Biosphere Expeditions is an international non-profit wildlife volunteer organisation, founded in 1999, that runs conservation expeditions aka conservation holidays for environmental volunteers all across the globe.

The term "Biosphere" was coined by Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky in 1929 and is defined as "the part of the Earth''s surface and atmosphere occupied by living things". This encompassing term, we believe, is a fair reflection of our mission. We hope with our conservation expeditions to make a small but significant difference to our biosphere and at the same time bring enjoyment and fulfillment to our environment volunteer teams. We do not run tours or just wildlife/conservation holidays, but organise  real conservation expeditions that have a real biological conservation content and thus come with a "feel-good" factor for our wildlife volunteers, who can be secure in the knowledge that they not only had an exciting conservation holiday with a purpose, but also a productive time in conserving part of our global natural heritage.

History

Biosphere Expeditions started in 1999 as one of those famous "in the shower" ideas. Our founder, Matthias Hammer, with an Army background behind him, some student expeditions under his belt and disillusioned with the ivory tower mentality of academia, was looking for a way to combine his training as a biologist with some real-life, hands-on conservation work. When someone suggested "why don''t you take people on expedition with you", the idea for Biosphere Expeditions was born in the shower one day soon after.

It took a year to set up Biosphere Expeditions as a non-profit orgnisation in the UK and another year to recruit the first expedition team. The first expedition ran in 2001 to Poland, studied wolves of the Carpathian mountains and was instrumental in establishing a wolf hunting ban there. Demand was high and many expeditioners, once bitten by the bug, came back for more, so the expedition portfolio quickly increased to include Peru and Namibia, two expeditions still running today.

More expeditions were added, the Friends of Biosphere Expeditions came into being, corporate partners were found, awards won, and the media took a great interest in Biosphere Expeditions. The German office opened in 2002, followed by France in 2004 and North America in 2006.

In 2007 this revamped website was launched and Biosphere Expeditions diversified to offer 2-week expeditions and 1-week projects across the globe, as well as taster weekends in the UK and Germany.

And recently all this was rewarded in style by winning the "Best Volunteering Orangisation" award at the internationally acclaimed "First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards" in London and coming in "Highly Commended" in the "Best for Protection of Endangered Species". To date Biosphere Expeditions has sent thousands of people into the field and continues to grow. We are proud to send people from all over the world on expeditions across the globe, making a small but significant contribution to conserving our biosphere.