Robinson Crusoe in the home office: How mobile work should save a lonely island

Chile
The home office is supposed to save the lonely island on which the real Robinson Crusoe once lived

by Malte Mansholt
December 2nd, 2021, 4:38 pm

Live and work wherever you want – that is probably the greatest advantage of the home office. No wonder that more and more people no longer necessarily move to the new location when changing jobs or immediately consider whether rural life is an alternative to the expensive city. For flexible workers from all over the world, there is now an even more extensive idea: They can continue to work for a while on one of the most remote islands in the world. And at the same time protect the flora and fauna there.

The idea sounds obvious and surprising at the same time: If you can work anywhere in the world, you can also work where volunteers are needed to protect nature and support the local population. This is exactly what the “Work for Humankind” project aims to achieve. It is recruiting ten volunteers who are relocating their normal jobs to nature in order to be able to offer support for environmental protection and sustainability projects on site in their free time.

On a work trip to paradise

Specifically, it is about the island of Robinson Crusoe, which is part of the Juan Fernández Islands about 150 kilometers off the coast of Chile in the Pacific. The tiny islands are some of the most remote places in the world and are home to a unique ecosystem of plants and animals and a small local community. And soon ten more volunteers from all over the world.

The project was started by Lenovo. In order to be able to show the advantages of mobile working, the group was looking for a place where the current technical possibilities could attract volunteers without having to give up their previous job. The project is now being tackled together with the nature protection group Island Conservation and the Chilean government. Volunteers from all over the world can now apply for a six-week stay on the archipelago, which consists of three islands. The project is managed and planned by Island Conservation, Lenovo only provides the technical equipment.

Symbol of the lonely island

It is no coincidence that Robinson Crusoe Island is named after the most famous shipwrecked man in the world. In fact, in 1704, the Scottish seaman Alexander Selkirk was abandoned from a ship as a punishment – and survived completely alone on the island for over four years. When he returned home, he told Daniel Foe his story in a bar. He then processed it in the world-famous novel after which the island is called today.

The remote location still makes life on the island a challenge today. Every few weeks a boat delivers groceries, gasoline, and drugstore products. The approximately 900 inhabitants, who mostly live from catching lobsters, are largely left to fend for themselves. With sometimes dramatic consequences: When an earthquake in Chile triggered a tsunami in 2010, it was simply forgotten to warn the islanders. The result was the extensive destruction of the only city of San Juan Bautista.

Man brought the danger

Despite the remote location, nature on the island is at great risk. The Juan Fernandez hummingbird, which only nestles in an area of ​​eleven square kilometers, is considered to be acutely endangered. The background to this is the way birds live: They only nest in one type of tree and feed on the nectar of another species. Both are becoming increasingly rare due to the spread of imported plants and livestock such as goats and rabbits brought by humans. There is also the danger of the cats and rats, which have also been introduced, who hunt the birds and plunder nests. Other environmental problems arise from overfishing and plastic residue washed up by ships that collect on the beach.

Protection programs for the fragile environment of the islands have been in place for a number of years, but many established measures fail because of the lack of local infrastructure, complains the innovation manager of Island Conservation, David Will. Therefore, the decision was made to work with the technology group. “The innovation will enable us to develop much-needed connectivity solutions that will enable us to implement proven security measures faster.” In particular, communication with the local population urgently needs to be improved. A number shows how small the technical infrastructure is: With a new data center, Lenovo wants to significantly increase the Internet connection on the island – to at least 10 Mbit per second. For comparison: According to Statista, the current average in Germany is 65 Mbit, in some large cities 1000 Mbit can also be booked.

Volunteers have until the end of the month to apply for the campaign planned for March and April of next year. When choosing, pay special attention to skills that will help conserve nature and support the local community. The six weeks on site are about creating a basis on which the local community can then continue to operate the project independently. So nature should get the space to be able to heal itself again.