OREANDA-NEWS. April 30, 2008. WWF and Citi Russia continued their "Clean Forest" program this past Saturday by clearing garbage from Moscow's Izmailovsky Park. In spite of cold temperatures, more than 150 WWF supporters and Citi employees filled over 150 garbage bags over several hours, reported the press-centre of Citibank.

Izmailovsky Park is one of the largest nature conservation zones in Moscow and attracts many visitors from different Moscow districts. WWF Russia and its supporters started the Clean Forest campaign three years ago to help rid Moscow parks of garbage each spring.

During the past two years, more than 350 people have participated and disposed of approximately 1,250 bags of garbage. Active inhabitants of the nearest districts joined the event as well.

"We are glad that cooperation with WWF provides our employees and clients with a unique opportunity to support the environment. Every year we see higher numbers of people contributing to the preservation of the environment and the results of the Clean Forest program in 2008 proved that again," said Tatiana Avramenko, community relations officer with ZAO Citibank. "We hope that the Clean Forest program will become a longstanding tradition and will attract more and more people, not only WWF supporters, but also park visitors."

Each person who participated in the event received a special panda badge with "Participant of the "Clean Forest" campaign, and the most active participants who collected most of the garbage bags were rewarded by prizes such as nestling boxes and books about animals.

Summary of charitable partnership between Citi Russia and WWF in 2007:

In May 2007, Citi Russia offered clients the option of replacing paper statements of their account balances in favour of electronic versions, reducing the use of paper.

Money saved from printing paper statements was transferred to WWF for the program "Plant Your Forest for Life."

Over 5,500 Citi Russia clients took advantage of this offer, and the collected money was used to plant three hectares of forest in the Altaisky region. In addition to the environmental benefits, electronic versions have the same level of detail than their paper counterparts, and they are delivered quicker than printed versions benefiting clients.