9.5 Green volunteering, production and consumption
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Green volunteering
Currently there is no national programme that aims to help young people to engage in green volunteering activities.
From 2007 to 2017, previous Macedonian Government organized “The day of the Tree” campaign, supported by Public Enterprise Macedonian Forests (Јавно претпријатие Македонски шуми) and Association of the units of local self-government of the Republic of Macedonia. Within the reforestation actions, the government involved children and youth from primary and secondary education institutions as volunteers across the country. “The day of the Tree” was a non-working day in North Macedonia and in reforestation were also included all citizens, as well as employed in the Public Administration.
On the 36th session, in November 2017, the Government canceled the action "The day of the Tree" due to unsatisfactory results.[1]
[1] https://vlada.mk/node/13644 (Accessed February 22, 2021)
Green production and consumption
There are no top-level programmes or action for green production and consumption that target explicitly young people (15-29 years old).
Most of the actions and campaigns supported by local-self-governments and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning about green production are targeting primary school students up to 15 years old or the whole population.
Most of the campaigns are organized by civil society organizations or companies and some of them are supported by governmental institutions and some embassies. For example, in 2011 the project for waste batteries “Go Clean” started. It was initiated by the Swedish Embassy, supported by the Swedish Agency for Environmental Protection, the Embassies of Norway, Slovakia and the Ministry of Environment of Republic of North Macedonia and implemented by CSO Go Green. The aim of the project was to support the implementation of the Law on Batteries and Waste Batteries, to develop the awareness about the harmful effects of the batteries and to initiate a system for collecting waste batteries. The second pillar of the project was the informative educational campaign, which included the municipalities, the schools and the universities to develop awareness among the local authorities and young people about the harmful effects of waste batteries and to encourage responsible behavior.[1]
CSO Go Green in 2019 started by implementing the project “Youth for climate change and air quality Education” This project is aimed at schools and the education system and will emphasize the importance of energy efficiency of school buildings and the use of solar thermal collectors for heating and electricity. Finally, education on climate change and air quality must be deeply integrated into the education system. The requirements are supported by detailed research and analysis and awareness-raising and advocacy activities. [2]
[1] https://www.bidizelen.org/en/go-clean-3/ (Accessed February 22, 2021)
[2] https://www.bidizelen.org/en/youth-for-climate-change-and-air-quality-education/ (Accessed February 22, 2021)