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If you are interested in learning about other cultures and protecting the Amazon rainforests, an adventure waits for you in Arútam and Ecuador.

We offer volunteer placements all year round to people who actively want to engage in community development, conservation, and experience the Amazon as well as learn about the contemporary life of the Shuar Indians. 

Volunteering with FUNDECOIPA is not just about the work. It is a cultural exchange and opportunity to learn about a different culture, their costumes and way of life. Our volunteers live and work in close collaboration with the local families and are participate in all community activities.

Our headquarter and accommodation is located in the small Shuar community Arútam in the Amazon region. Here our volunteers will get hands on experience with conservation efforts at community level. Furthermore, volunteering provides a unique and close up insight to contemporary life, problems and possible development pathways of lowland Amerindian cultures as well as the flora and fauna in their biodiversity rich homelands.

The Arútam experience (by Kelly Schiller and Eckard College)

Experiencing Arutam from Kelly Schiller on Vimeo.

FUNDECOIPA differ from many other volunteer projects by being managed entirely by the local indigenous peoples. Our boards of directors as well as staff are recruited in the local Shuar communities. The vision is to achieve long term sustainability of the projects by securing full ownership to the indigenous communities as well as gaining the capacity from administrating the projects. 

Building up sufficient managerial skills is a long term process when starting out with subsistence farmers. In this process volunteers are considered a crucial and part by exchanging ideas and knowledge with the villagers as well as providing suggestions for improving the projects and general development of the indigenous communities