AFFORESTRATION PROJECT “FOREST” CAMPAIGN

On November 10^th , 2019, one of the hills along the road to the Serbian village of Lipovac dawned with hundreds of sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) saplings. Fifty Serbian and Bulgarian youths readily participated in the Afforestation campaign, which took place on November 8^th-10^th, 2019, as part of the implementation of the activities for the project “For Everyone Saved a Tree” (FOREST). The event was attended by representatives of the coordination teams of the three partner organisations: Youth movement for development of the rural areas in Bulgaria (YMDRAB), Society Innovation Center, NIIT and the Forest Research Institute, BAS. For the purpose of the training, the Leading and the Serbian partner ensured the participation of three Bulgarian and three Serbian foresters and two experts youth workers. The representative of SmartXMedia, contractor under №1-FOREST/27.09.2019 ‘Development of FOREST project’s electronic Joint Database and Website’ was invited by the Forest Research Institute to train and assist young people in publishing their photos and texts on the program website and in the Joint Database (https://cbc-forest.org/).

During the implementation of the Afforestation campaign, the following tasks were completed:

1. A training lecture was presented on the topic “Afforestation of forest tree species” by Assoc. Prof. Grud Popov.
2. An afforestation campaign was conducted with 1000 saplings of sycamore in Niš region, with 25 young people from the cities of Botevgrad and Etropole and 25 young people from the city of Niš.
3. The young people’s knowledge was checked through a test system, and the skills of their teams were evaluated on the field by an independent jury for which they were awarded certificates.
4. Training of the youth by the Consultant under contract №1-FOREST/27.09.2019 was conducted for publishing information in the Joint Database and the Website, as a result of which they uploaded many pictures related to the event.

Thanks to the teamwork and the joint implementation of the afforestation and other creative tasks, a good partnership and friendship was established between the young people from Serbia and Bulgaria. With the help of lecturers and practitioners, young people have acquired the knowledge and skills that will help them in implementing such future initiatives.

The project is co-financed by the European Union through the Interreg-IPA Bulgaria-Serbia Cross-border Cooperation Program 2014-2020.

This publication has been produced with the support of the European Union through the Cross-border Cooperation Program Interreg-IPA Bulgaria-Serbia 2014-2020, CCI No. 2014TC16I5CB007. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of FRI-BAS and should in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union or the Managing Authority of the Program.