How do we generate our carbon footprint?
Virtually, any activity we perform today results in the emission of CO2, carbon dioxide. Whether it is during the activity, when we travel by motor vehicle, or with the use of appliances and equipment, we are going to generate this dioxide. Doing nothing to reverse it, and we will always leave our carbon footprint in the environment.
Birdwatch Asturias is dedicated to ecotourism activities, in particular ornithological tourism and nature observation. We also carry out environmental education workshops, to make the next generations aware of the importance of preserving the environment.
We believe it is necessary to be responsible for maintaining the nature that surrounds us as well as possible and we are committed to taking care of the spaces in which we develop our work.
Given the need we have to use a vehicle to travel to bird watching areas, we also want to correct the carbon footprint we produce. For this reason, we have decided to allocate part of the money generated by our activity to a local project that cares for and works on the recovery of degraded lands of this natural space.
How do we offset our carbon footprint?
In a partnership with Carbono Gestión, we have estimated the CO2 that we have emitted into the atmosphere when carrying out our activities during the year. Once this calculation was done, we only had to choose which project we wanted to make our compensation in. Finally, we decided to participate in 4 projects.
These projects aim to cut down on carbon emissions on the area they take place, in addition to help improving their Sustainable Development Goals.
We chose one project in Chile, another one in Malawi and two in India. Finally, after this procedure, we have a certificate saying we are carbon neutral in our activities.
We find interesting to enhance the visibility of this kind of projects, as an idea to be followed by other people, companies and associations on how to offset their carbon footprints. Therefore, from our media and social network we will try to show how these projects work.
Other environmental initiatives
We are members of Proyecto Roble, an association with experience in regeneration and vegetation recovery projects in areas damaged by fires. In addition to our annual membership fee, we like to contribute with a donation and by participating on the plantations they carry out.
We also collaborate with the Fundación para la Conservación del Quebrantahuesos, FCQ (Spanish for Beardedn vulture Preservation Foundation), which aims to reintroduce the Bearded Vulture in Picos de Europa and Pyrenees.
In addition to this, we give free environmental education workshops in schools from the sourraundings of the Picos de Europa National Park. This way, children become aware of the need to take care of the planet and the environment.
Finally, we keep our costumers informed about the destination of a share of their money for these projects. Thus, they can also feel as part of this collaboration.
Therefore, among all of us, we will try to help the environment.
We are members of SEO-BirdLife (Spanish Ornithological Society), in charge of bird taking care and protection.
We participate in bird census, like the annual waterbird and wintering species census in the Villaviciosa Estuary.