The Portuguese Environment Agency, through the Algarve Hydrographic Region Administration (ARH), promoted the 5th edition of the Education and Environmental Volunteering Initiatives Week (SEIVA), between October 10th and 17th, under the scope of the “Environmental Volunteering for Water” project and the project’s partner network.
Through the theme “Learning from nature / restoring ecosystems”, we wanted to draw attention to the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, which aims to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on all continents and oceans.
The SEIVA 2021 integrated various actions taking place simultaneously in the 16 municipalities of the Algarve, including training, workshops, environmental volunteering activities, visits to infrastructure and equipment for environmental education, games, video projection sessions and exhibitions on environmental issues.

THE LIFE BETWEEN THE TIDES | Field trip
Description: A trip to the beach during low tide to observe the biodiversity in the intertidal zone and learn about the biology of some invertebrates of our coast.
Location: Pinhão Beach, Lagos
Date: October 11th
Time: 10h30 – 11h30 am
Target Audience: Families (open event)


































OCEAN OF WORDS | Educational Activity
- Description: Fun, didactic games aimed at children in early learning and literacy. Designed to support children in navigating the world of writing, while simultaneously learning about life in the ocean and developing notions of sustainability and environmental responsibility.
- Location: São Gonçalo School (Lagos), Tité School (Portimão), Lar Criança (Portimão)
- Date: October 11th to 15th
- Target Audience: School – 2nd year students

- Literacy-age children
20 min
activity printout, pencil, eraser, and colored pencil.
- autonomous and shared writing;
- reading and interpretation of statements and short texts;
- spatial organization;
- development of notions of sustainability and environmental responsibility.
- systematize the use of the letters of the alphabet;
- make writing hypotheses of words that are part of the repertoire of the activity’s theme;
- assemble different words from the letters of the alphabet;
- systematize words of common use from the theme of the activity;
- train the reading of words and statements;
- perceive themselves as being an active part of the natural environment in which they are inserted.
Below are some activities performed by students:















SUSTAINABILITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES | Lecture
Description: Showcase of products that reuse existing materials. We intend it to be an interactive lecture and out of the traditional, to capture the students’ attention. Showing sustainable products that present alternative options to the conscious consumer in relation to conventional products (face-to-face version may even include taking the artisans to school, to personally show them the product and ask questions about their confection)
Location: Basic School 2/3 Dr. Neves Júnior (Faro)
Date: 11th to 15th October
Target Public: School – 7th and 8th grade students
