A Message from the International Youth Accord Administrator

Dear International Youth,

Are you interested in participating in the youth work on biodiversity in 2010 but feel overwhelmed with questions about what exactly we are doing? I am here to answer all your questions and hopefully by the end of this email you will have a clearer picture in your head.

First I should tell you who I am, how I became part of a team and how exactly we got our start. My name is Kirsten Falkenburger and over a year ago in 2008 I called up a women named Leslie Adams who is the mentor for the Ontario group. She told myself and my good friend to come join a team in planning a youth conference around biodiversity. From here the group of 5 went to the Second International Youth Symposium on Biodiversity in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This was a conference with the purpose of educating youth on biodiversity in order to craft a youth accord on biodiversity. The accord we are currently working on is a newer updated version then one previous created a few years ago. This is where we met the rest of the international crew we have continued to work with.

After the symposium we went back to our home countries and formed an International Steering Committee. Currently made up of 10 countries; Canada, USA, Mexico, India, Barbados, Uganda, Tanzania, Indonesia, Japan, United Kingdom. This team is always looking to grow and include new members and countries. Together we wrote the International Youth Accord on Biodiversity, which is going to be published for signing within the next month (February, 2010). This document is a collective youth statement from youth around the world, about what biodiversity means to us and what we want the world leaders to do. It will be published to our website biodiversitymatters.org, for both youth and adult allies to sign onto. We will be presenting this document at the Convention of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010.

Now we are looking forward to the next steps which include supporting documentation, substantive issues and organizing a side event, as well as promotional materials. As a group we are looking to expand and work in subcommittees in some of these areas. To explain those next steps in more details I must first give you general background information.

All of the work we are doing is in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). That is an important term and over the course of the next few months you will learn more and more about this convention. It is a treaty between countries that formed out of the Earth Summit in 1992. Canada was the first country to sign on, and the secretariat office is in Montreal, Quebec Canada. There are three main objectives of the CBD:

  1. The conservation of biological diversity
  2. The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity
  3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources

Each year the CBD picks a theme for the International Biodiversity Day (IBD) which is carried on throughout the rest of the year. First you must know that IBD is May 22 every year without fail, this year it lands on a Saturday. Second you must know that this year the theme is Biodiversity and Sustainable Use. Also, the year 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity decided by the United Nations.

Next is to explain how the CBD functions, and exactly how it progresses. They have two main meetings; Meeting of the Parties(MOP), and Convention of the Parties(COP), which are held every two years. In between these main meetings, there are smaller and equally important meetings held all over the world. At these meetings they discuss the substantive issues in which they have chosen for that year. This year we will be focusing our youth work on these 8 substantive issues:

  1. Inland Waters
  2. Marine and Costal
  3. Climate change & Biodiversity
  4. Protected Areas & Biodiversity
  5. Mountains & Biodiversity
  6. Sustainable Use
  7. Access & Benefit Sharing
  8. Post 2010 Target

Now that I have overwhelmed you with information, I will start to discuss what it is we are going to do. We are hoping to grow so that we can split up into sub committees of the main international steering committee in which we will report to. Here the committee you become a part of will be the primary lead on one of the 8 substantive issues, and a secondary lead on a separate substantive issue.

We work primarily using a computer program called “skype” which we used to communicate with countries around the globe. It is easy to use and you just need a computer with a microphone, and it is free to download. I would highly suggest creating an account in order to communicate.

As this project further develops we will separate into our groups and be self reliant. I will produce a template document in which to work from. You must understand that we are all learning throughout this process. There is also a frequently asked questions page being produced on our website currently which you can referrer to and if you still have any unanswered questions, feel free to ask. Questions make me think and bring about new ideas, so they are always encouraged.

I hope that you were able to absorb some of them information I have given you, and that I helped outline the project you are about to undertake. We look forward to working with you and are excited for this youth movement. It is our turn to speak out and take a stand for what we believe in, Biodiversity Matters!

Kirsten Falkenburger
Youth Accord Administrator
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