Challenges For Earth

By Eugene Linden/Boston

Few people get that once-in-a-lifetime chance to study the sex life of the Siberian dwarf hamster; fewer still would deem it a privilege to pay a bundle for the opportunity. Yet that was the choice of Laura Farnsworth, an IBM marketing representative from Dallas, who shelled out $2,400 plus air fare last summer to spend three weeks trudging from dusk till dawn in the harsh steppes of Soviet Asia. Supervised by biologist Katherine Wynne-Edwards, Farnsworth, along with other similarly hardy amateurs, not only saw a remote part of the Soviet Union but also had the satisfaction of making a contribution to science -- in this case, collecting data about an animal that has the intriguing capacity to stop a pregnancy after it has started.

The sponsor of the hamster hunt was Earthwatch, a nonprofit organization conceived in the early 1970s by Brian Rosborough, a lawyer. Since scientists always need more manpower for their studies and never have enough money, Rosborough reasoned that they would welcome paying "Earth patriots" eager to spend a week or two on scholarly expeditions in remote places. At first Earthwatch concentrated on the physical sciences, such as the study of volcanoes and eclipses, but as public interest grew in things natural, the organization acquired a strong environmental flavor. This year more than 3,000 EarthCorps volunteers will head off on 111 different projects around the world, taking molds of baboon teeth in Ethiopia, protecting endangered sea- turtle eggs in the Caribbean and monitoring volcanoes.

The biggest attractions are those that enable participants to get close to endearing animals like whales and orangutans, but some more specialized projects have been successful as well. There seems to be no trouble, for example, getting volunteers to walk miles of beach all night long in search of egg-laying turtles. For another, less appealing assignment, Blue Magruder, Earthwatch's director of public affairs, somehow found eight paying volunteers for a study of the use of sewage in agriculture in Ohio.

The organization has the respect of the normally suspicious conservation community. Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, says Earthwatch fills a unique role, "allowing people to get involved with science or conservation without stepping on anybody else's toes." Michael Deland, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, says Earthwatch is "precisely the kind of innovative concept that needs to be built upon in the coming decades."

Would-be EarthCorps members, who range in age from 16 to over 80, complete an application form listing their skills and interests, a process that allows Earthwatch to match volunteers with appropriate projects. Living conditions vary from camping out to comfortable dorms. About 1 recruit out of 20 turns out to be a problem (a scientist working underwater in the Canary Islands discovered that one self-styled scuba diver could not even swim), but many others become Earthwatch regulars. Biologist Wynne-Edwards says 70% of her volunteers last year were repeaters.

Anthropologist Jane Phillips-Conroy, who studies baboons in Ethiopia, claims that volunteers often contribute expertise as well as grunt work. She says the best tooth casts she ever collected were made by a dentist who had joined the expedition. But perhaps the greatest benefit of Earthwatch is the commitment that its volunteers acquire in the field. Says Tundi Agardy, a marine biologist who started Earthwatch's turtle programs: "The immediate benefit is to help save a generation of endangered turtles, but the real value is that volunteers themselves become the seed corn of the conservation movement, spreading the word when they return home."