As part of its efforts to empower the youth in conserving biodiversity, the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) through the Asean Youth Biodiversity Programme (AYBP) sent two youth leaders to attend the recent second round of negotiations about the post-2020 global biodiversity framework in Rome, Italy.
The second meeting of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG 2) on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework was held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture last month. It was attended by over a thousand delegates from 149 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and representatives and observers from international organizations, indigenous peoples and local communities, civil society, the academia, and subnational and local organizations in attendance.
Two Youth Biodiversity Leaders from the YBL fellowship 2019 Cohort, namely Karl Png Jun Qiang from Singapore and Kittikun Saksung from Thailand, were selected to participate in the second OEWG meeting and a two-day training on CBD protocols, policy-making and negotiations.
The training was organized by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, an international network of youth organizations and individuals that serves as the official youth constituency in the negotiations under the CBD.
“In the Asean region, over 65 percent of the population is under 35 years old. Being the next generation to inherit the planet, young people have a key stake in shaping and implementing policies related to biodiversity, the Earth’s life support system,” Mika Tan, coordinator of the AYBP said.
The AYBP, an initiative of the ACB and the European Union through the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in Asean, provides Asean youth with capacity building, mentorship and resources to scale their impact for biodiversity conservation.
Tan said the youth leaders from Asean gained firsthand exposure to international processes and policy negotiations on biodiversity, so that they may bring these global discussions down to the national and local levels in their respective communities and actualize policies on the ground.
She said the most effective policies that galvanize broad support are also the ones that reflect the needs of the peoples.
The youth leaders also brought with them the views of the youth from Southeast Asia to the policy discussions. They highlighted to decision-makers about the central role of education—transformative education—for us to be able to promote values and, eventually, shift behaviors for transformative change toward a future living in harmony within nature.
Youth leaders in biodiversity conservation like Saksung and Qiang are being trained under the YBL fellowship program, in which 20 outstanding young leaders each year are selected from a rigorous open application process to join the fellowship Cohort for the year.
The 2020 Cohort of YBLs will be beginning their one-year fellowship this year.