HOPES to encourage young people to get involved in protecting Cornwall’s marine life is being supported by a new project which will set up community marine conservation groups, including a group in Bude.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s new project, Your Shore Beach Rangers Project, funded by £1-million from the Big Lottery Fund, is currently calling for young people to get involved by helping to create a logo to give the project an identity.

The project will be funded to work within Cornish coastal communities and with young people over the next five years, as part of the Big Lottery Fund’s Our Bright Future movement, which will ensure young people’s voices are heard in the current debates around environmental issues.

The Your Shore Beach Rangers Project will be working in partnership with Cornwall College, to create and support a network of local marine groups around the county. One hundred and eighty Beach Rangers from the age of 16 to 24 will be recruited as part of the project, and will become long-term and important members of the local marine conservation groups.

Events and training opportunities will therefore be held over the next five years, guided by the needs of young people and coastal communities. It is hoped that by 2020, the project will have engaged with nearly 2,500 school children, over 10,000 community members, and have successfully set up at least twelve community marine conservation groups, including a group in Bude.

The project will give people of all ages an increased understanding about the marine environment and how to protect it, and will give young people the opportunity to improve their skills in education and life, to enable them to progress in the future and become leading voices on the marine environment.

To begin with, the trust is calling on 11 to 24 year olds to design the Your Shore Beach Rangers project logo, which is a great opportunity for budding artists as the chosen logo will be on all project material for the next five years.

Natalie Gibb, the community engagement officer for the Your Shore Beach Rangers Project, said: “This project is all about creating exciting opportunities designed to unleash the ambition and potential of young people in Cornwall, and the logo competition is a great example of that. We really encourage everyone to have a go, it is really important that young people have their say right from the beginning of this fantastic project.”

The deadline for the logo designing competition is April 18, with the entries being judged via social media.