On November 25, the Federal Service for Nature Management (Rosprirodnadzor) announced the results of the International Children's and Youth Award "Ecology is Everyone's Business" at an online conference and presented about 200 finalists for awards, almost half of them took first, second and third places in 12 nominations of the competition, four awards were given to journalists, and the rest were awarded with special jury prizes.

The special prize of the award in the nomination "My family – my eco-team" was awarded to a large family from the city of Gdov, Pskov region. Parents and six children, thanks to eco-habits, reduce the negative impact on nature: they collect garbage separately, clean springs, conduct eco-workshops, use reusable bags when going to the store.

As Elena Vasechkina said, she learned about the competition from colleagues. Elena Vladimirovna works in the library. After discussing with the family, we immediately decided to apply. Everyone participated in the creation of the project. The guys were shooting videos, Grandma wrote poems. We sent an application for the contest and waited for the results. And, already on November 25, they learned that their project was awarded a special prize. Now the family will go to the sea.

"There is not a single region of Russia that would not respond to our initiative. A flurry of work awaited the moderators in the final days, when 2,000 applications were received almost simultaneously two days before the end of their acceptance. All 12 participating cities of the Clean Air project of the national Ecology project are covered - 170 works. More than 200 works were sent from orphanages, social rehabilitation centers, orphanages, boarding schools for children with disabilities from Russia and foreign countries," commented Svetlana Radionova, head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management.

Recall that the competition commission of the award was headed by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Victoria Abramchenko. The jury of the competition included Svetlana Radionova, head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Nature Management, Vyacheslav Fetisov, National Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Environment Program, Nikolai Drozdov, zoologist and biogeographer, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia Today (RT) and MIA Rossiya Segodnya, Nikas Safronov and Sergey Andriaka, People's Artists of the Russian Federation, and others.

The award "Ecology is Everyone's business" was established by the Federal Service for Supervision of Nature Management in March 2021. In six months, 9,5 thousand applications were received, 6000 works corresponding to the competition regulations were accepted. Children and teenagers from 7 to 16 years old, including pupils of special institutions, posted drawings, videos, reports, challenges, actions, flash mobs, projects dedicated to the idea of caring for the environment on social networks (VKontakte, Instagram, Tik-Tok, YouTube, Rutube). The publications of the participants are marked with special hashtags of the award: #ecologydelocity #ecologyiseveryone #rpndetam #rpnforchildren.

Among the main objectives of the project are environmental education, popularization of the topic of ecology and the culture of responsible attitude to natural resources, increasing social activity among young people, including through social networks and "green" volunteering.