As we reach the end of the 2011-2020 decade, world governments are running against time in order to negotiate and define new global targets and commitments that can successfully curb our ecological crisis.

In the past 10 years, we have gained more knowledge, more tools, more awareness and more coordinated action towards both the climate and biodiversity crisis. The results, however, are very disappointing, with the world failing in achieving most of the global goals and targets agreed through multilateral environmental processes (Kyoto Protocol, Millenium Development Goals, Aichi Biodiversity Targets, etc). This major political failure has been followed by a drastic decline in the health of our ecosystems and physical systems, further aggravating the climate and biodiversity crisis.

During the same 10 years, the youth movement has expanded and flourished as young people were able to empower themselves, to take part in decision-making and advocate for their own rights. Children and youth are still marginalized and are found in vulnerable situations in most countries of the world, but recent coordinated efforts have led to the development of several policies and legal and institutional arrangements to address these power asymmetries, giving space to young people to voice their perspectives and influence decisions that will affect their lives.

In this context, the Global youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) has been created as collective youth-led effort to empower, mobilize and coordinate youth action and engagement in biodiversity governance, and was able to ignite a global movement, bringing together the hearts, minds and souls of young people around the world that are passionate and committed to reshape our society to one that can live in harmony with nature. After 10 years of engagement and youth-led contributions to biodiversity, it brings together more than a million young people in more than 145 countries in the world.

GYBN has started a consultative process in order to gather the voices and perspectives of young people on the future of biodiversity, and youth representatives from more than 130 countries have voiced their desire to help build a world that is reconnected with nature, that celebrates its diversity, appreciates all of its blessings and recognizes that we are part of it.

Young people are yearning for a world that fosters equity for nature and people, sustainable living and keeps the integrity of our biodiversity, which truly is our life-supporting system. (www.gybn.org/policy)

Young people around the world understand that the ecological crisis encroaching on our livelihoods and future on Earth is deeply connected to the underlying inequalities and power asymmetries that shape our economic and social systems. Furthermore, these systems are underpinned by values, beliefs and principles that reinforce these inequalities and hinder progress towards a just and sustainable future.

The recent IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services shows that transformations towards sustainability are more likely when efforts are directed at key leverage points including values and action; inequalities; justice and inclusion in conservation; reducing consumption and waste; education and knowledge generation and sharing; and recognizing diverse visions of a good life.

Following this understanding, young people recognize that short-term, quick-fixes and shallow solutions are not the answer to address deep societal struggles rooted in core values and principles mainstreamed in modern society.

The world’s biggest problems stem from systemic inequalities with historical roots that continue to the present. These can only be solved through a profound, systemic, whole of society transformation and the unwavering pursuit of social justice, from values, principles and behaviours, to institutions, political, legal and economic systems.

2020 was supposed to be the year for the whole world to galvanize support to make this commitment towards this transformation, towards this shared vision for the future. However, 2020 has been very different – Our society was disrupted by a global pandemic brought to us by our own degradation of our ecosystems, pushing us very close to the brink: break it or make it? Can we overcome our resistance to change our values, principles and practices and start moving towards this vision of a future in peace, equity and harmony with nature?

While governments, corporations and institutions are still paralyzed and reluctant to step towards transformation, young people are taking ownership over their future and leading by example. Global movements such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, Fridays for Future and so many other groups are using creativity and collective action to bring change to the ground and push those that actually have the power, the responsibility and the resources to make commitments and take actions to tackle this ecological crisis.

How can we all support this movement?

1. Engage in intergenerational dialogues and discussions, bringing youth representatives, youth groups and organizations to voice their perspectives and ideas
2. Support youth-led initiatives financially and in-kind allowing for young people to take ownership of their own actions and implement their ideas
3. Promote full and effective participation of young people in decision-making, planning and implementation processes
4. Respect and fulfill young people’s rights and intergenerational equity (fairness and justice between and within generations): Stop youth tokenism, manipulation and use of young people’s labour without proper compensation

Young people around the world are taking the lead and showing the way forward! GYBN invites all of you to join the movement!

https://fornature.undp.org/content/fornature/en/home/open-letter.html

www.gybn.org/policy

【Brief Biography: Melina Sakiyama】
Co-founder, Global Youth Biodiversity Network

In the context of her participation in the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010, Ms. Melina Sakiyama met other young people who shared her vision. Together with Mr. Christian Schwarzer, she co-founded the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), with the aim to create a global coalition of empowered youth and youth organizations to build a shared future in harmony with nature. As part of the team, Ms. Sakiyama led efforts to design capacity-building and youth empowerment programmes that supported hundreds of young leaders and youth-led biodiversity conservation initiatives, thus contributing to the implementation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the objectives of the Convention. The Network comprises 551 youth groups, organizations and movements from 145 countries who participate and collaborate with each other on project implementation, policy-making and awareness-raising on biodiversity, and continues to expand across borders and issue areas.

For further Information

【Brief Biography: Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy】
Founder, Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW)

In 2007, Mr. Wirsiy founded the Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch, which focus on solutions to environmental and gender issues. The initiative works with the slogan “think globally, act locally”; it involves local communities in forest conservation and regeneration efforts to collect forest seeds and seedlings, develop tree nurseries, plant forest trees and do forest patrols. Mr. Wirsiy’s apiculture initiatives provided micro-financing opportunities for women, brought sustainable sources of income to communities and reduced bushfires drastically in the regions. He has been leading environmental educational campaign to raise the awareness of hundreds of thousands of forest people and has contributed largely in the regeneration of biodiversity hotspots. Mr. Wirsiy has empowered bee farmers and organized them to honey cooperatives to increase honey quality and quantity for a better market.

For further Information

KILUM-IJIM FOREST

Kilum-Ijim forest is in North West Region –Cameroon. It is part of montane forest in Bamenda Highland Forest and produces Oku White Honey- certified as Geographic Indication Product. It covers 20.000 hectares with a peak at 3011m and a large Crater lake called Lake Oku.  Kilum Mountain is the second-highest mountain in Cameroon after Mount Cameroon. It has a rich ecosystem with non-timber forest products like Oku White honey, mushrooms, medicinal plants, spices, etc. Oku White Honey produced by trees like Nuxia congesta, Prunus africana, Schefflera abyssinica and Schefflera manni. Only 2 of these products are certified in Cameroon with the other being the Penja White pepper.

These trees are watershed friendly and harbours endangered birds like Bannerman’s Turaco and some trees critically endangered in IUCN Redlist like Newtonia camerunensis.

FACTS ABOUT CAMGEW IN KILUM-IJIM FOREST

CAMGEW from 2012 to 2020 planted 87000 bee loving trees in the Kilum-Ijim forest. She has developed 3 tree nurseries of 80.000 trees.CAMGEW has trained 1388 bee farmers in honey production, honey and its product quality control and bees wax extraction. She has also distributed above 1.354 beehives to trained bee farmers and organized them into 6 Oku White Honey cooperatives located around this forest. Women were allocated at least 30% and youths at least 30% of the positions to encourage them in apiculture and forest conservation. She created a CAMGEW-HONEYSHOP in Bamenda to convert bee farmers honey to money.The Honeyshop sales various honey, bees wax, candles, bee suits, bee smokers, honey wine, honey juice, bees wax soap and powder soap, body lotion, etc. 142 youths and women have been trained on entrepreneurship in honey value chain development; on transformation of bees wax to soap, powder soap, lotion and candle and also on transformation of honey to honey juice and honey wine production.

CAMGEW succeeded to create 2 Forest multi-stakeholder platforms to exchange forest ideas and assist in decision making. 7 community Forest Management Institutions have been reorganized and 772 farmers trained on agroforestry techniques.

Creating alternatives livelihoods

1580 women have been trained on business skills and 1325 women assisted financially through loans [US$ 5500 monthly]. This served as forest microfinance for women. 44 teenage boys and girls received vocational training to recycle plastics and clothing’s with African fabric to jewels, hand bags, belts, etc. 1076 women and girls received counseling and where necessary were supported financially through microfinance scheme. 78 teenage mothers received training on transformation of local food.

Bushfire Prevention

Bushfires reduced from above 7 in 2012 to zero in 2018 and 2019. In 2014, one bushfire destroyed about 1000 hectares of the forest.  In 2017, one bushfire occurred and more than 70 community members mainly bee farmers went to the forest to tackle and only less than 5 hectares were destroyed. No bee farmers want to see his/her beehive burnt so in solidarity they prevent bushfire and thereby protect forest because APICULTURE = JOBS = HONEY = MONEY = FOREST CONSERVATION. CAMGEW-Honeyshop becomes a CLIMATE SMARTSHOP because it is an opportunity cost to forgone bushfire that cause climate change. The market for honey must be available to engage communities to protect the forest.

Avoiding Specie Extinction

CAMGEW planted 3700 trees of Newtonia camerunensis -a native tree of Kilum-Ijim forest known to grow only in Cameroon dry tropic at Bamenda Highlands and Bamboutous area. It is Critically Endangered as defined by IUCN Redlist. Kilum-Ijim forest is the largest remaining forest. Scientists say it has been difficult to nurse but CAMGEW succeeded to nurse 3700 seedlings. CAMGEW has also protected the Kilum-Ijim forest as the largest remaining habitat for Endangered Bannerman’s Turaco which is a red-feathered bird. Its feathers are used traditionally to crown notables.

BEE FARMERS IN TEARS WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

Due to the irregular arrival of annual rainfall around Kilum-Ijim forest bees are confused. This affects honey production. In 2018, rains came early and trees developed vegetation instead of flowers as expected. There was 40% honey reduction. The period of honey harvesting could not be determined because as more farmers waited for flowers to be produced more vegetation was produced instead of flowers. Bee farmers who harvested earlier as ending April were better off though in tears than those who harvested at the end of April and in May which is the usual harvesting time. This has been occurring. Bee farmers need alternative actions to adapt to and/or mitigate climate change. Bee farmers have been trained agroforestry, organic coffee as alternatives.

THE WAY FORWARD

CAMGEW believes that the future of our mother planet-earth is in the hands of men and women, young and old and also that this planet can be sustained by putting social and environmental justice at the centre of development.

[Brief Biography: Paul Hebert]
Dr. Paul Hebert holds a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biodiversity at the University of Guelph where he is the Director of its Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. For the past 20 years, his research has focused on the development of an innovative technique termed DNA barcoding which can almost instantly assign any organism to its proper species. The resulting biodiversity data represent a “global public library” which now contains information on more than 10 million specimens. By establishing the International Barcode of Life Consortium, he created a research alliance which is revolutionizing our understanding of planetary biodiversity. Dr. Hebert’s work is reinforcing our appreciation for the value of nature, aiding its protection, facilitating biodiversity monitoring, and providing everyone with easy access to biodiversity knowledge.

For further Information

The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is a prestigious biennial international prize organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the CBD Secretariat. It honours individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

[Chairman]
Takuya Okada
Chairman, AEON Environmental Foundation

[Acting Chairman]
Kunio Iwatsuki 
Director, AEON Environmental Foundation

[Judges] *alphabetical order
Daizaburo Kuroda
Senior Fellow, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Susan Gardner
Director, Ecosystems Division, United Nations Environment Programme)

Anne McDonald
Professor, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Representative of Co-organizer of the MIDORI Prize

Shiro Wakui
Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University

Ning Wu
Director General, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The 1992 Earth Summit brought this risk to the attention of world governments, spurring ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity and establishment of its Secretariat to coordinate progress. Yet three decades later, biodiversity loss has intensified. The cause is clear; the surge in human populations has accelerated the destruction of wild spaces and intensified the use of developed lands. Should we accept the inevitability of biodiversity loss? Yes, so long as we also accept responsibility for the destruction of knowledge at unprecedented scale. The books of life, the genomes of every one of the more than ten million species that share our planet, are at risk of being burned without ever being read. Moreover, it’s not enough to read their genomes; we need living books to bring vitality to our world.

Although there is no simple solution, more detailed understanding of biodiversity is essential to heighten concern and develop strategies to curb the loss of species. Humanity is not hellbent on destruction; our governance systems have shown their capacity to respond to environmental challenges so long as they are well documented and solutions are clear. Yes, action often comes late, but not too late. Our use of chlorofluorocarbons was curbed once their role in depleting stratospheric ozone was evident, and our shift away from carbon-based fuels is being driven by the powerful evidence for their role in global warming. The pattern is clear; society acts once science has spoken.

There is an intimate relationship between technological advances, scientific progress, and societal action. Efforts to halt changes in atmospheric chemistry were motivated by sophisticated sensor networks that documented the global impacts of chlorofluorocarbons and greenhouse gases. By contrast, biodiversity science has been technology poor, a discipline reliant upon case studies to document species in decline, lacking the capacity to map planetary biodiversity. The iBOL Consortium (Figure 1) is striving to change this situation though BIOSCAN, a 7-year, $180 million research program launched in 2019. Propelled by advanced DNA sequencers, computational hardware, and digital imagers, BIOSCAN will allow humanity to understand its impacts on other species.

Before long, a network of passive traps operating like spider webs will capture specimens, read their DNA, and transmit this information to geostationary satellites. Underwater drones will patrol aquatic ecosystems, ingesting dissolved DNA, sequencing it, and rising to the surface to transmit data. By analyzing billions of specimens every year, these sensor networks will enable a global biosurveillance system, one tracking biotic change in near-real time. It’s not often that a field of science is transformed, and rarer yet that this should coincide with a crisis whose solution demands new powers. Yet, these advances in biodiversity science will provision humanity with the knowledge needed to pull life back from the brink – to prevent millions of species from being swept from our world. We are indeed living in extraordinary times.

The magical freedom, artistic joy and aesthetic pleasure that comes with seabirds’ observation are awe-inspiring, and also teach us in ways that can be hard to imagine.
Not surprisingly birdwatching has antique roots. In ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, birds were observed to foretell the future. Specialized professionals called Augurs or Auspices (“the ones that observe the birds”) interpreted their behaviour to deliver auspices—good and bad—for the times to come.

Nowadays, augury became scientific knowledge, informing us about the world and our future within it. Thus, research into the diversity, population dynamics and natural history of seabirds highlights critical issues that transcend political boundaries and affect humanity as a whole: global warming, sea level rise, complete loss of low-lying reef islands, coastal vulnerability to tsunamis, chemical marine pollution, plastic pollution of the oceans, overfishing, and insular habitat destruction. To the health of our oceans and islands, seabirds are like the “canary in the coal mine” or the “rose in the vineyard”: they tell us loud and clear about the state of our shared environment.

Mexican islands, particularly those of the Pacific, are seabird habitats of global importance, harbouring one third (108) of the world’s total number of species (359). Seabirds have been feeding, reproducing, resting, and nesting on these islands for millions of years, making Mexico the country with the second-highest number of endemic seabirds after New Zealand.

Unfortunately, modernity and human presence have taken their toll. The most damaging impact—through predation and habitat destruction—has been by invasive species, introduced to the islands purposely or accidentally by sailors. Ship rats, feral cats, goats, and sheep are particularly striking examples. In just a few years, invaders can cause the total extinction of an endemic species, or extirpate—make locally extinct—a native one. This problem affects, without exception, islands all over the world.

Over the past 20 years, the Mexican nonprofit organization Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, A.C. (Group of Island Ecology and Conservation) to fully restore the islands and seabird populations of Mexico, has been implementing a comprehensive, long-term restoration and conservation program, teaming up with authorities and local communities.
An indispensable starting process is to remove the main factor that decimates seabirds and alter the habitat. To this end, 61 populations of invasive mammals have so far been eradicated from 39 islands, which in turn has benefitted 250 seabird breeding colonies.

Often, extirpated birds return by themselves to the now safe and clean island. When they do not, seabirds are gently invited to come back where they belong. The return is facilitated by social attraction techniques: deployment of artificial decoy colonies, for visual attraction; automatic broadcasting of songs, for auditive attraction; and by building artificial nests to make the initial recolonization and breeding less arduous to the parents. Of the 27 extirpated seabird’s populations, 85% are now back. To complement and assure enduring results, vegetation communities and soil are also restored. Finally, each project is wrapped up with a biosecurity protocol aimed at preventing the introduction of invasive species.

Successful restoration involves social aspects as much as it does nature. It has been essential to engage and build bridges with local fishermen communities, provide opportunities for environmental learning, and team up with academic institutions and government agencies. Thanks to these efforts, all the Mexican islands are now protected by federal decrees and are benefitted with conservation actions in the field.

Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas continues to research and monitor seabird populations on priority islands located on the country’s diverse marine regions: Pacific Ocean near the peninsula of Baja California, Guadalupe Island, Gulf of California, the remote Revillagigedo Archipelago, and Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

I would like to conclude with a hopeful epilogue harking back to the global links seabirds embody. It is a story that strengthens the idea of “The Islands Sisterhood” across the Pacific Ocean: Some months ago, a young Laysan albatross born in 2018 on El Zapato (“The Shoe”), an islet near Guadalupe Island, Mexico, appeared on the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Thanks to its distinctive orange ring, the bird was identified by scientists of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology. It was the first time that happened. Over 9,000 km away from its birthplace, and despite the separation created by COVID-19, the epic flight of this albatross provides grounds for optimism, and unites us—in this case particularly Japan and Mexico—in our shared commitment and common responsibility.

All photos credits: GECI / J.A. Soriano

First of all, law enforcement was strengthening by the support of special mobile anti-poaching brigades to halt direct killing. But even more important was work with all local hunting clubs to convince hunters that shooting of leopard is not a proud of trophy but the crime and ignominy. The large scale communication program covered all 18 schools in leopard’s range. Through the children hearts, we could reach minds of their parents. Annual leopard festival, contests of creative activities, personal leopard for protection by each village under the slogan “Land of the Leopard” has been slowly shifted behaviour of people and authorities.

But I had believed that only creation of a large unified federal-level specially protected territory, with adequate legal authority, organizational capacity, and financial security, could ensure the long-term persistence of recovering leopard population. The scientific backgrounds for such national park were elaborated but they were so many interagency confrontations, the resistance of local business, blockages from army and boundary guards. The only involvement of top leader such as Sergey Ivanov, who was the Head of the Russian President Administration, allowed overcame all contradictions. My many years’ dream – “Land of the Leopard” national park, was established in 2012 on 2620 sq.km. Together with the buffer zone and existing nature reserve “Kedrovay pad”, the protected areas covers 70% of leopard’s habitats in the Russian Far East under the management of united federal directorate.

Now we can say – the Far Eastern leopard has stepped out from the brink of extinction. Since 2001, its population has been tripled, more than 20 kittens are registered per year, the area spread to nearby China and North Korea. Moreover, protection of leopard leads to restoration of the whole ecosystem!

Simultaneously, the isolated Chanbaishan population of Amur tiger has increased from 12-14 to 35-40 animals, the brown bear came back to the forests, the density of wild ungulates reached maximum carrying capacity sufficient to feed large predators and local hunters, musk deer and goral reappeared in the national park. Even the new species for Russia – Korean water deer forms the breeding population here. About 400 species of birds, more than 2000 species of vascular plants, and many many other living creatures are flourishing under the umbrella of the leopard conservation program.

National park as a flexible format of the protected area allows continuing traditional nature use by locals adding value from fast-developing eco-tourism activities. The growing source populations of the Far Eastern leopard and Amur tiger support the restoration of these rare cats in North-East China, which led to the creation of huge national park along the border with Russia. My next dream and work – the launch of the Sino-Russian transboundary nature reserve “The Land of Big Cats”, real future World Heritage!