Guardians of the Forest

November 5, 2019. Camilo José Pérez is a 14-year-old boy who is in eighth grade at the San Rafael educational institution, located in Albania, La Guajira, the municipality where he lives with his parents and nine siblings. For him, nature has always meant everything: the air he breathes, the food he feeds on and the environment where he lives. The commitment to care for the environment, led Camilo to be part of the Guardians of the Forest program, in which another 100 students and teachers also participate.

This initiative, led by Cerrejón and with the accompaniment of Corpoguajira, seeks to generate awareness around the environment and promote its conservation by students and teachers of the San Rafael educational institution and the Akuaipa Indigenous Internship (Albania) as well as Eloy Hernández and Paulo XI institutions (located in the municipality of Barrancas, La Guajira). Through actions such as practical theoretical training and field trips, with the guidance of experts and technicians on different topics, awareness raising and preparation of these young people is encouraged so that they become leaders and replicators of the care of natural resources, in their schools and homes

In these last months of the year, with the leadership of the students and teachers of the educational institutions, a school environmental-improvement project will be carried out, that contemplates the realization of diagnoses and action plans that contribute to making the institutions a more friendly  places to the environment and the nature.