Global environment the winner, as volunteer contributions exceed 1 million hours

Friday, 04 December 2009 06:43

Thousands of volunteers around the world have registered more than one million hours of effort to tackle climate change and other environmental issues, as part of a campaign to promote International Volunteer Day on 5 December.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme launched the global campaign ‘Volunteering for our Planet’ to promote voluntary effort for the environment. Since the website launched in October, tens of thousands of people have visited the website, www.VolunteeringForOurPlanet.org, to register the time that they spend on a voluntary basis, helping communities to adapt and innovate and to mitigate the causes of climate change.  

 As the total registered effort passed 1 million hours, volunteers in developing countries had registered the most time and activities. The top five countries were India, Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Only one western country, the United States, appeared in the top 10 (see table below for the top 40).

UNV will present the result of the campaign at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen which opens on 7 December.

Volunteers are taking action across many areas, including environmental education in Egypt, agriculture in Brazil, energy in China, waste and pollution in Germany, water and sanitation in Australia and biodiversity in Canada.  People registering on the website have given details of many different ways that they are volunteering. One couple volunteered 1000 hours to teach environmental conservation to communities in Malaysia. In Turkey, a woman volunteered for 100 hours to build more energy-efficient buildings, while a man in Liberia spent 50 hours installing water pumps and mobilizing young people to volunteer for environmental projects.

The United Nations Volunteers programme is the UN organization that promotes volunteerism to support peace and development worldwide. Volunteerism can transform the pace and nature of development and it benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for volunteerism globally, encouraging partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing volunteers. UNV is the UN focal point for International Volunteer Day, celebrated internationally every year on 5 December and marked in a variety of ways by governments, institutions and individuals worldwide.

 To learn more about the campaign please visit http://www.VolunteeringForOurPlanet.org

Top 40 countries

Hours registered as at 2 December, on VolunteeringforourPlanet.org. Hours volunteered in the six months to International Volunteer Day, 5 December 2009.