This youth declaration was written with the assistance of Biodiversitymatters youth with the help of a larger team of international students. The Youth Accord on Biodiversity was used in its formation.
We, young people from around the world, your sons and your daughters, are the future at stake. We have been born into a world under threat, but we are coming of age in an unprecedented moment of international collaboration and our hearts lift to see those who have come together for change. We look up to you, the delegates of the Convention on Biological Diversity, our leaders and representatives, we turn to you for guidance and inspiration, and yet we watch with growing horror as biodiversity continues to be allowed to disappear. You grew up in a world whose richness and diversity awed the imagination. Your children deserve the same. We are here to work with you, and we will fight fiercely to hold our governments accountable, to protect our planet’s diversity for our children and for generations to come. We are certain this is as possible as it is necessary, and we are trusting you to take immediate and sustained action. Esteemed women and men of the Convention, we offer to you the undaunted energies and idealisms of youth. We have strong ideas for what needs to happen and how to make it real, and are eager to join you in confronting the challenges before us. You are the world leaders of today. You must ensure that we have a world to lead tomorrow.
Vision:
We understand biodiversity to be the variety of life we find on Earth: the variation of genes, species, and ecosystems, along with the interactions between them. We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction of species and, as youth, we are concerned about our future. Our generation and the generations to follow will be most negatively affected by human-induced biodiversity loss. We, the young people from around the world, need biodiversity to be conserved in order to sustain global ecosystems and life on our planet now, and in the future. We believe we can, we know we must, halt biodiversity loss by 2020. We also recognize that this goal is achievable only if accompanied by a fair and legally binding international protocol on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing of the commercial value of these assets.
Mission:
Take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2020.
We, as youth, are greatly concerned with the CBD's inability to ratify crucial proposals in the past, and we insist that such failure cannot occur with the Post-2010 Target. To ensure its success, the Post-2010 target must include unambiguous measurable numerical figures, it must indicate concrete actions, and it must set a definite time frame. An increase in new funding must be made available, in accordance with Agenda 21 and Article 20 of the Convention. In regards to the bracketed text of the Post-2010 Target the Youth support the following: Target 5, Target 6, Target 10, and Target 11.
We see it as crucial that the negotiations on Access and Benefit Sharing reach a legally binding protocol, one that acknowledges the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples. Equal access to genetic resources and the resulting benefits thereof is a mandatory precondition for the conservation of biological diversity.
We must secure new sources of finance for biodiversity in addition to existing funding mechanisms. We support an ecosystem approach that recognizes that biodiversity has an intrinsic value and cannot be perceived merely in economic terms. As a supplement, assessments of the economic value of ecosystem services are a valuable tool for conservation.
We believe that the current focus on bio-energy has undermined progress toward biodiversity conservation and universal food sovereignty. Industrial scale bio-energy developments are increasing the demands for plant biomass, which places greater pressure on food supplies and ecological systems. Investment in bio-energy, along with other new technologies such as synthetic biology and geo-engineering, present a potential threat to biodiversity and must be exercised with great caution, guided by extensive research and environmental impact studies. In addition, we support a continued moratorium on GURTs.
Action:
Commitment
The opinions of today's youth should be incorporated into the negotiation of biodiversity conservation policy. Increased youth participation in CBD negotiations will require investment in education and awareness programs. Such investment will, in turn, strengthen the implementation of CBD objectives by engaging future generations in the conservation of biodiversity. In order for this youth presence to effectively represent diverse contingents from around the world, all young delegates should receive formal recognition for their contributions and should have access, according to need, to voluntary funding for participation costs, so that representative youth participation is guaranteed. Youth require access to the research community, policy makers, and the public for open discussion on matters concerning the Convention.
We are committed to bringing a youth presence to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to coordinating the work of youth from different nations, and thereby creating a strong base for united youth representation within the Convention. To realize our Vision, we the youth representatives commit ourselves to applying our collective knowledge, expertise and resources in order to sustain and promote biodiversity for the benefit of all. We also commit to an evaluation of our joint efforts and we will report our success and challenges to the Convention on a bi-annual basis.
