Children and youth for clean Baltic: nature conservation activities at the Baltic Sea coast

On July 10, the trip to the “Curonian Spit” National Park took place, where volunteers organized garbage collection on the coast line along the spit at the 12th (Lesnoye village, near the Alye Parusa camp) and 14th kilometers (Visit-Center). After the clean-up, participants visited the territory of the Curonian Spit Visit-Center, learned the history of formation and nature of the Spit. The event ended with an interactive excursion through the ecological trail "The Royal Bor".

On July 17, the second event took place at the Vitland Art-Village (near Baltiysk), where participants also cleaned up the garbage at the Baltic Sea coast, visited the memorial site - the cross of St. Adalbert and finished the day by “Scientific Lounge”, where children presented their mini-research projects prepared during the “Smart Camp”.

Marine litter is the most common problem in the coastal marine areas. Moreover, this is not always garbage left by tourists at the shore - a lot of marine garbage is brought by storms. Early provided studies by the #PlasticWatching methods showed that most of the waste is plastic and polymer waste. Reduction the volume of plastic waste directly depends on production and consumption, environmental culture of behavior and refusal to use single-use plastic.

The events are held within the framework of the project "Calendar of Environmental Actions: preserving the environment and growth the ecological culture of children and youth in the Kaliningrad region" with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund, as well as within the framework of the international program SPARE (School Project for Application of Resources and Energy).

Author: Dmirty Filippenko