Wilderness and Young Professionals at the 8th WWC

Coordinators:
Josh Brann,
jbrann@thegef.org
Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst, GEF Office of Monitoring and Evaluation

S. Tambi Matambo,
smatambo@TheGEF.org
Research Analyst, Biodiversity Team, GEF

Introduction

Just what does wilderness mean to young people of today? Are younger generations aware of the concept, and do they understand the value of protecting and sustaining wilderness? The 8th World Wilderness Congress provides a timely venue for young people involved in conservation to take a closer look at these questions and to engage in a dialogue that will begin to involve them more intimately and effectively in future efforts to preserve wilderness.

There are hundreds of organizations and initiatives around the world involving youth in environmental conservation, and in recent years the commitment to close the intergenerational gap in decision-making processes that affect the future of our planet has evolved. Young people from all over have joined the rest of the world in efforts towards the development of policies that seek to secure the future of the earth at local, national and global levels. The 8th WWC will build on youth involvement at previous Congresses, and more recently at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002, the 5th World Parks Congress in September 2003, and the World Conservation Congress in November 2004. The outputs of these global events saw the voices of young people incorporated within the final outputs of these events. More importantly, as a result of this engagement, young professionals in conservation have begun to form informal and formal networks that provide the much-needed dialogue amongst themselves and older generations about their future in broad-scale conservation.

The 8thWWC is an excellent opportunity to continue building awareness of the role of youth and young professionals in wilderness and environmental conservation. We envision younger generations’ active engagement at WWC in two ways:

•  A presentation of data gathered on younger generations and wilderness conservation efforts

• Youth-Young Professionals Forum on Wilderness

Activity 1 Outline: A Survey on Young People and Wilderness

Overview:

This will involve designing and carrying out a survey prior to the Congress to gather

• Data on the role of young professionals in wilderness conservation;

• Young peoples views, understanding and attitudes towards wilderness;

• Viewpoints on the role of younger generations in the conservation of wilderness

Outputs:

The outputs of this survey include:

• A brief presentation of the analysis of survey at the a young peoples forum (Activity 2); and /or

•  A presentation of the analysis at a special plenary session organized by young professionals in conjunction with the Congress organizers;

• The incorporation of the presentation of this data within the final outputs of the Congress, possibly including a statement or message by younger generations on wilderness and its conservation.

Activity 2 outline: Youth-Young Professionals Forum on Wilderness

Theme:

• “Traditions of Wilderness: From One Generation to the Next”
  Or: “A New Generation for Wilderness”

Objectives:

• To draw attention to the importance of wilderness for future generations, as reflected in the sentiment that today wilderness is more important than it ever has been, but it is not as important as it will be tomorrow. The forum could attempt to specifically focus on the historical intergenerational passing on of wilderness knowledge in indigenous cultures.
   

• To make local Alaska/Anchorage youth aware of wilderness related issues.
   

• To create a dialogue between generations on the value and role of wilderness in society.
   

• To link the WWC to other initiatives in the broader context of young professional involvement and mobilization in the international conservation community, such as the recent IUCN resolution on the involvement of young professionals.
   

• To solicit views and ideas related to wilderness from youth and young professionals working in the field of conservation with the goal of identifying generational messages on wilderness.

Activity:

The goal is to hold a round-table/group type discussion at the World Wilderness Congress involving high-school age students from local schools, as well as young professionals involved in conservation who are attending the WWC. It might also be an option to include conservation professionals from generations that have been involved for a long time in conserving wilderness.

Depending on the number of people attending, the group could be split up into multiple small discussion groups. The session would last approximately 2 hours, including introduction/opening and summary/wrap-up. Facilitators would be identified for each discussion group to help stimulate and maintain discussion. Rapporteurs would also be assigned to each group to take notes on the discussion within each group for later synthesis. If the session is scheduled for the morning, there could be the possibility of lunch being offered after the session, depending on financial resources.

Organizational support would be requested from Alaska-based organizations, specifically the Alaska Conservation Alliance and its partner/member organizations. One group in particular that should be involved is the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation.

The session will attempt to take advantage of individuals already attending the WWC, and youth and young professionals from local organizations, thereby obviating the need to raise significant funds to bring individuals from around the world. However, regional representation would be desirable, and when possible opportunities to increase this representation will be explored.

Output:

Summary to be included in conference proceedings; identified “messages” could be shared with congress delegates at final plenary session.