I'm Elina Melet-Garel, a student from France, and I will be volunteer here in Estonia until the end of November/ beginning of December 2019. 

For the past two years I have been studying naturalism, and how to lead activities that raise awareness of nature conservation. Next year I would like to continue my biology studies and then study a master’s degree in the field of naturalism. Before that, I am taking now a one year sabbatical to get more practice. My interests in that regard are the taxonomy of some groups (animals/ mushrooms/ vegetables/ geology...), and knowledge/experience in nature conservatiovolunteer n. I already have quite solid knowledge of birds and butterflies, but all biological groups are of interest to me.

Also, I am interested in studying the relationship between animals and people. 

In 2015 I worked with the Return of the Wolf in the region of France where I live, which gave me the opportunity to study the relationship between wolves and farmers. During this work I met several farmers to discuss the impact of the returning wolves on their life, and farming practices. Now I would like to learn about the situation in Estonia. My project is to meet several farmers to learn about their experience with predators and to compare data.

My main interests are
  • Taxonomy (all groups),
  • relationship between humans and animals (all species),
  • all nature conservation aspects,
  • Natura 2000 project,
  • all environmental debate topics (species introduction, relationship with predators, conflicts of interests...),
  • nature conservation/communication.

I also practice naturalism drawing, for pleasure but also with the aim to make people aware of nature conservation.