As part of the campaign launched by the Slovenian Scouts Association's Obnovimo slovenske gozdove (Let's Rehabilitate Slovenian Forests), over 1,600 Slovenian scouts were mobilised to rehabilitate forests after the worst ever ice storm damaged almost half of all Slovenian forests in February last year.

Some 50 hectares of forests were reforested in 23 locations around the country, which convinced the MSS jury.

Pahor, MSS Head Tin Kampl and Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Anja Kopač Mrak also presented awards to individuals for their volunteering work tonight.

Pahor pointed to the increasing awareness about the significance of volunteer work over the past years, since the awards have been given out.

After the economic crisis kicked in, people began to realise that life in a community is much more complex than only minding one's own business, he said.

"Due to extraordinary solidarity among people, we are overcoming the crisis easier than we would have otherwise," Pahor underlined.

Kampl said that on certain occasions, many people would be left without any help if there were no volunteers and that is why their contribution to the society was irreplaceable.

The growing hours of volunteer work actually point to all the domains where help is needed and at the same time justify the need to reinforce systemic support to volunteer work, Kampl added.