White Birch Tree Tackle's "Wild Dumping" Problem

Krusevac, a town in central Serbia, is known for its historic monuments, tourism and agricultural potentials.  The White Birch Tree, an ecologicalorganization from the town, recognized that in spite of all Krusevac's natural wealth, local authorities lack care or  interest for environment protection and ecological problem-solving. Volunteers of organization, already active in field work and in everyday communication with citizens, especially in rural parts of the municipality, wanted to raise attention on the ecological problems of wild dumps that destroy the environment. They continued with a strong  campaign for regular garbage disposal in Krusevac and in the same year, this passionate eco group attended two modules of training in advocacy and received support for their project from the Advanced Community Advocacy Program. The project was a result of their unending fight and insistence on the institution of organized garbage disposal for rural areas in Krusevac Municipality.

Through a number of public actions, they gathered 1000 signatures for their initiative to purchase 1000 trash containers with municipal funds which would help solve eco problems in rural areas of the municipality. White Birch Tree's actions aimed to raise awareness among citizens and they targeted their tactics to be suitable for each constituency group, considering that volunteers (50) and other participants (including 345 children) came from a variety of demographic backgrounds.  For example, organizing an eco patrol enabled a group of pupils to record the situation in wild dumps on-site through photos and videos. This material was used later for the first exhibition on ecological and environmental issues in Krusevac. These two examples demonstrate the educational dimension of White Birch Tree's work as well as its aim to encourage citizens to rethink the present manner of garbage disposal and consider new methods.

As a result of their constant investment of efforts and especially their successful environmental campaign against wild dumps, White Birch Tree reported their achievements in solving the problem of communal garbage in rural surroundings to both the local Assembly and Council. Based on the outcome of the project, Public Communal Enterprise allocated an additional 200 containers which will be used on a regular basis. Another direct impact of their accomplishment was visible when local authorities publicly announced investment in 300 new containers in rural places in 2009.

The intensive campaign through 12 different media outlets raised the project's visibility and enabled the group to highlight ecological problems in the municipality. Constant media pressure put the problems on the agenda of local authorities and results are expected in the next year when a new budget will be delivered to the public. According to Snezana Djurdjevic, "In spite of a difficult political situation, we consider the project very successful and we can say that we accomplished our goal because more than a half of councilors from the local parliament belong to political parties that gave their support for the project, media from Krusevac accepted the campaign as their own and they continued it even after the project ended. Another ten rural local communities submitted their individual claims for solving the problem of organized garbage disposal in their surroundings."