The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) has announced the newest conservation projects it will be supporting this year. In line with its current Plastic Free: Mountain to Sea focus and its target to clear 3,000 km of habitat, trail and beach of plastic waste and pollution, all projects concentrated on the removal of plastic pollution from wild areas, in tandem with education and awareness-raising strategies to change habits and practices to stop it getting there in the first place.
With nearly 44,000 votes cast for the 14 shortlisted projects over a tense two-week period, three projects were chosen by the general public in an online vote, which was also hosted by Mountainblog.eu and Mountainblog.it. A further three projects were chosen by EOCA members:
- Paddling, Cleaning, Teaching, Aprender, Brazil
- Fishing Plastic: Magdalena River Clean-Up, Fundacion Colombia
- Plastic Free Woodlands, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, UK
- Stop the Alp’s becoming Plastic Mountains, Italy
- Clear the Bay by Day, Morecambe Bay Partnership, UK
- Dos Manos, Save the Med Foundation, Spain
Working in collaboration with The North Face, EOCA has also helped find three projects for the company to support through The North Face Explore Fund, which successfully launched in Europe last year: Purposeful Adventures, Trash Free Trails (UK), Explore with Purpose, Planet Patrol (Germany) and Mountain Clean-Up, Summit Foundation (Italy).
A further four projects in Finland, the Netherlands, UK and Australia are being funded by EOCA summit members this year.
More information on all these projects can be found here.
Photo: © EOCA
