IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This is an offer for unpaid internships for students who are financially supported by their university through scholarship or other funding, such as Erasmus+ placements. For more information ask to your university’s office for their Erasmus Placement programme or other abroad opportunities they offer.

WHAT IS ACARBIO?

ACARBIO is short for “Associazione Costiera Amalfitana Riserva Biosfera” and it is a non-profit organization established in Italy since 2009, in the beautiful Amalfi Coast, having its headquarter placed in Tramonti.

WHAT DO WE DO?

ACARBIO is engaged in the organization and coordination of projects which aim to strengthen the Amalfi Coast candidature as Biosphere Reserve within the MAB-UNESCO Programme. Its activities focus on the conservation and safeguard of the natural and historical-cultural heritage of the Amalfi Coast, by promoting any kind of sustainable development in the field of the environment, tourism, mobility, energy. It also pays particular attention to the conservation and protection of historic buildings, monuments, marks left by the ancient civilizations and local traditions.

We organize activities such as public conferences, meetings, educational excursions, youth projects, trainings, seminars, youth exchanges, international work camps, local projects on the topic of the environmental protection, sustainable development, preservation of local traditions, etc. The aim is to raise awareness on the topic of competence, to support a sustainable development of the area, to involve young people in volunteering work and to open the horizon of opportunities on an international level.

LOCATION AND ACCOMODATION

The office of the organization is located in Corsano, Tramonti. For the accommodation, ACARBIO has got a Guest House for students. Please be aware that there are costs to be covered for the guesthouse.
Tramonti is at 7 km from the seaside, very close to famous places like Amalfi, Positano, Ravello, the ancient roman ruins of Pompei and Ercolano, the Vesuvio and more. This is one of the richest regions of Italy in terms of natural and cultural resources.

CURRENT POSITIONS

Currently, we are looking for interns in the following areas:

Erasmus+ placement:

• Communication and Marketing: Performance marketing, customer experience, community manager, video edit, web design:  https://erasmusintern.org/traineeship/communication-eco-social-re-fiascone-tomato-project or The Re Fiascone project is looking for interns 2021
• Video edit for promotion of the Re Fiascone project: https://erasmusintern.org/traineeship/communication-eco-social-re-fiascone-tomato-project
• Environmental project management: cultural landscape protection, environmental education, social media and online communication, sustainable tourism. https://erasmusintern.org/traineeship/project-assistant-our-environmental-ngo or The Association ACARBIO is looking for interns 2021

If you are interested to have an internship in our organization, please write an email to staff@riservabiosferacostiera.org sending your CV and motivation letter. You will then receive a questionnaire to fill and eventually be asked to have a Skype interview.
For the funding dedicated to students who wants to do an Erasmus+ Placement, ask to your University’s Erasmus office and they will provide you with all the required info and documentation.

In November 2018, during the Italian UNESCO week for ESD with the main topic “moving away from plastics: a path to be built”, a group of students of a local middle school (10-13 yo) participated in a beach clean-up in Minori after following a lecture on marine ocean pollution. Our trainee Carla Cecconi, who had had the idea of this project, implemented a questionnaire on beach litter and self-reported behaviour which was given to the students before and after the activity. She later analyzed the questionnaire’s results as well as the project’s outcomes in her master’s thesis.

The questionnaire was distributed to the students participating in the clean-up as well as to another group of students (same age, from another local middle school) who had only followed the lecture on ocean pollution. The main findings in the research included that the group that had participated in the clean-up increased their knowledge (about trash at the beach harming marine life) and awareness towards pollution (finding trash at the beach), as well as their willingness to participate in another beach-clean-up (from 49% increased to 73%), in comparison to the group which only received a lecture (increased from 37% to 42%). They indicated to be more willing to pick up trash they find on the beach (20% against 5% in the other group said they always pick it up). Both groups had a large number of participants indicating they take their own trash with them when on the beach (67% against 71%). This indicates that the inclusion of non-scholar activities in ESD programs could contribute to a behavioural change towards sustainability, and therefore a reduction of plastic pollution.

Interpretation of the results

Participating in a beach clean-up increased the students’ knowledge about trash at the beach killing marine life, as well as their awareness of the trash present at the beach.

It increased the students’ willingness of participating in another future beach clean-up, but also to pick up trash they find on the beach. Students are though more likely to take their own trash to the garbage bin rather than the trash produced by someone else.  But the two groups also had some different characteristics: the one involved in the beach clean-up was composed out of students of a school in Minori, which is situated on the beach, the other group was made out of Tramonti students. Tramonti being situated in the mountains, it is possible that the students are less connected to the beach and feel less responsible for keeping it clean.

What do we need this kind of activity for?

As a threat for biodiversity, about eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year. In order to reduce plastic production and consumption, citizens can modify their behaviour. Education has an influence on modifying behaviour towards more sustainable practices.

ESD programs are usually set within the walls of the school, therefore, the students are isolated from the real sustainability issues of their communities. To make the ESD program more effective, the students must learn by doing through direct experiences connecting them to nature.

Participating in a beach clean-up increased the students’ knowledge, awareness and willingness to participate in this type of activity. These three factors form the base for a behavioural change. Marine ocean pollution could therefore be tackled through an ESD program that includes a combination of classroom-based lectures and beach clean-ups. A beach clean-up or other outdoors and in-nature activities in the school curricula may have develop a pro-environmental behaviour.

In this post, we had talked about the beach clean-up in 2018: https://www.acarbio.org/en/minori-unesco-week-2018/

For more detailed information, you can find Carla’s thesis under the following link: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-387304

This spring, we came to Tramonti as trainees to discover Italian culture and terrace life on the Amalfi Coast: We are learning a lot about the importance of agriculture and local production in the area and helping to preserve this unique and fragile landscape.

The basic of this astonishing Coastline of the Amalfi Coast is the gardening and the agricultural activities that the locals still maintain. This serves in preserving the beauty of the landscape, but also in amazing food, healthy life style and the preserving of traditions.

Have a look below!

Séraphine-Noëlle Reeg * studying Tourism and Sustainability at the University of Montpellier, France