Ecovillage and Permaculture Certificate Program

One of the projects I'm involved in is an all-estonian project Let's Do It 2008.

We plan to clean up all garbage from all forests in our country at once.

Please visit: http://www.teeme2008.ee/?setlang=eng or read this:

Let's Do It 2008
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The Idea
We have an outrageous plan  to clean up Estonia from illegally dumpedor 
littered waste. We plan to do it in ONE day, engaging 40 000volunteers all over Estonia.
To make it all possible we are using Google Earth. We are dragging theugly and stinking 
problem out from the woods and putting it into thelight by placing it on the map. Software based 
on Google Earth enables us to map all the garbage in Estonia - giving each garbageplace it's own ID-number, 
with relevant descriptive data and picture.This makes it possible to estimate and face the problem in detail 
and then plan the necessary steps to solve it.The background of the problemEstonia is considered to be one of 
the cleanest Eastern-Europeancountries with unique and well-preserved natural environment  thereare more 
than 1000 lakes and islands, 375 nature conservation areascovering 11% of all the Estonian dry land area. More 
than half ofEstonian land is covered by forests. http://www.envir.ee/67247But all that beauty is in danger. Since 
Estonia regained independencein 1991 we have had a problem of illegal garbage in our forests.The real 
problem has been the mindset of the people that allows them totreat nature as their private dumpster. This 
attitude has beenchanging greatly in past years but the amount of litter in our naturestays so overwhelming, that 
the government is not able to tackle theproblem. From the other hand  there are still plenty of people who continue
the old pattern due to habit and lack of consideration.We are non-governmental and non-profit civic-initiative and 
we believethat through mobilizing a large part of population into amassive action and supporting this with a broad 
media campaign  it ispossible to make Estonia a much cleaner country and shift people'smindset into a more 
environmentally conscious way of thinking.



How exactly are we planning to do it:
1. Geomapping about 7,000 tons of waste littered all over Estonia.With the help of volunteers, we have already 
located more than 1500illegal waste dumping places on the map. One of our core-team members, Ahti Heinla, 
has developed special software based on Google Earth which allows us to put all the garbage places on a 
google map. You can have a look at the map online: http://www.teeme2008.ee/?op=body&id=4
2. Seek partners from private, public and NGO sector who want toparticipate in the process.We have already an extensive range 
of partners; the largesttelecommunications companies in Estonia  EMT, Elion. The biggestenergy producer and 
provider  Eesti Energia. We are also successfullynegotiating with Nokia. One of our strongest partners is Estonian
Network of Nonprofit Organizations. We have already received financialand non-financial support from Ministry of 
the Environment of Estonia,support from the president and several other important governmentalorganizations 
and institutions.
3. Build up a network of local leaders who help to plan and manage theclean-up day.We are planning to engage 
1-2 local leaders for every parish of Estonia in next few months.
4. Build up a broad media campaign to seek volunteers and raisepeople's awareness of the problem and the 
impact their everyday lifechoices make on our environment. Our most important partners here are MTV-Estonia 
and Estonian Public Broadcasting service (includestelevision and radio channels).

Important dates:
* 15th of March  Beginning of the media campaign
* 21st of March  Start of sign up of volunteers
* 3rd of May  Big Clean-Up Day
* 4th of May  Thank-You concerts in three biggest cities  Tallinn, Tartu, Narva