Providing such a platform, to act together and build the next generation of influential leadership in sustainable mountain development and climate actions, a five-day workshop has been organized by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).[break]
The workshop entitled “Youth Forum on Planet Actions and Mountain Issues” which was officially inaugurated on August 8 includes forty two participants from ICIMOD’s eight regional member countries which are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
It also includes nine countries from across the wider Asia-Pacific region.
The event also marks the celebration of the International Year of Youth 2010/2011 and International Youth Day on August 12.
The workshop has been organized against the backdrop of the upcoming seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December of this year, and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in June 2012 as a followup to the 1992 Earth Summit, which is also known as the Rio+20 conference.
Gokarna Bista, Nepal’s Minister of Energy, officially inaugurated the workshop program. He also talked about how youth should be aware of their responsibilities for their community as well as for the whole of humanity.
“They can play a vital role with their dynamism in climate change issues and bringing a change,” he said.
Daan Boom, Program Manager at ICIMOD, said that the emphasis of the workshop will be on issues specific to mountain development in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region and beyond, especially in the context of ICIMOD’s work and ongoing and planned regional and global processes on relevant topics.
Outlining the objectives of the workshop, Tek Jung Mahat, event manager, said that youth can play an extensive role so that global community can make a better policy.
He informed that the forum participants will define the Asia-Pacific youth perspective on Rio+20 in the mountain context.
The recommendations of the forum will find their place in Rio+20 documents and climate change discussions through ICIMOD preparatory activities in the months to come.
“We need to strengthen network in Asia Pacific Regions so that youth can work as ambassadors and that their view is incorporated by others,” he added.
Talking about how we can mobilize Asia Pacific Youth Capital for Promoting Sustainable Development keeping in vision the Rio+20, Madhav Karki, Acting Director General of ICIMOD and also the team leader of Rio+20 Assessment in the Asia-Pacific region highlighted on how Rio+20 conference should be about a new paradigm of development and how youth are the one of the key stakeholders of the process.
“We work for sustainable mountain agendas and we want people to recognize the value of mountains. Mountainous countries are vulnerable when it comes to climate change issues. Thus, the Rio+20 conference will represent an opportunity to advocate strongly the need to recognize the “green growth” potential of mountain ecosystems in the face of increasing threats due to climate change,” he added.
He also explained how environment, development and social and gender equity are the three main pillars of sustainable development.
Karki further added that the major themes of Rio+20 is to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development, to access progress towards internationally agreed goals on sustainable development, a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.
Another speaker at the program, Michael Kollmair, Program Manager and Senior Social Scientist, gave his ideas on the institutional framework for sustainable development and its challenges.
“For sustainable development to be achieved globally, the environmental, economic and social pillar must be complimentary rather than contradictory,” he said.
When one of the participants at the workshop raised the question of why, though there are international organizations working for sustainable development, there have not been any significant changes, Kollmair replied that the problems we are facing are complex and there’s lack of coordination and we need a common point as well.
The Asia-Pacific Youth Forum is technically supported by more than 10 global and regional initiatives working on sustainability, climate change, and youth leadership issues.
Professor Stephan Harding of Schumacher College of the UK spoke on Ecoliteracy through a video conference.
“The first aspect of Ecoliteracy is to understand the planet crisis. We should not consider nature as a dead machine and exploit it, rather we need to develop a deep intuitive sense of nature,” he expressed.
Along with the speakers giving insight about relevant issues related to climate change and mountain issues, the workshop also facilitated open discussions, interaction and group works engaging in sustainability leadership exercises and creating a better understanding of the climate change issues.
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