Volunteering

Volunteer Program Aims

The volunteer program aims at the creation, organization and training of a team of volunteers in order to protect the area and to develop lasting partnerships with existing volunteer groups. The group of volunteers will receive training from the staff of the Management Body in order to respond to the needs of the Management Body to manage planned or emergency actions.

Particular emphasis will be given on the approach and activation of local residents, who can more directly respond to the call of the Management Body. To achieve all above aims, workshops, training sessions and meetings will be implemented within the local community.

Targets

As volunteering is a sensitive issue, it strengthens social solidarity and reinforces active participation of citizens. Also it can become a highly educative initiative. The Volunteer Program will be available to all residents of the Protected Area of mount Parnon and Moustos wetland, as a contribution to everyday life of the local community.

Volunteers will attend special training seminars that will be organized by the Management Body at various locations within the Protected Area. The seminars will focus on the monitoring of local biodiversity and its threats, on the identification of wild birds and on the recording the population of the species, on forest protection and firefighting-orientation in the field, as well as other issues that will arise from numerous EPPERAA program actions in the Protected Area.

Volunteer group members will be able to carry out activities that are currently carried out by the Management Body, such as surveillance of the Protected Area to prevent fires and illegal activities, monitoring of bird populations in the Moustos wetland, creating suitable nesting sites for birds, recording of visitors and visitor information, restoring selected tree clusters by planting, cleaning beaches and natural areas etc.

In the end of the Volunteer Program the group will be able to work autonomously to organize, co-organize and participate in voluntary actions in the Protected Area.