"Clean mountains" action details (photos)
Action appeals to initiate regular mass activity for cleaning protected areas, adjacent to them recreational zones and territories where mushrooms/berries are intensively gathered, stimulating visitors and inhabitants for sustainable use of environment, volunteer movement in other regions as well as attracting attention of community and authorities to environmental reservation matter.
The primary task of the action is to clean up the most littered areas in the territory of preserve “Grofa”, that is the largest in the district. It is based of territory of former first Ukrainian natural park established as early as 1935 and further liquidated by Soviet power. Its territory is most popular among hikers and green tourists, hunters, poachers, berries and mushrooms gatherers. That is why we have chosen the preserve as starting point for the action. As well we plan to clean up all passing littered spots leading to the Plistse area. After garbage removal from the most littered areas we plan installing there memo tables for visitors (needs additional funds).
Besides we plan to involve volunteers for delivery building materials to complete communal refuge at Plistse area that shall be used by people and forestry staff for preserve territory inspection, its cleaning and ecotourism promotion. Refuge works are approved by State service on the reserve matter of Ministry of environmental protection of Ukraine and will be coordinated by forestry specialists.
Location: Plistse area is located in centre of preserve “Grofa”, in Rozhniativ district of Ivano-Frankivsk region, 1400 m over the sea level and 9 km far from Osmoloda village. Approximate square that needs cleaning – 5 hectares
Participants: the following organisations and persons have agreed to participate:
Number: we expect 75-100 participants
Duration: the action will last for two days: Saturday will be a working day (as a day-off for most participants), 6-8 hours of work with breaks, and Sunday – rest, ecotrips and returning back home. Some volunteers will stay for more days to remove packed garbage and possible completing of works. Estimated date of holding: end of May or beginning of June.
Nutrition: common catering will be provided by the Foundation and community – we will arrange capability for hot meal (firewood and water delivery, stove fire making and maintaining, cooking) from individual food.
Transfer and overnight: participants will be delivered to Osmoloda village by “Ikarus” buses or analogous for comfort and capacity and returned back to Kalush and/or Ivano-Frankivsk. Overnight will be provided both in refuge at Plistse area and tents in sleeping bags. For participants strengths saving we expect for additional 6 km transfer on 4x4 vehicles, the rest 3 km – afoot only, by trail. The route has been marked and sign-posted by the Foundation before – this will simplify orienting and travel of individual groups, moreover it will promote organised (marked trails only) ecotourism in protected areas. The weather in the period of action is expected traditionally warm and cool. Nevertheless volunteers shall have tourist boots, spare clothes and raincoats – in case of rain.
Rescue and medical assistance: the action will be supervised by mountain rescue service throughout all route of movement and process of work. The rescue equipment includes professional radio transmitting devices, GPS, first aid kit. Among participants there shall be a person with experience of medical assistance.
Mass-media: we plan to invite newspaper and TV correspondents for action reporting and public propaganda.
The action provides manufacturing and installing of ecologically-specific informational boards that shall intensify public attention to the problem of protected and adjacent recreational areas extreme littering by synthetic garbage mainly from food products. The action is pilot as it shall commence the activity namely from epicentre – preserve of state importance “Grofa” starting from the nearest settlement - Osmoloda, the most visitors pass through.
We plan installing of 3 ecoboards: at bus stop in
Osmoloda village, at tourist bivouac glade between Parenky and Mala Popadia mts., and at
Plistse area. Upon additional funds collecting the ecoboards quantity will be
significantly increased to be installed in every preserve and recreational areas key spots
and cross-roads as well at bus-stops of all mountainous settlements of Limnycia river
valley.
The action is be held in several steps:
1. Initial procedure (within Matra-KNIP programme)
a) collecting data on the most littered and visited areas (April)
b) manufacturing and installing 3 pilot infotables (May-June)
c) manufacturing and installing additional garbage containers (together with recreational
service of Rozhniativ district deputy council and Osmoloda state forestry department)
d) action promoting and ecological education among community, youth, locals, protected
areas visitors (May through October), includes TV and newspaper reports, and the summary
seminar in October)
e) public hearings holding devoted to ecology issue together with regional authorities and
environmental-specific NGOs (September)
2. Main procedure (together with regional authorities and businessmen)
f) Making and distributing promoting inventory (“Take your garbage back!” t-shirts and
caps) that will additionally inform community of the action and stimulate returning
garbage and further utilizing as well as clean environment propaganda
g) garbage containers installing in every mountainous settlement of the region, in the key
spots of protected and recreational areas (together with Rozhniativ district deputy
council and Osmoloda state forestry department)
h) development and implementing of the pilot project of synthetic garbage recycling.
Basing upon before installed garbage containers (Limnycia valley settlements – Osmoloda,
Kuzmynets, Hrynkiv, Jasen, Slyvky, Nebyliv) we plan to introduce centralized garbage
utilization, sorting and recycling. The PET plastic bottles which the mountains are
extremely littered with will serve as raw material for producing toys by local business
facilities and thus to compensate garbage delivery expenses
i) assisting other districts in implementing the mentioned project, sharing advance
experience and providing ecological education of communes
Arguments for the action effectiveness
We are certain the action will have its due social effect. However the only installed eco-promoting boards will never influence the communes to stop littering. It is possible to be fulfilled only in complex way – through mentioned above steps involving all social groups.
What had been before
During 30 years of hiking we had seen enough infostands, saying “Save forest – the lungs of planet!”, “Trees – our friends” and hundreds of others, installed by foresters as if on purpose, therefore – not effective. Nothing ever stood for these tables – neither sense nor activity. More typical were signs warning of punishment for littering – as those XXX UAH fines have never been imposed. The visitors don’t take it seriously and usually mock at this soviet epoch element as communists never considered ecology as priority in contrast to industrial development.
What we have nowadays
In Osmoloda – like thousands of other small villages where natural household still dominates – there had never been garbage containers as such. Before world industry developed cheap and light synthetics, the natural garbage was dumped into rivers (or woods) where it decayed or was consumed by bacteria. Before all packing was made of glass and returnable – inhabitants collected every bottle to save money. Nowadays the industrial development could be very well seen e.g. at river dams, where thousands drifting PET bottles gather.
Tourism and mass mushrooms and berries gatherers visits increased littering. Before the garbage container was installed in Osmoloda there appeared a big dump created by inhabitants and protected area visitors according to national mentality principle “If there’s a bottle lying I may drop another one”. However the container has improved situation – the dump at it was cleaned up, but the other places weren’t though – many locals believed the container would be cut and stolen as scrap-iron. Those who considered container place too far – continued dumping into river.
After the season finished the container has become full and garbage collected outside of it. The whole year authorities and Osmoloda forestry departments discussed who was in charge for garbage removal: “It is very complicated crisis (economical, political whatever) that we have, so there’s no time to care for environment”. Yeah, and it lasts for 70 years, maybe we should better do something to stop it? That is very sad but eloquent story of a sole village.
What we shall do
At the first sight – we do not propose anything brand new, installing ecopropaganda boards. But if we think this could be enough we would never begin it. Osmoloda area has been chosen as a model functioning region, where we gradually implement green European standards. Then the fundamental national approach “What makes me worse than a neighbour?”, we believe, will succeed.
The ecoboards together with effective action “Clean mountains” and all-round propaganda will be a “swallow” for ecology development in the region, will serve as basement for further recreational activity, provoke interest of inhabitants and gently instill – first beyond consciousness and then – out of common sense – the necessity to scavenge for themselves.
In the parallel ways we develop active and green tourism. The recreation in Carpathians is becoming very popular in Ukraine – to rest, to have a cottage, or simply to be eager to. Modern young people wish to dwell in clean world, to drink water from rivers and eat just fallen apple from a tree without washing.
The reality will no more spare a hotel owner who dumps waste directly into river. Neither us nor state but citizens would punish mindless businessmen through money penalty.
We are not to place bare slogans for action on ecoboards, we shall propose information to be considered – that is a consumer usually lacks for. We are going to post photos of invisible for naked eyes choked up riverbanks on ecoboards, post report of synthetic materials decay duration. We are more than confident that a sole fact – e.g. a plastic lighter stays unchanged in earth for 100 years – is capable if not to concern, though to attract attention of a usual visitor.
The further scheduled actions – installing garbage containers and garbage recycling, ecotourism and green hostels development – will multiply the advantages of boards by 10 that will later lead to environmental protection cause: inhabitants that realized constant profitability from green tourism, will care for nature themselves, and – that is very important – will teach their children. That is the task to achieve.