The action Borenka – draw your own tree, visited, and educated the students in the elementary school Dimitar Vlahov in Shtip. This action is implemented by the Scouts Union of Macedonia (SIM), as part of the program for education and environmental protection. This program is implemented by the Scouts Union together with PE National Forests, which provide field preparation, professional assistance, expertise, and supervision in planting activities.
One of the reasons and motives for such action is that in the last two years, Macedonia was affected by more than 500 forest fires, and the financial damage was estimated at €14 million. Extremely large areas of forest had been destroyed, and the natural consequences are catastrophic. Nature is powerless to defend and quickly restore itself, so it needs our help, the Scouts Union say.
In 2022, the Scouts Union of Macedonia launched the largest volunteer initiative for afforestation of burned areas in Macedonia. Part of the initiative is also this education, which was implemented for the first time in the elementary school Dimitar Vlahov in Shtip.
The students education was conducted by Snezana Jankovic from the Scouts Union of Macedonia, who emphasizes that the purpose of this event is Borenka’s promotion, an initiative for afforestation of burned areas:
In the period from 2019 to 2022 there were many fires, and now is the right time to return to those burnt areas and plant a new forest. How do we do it with the help of Borenka? Borenka has two packages: the first one are the educational workshops, with boxes containing charcoal pencils and sheets. The charcoal pencils represent the burned trees, which should restore life to the forest. We visit schools from all over Macedonia, where children draw a tree with these charcoal pencils, take a picture of it with their phone and then they can plant it in a virtual forest on www.borenka.mk . The more trees are drawn and planted in the virtual forest, the more Borenka volunteers go out into the field during spring and autumn afforestation. and reforest together with the PE National Forests – said Snezana Jankovic.
This year, in this action, the elementary school Dimitar Vlahov is the first visited school in the framework of this action, and so far over 2000 children have drawn trees, and the trees were planted on burned areas in Petralitsa, Rankovce.
Today we are drawing with Shtip pupils, and tomorrow we are going in Vardar region, Demir Kapija area, to work with young people and we will plant real seedlings. With this action, the regions of the East, which also had suffered by big fires will be covered as well. As scouts, we are open to coordinate volunteers who want to join us, and we also call-on schools to join us in planting actions – added Jankovic.
Tree-planting actions take place on weekends during spring and autumn, when planting conditions are at their best. The selection of the species and the planting location are carried out in cooperation with the professionals and experts from PE National Forests as joint organizers with the scouts.
The young scouts from Shtip were involved in this event, who have an interest and are involved in the actions:
Interest has always existed, especially among children and young people, who are constantly involved. We are proud to say that we have an interest for such activities, and we record increased number of membership applications. We work on the education of children and young people and develop various programs. In recent months we have focused more on education about environmental protection, education about afforestation and forest restoration, and prevention of fires and natural disasters. I think that the interest will continue in the future, and we will succeed in educating children and young people, because it is they who should continue the positive practice of protecting our forests and nature and improving environmental conditions – said Darko Tosic, scout from Shtip.
