Start young, stay green. Throughout 2001, volunteer awareness mushroomed through environmental clubs in tropical Guyana. In less than a year, the number of clubs affiliated with the country's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) increased from 12 to 55. They span the populated coastland of Guyana and large areas of the interior, with such names as Teenage Action Rangers, Kanuku Environmental Warriors and Young Environmentalists.

Inspired and coordinated by Guyanese UN Volunteer Monica Sharma, the school and community clubs raised awareness, in part, through projects under the "Green Fund", an initiative of the Government of Guyana, UNDP and the EPA's Education, Awareness and Capacity Building Programme. Volunteer club members, including Amerindians of the Macushi tribe in the western Rupununni district, took stock of fish and animals at local ponds, raised their sights as active bird watchers and discussed their findings in the clubhouse they built. Rupununni is rich in scenic mountains, rivers and waterfalls, but this tropical savannah provides only limited job opportunities for the mostly indigenous people who live in the area. Volunteers at the Rewa Junior Wildlife and Conservation Club, therefore, started putting their local knowledge to work in a community-led eco-tourism plan.

By designing and cutting a nature trail for tourists up a nearby mountain, the club helps communities to generate additional income through activities such as sport fishing and hiking. Other clubs carried out a range of activities, including art and essay competitions, litter fines in schools, clean-up campaigns and talks on the environment. On World Environment Day, the National IYV Committee awarded seven clubs with certificates acknowledging their voluntary work for the environment.

Volunteers took to the field in other countries in 2001, championing sustained, committed action to protect the environment:

During 2001, UNV worked closely with NGOs in the Caribbean subregion on Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme activities:

• In St. Lucia, for example, national UN Volunteer Peter Ernest helped set up the Praslin Conservation and Development Foundation to coordinate community action for conservation and development at the grassroots level. Other UN Volunteers in the regional GEF programme served in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
• UN Volunteers in Ecuador's Lake San Pablo Basin - an area afflicted by poverty and environmental degradation - worked with local people to find ways to improve their standard of living. By diversifying crops and rediscovering plants that were traditionally used for medical purposes, communities now have better opportunities to increase their income. More than 8,000 people have directly benefited from the work, most notably indigenous women.
• In efforts to conserve precious natural resources in Peru's arid coastal areas as well as in the Andes, UN Volunteers advised local authorities and community volunteers in Ayacucho and Tumbes on ways to manage water without wasting it. Following UNV training sessions, volunteer brigades were able to work within poor urban settlements to explain how to use water wisely and how to pay for it.