Bushcraft and survival 🌲🔥
Explore bushcraft and survival volunteering opportunities, outdoor projects and cultural exchanges where practical wilderness skills, outdoor safety or survival training are a genuine part of the activities or learning experience.
These skills may be practised in nature camps, outdoor education projects, rural communities and other programmes where participants learn how to spend time in natural environments, use available resources and respond to challenging outdoor conditions.
What are bushcraft and survival skills? 🌲🔥
Bushcraft refers to practical skills for living and working in natural environments, such as navigation, shelter building, fire lighting, outdoor cooking, tool use and identifying useful natural materials. Survival skills focus more specifically on staying safe during unexpected or difficult situations, including emergency preparedness, finding shelter, managing exposure to weather and obtaining safe drinking water. The two disciplines overlap, but their purposes and training methods may differ.
Bushcraft, survival and outdoor volunteering
Volunteers may take part in supervised outdoor workshops, campcraft activities, wilderness education or practical projects involving natural materials. Some programmes focus on traditional skills, while others include navigation, basic first aid or emergency preparedness.
Not every remote or off-gridOff-grid refers to a place or lifestyle operating partly or fully independently from public utilities, often using its own systems for electricity, water or waste. volunteering project offers bushcraft or survival training. If developing these skills is important to you, ask which activities are actually included and whether instruction is provided.
Safety and the environment
Bushcraft and survival activities may involve knives, axes, saws, fire, outdoor cooking, challenging weather or remote terrain. Appropriate instruction, supervision, equipment and emergency arrangements are important, especially for inexperienced participants.
Local rules also matter. Fires, foraging, cutting vegetation, collecting wood and building temporary shelters may be restricted or prohibited. Follow local regulations and avoid unnecessary damage to vegetation, wildlife and water sources.
How to use this page
Check the publication date and confirm which bushcraft or survival activities are included, what experience is required, who provides instruction, what equipment is supplied and whether the project takes place in a remote area. Also confirm working hours, days off, accommodation, meals, minimum stay and any fees or other costs.
Publication on Voluntouring.org does not constitute verification or endorsement of an outdoor activity, instructor, survival course or volunteer programme.
Related opportunities: Camping · Camp programs · Remote areas
Last reviewed: October 2026.
Browse bushcraft and survival volunteer projects 🌲🔥
Browse the listings and articles below for opportunities involving bushcraft, survival skills and practical outdoor learning. Some older projects may have changed their activities, so check the publication date and confirm current conditions before applying.
Do you host an adult volunteering or cultural exchange opportunity involving supervised bushcraft or survival activities? You can submit it to Voluntouring.org for editorial review.
