The first eco-festival “Taking care of the Future” was held between 15 and 26 April. Among the organisers of the event were volunteers from VSU representing the regional headquarters of the National Public Organisation of Volunteer Environmentalists “Act!”, which operates in the framework of the VSU Volunteer Centre “Gravity”.
The festival embraced three districts: Pavlovsk, Verkhny Mammon, and Talovaya, four settlements, and over 500 schoolchildren. The festival was held as part of the Week of Environmental Awareness.
On 26 April, volunteers of the regional headquarters of volunteer environmentalists “Act!” in the Voronezh Region visited schoolchildren in Talovaya. They gave a lecture “Trends in Environmental Friendliness” and told children about the major global environmental issues and ways to tackle them and about the activities of wild life volunteers who save wild animals as part of operations of the Centre for Assistance to Wild Animals “Heart of the Forest”. The audience learned how to help wild animals, and most importantly how not to harm them and live in peace with them. At the end of the environmental awareness programme, the participants had a chance to check their knowledge in an ecoquiz.
The volunteer environmentalists from “Act!” told the children not only about the negative impact of humans on the environment, but also about the importance of treating nature with respect and properly managing available resources.
“Environmental issues are so pressing that if we do not keep on looking for solutions, all life on our planet might disappear. According to some scientists, by the end of the century, 98% of the species from the Red Book will be lost for good. Even now, hedgehogs and squirrels living in the Voronezh Region are already in the Red Book! Our national organisation has been working for two years. We work in several areas, from participation in national forums to taking part in environmental clean-up operations. Our task is to make every person aware of the importance of conserving wildlife and its biodiversity,” said Alexandra Burtseva, regional coordinator of the National Public Organisation of Volunteer Environmentalists “Act!”.
The eco-festival concluded with an ecoquiz. Students were divided into teams and competed for prises provided by sponsors. First place was taken by the team “Unicellular”, second by the team “Agroeko”, and third by the team “Conversationalists”.
The events were held within the framework of the environmental campaign “Native shores”. The eco-festival was organised by ANO “Visio of the Future” in cooperation with the Charitable Foundation “AGROEKO”. The event was coordinated by the Central Black Earth Interregional Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor.
