The 23rd of November was the Portuguese national day of Autoctone Forest. While some ecoclubes and other organizations planted autoctones trees  that day, OPE (Organisation of Promotion for Ecoclubs) organized in the city center of Porto what is called in French "Porteur de parole"

What is this?

The objective of a "porteurs de parole" is mainly to create a debate in the public place with passers-by.
A first sentence is written on a big board, in the middle of a street or a square, so that everybody can see it.
Leaders are here to question passers-by about this sentence: "What do they think about it? Do they agree or not? Why? Do they feel concerned by the sentence?"
Then, they are given the opportunity to write a comment or an answer on another board, that will be sticked up next to the first board. That way, the debate gets more and more contributions and points of view.This method increases the collective awareness of the people who participate in the event.

This tool was really successfull in Porto and many people expressed themselves by writing and talking with us. (You can read more informations about the "porteur de parole" in these pages, if you want to make that kind of actions: French page)

We also invited the participants to adopt a holly tree which is an autoctone tree in Portugal. People had to complete a formular and commit themselves to plant and take care of this tree. About 40 trees were adopted, which was a good suprise for us!

OPE team.