This blog is a learning resource as part of Youth4Nature’s Unearth Voices Storytelling Campaign.
PREFACE: On social power
Power is the ability or capacity to do something, especially through influence and control. Depending on use, it can refer to something positive (i.e. building confidence, leadership) or something harmful (i.e. unequal dynamics, oppression). Thus, social power could be understood as the ability or capacity to engage in society (aka the public sphere) for one’s benefit/interest. Said engagement depends on one’s identity and/or social standing, networks & resources. Common identity factors that influence one’s social power include age, disability, gender, sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, citizenship, class, caste, and religion.
Wider factors that shape social power include level of education, profession, area of birth/residence, health history, personal connections, wealth and family name. The extent to which a factor shapes social power is highly dependent on historical and changing local and national contexts, including differences in political systems, legal codes, social norms and cultural beliefs. Different factors can also intersect with each other, accentuating or lessening experiences within the same social group.
Many countries and institutions have legislation, policies and values to address inequalities and barriers caused by differences in social power, from having protected characteristics under equality law to welfare programs for historically underrepresented/marginalised groups. Gender and class/wealth inequalities are common, universal targets of such schemes.
How does social power affect climate-nature planning, financing and solutions?
Empowerment is one of the buzziest words within climate and biodiversity actors, especially regarding their plans and strategies to engage the public and local communities in their projects and activities. Over the years, “equality”, “diversity”, “inclusion”, and “justice” have also gained traction, with a growing consensus on how climate change, nature degradation and biodiversity loss are not experienced equally across and within societies.
However, these concepts should not be seen as “feel-good” or “tick-box” exercises. Existing social issues exacerbate both the causes and consequences of these environmental challenges, making it harder to address them. In addition, if communities are not adequately engaged in policies and solutions that affect the lands and waters they live on, these can fail, resulting in wasted resources and social discontent/polarisation.
Under United Nations bodies like the UNFCCC and CBD, women and girls, indigenous people’s and youth are the most common targets of increased participation and representation efforts. There is an acknowledgement of not only the particular social barrier experienced by these groups, but also of their importance to make climate and biodiversity agreements successful, even if often sidelined in planning, financing and solution implementation. Such an acknowledgement was won due to the mobilisation efforts by environmental and social movements, and similar efforts are on the way for other groups, such as displaced peoples, migrants and refugees.
Stories in Motion: How Climate Mobility Shapes Climate-Nature Action
Written by Y4N Global Ambassador, Alan Said Hernandez Vazquez.
Climate-Induced Mobility: The Context We Live In
Climate-induced human mobility refers to the movement of people driven by the effects of climate change. This can occur due to droughts, floods, sea-level rise and resource scarcity, and it includes displacement, migration, and even planned relocation, both within and across borders. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (2023), over 60.9 million internal displacements were recorded in 2022 across 151 countries. 32.6 million were associated with disasters and 28.3 million with conflict and violence.
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2023.
As mentioned in the article “From Migration to Mobilization: The Role of Youth and Nature in Climate Resilience”, this mobility is deeply connected to water scarcity and ecosystem collapse. Nevertheless, migration, they explain, is not just environmental. It’s social and political, shaped by inequalities of access, representation, and power.
Climate-Nature Solutions: Barriers and Opportunities for Mobility-Experienced Youth
For many young people who have experienced migration or displacement, participating in climate and nature action can be challenging. Language barriers, insecure legal status, and limited access to education or digital tools often restrict their involvement. Funding systems are complex and competitive, usually designed for institutions rather than grassroots youth groups. Yet these same young people hold essential knowledge. They understand adaptation not from theory, but from survival. Their stories reveal what it means to live between changing climates and changing homes. Mobility-experienced youth can identify what works and what doesn’t in the places where climate and social systems intersect.
Recognising and supporting these voices can help transform climate-nature actions such as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) from technical projects into pathways for dignity. When migrant and displaced youth are involved in NbS — whether through urban greening in host cities, reforestation in home regions, or water restoration in shared territories — they contribute to solutions that address both people and ecosystems. Empowering them is not charity; it’s how we build resilience that lasts.
“We are asking for the very basics of justice. We are asking for a movement that does not exclude us. We are asking for free space to co-lead this movement from - this movement for safety, for human rights, for nature and climate, for our future.
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Source of picture and quote: From forgotten frontline communities to the world — Youth4Nature
The role of storytelling
Storytelling can be a powerful tool when it comes to shaping perceptions, increasing engagement, and creation of actions towards and around climate mobility. When a story provides emotional content, it is more likely to create an action as an answer compared to those with an informational approach. The last happens because the stories help people feel the message by drawing them into the story and creating emotional resonance while making them more open to climate action (Davidson, 2017; Wehn et al., 2021).
If we talk about climate mobility, it’s common to get a language of data and policy, which includes in most cases, graphs, figures and complex frameworks. However, what it’s still lacking are the stories. Stories can make us see the narratives in a different perception and to really get into the world of those who are adapting every day, which can create storytelling as a powerful tool for action.
Thanks to storytelling, we can be aware of the different losses communities are facing, to understand their feelings and losses, but it also allows us to see their solutions, the resilience they have and their innovations (Davidson, 2017, 3). For example, we are able to understand how farmers are adapting to droughts, how families are building mangroves in coastal areas, and how youths are leading campaigns to increase awareness and protect their hometowns. These types of initiatives are useful and helpful when understanding that climate mobility is not just about communities getting displaced, but also how they have become agents of adaptation.
Storytelling can be considered a win-win for policymakers and communities. On one hand, policymakers can understand the realities behind migration trends and the policy gaps, while on the other hand, communities can share their voices and support shaping policies that affect them (Marschuetz et al., 2020; Harcourt et al., 2021).
Some stories from Y4N’s Glocal Climate-Nature Storymap written by young people who have experienced displacement and migration.
Nature becoming part of the story
As mentioned in the post “From Migration to Mobilization: The Role of Youth and Nature in Climate Resilience”, climate-induced human mobility is no longer a distant scenario—it’s a reality affecting more than 45 million people today, many of them young. The article highlights how water scarcity, floods, and ecosystem degradation are not only environmental challenges but also social fractures that drive displacement.
Across borders, youths are using stories that include films, photography, poetry and digital media that can be helpful to communicate Climate Mobility and solutions. NbS in particular can trackle the root cause of climate mobility driven by environmental change and natural disasters. Mangrove restoration, soil conservation, and wetland protection provide support to ecosystems, safeguard livelihoods, and reduce the risk of displacements by building resilience.
A story of youths restoring mangroves following a cyclons can tell more than a policy brief can even do. It demonstrates how communities are not victims, since each narrative becomes a tool for awareness, education, and mobilisation, which inspires others to replicate similar initiatives. These can be seen as a shift in paradigm, where the protection of ecosystems can be considered as protecting the future.
A clear example that involved youth and coastal communities’ participation is the one created by Camille in Philippines, a young environmental advocate, who encouraged youths to “[not] be afraid to reach out to people who have done work on the ground…” (Mangrove Action Project, 2021)
Source: Mangrove Action Project (2021).
“There is an increasing need for durable solutions to meet the scale of the challenges facing displaced people. This spans the expansion of cash assistance and livelihood programmes that improve IDPs’ economic security, through to investments in risk reduction measures that strengthen their communities’ resilience.”
Our current storytelling campaign at Youth4Nature, Unearth Voices, aims to collect and share stories of resilience and empower young people to participate as a form of climate advocacy. Our global storytelling map already demonstrates how voices from different countries can contribute to adaptation and resilience in all corners of the world.
Climate mobility is already shaping our generation. The stories we tell about it matter because they can change how we respond. When young people share what they see and what they build—whether it’s planting trees, protecting water sources, or rebuilding after storms—they remind us that resilience is not a slogan, it’s something we practice together.
Storytelling helps us see people not as statistics but as neighbours, and NbS give those stories a way to grow roots. They show that staying, moving, or returning can all be acts of adaptation when nature is part of the path. Maybe what we need now is not more reports, but more listening. More space for voices like Camille’s in the Philippines or the youth behind Youth4Nature’s stories, people who prove that even in a world on the move, hope still takes root in the places we choose to care for.
If you are someone or know someone who has experienced mobility, displacement or other social challenges that have impacted climate-nature work, we want to hear from it! Whether it is a success story that shares how to overcome barriers or a learning experience on how challenges should be addressed, that story deserves to be told and heard.
References
Davidson, B. (2017). Storytelling and evidence-based policy: Lessons from the grey literature. Palgrave Communications, 3, Article 93. https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2017.93
Harcourt, R., De Bruin, B., Dessai, S., & Taylor, A. (2021). Envisioning climate change adaptation futures using storytelling workshops. Sustainability, 13(12), 6630. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126630
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. (2023). Global Report on Internal Displacement 2023 (GRID 2023). https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2023
Mangrove Action Project. (2021). Changing conservation in the Philippines. https://www.photography.mangroveactionproject.org/stories-post/changing-conservation-in-philippines
Marschuetz, B., Bremer, S., Runhaar, H., Hegger, D., Mees, H., Vervoort, J., & Wardekker, A. (2020). Local narratives of change as an entry point for building urban climate resilience. Climate Risk Management, 29, 100223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2020.10022
Morris, B., Chrysochou, P., Christensen, J., Orquin, J., Barraza, J., Zak, P., & Mitkidis, P. (2019). Stories vs. facts: Triggering emotion and action-taking on climate change. Climatic Change, 154, 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02425-6
Wehn, U., Ajates, R., Fraisl, D., Gharesifard, M., Gold, M., Hager, G., Oliver, J., See, L., Shanley, L., Ferri, M., Howitt, C., Monego, M., Pfeiffer, E., & Wood, C. (2021). Capturing and communicating impact of citizen science for policy: A storytelling approach. Journal of Environmental Management, 295, 113082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113082