Secretary of State for the Environment organizes the first meeting with the Environment Voluntary Brigade
The Secretariat of State for the Environment (SSE), held, last Thursday, October 22nd, in the Infordepe salon, at the ministry of Education, in Balide – Dili, the first training directed at the Environment Volunteer Brigade.
This training aimed to reinforce the capacity of the Environment Volunteer Brigade for environmental defence, so that they can help to control factors harmful to the environment, such as fires that happen every year or the garbage throw outside of containers, among others activities that cause damage to the environment.
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Demétrio do Amaral de Carvalho, in his speech, said that the best way to protect the environment is to involve the whole society, through the formation of brigades, and to create a national movement in favour of the defence of the environment, because the State has limitations on the recruitment of personnel for protecting the environment.
“We know that the State has limitations in relation to the recruitment of forest guards, environmental guards and biodiversity guards, in all regions of the country, for the supervision of the environment, therefore, the best way for protection is the involvement of all civil society, environmental brigades and movements in defence of the environment”.
SSE added that the “3 dollars” program, implemented at UNTAET time, with the objective of cleaning sewers and garbage in front houses, made Timor-Leste lose the value of cooperation, a very important value for our independence.
For this reason, the creation of Environment Volunteer Brigades is also intended to encourage young people to cultivate again true values for the development process, as was the case in the past.
The team of trainers is composed of the Secretary of State for the Environment, Demétrio do Amaral de Carvalho, himself, the Executive Director of Permatil, Ego Lemos, the General Director of Forests and representatives of Civil Protection.
The approximately 300 members of the brigades that are enrolled in this training come from higher education institutions, namely from UNTL, UNDIL and UNITAL, from the youth organization “Hadomi Natureza” and from other movements.
The training will take place over 2 days, on October 22nd and 23rd, followed by the launch of the environment Volunteer Brigades, on October 26th, 2020.
