The first stamp in the “Voluntary Civil Protection Work” series was issued in 2008. The first few issues were devoted to the work of the “Fire Service” (2008), the “Samaritans” (2009) and Mountain and Water Rescue (2010), while in 2013 in two further stamps the good work done by the “Avalanche Rescue-Dog Handlers” (face value CHF 1.00) and the voluntary “Civil Protection” (face value CHF 1.40) is to be highlighted. Initial trials for Liechtenstein avalanche rescue-dog handlers were conducted in 1974 in close collaboration with the Liechtenstein Alpine Association and the Office of Civil Protection. After the first rules and regulations had been drafted in 1985, in 1990 the Government ratified the Principality of Liechtenstein’s official Avalanche Rescue-Dog Handler Regulations. From this year onwards there has accordingly also existed an official “Liechtenstein Avalanche Rescue-Dog Group”; this was renamed in 1998 the “Principality of Liechtenstein Rescue-Dog Group”, as the specialist training of avalanche rescue-dog handlers had been extended to cover training in wilderness searches. Again and again members of the Group are also allocated to the regional dog-handlers’ on-call service and there are even international deployments. The activities of civil-protection groups, which are under the control of the Office for Civil Protection and Emergency Management (AZSLV) established in 1972, are spread between the country’s individual communities and are put into effect there by numerous volunteers. The Groups’ aim is to protect the population in emergencies, in particular after disasters. They perform the tasks assigned to them as independent relief organisations and as an adjunct to the Fire Service and the Samaritans. Their principal tasks include looking after and maintaining the effectiveness of home shelters, providing and operating the home-shelter infrastructure and occasionally also attending to and providing for people (evacuees, refugees etc.) in public shelters. The designer, as in the case of the preceding stamps in this series, is the Liechtenstein graphic artist Evelyne Bermann.