2019

Getting Ready for the Big Clean-up to Make a Better Future

The Big Clean-up, which will this year take place on 27 April, is only a month away. JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM), as a co-organiser of the Big Clean-up, invites every nature friend to go in nature and take part in one of the forest clean-up activities that will take place in LVM regions throughout Latvia all month long.

Getting ready for the Big Clean-up, a meeting for the Big Clean-up coordinators took place at the Academic Centre for Natural Sciences of the University of Latvia.

Vita Jaunzeme, the Manager of the Big Clean-up, this year invites friends of nature to take an active part in clean-up, not only by collecting waste but also by sorting it. The purpose of this call is to raise awareness of plastic pollution, its harmful effects on the environment. “We have to work with ourselves by changing our attitude towards nature, ourselves and our surroundings. I believe that Latvia can be a pioneer and go ahead in things where the world cannot do anything yet, such as science, our fundamental tradition and our attitude towards nature that we keep in our genes.”

In his turn, President Raimonds Vējonis, the patron of the Big Clean-up, reminded those present that it was important to not only make order in the surrounding environment, but also to change ourselves, our thinking and view of environmentally friendly lifestyle. “Latvia is our home, we were born here and our language is spoken here. Although much has been done in these ten years of the Big Clean-up, we can see that there is still room for improvement. We need to continue to work with young people and everybody in Latvia, encouraging them to think more and be responsible for their actions and the future of our country,” the President said.

Forest clean-up in state forests takes place every day; in spring, there are the Open Forest Days events encouraging everyone to go out in nature and learn about the importance of sustainable forest management.

“We have made environmental education for children and young people one of our priorities. For more than 10 years, we have been offering a variety of environmental education programmes for young people of all ages. For example, our well-known Pigman, the patron of clean forests, continues to work with the youngest nature friends at kindergartens, telling and educating them about the devastating effects of waste on the environment,” says Inga Pētersone, LVM Public Relations Manager.

Every year, some 20 000 pre-school children participate in the Environmental Education Eco-programme “Pigman's Detective” developed by LVM, which this year has gained worldwide recognition by entering the Top 10 of the best forest education programmes in the world.

71 applications from 23 countries were received for the IUFRO or International Union of Forest Research Organizations competition for the best examples of forest education; they represented all continents, including the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Slovenia, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Spain and Italy. The aim of the competition is to exchange experiences thus promoting further education and cooperation.