GYBN Position Paper for CBD COP 11

Children and youth positions for a successful COP11

Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN)

GYBN’s mission is to represent the voice of global youth in the CBD processes, raise awareness among young people of the values of biodiversity and connect individuals and youth organizations in order to build a global coalition to halt the loss of biodiversity.

Summary

GYBN fully supports the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 - 2020 and stresses the unique role that youth can play in its implementation - particularly through the mainstreaming of biodiversity and local initiatives to conserve and/or sustainable use of it.

GYBN strongly urges Parties to the Convention to meet the Aichi Targets as they directly affect the future of children and youth. GYBN further requests the development of easily measurable indicators and other necessary tools that can effectively monitor the progress in meeting these targets.

GYBN demands to include children and youth in the CBD processes at the local, national and international level including plenary sessions, subsidiary bodies and all other relevant bodies and provide accreditation to young people based on clear and objective criteria. This all is seen as essential as youth are the key stakeholder in current environmental decision making due to long term implications of the decisions taken today.

GYBN requests the support of local, national and international capacity building for children and youth to enable active participation in the CBD international processes as well as in the CBD national implementation and evaluation processes.

Contact of GYBN Focal Points:
Mr. Christian Schwarzer: christian.schwarzer@gmail.com
Ms. Melina Sakiyama: melinaceae@gmail.com
Website: http://gybn.org/

Positions, addressing some agenda items of CBD COP 11

1. Status of the Nagoya Protocol and ABS

GYBN strongly urges the Parties to the Convention to ratify the Nagoya Protocol by no later than COP 12 (2014) as it also offers an important incentive for children and youth to participate in the conservation of biodiversity.

We encourage the Parties to the Convention to provide effective funding and capacity building initiatives in developing countries to support them to ratify the Nagoya Protocol.

2. Implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets

GYBN fully supports the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and stresses the unique role that youth can play in its implementation, particularly through the mainstreaming of biodiversity.
We strongly urge Parties to the Convention to meet the proposed targets and develop easily measurable indicators, milestones, and other tools necessary for the effective reporting of progress towards the Aichi Targets.

3. Financial resources and financial mechanism

GYBN strongly urges Parties to agree on ambitious and concrete funding targets at COP11, so that the gap between the needs and the goals of national and international Biodiversity conservation can be closed.
4. Cooperation, outreach and the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity

GYBN calls upon the Parties to the Convention to actively involve children and youth in the planning and implementation processes of the UN Decade on Biodiversity and to providing adequate capacity building to ensure this involvement.

We therefore recognize the importance of cooperating with the CBD secretariat, Parties to the Convention and other related institutions.

5. Ecosystem restoration

GYBN supports Target 15 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and encourages Parties to the Convention to include children and youth in this process.

GYBN further requests the Parties to the Convention to implement mechanisms at the national level to oblige industries carrying out activities harmful to the environment to contribute to an ecosystem restoration fund.

6. Article 8(j) and related provisions

GYBN reminds the Parties to the Convention that children and youth of indigenous and local communities are the future holders of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices.

GYBN therefore calls upon Parties to recognize children and youths’ crucial role in biodiversity conservation as well as their dependency on natural resources for their livelihood.

GYBN demands that children and youth are fully and effectively involved in the CBD decision-making process and provided with financial support for capacity-building initiatives.

7. Marine and coastal biodiversity

GYBN recognizes the increasing number of individuals, many of them children and youth, relying on marine and coastal areas to sustain their livelihoods.
GYBN therefore demands from the Parties to the Convention to provide adequate capacity building and raise public awareness in the marine sectors to ensure the sustainability of marine and coastal biodiversity.
8. Biodiversity and climate change and related issues
GYBN is concerned about the impact of climate change on biodiversity and the consequences on the future of the younger generation.
GYBN requests the Parties to the Convention to increase awareness about the effects of climate change on biodiversity, especially among children and youth.
GYBN thus urges the Parties to fulfill their commitments to reduce emissions in order to protect biodiversity and to provide additional funding and cutting edge technologies for adaptation to developing countries in order to ensure a sustainable future.

9. Forest biodiversity

GYBN acknowledges that forest biodiversity provides ecological services that are vital to the future of children and youth, and therefore urges the Parties to the Convention to achieve Target 5 and 7 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity.
GYBN calls upon the Parties to provide capacity building tools to stakeholders, especially youth, who are implementing sustainable forest management (SFM) in their areas.
We furthermore emphasize the importance to ensure a decisive role of youth NGOs during the implementation and evaluation processes.
GYBN urges the Parties to guarantee SFM mechanisms to be properly implemented through effective governance and collaborative management practices.

10. Mountain biodiversity

GYBN recognizes the fragility of biodiversity in mountain environments that provides ecological services, and therefore urges the Parties to the Convention to promote awareness and to provide capacity building tools that will enable individuals, especially children and youth, to protect and sustain mountain biodiversity.

11. Agriculture biodiversity

GYBN fully supports target 7 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and urges Parties to the Convention to promote agrodiversity and organic practices.
GYBN is concerned about the ongoing development of industrial biotechnologies and the impacts they have on agrodiversity.
GYBN urges the Parties to reach the target by providing incentives and capacity building, especially among young farmers, to motivate them in adopting sustainable practices and to help reducing unemployment and rural depopulation.

12. Protected areas

GYBN is concerned about the rate at which fragile protected areas are disappearing and/ or being degraded, affecting the wellbeing of future generations.
GYBN urges the parties to fulfill Target 11 of the Strategic Plan and pledges for the protected areas’ planning and management to be participatory and equitable, involving local and indigenous communities and their traditional knowledge.

13. Biofuels and biodiversity

GYBN is concerned about the effect of biofuel production on biodiversity and global poverty, especially on future generations.
GYBN requests the Parties to the Convention to limit biofuel production to avoid the conversion of biodiversity rich forests in croplands and to eliminate subsidies for biofuels that directly affect biodiversity.
GYBN is concerned about monoculture cultivation and genetically modified plants used for biofuel production.
GYBN highly recommends the Parties to promote the usage of organic residue and organic waste for biofuel production instead of agricultural products.

14. Invasive alien species

GYBN urges governments to commit to the control of IAS and to strengthen their legal regulations as well as to raise awareness about IAS, especially among youth.
GYBN requests the Parties to the Convention to highlight the role of youth in the implementation of Target 9 by participating through volunteering programs.

15. Global Taxonomy Initiative

GYBN requests the Parties to the Convention to facilitate capacity building of youth through their participation in taxonomy-oriented workshops and training programs.
GYBN further recommends to update the existing taxonomic database and to carry out further research studies on taxonomic studies, meanwhile making them available online for the general public.

16. Incentive measures

GYBN urges the Parties to the Convention to provide a broad range of cultural, social, economic, and legal incentives for sustainable practices, biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration and demands to avoid and remove incentives with detrimental effects on biodiversity and ecosystems.

17. Biodiversity and development

GYBN is bearing in mind the interconnections between biodiversity and development and the role biodiversity plays in meeting some of the MDGs.

As such we request the Parties to the Convention to advocate for higher recognition of these links in development strategies and implementation of sustainable development programs in the developing countries which are rich in biological resources