Queen Sofia, through the Foundation that bears her name, will participate on the 24th of September in the release of a turtle in Andratx and will visit a collection organised by divers on the island of Dragonera. The event is part of the Libera Project, by SEO/BirdLife in alliance with Ecoembes, which is organising the sixth edition of the citizen science campaign ‘1m2 for beaches and seas’, the mobilisation campaign to characterise and collect litter from 289 sites in Spain.

La reina Sofía proyecto Libera

Queen Sofia accompanies the volunteers of the 1m2 for nature campaign. Photo: Proyecto Libera.

The actions of this initiative will be held between 17 and 25 September at coastal and seabed sites in Spain, including the Balearic Islands. The aim is to find out about the impact of litter on natural spaces, in this case the coasts and seas, and to free them from this waste, analyse its effects on the environment and raise awareness of this problem.

The celebration of the campaign will coincide with International Beach Clean-up Day, which is commemorated on Saturday 17 September. Volunteers from the various participating organisations, entities and associations will be in charge of characterising the litter collected in order to propose strategies that have an efficient projection to put an end to this environmental problem.

Cigarette butts, cans, straws…

In the last campaign, 6.7 tonnes of litter were recorded from the Spanish coastline thanks to the participation of more than 4,500 volunteers. From this amount, 61,483 items of waste were identified, with cigarette butts, drink cans, straws, cutlery and plastic cups being the most commonly found objects in 2021.

1m2 por los fondos marinos

Photo: Proyecto Libera.