THE gauntlet has been thrown down to secondary schools across York and North Yorkshire - to start the New Year by going green.

Environmental charity Earthwatch and the University of York's environment department are challenging secondary school students to green up as part of their Wild Species And Wild Spaces initiative.

Yorkshire schools are being invited to develop a strategy for reviving a piece of degraded land, such as overgrown woodland, a derelict plot or an abandoned garden.

Students with the most enterprising and practical proposals will be asked to take part in a student debate at the university, with five rival schools competing for a £150 action grant they can use to kick-start a local conservation project.

Wild Species And Wild Spaces will offer students and teachers the opportunity to develop their environmental understanding as well as the chance to prepare for, and take part in, a public debate.

All proposals will be assessed by experts from Earthwatch and the university and the winning students will need to argue persuasively for their project in front of an audience of members of the public, who will be asked to vote for the winner.

Nigel Winser, Earthwatch chief executive, said: "Earthwatch is dedicated to educating more people about environmental issues, and this begins at home.

"We sincerely hope the students and teachers will rise to this challenge."

Professor Dave Raffaelli, head of the environment department at the University of York, said: "We only have one planet, and its resources are finite. Here at York, our mission is to train the new generation of students who will be the stewards of our environmental future."

Any school wishing to take part should phone Earthwatch on 01865 318856, or email events@earthwatch.org.uk

The debate will take place on Friday, March 24, from 1pm to 3pm.

A debate advice pack will be available to all schools, and students from the University of York will be on hand to mentor the finalists.

Earthwatch currently supports more than 140 environmental research projects in 50 countries by providing funds and paying volunteers who work alongside leading field scientists and researchers.

Their projects are divided into six primary research areas, endangered habitats, threatened species, climate change, human and wildlife conflict, sustainable resource management and earth science and cultural evolution.

Since 1971, the worldwide organisation has recruited more than 75,000 volunteers in support of 2,800 field research projects in 118 countries.

York University's environmental debate was founded in 1992, initially to integrate ecological and environmental sciences with environmental economics. The aim was to improve understanding of environmental problems, and how to solve them, through the consideration of both the human dimension and the underpinning science.

Updated: 08:38 Wednesday, January 04, 2006