In September and October, students from the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism organised and participated in a number of environmental events. The aim of such events was to raise awareness of environmental issues in first year students and promote sustainable lifestyle and conservation. The faculty’s motto for this academic year is “Ecology is a personal issue”.
The first event involved cleaning the territory of the B.M. Kozo-Polyansky Botanical Garden of VSU. The task was performed by students of the “Geography” and “Tourism” programmes. They cleaned the territory, trimmed bushed, planted new trees, and gathered the harvest. At the end of the day, they had a tour of the conservatories of the Botanical Garden. Leading research fellow Lilia Lepeshkina told the students about the exhibits and showed some plants included in the IUCN Red List.
Students of the “Ecology and Nature Management” programme visited the V. Peskov Voronezh State Nature Biosphere Reserve. They cleaned the ecological path "Reserve fairy tale” and the Beaver town, sorted grains, and painted enclosures for horses. Completing all the tasks, the volunteers had a tour of the reserve.
An event for collecting recyclable materials was held as a part of the Russian Ecology Week organised by the Russian Environmental Operator. The collected materials were sent to Sobirator, the largest recycling centre in Voronezh. The faculty’s students collected over 20 kg of paper, 10 kg of plastic caps, and 18 kg of batteries. They also participated in the ElectroSbor 2022 campaign run by the centre, which is aimed at collecting and recycling unused electronic devices and electrical appliances.
The faculty’s students also took part in the 12th Big Cleaning Up of the banks of rivers Tikhaya Sosna and Don at the nature reserve “Divnogorie” organised by a graduate of the faculty and an employee of the reserve, Igor Nazarov. The project is run as a part of the environmental campaign “Rodnye Berega”. The students collected over 75 bags of rubbish. They also learned about the history of Divnogorie and took part in a quest “Learn the history of rivers”.
In October, an employee of the eco-centre “Sedmoy Lepestok” and the founder of the environmental movement “EcoDvor”, Ekaterina Khomich, gave a lecture on the separate waste collection system. She presented scientific literature and guide books on recycling. She talked about the main rules of separate waste collection and showed some products made of recycled materials.
The Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism also runs a project “Ecougoloc” and collects about 10 types of recyclable materials, which are then sent to recycling centres. There is also a book-exchange and a free library initiative.
In September, a first-year master’s degree student Uakov Lebede, the vice-director of the Department of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Voronezh Region Youth Government, participated in the national forum “Ecosystems. Conservation Area”.
