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Info Service on Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge (Nov21/04) Global Youth Position Statement on ‘Nature-based Solutions’ The Global Biodiversity Youth Network, Youth4Nature, and YOUNGO have recently developed and launched a joint Position Statement on ‘Nature-based Solutions’ (NbS). The Position Statement is the result of a joint initiative that included the development of an Information Brief on NbS and the implementation of a Youth Survey in English, French and Spanish, which reached more than 1,000 youth from 118 countries. According to them, “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) has become an increasingly popular concept over the last few years. It has been positioned as one potential strategy with tremendous potential to address the interrelated issues of the climate crisis, ecosystem degradation and extinction, inequality, and injustice. At the same time, it is generating risks of perpetuating neo-colonial policies, jeopardizing Indigenous, local communities, and human rights, while acting as a vehicle to delay decarbonization and needed systemic changes. Thus, they are calling for all NbS discussions to be rooted in justice, and for strong safeguards that prioritize biodiversity and human rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to their territories. They also commit to calling out NbS co-option and false solutions, and will instead amplify real solutions that promote wide, systemic, and transformative change for current and future generations. With
best wishes, Item 1 NOTE
TO MEDIA: Questions can be directed to the coalition members. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE YOUTH COALITION RELEASES FIRST EVER GLOBAL YOUTH POSITION STATEMENT ON NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS ●
More than 1000 youth from 118 countries shared their views about nature-based
solutions to co-create a Global Youth Position Statement on NbS Decisions about Nature-based Solutions (NbS) will not be made without us. On
November 6, 2021, team members from the Global Biodiversity Youth
Network, The statement, which represents the input of over 1000 youth from 118 countries, is the result of a 5-month campaign to build a united youth voice, across both the climate and biodiversity movements, that clearly outlines how the global youth community understands NbS, and what is acceptable and not acceptable within NbS approaches, both in policy and on-the-ground action. While many people in the climate and biodiversity spaces have turned their attention to NbS in the last three to four years, different perspectives have emerged across different groups. While many groups are promoting NbS as an exciting and necessary approach towards addressing our twin climate and biodiversity crises, many others are also opposing it, citing serious and important concerns about how, where, and by whom the term is being used. Among all of this, no one has made room to meaningfully engage the global youth community in these conversations – conversations about our future and the planet we will inherit. So we decided to take control of the situation. “We’ve connected with more than 1000 young people around the world and what we’re hearing loudest is concern. Concern that we are being excluded from the spaces where decisions are being made about our future. We refuse to stand by as discussions about us happen without us. We are leaders for climate and nature. We will be at the table.” Following the release of an information brief titled “What are Nature-based Solutions? Risks, concerns, and opportunities” and hosting an open discussion with NbS experts in an effort to provide accessible information to youth about the current landscape of NbS, our coalition launched a by-youth, for-youth survey in three languages to gather the ideas, perspectives, and understandings about NbS from youth around the world. The survey’s results were used to create the Global Youth Position Statement, which will be shared with youth as a resource to support young people’s nature and climate advocacy efforts globally, to further connect youth across biodiversity and climate movements, and to help us create spaces for ourselves within global nature and climate decision-making. We are bringing the youth’s perspective to the newly popular concept of Nature-Based Solutions, pushing it in a direction that benefits both people and nature. More information about the Global Youth Position Statement on NbS can be found on our website. About our coalition: Two of the largest global youth environmental networks, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (the youth constituency for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) and YOUNGO (the youth constituency for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), and Youth4Nature, a global, youth-led non-profit organization founded to provide youth with resources and platforms to address both climate and nature together, are partnering to co-develop a nuanced, critical, and inclusive youth perspective on nature-based solutions. Item 2 https://www.nbsyouthposition.org/statement GLOBAL YOUTH POSITION STATEMENT ON NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS Our key messages *
“Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) is a new term for an old idea that
has been understood and practised for millennia. Statement “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) has become an increasingly popular concept over the last few years. It has been positioned as one potential strategy with tremendous potential to address the interrelated issues of the climate crisis, ecosystem degradation and extinction, inequality, and injustice. At the same time, it is generating risks of perpetuating neo-colonial policies, jeopardizing Indigenous, local communities, and human rights, while acting as a vehicle to delay decarbonization and needed systemic changes. Missing in all of this is a united youth voice, across both the climate and biodiversity communities that clearly outlines how the global youth community understands NbS and what is acceptable and not acceptable both in policy and on the ground. This statement represents the first-ever, globally representative and collectively crafted position from young people on “Nature-based Solutions”. We are addressing decision-makers and key stakeholders, to present our own views, priorities, and demands from the NbS conversation which, until now, has excluded us from the narrative. The content of this statement reflects the consultation efforts by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, YOUNGO, and Youth4Nature1, and is backed by the knowledge and perspectives of more than 1,000 youth2 from 118 countries that have participated in our online survey, which was conducted in Spanish, French, and English. NbS is an umbrella concept that includes other approaches, such as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), ecosystem-based mitigation (EbM), Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR), and more. Importantly, NbS is not a new idea – it describes actions that have been understood and practised holistically for millennia, largely by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Currently,
some of the most dominant NbS narratives in global environmental governance
(in particular, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and
the Convention on Biological Diversity) are being driven largely by
large corporations, governments, and international environmental and
conservation organisations, many of whom have colonial histories and
troubling records around human rights. These narratives have opened
up concerning pathways for the commodification of nature and corporate
greenwashing, threatening the rights and livelihoods of There is an urgent need to centre those most impacted by the impacts of the interlinked socio-ecological crises and by the decisions that are (and are not) being made to address them: women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and Local Communities. We are alarmed by recent proposals, such as silver-bullet carbon offsetting “solutions” and only quantitative area-based conservation and restoration targets which risk displacing and harming Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in carbon and biodiversity-rich ecosystems through land-grabs, and risk degrading ecosystem integrity through the establishment of monoculture tree plantations. There is a clear need for legal frameworks, safeguards, and guidelines rooted in rights and justice at all scales. The persistent use of NbS by actors for carbon offsetting is especially concerning. Science and traditional knowledge are clear: we cannot limit warming to 1.5 degrees without nature, but nature cannot get us there alone without transformative, systemic change. NbS are not a replacement for decarbonization. NbS will only be able to support a 1.5-degree world if they are paired with a drastic reduction and elimination in the extraction, production, and consumption of fossil fuels. We must foster an immediate transition from our current extraction-based system to a fossil-fuel-free economy. NbS policy, research, and practice must emphasize the conservation and restoration of local biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem integrity in order to support a regenerative, reciprocal, and resilient future. The dominant NbS narrative leaves too much room for misinterpretation, enabling monoculture plantations and other actions that violate these ecological principles to be labeled as NbS. It further allows polluters to keep their practices, and platforms the wrong people. Negotiations and discussions are failing to ensure that Indigenous, Global South, and youth voices are meaningfully centred. Instead, big polluters (including governments and corporations) continue to have privileged access and disproportionate leverage in the NbS discussion. Based on the perspectives of our youth communities, as gathered from our consultative survey, we propose the following recommendations to improve the NbS conversation: •
It is critical that NbS policy, research, and practice be grounded
in inclusion, equity, and justice. This will require shifting
narratives, platforms, and resources towards those who have been leading
on NbS for millennia, centring a diversity of knowledge-holders (including
Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, women, and youth) and prioritizing
rights-based approaches in all NbS decision-making and implementation
processes. The meaningful involvement of all voices, grounded in the
principle of free, prior, and informed consent, and backed by science
and traditional knowledge, is necessary for NbS to be effective. Youth are already taking action for biodiversity, nature, and climate on the ground in their communities and should be meaningfully supported to continue and scale up this work, rather than tokenized (or “youthwashed”) for top-down, exclusive activities and engagements. Youth, like nature and biodiversity, are underfunded, and both need significant increases in dependable and secure funding resources if we are to collectively achieve bold, ambitious, and necessary goals for both biodiversity and climate. The “Nature-based Solutions” concept has helped nature come to the forefront of climate discussions and has helped bring climate and biodiversity policy, practice, and conversation closer together. NbS can be innovative and useful tools to address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and inequality in an interconnected, intersectional way. But for this to happen, we need legally agreed frameworks, strong safeguards, and strict standards and guidelines that don’t leave any room for misuse and misinterpretation, and instead center community leadership, prioritize ecosystem integrity and rights-based approaches, and be grounded in justice. We are the youth of today. We are both the future and the present. Bold, ambitious, and just actions need to be taken now and without delay, leaving no one behind and centering frontline communities and knowledge holders. We have no time for tokenistic talk and unmeaningful action, and we will not tolerate polluters and decision-makers who co-opt and misuse “NbS” to evade their responsibilities and continue with the status quo. Young people have been burdened with the feeling of being powerless and the fear of not being heard, while the time left to act runs closer to zero. We will no longer let ourselves be weighed down – we will use our collective voices to call out NbS co-option and false solutions, and instead amplify real solutions that promote wide, systemic, and transformative change for current and future generations. [1] About our coalition: Two of the largest global youth environmental networks, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (the youth constituency for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) and YOUNGO (the youth constituency for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), and Youth4Nature, a global, youth-led non-profit organization founded to provide youth with resources and platforms to address both climate and nature together, have partnered to co-develop a nuanced, critical, and inclusive youth perspective on nature-based solutions. [2] In the context of the survey, youth were defined as everyone under 31 years of age.
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