This will be my first in a series of blog posts related to major environmental days which was supposed to focus on youth participation in the environmental sector in Ethiopia turned to one big plea due to on one hand the circumstances I see everyday and partly from the complete absence of the word youth in major policy or strategy documents (Environment Policy of Ethiopia, CRGE, NBSAP) of the country I tried to navigate through. However in the generalized context of the fight to curb the environmental catastrophe of our time, the lack of youth participation is a mere representation of the problems but overall popular awareness and participation had to be questioned. So anything that relates to youth in this article shall also be addressed to all men and women, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, local and marginalized communities and all within the civil community of Ethiopia.
The 2014 theme for World Environment Day will focus on 'Small Islands and Climate Change' and the official slogan for the year 2014 is 'Raise Your Voice Not The Sea Level. There as a result is a good chance to relate the global & local perspectives of environmental protection especially climate change and biodiversity loss that directly and indirectly relates with climate, with the need to raise our voices together. Our action, their action and everyone’s action whether good or bad will be reflected everywhere across the planet. Our inaction in emission reduction or inaction in raising our voices together against the major emitters affects all including the islanders and coastal communities suffering from rising sea level at the other end of the world.
We therefore need to move beyond our biggest challenges like lack of awareness and other critical social factors like poverty and apathy from the great majority of our communities coupled with limited sense of ownership & responsibility amongst the more aware community to problems of only finger pointing and short-sighted attitudes disregarding current and importantly future emission rates thus regarding mitigation efforts as insignificant while a good and strategic environmental movement that systematically and effectively deals with the challenges and that could come out of our efforts in addressing environmental issues could bring about a greater sense of unity, public responsibility and concern to face any challenge threatening humanity and nature in general as an opportunity.
Yes we don’t have much to do about current changing climate, but we need to be part of the solution. We need to make sure that we don’t take the same environmentally destructive path in our fast developing country like our western/northern counterparts. Besides awareness raising and offering adaptation and coping mechanisms, we need to directly face the emerging villains while standing in solidarity with our global campaigning friends for they also have our voices to share as we definitely are the biggest losers in climate change. We need to take motivation by the fact that our country and its great majority of poor farming community members dwelling on natural trends for their livelihood remain very affected by changing climate. These people don’t know how exactly the change happens especially in form of its global perspectives with the lack of knowhow on ways of mitigating and adapting to the effects. Most of them could answer loss of trees or creator’s might if asked about the cause of change climate that they are continually observing. The answer could partly be true but what we don’t know is the effect of emission from western countries taking the biggest share. Furthermore, the fact that our need to stand for nature and the broader environment that all life dwells upon are being threatened by climate change should motivate us and our peers to be part of a climate and pro environment movement.
It is fact that young people constitute a large part of the world’s population not to mention the African or Ethiopian perspective. Youth also have both special concerns and special responsibilities in relation to the environment. A number of environmental risks and hazards disproportionately affect young people, who have to live for an extended period with the deteriorating environment bequeathed to them by earlier generations. In addition, young people will have to live longer with the consequences of current environmental decisions than will their elders. Future generations will also be affected by these decisions and the extent to which they have addressed concerns such as the depletion of resources, climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and long-lived chemical wastes.
We therefore need to move beyond our biggest challenges like lack of awareness and other critical social factors like poverty and apathy from the great majority of our communities coupled with limited sense of ownership & responsibility amongst the more aware community to problems of only finger pointing and short-sighted attitudes disregarding current and importantly future emission rates thus regarding mitigation efforts as insignificant while a good and strategic environmental movement that systematically and effectively deals with the challenges and that could come out of our efforts in addressing environmental issues could bring about a greater sense of unity, public responsibility and concern to face any challenge threatening humanity and nature in general as an opportunity.
Yes we don’t have much to do about current changing climate, but we need to be part of the solution. We need to make sure that we don’t take the same environmentally destructive path in our fast developing country like our western/northern counterparts. Besides awareness raising and offering adaptation and coping mechanisms, we need to directly face the emerging villains while standing in solidarity with our global campaigning friends for they also have our voices to share as we definitely are the biggest losers in climate change. We need to take motivation by the fact that our country and its great majority of poor farming community members dwelling on natural trends for their livelihood remain very affected by changing climate. These people don’t know how exactly the change happens especially in form of its global perspectives with the lack of knowhow on ways of mitigating and adapting to the effects. Most of them could answer loss of trees or creator’s might if asked about the cause of change climate that they are continually observing. The answer could partly be true but what we don’t know is the effect of emission from western countries taking the biggest share. Furthermore, the fact that our need to stand for nature and the broader environment that all life dwells upon are being threatened by climate change should motivate us and our peers to be part of a climate and pro environment movement.
It is fact that young people constitute a large part of the world’s population not to mention the African or Ethiopian perspective. Youth also have both special concerns and special responsibilities in relation to the environment. A number of environmental risks and hazards disproportionately affect young people, who have to live for an extended period with the deteriorating environment bequeathed to them by earlier generations. In addition, young people will have to live longer with the consequences of current environmental decisions than will their elders. Future generations will also be affected by these decisions and the extent to which they have addressed concerns such as the depletion of resources, climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and long-lived chemical wastes.
Consequently, young people have to be empowered and prompted to engage in any forms of action and activism that will generate effective responses to ecological challenges. Beyond youth themselves, the responsibility will have to be on the government, CSOs and INGOs while the later two are better off in dealing with the situation. I can provide testimony to UNEP Liaison Office to AU, UNECA in Addis Ababa to their efforts in trying to engage youth groups as major partners in their limited ability with special credits to two of their outgoing expat volunteers.
When it comes to overall environmental ambitions that directly or indirectly affect us all, the government especially those at the higher level have to be credited for the ambitions put in most policy and strategic documents which unfortunately have to be said more rhetoric than practical. Consequently this has to be the time to engage more practically and inclusively on most of our ecological issues as the country moves fast forward in the economical path and not to bring it in the same destructive way western countries had travelled. If the same path continues we will have grim consequences in the futurity of our current development as our people are being engulfed in western consumerist lifestyle with almost complete lack of awareness of their path while on the other hand public infrastructures are devouring local ecosystems and communities, virgin ecosystems and even parts of the mere 14% designated as protected area and the proposed only Ramsar site are being given away to corporate monoculture farming companies. Our government and its environmental institutions had to move beyond focusing on political gains to ecological ones to prove worthy for the environment and achieve the policy put on the table. Public environmental & conservation institutions have to be given better chance in restructuring their management process to better effect as other institutions.
These problems are mere representations amongst many while all Ethiopians had to be accounted for them. Citizens especially youth, in politics, can help by making their influence felt as constituency for the long term, calling political leaders to account for the long range environmental consequences of their decision. Representing the concerns of future generations should not necessarily be difficult in the context of policy-making even though the focus is often on short term profits and advantages for which efforts had to begin from today.
On the other hand, the importance of youth participation was already confirmed by Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Rio Summit in 1992 and its subsequent conventions particularly UNFCC & CBD which Ethiopia is party to. Agenda 21 states: It is imperative that youth from all parts of the world participate actively in all relevant levels of decision-making processes because it affects their lives today and has implications for their futures.”. This has to be the ground to positive concerns for youth participation within the UN system especially UNEP and its major subsidiary bodies - with YOUNGO notably being one of the most actively visible groups during the UNFCC COP meetings and GYBN to a lesser extent within the CBD COP meetings besides its MGCY and Tunza.
The process in engaging Ethiopian youth in environmental affairs had to begin from this and now is the time, as it always seems, to give us representation locally and in the aforementioned global youth platforms to facilitate the awareness raising and catching up process. It’s time to curb the almost complete oblivion within children & young people of Ethiopia on what is and had been going on at the global, regional and local environmental policy arena. It’s time to start giving youth the chance to participate in the COPs. It’s time to end what is rumored that the place for youth delegates within the national team for the annual UNFCC COP meetings is given away to friends/relatives within those responsible for the selection process of national delegates. It’s time to find solution to the status quo that CSOs are finding it difficult to send their reps as well for bizarrely restrictive budgetary regulations despite being able to finance their participation which could have had the opening door for youth participation and knowledge sharing process.
Now it’s not difficult to imagine the advantage if some highly motivated young environmental activists like Yohannes “Green” had the chance to take part in global environmental meetings notably UNFCC COPs to network and share ideas/knowledge with youth environmental movements like YOUNGO (youth constituency within the UNFCC system) and learn the values and basics of environmental activism and the debilitating effects of gigantic HEP dams on local ecosystems among others. In speaking of big HEPs, our case made me realize the negative effects of patriotism/nationalism even further and how it can completely brainwash whole populations altogether or be used to brainwash them in favor of many ill factored deeds ecological ones included. I will have more to say on that some other time.
Finally, we all have our own problems to deal with individually but ecological ones have to be those that we have to deal with together- all of us. Let’s unite for the environment!
Good to start with positive and encouraging virtues and move on to the others. Ethiopia has CRGE already in action which aims to achieve zero net emission status for the country by 2025 and is doing good at soil and water conservation efforts while America is trying to adopt Clean Air Act aimed at penalizing highly emitting power generation facilities. Let’s support these and raise our concerns on others, educate one another and push on all members of our society to share knowledge and act together for most of our critical environmental challenges.
Thank You!!
When it comes to overall environmental ambitions that directly or indirectly affect us all, the government especially those at the higher level have to be credited for the ambitions put in most policy and strategic documents which unfortunately have to be said more rhetoric than practical. Consequently this has to be the time to engage more practically and inclusively on most of our ecological issues as the country moves fast forward in the economical path and not to bring it in the same destructive way western countries had travelled. If the same path continues we will have grim consequences in the futurity of our current development as our people are being engulfed in western consumerist lifestyle with almost complete lack of awareness of their path while on the other hand public infrastructures are devouring local ecosystems and communities, virgin ecosystems and even parts of the mere 14% designated as protected area and the proposed only Ramsar site are being given away to corporate monoculture farming companies. Our government and its environmental institutions had to move beyond focusing on political gains to ecological ones to prove worthy for the environment and achieve the policy put on the table. Public environmental & conservation institutions have to be given better chance in restructuring their management process to better effect as other institutions.
These problems are mere representations amongst many while all Ethiopians had to be accounted for them. Citizens especially youth, in politics, can help by making their influence felt as constituency for the long term, calling political leaders to account for the long range environmental consequences of their decision. Representing the concerns of future generations should not necessarily be difficult in the context of policy-making even though the focus is often on short term profits and advantages for which efforts had to begin from today.
On the other hand, the importance of youth participation was already confirmed by Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Rio Summit in 1992 and its subsequent conventions particularly UNFCC & CBD which Ethiopia is party to. Agenda 21 states: It is imperative that youth from all parts of the world participate actively in all relevant levels of decision-making processes because it affects their lives today and has implications for their futures.”. This has to be the ground to positive concerns for youth participation within the UN system especially UNEP and its major subsidiary bodies - with YOUNGO notably being one of the most actively visible groups during the UNFCC COP meetings and GYBN to a lesser extent within the CBD COP meetings besides its MGCY and Tunza.
The process in engaging Ethiopian youth in environmental affairs had to begin from this and now is the time, as it always seems, to give us representation locally and in the aforementioned global youth platforms to facilitate the awareness raising and catching up process. It’s time to curb the almost complete oblivion within children & young people of Ethiopia on what is and had been going on at the global, regional and local environmental policy arena. It’s time to start giving youth the chance to participate in the COPs. It’s time to end what is rumored that the place for youth delegates within the national team for the annual UNFCC COP meetings is given away to friends/relatives within those responsible for the selection process of national delegates. It’s time to find solution to the status quo that CSOs are finding it difficult to send their reps as well for bizarrely restrictive budgetary regulations despite being able to finance their participation which could have had the opening door for youth participation and knowledge sharing process.
Now it’s not difficult to imagine the advantage if some highly motivated young environmental activists like Yohannes “Green” had the chance to take part in global environmental meetings notably UNFCC COPs to network and share ideas/knowledge with youth environmental movements like YOUNGO (youth constituency within the UNFCC system) and learn the values and basics of environmental activism and the debilitating effects of gigantic HEP dams on local ecosystems among others. In speaking of big HEPs, our case made me realize the negative effects of patriotism/nationalism even further and how it can completely brainwash whole populations altogether or be used to brainwash them in favor of many ill factored deeds ecological ones included. I will have more to say on that some other time.
Finally, we all have our own problems to deal with individually but ecological ones have to be those that we have to deal with together- all of us. Let’s unite for the environment!
Good to start with positive and encouraging virtues and move on to the others. Ethiopia has CRGE already in action which aims to achieve zero net emission status for the country by 2025 and is doing good at soil and water conservation efforts while America is trying to adopt Clean Air Act aimed at penalizing highly emitting power generation facilities. Let’s support these and raise our concerns on others, educate one another and push on all members of our society to share knowledge and act together for most of our critical environmental challenges.
Thank You!!
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