Youth Engaged in Wetlands and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership have run the Flyway Youth Forum and produced a Declaration.
Over two weekends between November and December, 2020, 134 attendees, including 87 selected youth leaders from 26 countries or regions, 28 trainers, speakers and facilitators participated in the virtual event. Young people were connected and empowered through Youth presentations, a series of five training workshops on Youth Advocacy in Global Policy Agendas; Effective Campaigning; Local community Engagement; Field Research & Monitoring; and Environmental Justice. They also held dialogue during the Flyway World Café.
You can read a day-by-day summary, including video recordings of key sessions, on the EAAFP website. There you will also find the Declaration of the 2020 Flyway Youth Forum.
The Flyway Youth Forum was organized by The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) and Youth Engaged in Wetlands (YEW), and sponsored by Hanns Seidel Foundation,
Key points of the Declaration:
We, the Flyway Youth Leaders of today and tomorrow, recognise our purpose and our role to proactively protect, conserve, and restore wetlands and commit to building a peaceful revolution that establishes sustainable development and fosters environmental justice for wetland and migratory waterbird conservation.
To provide greater intergenerational equity in decision making,
We call for increased, proactive and meaningful participation of youth in decision making processes in the EAAFP and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
We call upon policy-makers to include youth, as allies, in creating and implementing policies that promote the greater protection, restoration and wise use of our wetlands as a contribution to sustainable development.
To provide youth-friendly spaces for meaningful participation,
We call for greater cooperation and the establishment of youth friendly platforms for us to work together with various stakeholders for the conservation and wise use of all wetlands and their species.
We urge the development of more and regular wetland and flyway dialogues, panels, forums and symposiums led by or developed collaboratively with youth to encourage active communication and collaboration among Flyway youth.
We urge the creation and support of tangible platforms (online and offline) for youth networking to amplify youth-led advocacy and to enhance global solidarity among like-minded youth groups.
To ensure active and sustainable participation,
We call for greater resources invested in youth including funding, man-power, training opportunities, facilities and platforms for youth-led initiatives and activities involving youth.
We seek increased support from, cooperation and solidarity with civic organisations, the EAAFP and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands to provide meaningful youth participation in wetland and flyway conservation activities.
To empower and raise awareness of all youth,
We support the urgent need to mainstream and introduce biodiversity and wetland education at all levels of nation-wide education curriculums to raise awareness and improve knowledge on the importance of biodiversity protection and nature conservation, helping students understand their natural environment, their place and their role within it as well as their responsibility.
