraising goes hand in hand with Communications, for this reason, we have a lot of joint projects and campaign together. The meeting today is going to be about Earth Hour in Latin America. A couple weeks ago, we were invited to join a conference call with other offices in Latin America to discuss the potentials of working on a regional campaign together for Earth Hour. As of now, I am wrapping up my research and throwing a couple of ideas around.

 

9:15 - Emails and Quick Social Media Update

Checking email is one of the first few tasks that I try to complete before morning meetings and calls. I regularly receive email from Ana from our Latin America Coordination (LAC) Team on social media updates with the global WWF network. I’ll usually do a quick research on the project of interest and file a mental note to come back to it in the afternoon.

 

As a Communications Intern, I also manage all of the social media platforms of WWF Bolivia. In order to engage with our online audience, it’s crucial for me to regularly update on our social media outlets. Let’ see, today is a Monday, which means that it’s #lunesdeEcotips! Every Monday, we share a quick eco friendly tip on our Facebook to remind everyone that even the smallest conscious change counts! I quickly posted our tip of the day and head to my meeting with Arne in the conference room!

 

9:30 - 10:30 Brainstorming for Earth Hour LAC

Arne and I threw around some ideas that we were hoping to pitch for conference call taking place in the next hour. Our idea was to focus on endangered species in each countries and work with local artists, singers, and performers to feature local communities and highlight how they work to protect these species. We discussed the pros and cons of each ideas and managed to narrow it down to 2 campaigns that we would like to share with the rest of the team. After finalizing our talking points, we came up with a rough draft of the project proposal.

 

10:30 - 11:30 Earth Hour LAC Conference Call

And we are going live! We have WWF Mexico, WWF Colombia, WWF Paraguay, WWF Chile, WWF Ecuador, WWF Peru with us on the call. Roman, from WWF Europe, facilitated the call. The purpose of the call was to discuss a region wide call to action for Earth Hour in Latin America. We brainstormed what would be an effective call to action and identified some of the common goals we hope to achieve with Earth Hour 2017, those being leads and fund acquisitions. There was a lot of ideas flowing around the room and it was incredible to hear about each country's’ project and their area of focus.

 

11:30 - 12:00 Final Talking Points + Conclusion

After we wrapped the call, Arne and I summarize our thoughts and sent it off to WWF Europe.

A Day in the Life of a WWF Intern (Part 2)

 

12:00 - 13:30 Boxing Session with Lila + Quick Lunch

Lunch time is 2 hours here in Bolivia! It’s part of the Bolivian culture to go home for lunch with their families and take a small nap afterwards. Growing up in Taiwan, we used to have the same routine, but ever since moving to Canada for more than a decade, I became used to grabbing  quick meal in front of my desk.

 

Lila, our freshwater biologist, invited me to go boxing with her a couple months back and we have been training together since! We ended up doing drills today, ouch!

 

13:00 - 14:00 Social Media Update + Research

Everyday, I make a point to check up on our Facebook and Twitter and reply back to comments and messages from our online audience. We hosted a Facebook Live event yesterday and many people commented with replies and follow up questions. Replying to comments is crucial to maintain our online presence and increase our following base. I also just love interacting with our supporter online to collect any feedbacks and address any questions they may have. When I meet people in Santa Cruz, most of them are very curious and interested about WWF and our programs in Bolivia, so I make sure to share any interesting facts and articles related to conservation efforts in Bolivia.

 

I have a meeting with Lila this afternoon. One of our current initiatives feature the endemic pink dolphins in Bolivia, and we are planning to create an awareness campaign around the bufeos. Having done some of my research, I am hoping that Lila can help me out with some of questions I have, especially the how human actions pose a threat to these species.

 

14:00 - 15:00 Email Marketing and Social Media Scheduling

As you have probably noticed, my days are often jam packed with research and meetings (especially during Earth Hour!). To better organize my workload, I usually take some time on Monday to schedule the social media posts and updates for the coming week. We have more than 14,000 followers on Facebook, so we always try to keep an active presence on the platform!

 

15:00 - 16:30 Communications Strategies Meeting

One last meeting before the day! Ale (my Communications supervisor), Arne, and I sat down in the conference room to go over some of action items from today’s meetings. Ale was out facilitating a workshop this morning, so we gave her a quick update to bring her up to speed. The regional conference call was a success and our ideas were very well received.

 

For a couple of months now, we have also been working on two other projects. One being an awareness campaign for the pink dolphins in Bolivia and another being a crowdfunding project that we hope would be our first donation campaign. A month ago, I was researching for Earth Hour and came across several Earth Hour Blue campaigns. I immediately became really interested in making this a reality in Bolivia. When I first arrived, I immediately learned that fundraising is still relatively foreign concept in Bolivia. The reason was simple, not many can afford to give. With a crowdfunding initiative, the platform becomes a collective effort of the community. In contrast to traditional fundraiser, crowdfunding is able to gather more funds from individuals and more inclusive overall. I think that is the key to small scale donation campaigns. Having said that, we are still steps away from turning our ideas into a reality. Halfway through the meeting, Jordi joined us to discuss a project that might work well with our crowdfunding initiative.

 

For decades, WWF Bolivia has been working with community reserves to harvest sustainable Brazil nuts and cacao. Members within the community would often travel from sites to sites during the harvesting season and camp in nearby woods. A company from Germany recently designed a portable stove powered by solar energy that can be taken to travel with the families. The cost of the stoves are extremely affordable ($10USD/single stove). Excited by the potential prospects, we discussed the project further in detail. As the program director, Jordi had previously worked with both the community reserve and the German based tech company, and he was able to offer more insights on the logistics. In reality, we faced a few obstacles such as the lack of online transactions in the country and the attractiveness of the cause. Unfortunately, these are the prospects that we need to take into consideration despite it being a great cause.

 

16:30 - 17:30 Editing memes and videos

After the meeting, a coffee break was much needed. We filled our cups and snacked on some cuñapes (a tasty traditional Bolivian pastry). Returning to my desk, I decided to edit some videos and put the hour to good use. Once or twice throughout the week, I would set aside an hour or two to draft up the media posts and edit some promotional videos. Designing and editing can be time consuming, but seeing the well received comments whenever we launch an online campaign or release a promotional video is well worth it.

 

And that’s a day in the life of a WWF Communications Intern! I hope you enjoyed the post as the internship has definitely been fulfilling and rewarding for me. Can’t wait to share more in the next couple of months.