Once again The North Face (TNF) is getting actively involved in conservation; using the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) to help locate relevant conservation projects tackling habitat clean-ups. The North Face Explore Fund will support five projects in four countries across Europe to the tune of €218,000 and EOCA is delighted that, for the third year running, TNF has chosen the Association to find, assess and manage the projects on their behalf. All projects have a primary aim of restoring wild spaces by actively reducing the plastic pollution that is endangering them.
The projects to be funded are as follows:
Zero Waste Mountain, with Mountain Riders, France: will provide 100 cleaning to resorts in the Alps, Pyrenees and Jura mountains and undertake 180 clean-up events during 2022 and 2023, engaging 6-8,000 volunteers.
The Plasticfree Peaks CleanUP Tour 2022, with Patron, Germany & Austria: will organise 10 x 3-5 day clean-up events across the German and Austrian alps, aiming to 5,000 participants in its clean-up actions.
CleanALP – Protect and clean our mountains, with The European Research Institute, Italy: will hold 40 clean-up events, involving 2,000 people on trails, alpine lake shores, creeks, grasslands, and screes, engaging Alpine huts to build a strategy to reduce of plastic in alpine environments.
Fell Care Days, with Friends of the Lake District, UK: mass-participation volunteering events will empower communities to actively take part in conservation through litter picks, tree planting, rhododendron bashing and much more. This project will include the Great Cumbrian Litter Pick, a further clean-up event at the Kendal Mountain Festival, and a Fell Care Day.
Let’s Do It Ourselves (DIO) – Protecting and Enhancing our Outdoor Playgrounds, with Trash Free Trails (TFT), UK: This project will carry out a 9-Stop Tour at some of the UK’s most iconic mountains, forests and river trails, engaging communities to become self-sustaining stewards of their outdoor playgrounds.
