Asia Pacific Youth on Rio +20 (Earth Summit 2012) advocating Mountain Agenda and Sustainability

Dear friends,

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development - ICIMOD’s Asia Pacific Mountain Network (APMN) have started and is aggressively implementing Youth for Sustainable Mountain Development (Y4SMD) initiative with the objective of improving youth engagement in advocating Mountain Agenda with a strong vocal in the changed context of Rio+20 and increasingly important UNFCCC and CBD processes, with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC). The implemented activities have Asia Pacific geographic scope as APMN also acts as Asia Pacific coordinating unit (platform- Node/Hub) of the Mountain Forum (MF) and the Mountain Partnership (MP) – two global initiatives advocating for sustainable mountain development (SMD).

One of the special activity under this initiative was to improve Asia Pacific youth’s engagement in advocating Mountain Agenda in the context of upcoming Rio+20 meeting. Started in May 2011 in partnership with global and regional youth initiatives including Rio+Twenties, Road to Rio +20, UN CSD Youth Caucus/UNCSD Major Group on Children and Youth, 350.0rg, Activating Talent in Sustainability (ACTIS), Adaptation Knowledge Platform (AKP), Asia and the Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN), Eco-Singapore, Peace Child International, Schumacher College UK, Systainability Asia and UNEP TUNZA, we have made significant progress in achieving this objective. At this point I am pleased to share that with the following knowledge, network and access, we have established Asia Pacific Youth on Rio +20 (Earth Summit 2012) as the largest Asia Pacific Youth Group on Rio+20;


·        1500 members joining the FACEBOOK fan page: https://www.facebook.com/APY.Rioplus20
·         560 members in the virtual DISCUSSION GROUP: http://dgroups.org/groups/Y4SMD
·         192 Followers on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/#!/apmnicimod
·         43 Youth from 17 Asia Pacific countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and 48 media persons from 9 countries (HKH and beyond - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) –trained exclusively on ‘Mountains and Climate Change Adaptation in preparations for Rio+20’.
·         DEDICATED BLOG ‘Youth Perspectives on Rio+20’: http://rioplus20.blogspot.com/
·         Organisation of the South and Central Asia regional virtual consultation on youth perspectives on Rio +20: http://www.icimod.org/?q=3374 and views captured (synthesis): http://mountainasia.blogspot.com/p/virtual-consultation-south-central-asia.html
·         The only ASIA PACIFIC YOUTH POSITION PAPER TOWARDS RIO +20 submitted to Rio+20 Secretariat: http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=275&menu=20
·         First ASIA PACIFIC YOUTH DECLARATION on Climate Change and Sustainable Development: http://www.icimod.org/v2/bull3/index.php/cms2/ajax/resource/download?id=4480, shared at UNFCCC COP17
·         Three special issues of the ASIA PACIFIC MOUNTAIN COURIER dedicated to YOUTH – two on ‘Youth and Climate Change Adaptation’ and one on ‘Youth on Rio+20’: http://books.icimod.org/index.php/search/generalpub/26
·         Three dedicated articles:

o   Mahat, T. J. (2011), International Year of Youth 2010/11 – Mainstreaming youth in environmental processes - My views in the ICIMOD eNews June/July 2011. ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal. http://www.icimod.org/?q=3843

o   Mahat, T.J (2011), Global Youth Movement for Rio +20 and the Mountain Agenda - My views in the ICIMOD eNews Oct/Nov 2011. ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal. http://www.icimod.org/?q=4461

o   Mahat, T. J. (2011), Road to Rio+20: Mobilising Asia Pacific youth for promoting sustainable mountain development, in the Earth Observation and Climate Change – ICIMOD Newsletter Sustainable Mountain Development, No. 60 autumn 2011. ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal. http://www.icimod.org/publications/index.php/search/publication/769


And, much more

Its interesting to note that globally we are the largest youth group advocating for Mountain Agenda leading towards Rio+20 meeting in June 2012.

Since the Rio+20 meeting is getting closer we are expecting to have very intensive preparations in the coming days and we’ll be using these platforms to update you. Hence we kindly request all the valued members to join our social networking channels to remain updated about the latest happenings.

Best,

Tek, on behalf of the team

 - Daan Boom – Programme Manager

 - Tek Jung Mahat – Team Leader/Initiator

 - Utsav Maden, Sanam Aksha and Basudev Upadhyay –Consultants (event management support)

Tek Jung Mahat

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

GPO Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal

Tel +977-1-5003222 Ext [206], Direct Line 977 -1 - 5003318

Fax +977-1-5003277 

Web www.icimod.org