A group of 12 young people (members of YMDRAB) visited the Seven Rila Lakes on 30th of July 2020. They passed over 8,5 km in a hard mountain terrain visiting all the seven lakes. During the walk they looked at the situation on the spot, discussed with each other as well as with other visitors about different points of view on the lakes’ management and formulated their proposals for improving it.
Тhree discussion sessions took place around the lakes:
- What is Democracy? – The young people discussed about Democracy and its main features. Everybody tested personally his/her knowledge by a quiz on the topic. “VOTE!” project was presented to the participants, including project aim and specific objectives, participating organisations, past and upcoming activities.
- Youth participation in democratic decision-making process - Basic definitions, approaches and the Ladder of youth participation were introduced and explored. The participants explored the Six-step implementation model on youth participation. In this context, they discussed and identified the main problems and challenges related to The Seven Rila Lakes management, specific areas of interest, needs and points of view of different kind of actors.
- Suggestions for sustainable management of the Seven Rila Lakes – The participants were working on finding ways for improvement of the lakes’ management. They tried to analyze the current situation, challenges, obstacles and opportunities and listed concrete proposals to the responsible authorities. Emphasis was placed on searching for the possible optimal balance between the tourist interest in the lakes and the protection of these unique and fragile ecosystems. The proposals are addressed and sent to the Rila National Park which is the responsible institution.
We believe this activity is a very good example of youth participation in the democratic life and hopefully our proposals will be taken into account.
This activity is implemented under project “Raising the capacities of youth NGOs for rural youth participation in democratic life – VOTE!” co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
