ASEAN Programme sends 2 youth leaders to biodiversity negotiations in Rome

ASEAN Youth Biodiversity Leaders Kittikun Saksung from Thailand (front row, second from left) and Karl Png Jun Qiang from Singapore (back row, second from left) join the delegation of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network in a group photo with Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Elizabeth Maruma Mrema (back row, seventh from left).

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 on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (OEWG 2) was held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization on 24-29 February, with over a thousand delegates from 149 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and representatives and observers from international organisations, indigenous peoples and local communities, civil society, academe, and subnational and local organisations in attendance.

Two Youth Biodiversity Leaders (YBL) 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 organised by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), an international network of youth organisations and individuals that serves as the official youth constituency in the negotiations under the CBD.

“In the ASEAN region, over 65 per cent 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 or BCAMP, provides ASEAN youth with capacity building, mentorship and resources to scale their impact for biodiversity conservation.

Tan said the youth leaders from ASEAN gained first-hand 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 actualise policies on the ground.

She said the most effective policies that galvanise 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 towards a future living in harmony within nature.

Youth leaders in biodiversity conservation like Kittikun Saksung and Karl Png Jun Qiang are being trained under the YBL fellowship programme, 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.

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