More than 1,000 volunteers participating in the “Beaches, Rivers, Volunteering and Land Stewardship” programme, coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, join the new Let’s Clean Up Europe initiative, which is being held today throughout the continent with the aim of raising awareness among citizens, public administrations and companies about the impact of waste that is abandoned in public spaces and in the natural environment.

In order to involve citizens and give visibility to this problem, the European Week for Waste Reduction is organized, which coordinates the Let’s Clean Up Europe day and invites European countries to organize activities related to the cleaning of waste from public spaces from May 3 to 17.

On the occasion of the “Let’s Clean Europe” initiative, which starts this year throughout Europe, more than 1,000 volunteers have been mobilized in Spain in activities organized by nine land stewardship entities in the Autonomous Communities of Andalusia, Catalonia, the Region of Murcia, the Valencian Community, the Community of Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León.
Within the framework of the “Beaches, Rivers, Volunteering and Land Stewardship” programme, activities have been launched related to the cleaning of beaches and rivers, the elimination of marine litter, the restoration of river heritage, the revegetation of the riverside forest, the recovery of deteriorated areas and environmental communication and awareness on the conservation of the coastline and rivers.

The programme will continue throughout 2014 with actions on the coast and river basins. In this edition, the participation of around 5,600 volunteers is expected in different projects launched by more than 40 land stewardship entities, to carry out activities in all the autonomous communities of the coast and most of the inter-community river basins.

Since its launch in 2012, it has had the collaboration of 10,600 volunteers and 71 land stewardship entities, which have carried out 79 activities for the conservation of coasts and rivers.
With this plan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, through the Biodiversity Foundation, promotes the role of citizen action in the conservation of nature and landscapes, volunteering actions are launched with land stewardship entities, including marine and river stewardship, which carry out conservation actions in the maritime-terrestrial public domain and the hydraulic public domain.

More information at the Press release