Latvian Fund for Nature (LFN) visited a work camp organised by MONTIS to share knowledge about volunteering and work-camp organisation. This event is a side event organised within LIFE ENPLC’s volunteering campaign.
During the first week of July 2022, MONTIS hosted the work camp “Giving nature a hand”. The event took place in Baldio de Carvalhais, Portugal, an area of 100 ha managed by MONTIS to improve biodiversity.
The work camp is financed by IPDJ (Instituto Português do Desporto e da Juventude). Thirteen young volunteers and three monitors from Spain, Mexico, Greece, Belgium, France and Portugal participated in the work camp. These young people contributed to the area’s management with ecosystem restoration works.
Besides the work, there was time for leisure and cultural activities.
A MONTIS monitor briefs volunteers on invasive species. On the left foreground standing Nora Rustanovica (LFN). © MONTIS
Nora Rustanovica, from Latvian Fund for Nature, who is an experienced conservationist from Latvia, joined the event for three days to share experiences managing volunteers and work-camp organisation. As a side event of LIFE ENPLC’s volunteering campaign, this moment is critical as it is the first time two ENPLC project partners join each other’s event within the ENPLC volunteering campaign.
Group picture with the monitors, Nora Rustanovica from Latvian Fund for Nature, and the work camp participants. © MONTIS
This was the first step towards a knowledge exchange amongst project partners within the volunteering campaign. With the mutual new experience and know-how, we hope that both NGOs and participating landowners alike can motivate more landowners to work with volunteers for private land conservation.
The ENPLC volunteering campaign will proceed with other upcoming events. Please visit our volunteering page for campaign updates.
Founded on 23 March 2014, MONTIS Nature Conservation Association is a non-profit environmental non-governmental organisation with a national scope based in Vouzela, a district of Viseu, Portugal. As of January 2020, MONTIS has 473 associates and manages 178,2 hectares comprising 26 properties in the centre of Portugal. The main objectives of MONTIS are to ensure the development of natural processes, promote the conservation of native species, manage wildfires and other natural damages and increase biodiversity.
