Involvement through environmental actions

In January 2009 an international project has started in Tallinn (Estonia) and Lahti (Finland) -"Rings in water - involvement of immigrants and Russian speaking inhabitants through environmental actions".
The organizations to be involved in the project are The Centre for Development Programs EMI-ECO (Estonia) and Lahti Region Environmental Service (Finland).The project is part-financed by European Union under the Central Baltic INTERREG IV A Programme 2007 - 2013. The project's target groups include Russian speaking inhabitants and immigrants (adults,young people and school children), local administration officers and mass media.

The project idea is raising environmental awareness of Russian speaking and elderly inhabitants in municipalities where they dominate (Narva, Lasnamäe and Pöhja-Tallinn), and among Russian speaking immigrants in Finnish municipalities (Lahti, Hollola, Nastola). The project supports Russian speaking inhabitants'and immigrants'integration into their residential area and the natural environment. It is very important that they understand what kind of impacts their daily activities have on the environment and what they can do to reduce their environmental load. The specific objectives of the project are:

1. Increasing the environmental awareness of Russian speaking inhabitants in partner municipalities.
2. Social inclusion of immigrants, or inhabitants with undefined citizenship into local life through environmental activities and networking both in regional and inter-regional level.
3. Promoting sustainable consumption of non-renewable natural resources (energy, water, packaging) and support global combat against climate change through introduction of good house keeping activities in households of project municipalities.
4. Spreading the public involvement models of Lahti and Tallinn, adjusting them for new target groups, and developing applicable methods for public involvement of Russian speaking inhabitants in municipalities. The project's activities include study visits, excursions, network building and workshops for adults and young people. Estonian and Finnish partners will develop and disseminate specific models of good practices (green ambassadors in Tallinn, neighborhood trustees in Lahti Region) during the project. We believe that this experience can be later on be used by the participants and other interested organizations to work with immigrants.