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ADF supported the implementation of community Earth Day ( E-Day) clean-up actions in 26 municipalities in Vojvodina and Eastern Serbia. More than 160 projects were implemented, including environmental awareness-raising campaigns, community clean-ups, and small scale ecology-related infrastructural projects.
Environmental Awareness
ADF has implemented numerous programs to improve the environment and raise environmental awareness.
ADF supported the implementation of community Earth Day ( E-Day) clean-up actions in 26 municipalities in Vojvodina and Eastern Serbia. More than 160 projects were implemented, including environmental awareness-raising campaigns, community clean-ups, and small scale ecology-related infrastructural projects.The projects were initiated in the communities themselves and developed by community committees. Substantial community participation was demonstrated by the large number of volunteers and local resources mobilized. E-day actions mobilized entire communities, schools, MZ administrations, public utility companies, municipal administrations, NGOs, private businesses, and citizens.
Earth-Day activities includes the following activities: cleaning public areas (village centers, schools, parks); cleaning rivers, canals, and lake banks; clearing storm drains of debris; removing illegal waste disposal sites; transporting solid waste to legal dump sites/city landfills; planting trees, shrubbery, grass, and flowers; and installing trash cans and containers; installing benches and tables in parks and other public spaces; protecting green areas from illegal parking by installing guard rails; installing new playground equipment and repairing existing equipment; providing lawn-mowers and trimmers to communities for maintaining public green areas.
Environmental awareness campaigns were an important component of the Earth Day actions. Campaign elements included disseminating posters, T-shirts, and flyers; organizing round-tables and workshops; and contests that targeted youth.
Impact:
- Public awareness about the importance of environmental protection was raised through campaigns, lectures and work-shops, and by citizens’ direct involvement in activities.
- Citizens were successfully mobilized and due to genuine interest in the environment, there was a large participatory response to these actions.
- Organizing E-Day actions for several consecutive years strengthened informal networking among organizations involved in the activities.
- In some communities, Earth-Day actions improved tourism attractions as citizens and organizations joined efforts to clean natural resorts and other places of interest, such as Palic and Backa Topola lakes in Vojvodina, the Pek River banks, and paths leading to Bor Lake in Eastern Serbia.
- Public participation has been significant. For example, in addition to the 33,717 people from 11 municipalities and 68 communities taking part in E-Day actions in 2003, 107,000 citizens (more than 5% of Vojvodina’s total population) participated in the E-Day activities organized in 44 out of the 45 Vojvodina municipalities
E-Day action in Sajan in 2002