From 1 to 2 June, Voronezh hosted the Community Forum, an open platform for acquaintance, experience exchange, and interaction between civic activists and representatives of the authorities and the business community. Aleksandra Burtseva, head of the Gravitation Volunteer Centre of Voronezh State University, regional coordinator of the All-Russian Volunteer Organisation “Do!”, took part in the forum and made a report on the topic of helping wild animals using the example of the All-Russian volunteer project “Helping martens”.
“At the forum, I spoke about the challenges that volunteer animal conservationists face when helping wild animals across the country. On the example of the project “Helping martens” we highlighted four main issues related to the interaction of the public with wild animals. It is important to remember that any wild animal is a vector of various diseases. Therefore, you should only contact wild animals if you follow safety procedures. It is necessary to introduce the topic of proper treatment of wild animals into educational programmes in schools and at various venues throughout the country, so that they do not suffer from people and are not treated as toys,” commented Aleksandra Burtseva.
