(L-R) Mr. Demian Regehr, Resident Representative of Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS) Colombia & Venezuela, Ms. Julia Berger (HSS), Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, ACB executive director, and Mr. Oliver A. Agoncillo, ACB Mainstreaming Biodiversity Director.
CALI, Colombia — The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS), a German foundation operating, amongst other countries, in Southeast Asia, inked a memorandum of understanding to strengthen civil society’s participation in biodiversity processes and governance in ASEAN, including meaningful engagement with the youth sector.
The ceremonial signing was held in a side event called Partner with Youth to Achieve The Global Biodiversity Framework, organised by the ACB, HSS, and the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) Southeast Asia on the sidelines of the UN Biodiversity Conference or COP 16.
The event, attended by representatives from international organisations, foundations, ASEAN development partners, the private sector, and other interested parties, provided a space for ASEAN youth leaders to connect with potential partners to boost youth participation in the implementation of the regional and global biodiversity frameworks.
“This year’s UN Biodiversity Conference, tagged as People’s COP, emphasises the need to recognise the value of multi-stakeholder participation in sustainability. The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity acknowledges the critical role that young people play in conservation at the local, regional, and global levels,” said Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, executive director of the ACB during her opening remarks.
Dr. Lim mentioned the ACB’s flagship programme for the youth called ASEAN Youth Biodiversity Programme (AYBP), which was launched in 2018 in partnership with the European Union through the project, Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in ASEAN (BCAMP).
Youth biodiversity programme in ASEAN
The AYBP was designed to empower the young people of ASEAN by involving them in the development and implementation of biodiversity policies and initiatives at the local, national, regional as well as global levels in close collaboration with the GYBN—the youth arm of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
For six years, the youth programme has made significant strides in empowering young biodiversity advocates in ASEAN which led to its formal adoption as an institutionalised programme of the ACB.
The AYBP include notable sub-programmes such as the Young ASEAN Storytellers (YAS) composed of 20 talented and skilled young leaders who are creating powerful stories of conservation from 11 ASEAN Heritage Parks, and the Young Biodiversity Leaders (YBL), which provides in-depth capacity building and mentorship for youth biodiversity champions in Southeast Asia for increased participation in biodiversity governance and strengthening youth-led conservation efforts.
Ms. Mika Tan of the GYBN led the participants in an interactive thematic game that discussed the importance of the role of youth in biodiversity conservation.
Ms. Mika Tan, representative from the GYBN and former AYBP Coordinator of the ACB, introduced the AYBP and how it empowers the youth for meaningful engagement. She also highlighted the role of the youth in addressing biodiversity loss. Ms. Julia Berger, representative of the Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS), shared testimonials of the partnership and its impact, and inspired organisations on the potential benefits of funding youth initiatives. “GYBN is a very unique organisation because it operates networks with informal youth organisations in all ASEAN countries, which would be impossible to reach without them. ACB – on the other hand – is a high level and professional institution with direct connections to all 10 ASEAN member states, making them a perfect partner to reach out to all governments in the region. I believe it is this connection from the local to the national and up to the regional level which makes this project so successful. The trained youth have actually exceeded our expectations and I am sure they will continue to do so,” said Berger.
During the ASEAN Side Event at COP 16, Ms. Nadia Putri Rachma Persada, a Young Biodiversity Leader of the AYBP likewise shared the results and recommendations on how to empower the youth further based on the results of a mapping study documenting ASEAN youth’s contributions to the achievement of global biodiversity goals and targets. This study was conducted by the ACB, in collaboration with GYBN-Southeast Asia, and with support from the KfW Development Bank and the HSS.
Target 22 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework indicates the crucial need for a “full, inclusive, and gender-representation essential role of youth in decision-making, and access to justice and information on biodiversity” as part of the ambitious roadmap to achieve the 2050 global vision of living in harmony with nature.
