11 June 2009

Sarajevo-Novi Grad, Bosnia and Herzegovina: UNV in partnership with the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Environment and Sarajevo-Novi Grad municipality celebrated World Environment Day by mobilizing 30 eco-volunteers and more than a hundred school pupils and students from four primary and secondary schools of Sarajevo-Novi Grad.

Both groups took part in a conference on environmental protection. The walk to the nearby Mojmilo Tree Park that followed promoted walking as an alternative means of transport. The participants also planted 80 trees in the park.

The municipality of Sarajevo-Novi Grad stretches over one of the most deforested areas of Sarajevo. The situation is gradually improving thanks to the support of eco-volunteers.

UNV volunteers serving in Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the event, which also served as an opportunity for UNV to launch the theme of International Volunteer Day 2009 – 'Volunteering for our Planet' - stressing the role of volunteerism in environmental protection and promoting environmental social activism.

The media took part by broadcasting the event’s core messages, encouraging people of all ages to join-in and become ‘eco-volunteers’ by taking such simple personal steps for the environment as re-planting, separating garbage, or taking alternative transport means, thus leaving a positive ecological footprint.

UNV also presented t-shirts 'I ja sam volonter - I am also a volunteer' for all participating volunteers and contributed to the purchase of seedlings.