The SWY Forest Project in Spain
The SWY Forest Project took place this time as part of a reforestation project covering amount of 13,000 hectares of pine forest in the Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain,
which was devastated by a major fire in 2005.
This activity was actualized with the cooperation of the Foundation “Adopt a tree,” a donation from SWYAA International and SWYAA-Spain. More than 100 people preregistered and final number of 70 participants, including 8 ex-PYs, joined on October 7, 2023.
SWYAA-Spain delivered a welcome speech and introduced the SWY Forest Project, the SWY program, and the Foundation “Adopt a tree.”
Afterwards, the participants had a commented hike about 4 km to the treeplanting area. They spent around 2 hours planting trees. A commemorative plaque was placed in the area at the end.
Of the 900 trees, 350 plants were successfully planted on the day, and the rest of trees will be planted by students or other groups interested in recovering the natural area.
After lunch, participants engaged in activities – “Tree of wishes, “Origami,” “Name in Japanese,” and “Tree Workshop.”
What is the SWY Forest Project?
The project was launched as one of the post-program activities to commemorate SWY
20th anniversary. It was to produce and sell T-shirts with an original logo which was
solicited from ex-PYs, and all proceeds, excluding production costs, will be used for treeplanting activities around the world. Spain was selected by vote among SWYAA
International members in 2019, and after the COVID-19 disaster, the project was realizedin 2023. It was the third planting
