Cali, October 20, 2024. One day before the start of the COP16 in Cali, the Global Summit of Children and Youth for Biodiversity ended, with more than 400 participants from around 50 countries, who generated a collective manifesto with policy recommendations for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
At the opening of the summit, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, said that “the responsibility is here, in us, the generations that have also created this situation. Together we must be the vital and active force, in a mobilization from the bottom and in support of life, in a massive, critical, creative, possible way, that builds peace, peace from our territories, peace with nature, peace among us”.
Likewise, Muhamad expressed “I believe that we can stabilize the planet and generate living conditions that will be different from those we have today, but will recover what this system and this political process has made us lose, which is our own humanity”.
The head of the environmental portfolio concluded that “youth is capable of dialogue in cultural diversity, it is capable of putting the multiple knowledge that we have and is capable of sharing them, but fighting them by putting at the center a common purpose that humanizes us”.
For Xiomy Acevedo, coordinator of GYBN Colombia and director of the Barranquilla+20 Foundation, this event positions the country as a global reference, and the youth have the responsibility and the power to lead the change towards a future in harmony with nature.
The COP16 route for children, adolescents and youth includes various events and meetings as an effort to ensure the participation of this sector and seeks to ensure that their perspectives reach the Green Zone and the Blue Zone of the Conference of the Parties.
The role of the children and youth at COP16
For Xiomy Acevedo, coordinator of GYBN Colombia and director of the Barranquilla+20 Foundation, this event positions the country as a global reference, and the youth have the responsibility and the power to lead the change towards a future in harmony with nature.
This global summit is part of the COP16 route for children, adolescents and youth, which has included training and participation areas, local meetings, self-managed programs, a local meeting in Bogota, and the National Summit of Youth and Children for Climate and Biodiversity that took place between October 16 and 18.
This national summit was organized by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) Colombia, the Colombian Platform for Children and Youth, the Pact for Climate, the Environmental Collective El Frailejón, the Association of Indigenous Women ASOMI, the CapiTororoi Foundation, LowCarbon City, Barranquilla +20, with the participation of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
In the same way, the National Summit of Youth and Children for Climate and Biodiversity counted with the participation of children, youth and adolescents from different parts of the country, who presented a declaration to be taken to the negotiations on biodiversity.
It was a vital and hopeful space for participation where children and youth were able to express their proposals and solutions to the different environmental and social problems experienced in different regions of the country. Approximately 400 participants shared the different experiences of organizational work in their territories, contributing ideas and initiatives and encouraging an interactive space for relevant learning to be taken into account in the discussions and agendas of the COP16.
“As organizing entities we are very happy to have had a space with so much generational and cultural diversity. We hope that this embrace of the intergenerational will last and allow us to engage in conversations about justice in the context of the climate emergency and biodiversity loss,” said Laura Alameda Restrepo, National Focal Point of LCOY Colombia (National Summit of Children and Youth for Climate and Biodiversity).
Finally, it is worth noting that these summits are part of an effort by the Ministry of Environment to ensure the participation of youth, as diversity and unique challenges require an inclusive and committed representation.