Vasco Cordeiro challenges young people to be responsible for “taking care of what is ours”
The President of the Government challenged today young Azoreans to get involved in initiatives for the preservation the Region's environmental heritage as a way of becoming aware that it is everyone's responsibility to “take care of what is ours."
“The idea of taking care of what is ours concerns the need to safeguard this environmental heritage that belongs to everyone and, therefore, its defence depends on each one of us,” said Vasco Cordeiro, who spoke at the presentation of the Junior Nature Watcher programme to the students of Santa Maria Basic Education and Secondary School.
On the second day of the Regional Government's statutory visit to this island, the President of the Government stated that one of the ways of getting involved is through participation in this programme, which is aimed at students attending regional schools aged between 8 and 15.
Vasco Cordeiro also considered that the Junior Nature Watcher programme also concerns the promotion of sustainability to ensure that, in the future, Azorean citizens will become increasingly aware of the responsibility of fulfilling the goal of “taking care of what is ours."
"It is another type of sustainability that aims to ensure that, in the future, we will have more Azoreans aware that this task requires responsibility from all of us," said the President of the Government.
According to him, the Region has implemented several initiatives directed to environmental preservation and awareness, pointing out the example of the Eco-Schools programme. It already registers a participation rate of 30 percent among the Region's educational institutions, almost double the national rate, which is at 17%.
The Junior Nature Watcher of the Azores programme aims to encourage the interest and participation in environmental preservation among young people as well as in the dissemination of the activities developed by professional Nature Watchers in the Azores, providing them with the opportunity of knowing in the field the actions carried out by these professionals on a daily basis.