Re: unpaid jobs in conservation.

Do I think that unpaid /pay-to-pay jobs in conservation are gatekeeping? Absolutely.

Do I recognize some projects can't support interns etc? Yes, I do.

The problem isn't the individual projects. It's that conservation isn't valued.

What do I mean by this? I mean that environmental NGOs, for example (as I work mostly in nonprofits) take about 4-5% of the overall charity sector.

Which indicates that conservation is often the LAST cause that gets supported. It is seen as an 'extra.'

A bonus. Something nice to support if we have money and time.

Not as the literal thing making our planet inhabitable for ourselves and other species. That makes our air and water usable, and our agriculture sustainable. That allows us to live.

It is not valued.

Until there is a major culture shift to actually value the health of our planet, and the health of ourselves, gatekeeping in conservation will always exist because organizations will be constantly scraping for funding.

Not that orgs shouldn't try to improve, they should.

But we can't put the blame squarely on individual projects.

We have to take a long, hard, deep, uncomfortable look at the fact that we are putting the future of our planet on the backs of volunteering and erratic crumbs of funding and what that means about us as a society.

What is needed is a culture shift. Accountability on a macro scale.

Because until conservation is valued, it will always be, in many cases, an uphill climb for those less privileged to be part of it.

Conservation can't be an 'extra' if it's going to be successful.

Because, one day, we'll decry the fact that things got so terrible, without looking at all the times that we as a society ignored the ways that we got ourselves there.

It's a much bigger fight than just about unpaid internships.

It's about what all this means about us.