April 2021 Newsletter

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Hi, Y4N community! We land at your inboxes today wishing you health, connection, resilience, and a happy Earth Month! Our Y4N team is keeping busy (as always)! Here are a few of the engagements we have on the go right now  Over the last ten days we have been hosting and attending sessions at the IUCN Global Youth Summit! We are so grateful to have connected and learned with almost 450 of you at our sessions last week. Today is our last session, Nature-based Solutions or Nature-based Excuses, and we are launching something big. Catch the Summit closing ceremony, tomorrow! Next week Y4N Regional Director for North America, Sarah, is (virtually) headed to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues with Young Diplomats Canada. Follow Sarah’s journey on YDC's socials and tune in to her takeover on Y4N's Instagram and Twitter on Friday, April 23! Our #SpringOfHopeY4N campaign is in full swing! Next week is the Sustainability Meme Festival and we can guarantee some good laughs! On April 29 we will be hosting a Green Entrepreneurs Webinar with the Council of the Baltic Sea States, to highlight young business leaders that have nature and climate at the core of their work. And, we just launched the Spring of Hope Treasure Hunt and there are prizes! April 23 and 24, Gaby, Y4N Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, will be joining our regional partners to host events about on-the-ground resistance and community-centred solutions at the COP26 Coalition’s From the Ground Up II conference. We hope you’ll join us! Get the latest updates about these activities and more on our social media channels. And let us know how you are celebrating Earth Month by tagging us in your posts! We have lots of exciting updates for you in the weeks ahead, but we are not quite ready to share just yet! Keep your eyes and ears open for: The announcements of the winners of our International Women’s Day / Women’s History Month storytelling call-out!  The launch of our new and improved Story-Map! The highlights of brand new stories from youth climate leaders around the world! The release of a new Y4N magazine, all about storytelling! The next special call for stories. Coming soon!  In the meantime, head over to our website to see all the latest storytelling news and to submit your story! Submit Your Story Some top news highlights this month. Compiled by our Regional Directors, just for you! WEST ASIA: Saudi Arabia announced the launch of two initiatives: “Green Saudi” and “Green Middle East”, which aim to plant fifty billion trees (the world’s largest tree program) to offset global carbon emissions by 4% and to set up a plan to increase the share of renewable energy in the Kingdom from 0.3% to 50% by 2030.  Youth from Albania, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and Spain have launched the “PEACE ON CLIMATE” campaign to push international organizations and national governments to acknowledge the linkage between climate change and the proliferation of conflict and radicalization. They’re hoping to take this issue to COP26 and need support from youth. Visit their website and their social media accounts to find out more: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. AFRICA: "Kenyans have been on the frontlines to call out governments and responsible organisations to rethink developments, especially wildlife-sensitive areas, including migratory and dispersal areas." Thoughts from Y4N Regional Director for Africa, Kaluki Paul in The Power Problem. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has selected Kenya and Uganda as participants of a tech-assisted tree restoration study. The project’s purpose is to find sustainable tech-enabled methods to improve reforestation. Happening on April 29, attend Nature-Based Solutions: How restoration can support a Healthy climate, economy and planet, to learn how forest and landscape restoration can make significant contributions to climate mitigation and adaptation, job creation, and reducing threats to biodiversity. ASIA + THE PACIFIC: It is estimated that forest fires in Nepal and northern India emitted nearly 18 megatonnes of carbon in March, 2021. Here is a youth take on lessons we can be learning from forest fire management and response. Japan has approved a plan to release more than one million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. In response, Greenpeace gathered 183,754 petitions against the release. Opportunity alert! The Republic of Korea is pleased to announce that the XV World Forestry Congress will be held from 2 to 6 May 2022 in Seoul, building on the momentum of the major global events scheduled over the next year. At the end of March, Japan SDGs Action Promotion Council, held the SDGs Action Festival in collaboration with UN agencies and others as an effort to make the "10 years of action" a reality in order to achieve the SDGs. More information here! NORTH AMERICA: Representative Debra Haaland was confirmed into the position of Secretary of the Interior in a historic vote last month, making her the first Native American in a President's cabinet. Canada’s supreme court ruled that a carbon price is constitutional and a “critical response to the existential threat of climate change” New York just divested $246 billion of the state pension fund from tar sand companies! Opportunity alert! GYBN Canada is hosting 2 consultation sessions on April 23th and 24th as part of the wider Roadmap for Youth Engagement in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. LATIN AMERICA + THE CARIBBEAN: Our Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean was interviewed by the New Big 5! Gaby Baesse talks about the protection of manatees, environmental democracy and healthy habitats, check here. 1 year after a massive oil spill in Ecuador’s Amazon, 27,000 Indigenous people are still without access to safe water and food. Learn more here. EUROPE + CENTRAL ASIA: Can a strategy for decarbonization look good when it’s disconnected from nature? We say, hell, no! The Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign aims to raise awareness about the impact of hydropower on biodiversity and local communities in the Balkans.  Check this out, folks! 🥺 Isn’t it precious? We ask you help to spread the word and stop the dam projects that will destroy the biodiversity and the communities around!  Opportunity alert! Apply for the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum 2021, and share with decision-makers how we secure a more democratic and sustainable future in the Baltic Sea region!  Fresh On The Blog! The Yemeni Society: Neglecting the Oil Spill or Neglecting the Environment? Yemeni society faces a serious environmental issue concerning the SAFER Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) which is located approximately 4.8 nautical miles off the country’s coast. It contains nearly 1.14m barrels of crude oil and the lack of maintenance is creating the conditions for the most damaging ecological disaster in the region and the world, with the potential to quadruple the amount of oil spilled during… read more. PAID OPPORTUNITY | Our friends at Food Nature Climate are hiring a Social Media Specialist for a one year, full time contract with possibility for extension. Deadline is April 17, 2021. PAID OPPORTUNITY | Join the Young Professional Committee and share your perspective on planning the 5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5). Deadline to apply is April 22, 2021. EVENT | “As the world goes back to normal, we can’t go back to business as usual.” Join Earth Day 2021 Live on April 22, 2021! FUNDING | The Global EbA Fund - a quickly deployable mechanism for supporting innovative approaches to Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) - is accepting Concept Stage submissions until April 30, 2021. SCHOLARSHIP | The Ban Ki-moon #GlobalCitizen Scholarship 2021 are now open! The program is open to all young African graduates & PhD candidates, who want to drive positive change for the SDGs in their communities. Apply by May 2, 2021. VOLUNTEER | Youth aged 15-22 form the USA are invited to join the Youth Leadership Council—an international team of young environmental leaders who play a key role leading EarthEcho’s education programs while developing and implementing campaigns to mobilize your peers worldwide to protect our water planet. Apply by May 3, 2021. EVENT | Register for Building Your Business and Seizing Opportunities, the 3rd webinar organized by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and Deutsche Welle to inspire global development of youth-led jobs and entrepreneurship in the land sector. Happening May 6, 2021. TRAINING | Tribal Link Foundation, Learning for Nature and UNDP just launched a new self-paced online course, Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations: Project Access Online! CALL TO ACTION | Are you a young person located in Africa and working in the dryland ecosystem? Switch your camera to selfie mode and share about your dryland restoration project in a 1-2 min video! More information here. #GLFAfrica COMPETITION | The ClimateScience Olympiad 2021 is open for entries!⁠ Find solutions to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and win up to $10,000 prize pool. Free to enter. Deadline August 1, 2021. CALL TO ACTION | Join the Earth Bill Network, the uniting of USA activists across passions and linking coalitions and groups together in common cause, the crafting of a comprehensive gold-standard bill based on science that is designed to stop our GHG pollution fast enough to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees. All are welcome. Fresh On The Blog! Venezuela: Concrete Beaches in Oil Seas | Venezuela: Playas de Concreto en Mares de Petróleo "More than half a century of oil production has given Venezuela great economic wealth at the cost of environmental degradation." Read the last release of our 3-part series about ecocide in Venezuela (in English y Español), written together with youth environmental and human rights activists in the country. Have thoughts about anything from this newsletter? We'd love to hear from you! Reply to this email or email our Communications Director, Rachel. Take care of yourselves and keep up the good work  In love and solidarity, The Y4N Team See something in this month's newsletter that you liked? Forward it to a friend! Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*