The Secretary of State for Youth and Sports announced this Wednesday that the volunteer program for the forests, which this year brings together 2,000 young people, will have the financing and involvement of Civil Protection and the Environment in 2023.
“The program will have two new muscles that will give it a greater budgetary dimension, but also a more refined technical dimension,” he said.
The Secretary of State was speaking in Baião, in the district of Porto, where he participated, in the municipal council, in a working session attended by 10 young people from that municipality who have participated in youth volunteering, helping to monitor the life of the forest municipality, in the current critical period of fires.
According to the Secretary of State, the program has been developed solely for the guardianship of young people.
However, he stressed, starting next year it will have the financial and technical support of the Civil Protection and Environment authorities, thus giving “more strength” to the project.
“There are pertinent environmental and civil protection issues that will be studied to be adopted,” said the official, who noted that these areas “will bring important and relevant contributions to the program.”
In statements to representatives of the civil protection of Baião and mayors, João Paulo Correia pointed out, on the other hand, the “multiple gains” and the “very practical results” of the program throughout the country, mainly in the area of forest surveillance, in the period of the fires.
He recalled, however, that in other months of the year (the program runs from April to November) the young people involved participate in other nature protection actions, namely in green areas and water lines, in addition to local heritage.
Speaking to the 10 young people, he highlighted their “example of citizen participation at the local level.”
The Secretary of State then commented on a question previously raised by the municipality’s firefighters, indicating that the possibility that in 2023 these humanitarian associations may be eligible to submit applications for the volunteer program is being studied.
Source: Observadora
