OSCE Mission helps young Georgians protect their environment

Across Georgia, some 350 young 'ECO Club' members have launched a summer of clean-up and conservation work. The 11 to 18 year-olds, who belong to one of about twenty clubs backed by the OSCE Mission to Georgia, are showing their communities why they should care for the environment and how they can help.

Waking up to the problems

Every week at the local ECO Club in Telavi, in eastern Georgia, a group of teenagers gather to talk seriously about global warming, air pollution and other environmental problems.

Sopho, an enthusiastic 16 year-old from the nearby village of Napareuli, is one of the club's most active members. "I want to help people develop a greater appreciation of nature and address ecological problems," she says. "That's why we organize tree-planting days and clean up trash from the streets." This year, the clubs are focusing on clean-up days in their communities' parks and gardens.

In June, members of the OSCE Mission visited Sopho and her friends in Telavi to discuss their plans and activities. Clubs in Tkibuli, Oni, Khoni, Zugdidi, Gori, Kutaisi, Chokhatauri and Batumi were also visited by the Mission in May.

Understanding local needs

"Talking to people in the regions helps us to better understand local situations and needs," says William Hanlon, Economic and Environmental Officer at the Mission. "It is a strong motivator for the club members to see that their work is valued and supported by the OSCE, and it provides important oversight of the clubs' projects and operations."

Georgian society still has limited access to information on environmental issues and there are few possibilities to get involved in nature conservation and improve the local environment. The Mission has therefore helped to establish and has been supporting the clubs since 2006.

"We want more young people involved; we want them to learn about air pollution and take part in tree-planting. And I think we've been successful in getting their attention," Sopho says, pointing to drawings by Telavi kids on their ideas about global warming. The clubs strive to co-operate with each other in organizing events as well as group trips to different parts of the country.

The clubs' activities fit closely with the OSCE's environmental security initiatives in Georgia by combining awareness-raising activities with the promotion of leadership and community activism among young people. This year, OSCE support will focus on sustainability by training club members in managing their finances and implementing projects.

An Inconvenient Truth

Most of the clubs have weekly meetings to discuss and plan activities. A curriculum has been developed with support from the OSCE Mission to help equip members with relevant materials in the field.

Al Gore's popular movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, for example, has made its way to some small Georgian villages.

"When we arrived in Khoni in western Georgia, the club's leaders were screening the movie to other members at the local cinema," says Henriette Henriksen from the OSCE Mission. "They had even prepared questions for the audience to make sure that the messages were understood. It was an engaged group of people who clearly took their work seriously.

"Club members think the local authorities have been doing a better job keeping towns clean in the recent years, but there is still a lot to be done," she says.

The members of the ECO Clubs see their work as an important contribution to governmental activities, and in several regions, the authorities provide more than just moral backing. The remote mountainous village of Oni, for example, has supported a proposal from the local ECO Club to plant trees near a school area and the village will provide the saplings that will be planted.

Nature clean-ups

In this way, club members not only broaden their own knowledge about the environment and the challenges that lie ahead for Georgia, they also inform their fellow citizens. They regularly prepare billboards, distribute brochures, hold demonstrations, plant trees and clean up parks to attract people's attention.

And there are many different reasons for helping to clean up a local park. One young man in Chokhatauri, for example, said he would not want to take a girl for a walk in the park with a lot of trash lying around.

A cleaner and more beautiful environment is the immediate result of the clubs' efforts, but the knock-on effect is that many people notice the change and stop throwing trash on the ground. In this way, the clubs are helping to change the attitudes of Georgian citizens.

More than 20 clean-up activities and conservation projects will be carried out this summer and autumn by ECO clubs across Georgia. And in Telavi, they are already writing proposals to launch several more, including one that will raise people's awareness of air pollution.