National Youth Forum on Green Solutions in Nepal held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 6–8 December 2012

The National Youth Forum on Green Solutions in Nepal was held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 6–8 December 2012. Managed under the Youth for Sustainable Mountain Development (Y4SMD) initiative of ICIMOD, the forum was organized through ICIMOD Youth Ambassadors led local NGO the Safe Environment Nepal – Youth 4 Conservation (SEN Y4C) in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Youth Task Force on Rio +20 and the Eco-Friends Nepal (EFN) and in participation of several ICIMOD trained youth in Nepal. The event saw participation from over 40 youth from different districts of Nepal, who were selected through a rigorous application process while maintaining a balance with respect to geography, gender and age.

The three-days long forum offered platform to Nepalese youth to understand theoretical concepts and underlying practical issues related to green economy in Nepal and other mountainous countries, discuss on possibilities of developing environmental entrepreneurship building on them, expand network of with like minded people and get to know about the institutional mechanisms and structure that can help them in the process. In his keynote address Dr Golam Rasul, Programme Manager and Green Economy expert at ICIMOD elucidated the importance of green economy in the mountainous countries, where he emphasized on need of establishing a strong link between water, food and energy. During the forum, participants interacted with several notable scientists and green entrepreneurs, and were briefed on vermicomposting, ecotourism projects among others. Through group exercises, participants also presented their vision for a cleaner country post 2015. The forum culminated with the participants attending the ICIMOD’s Green Solutions Fair at the ICIMOD Knowledge Park at Godavari where they had opportunities to visit market place enriched with participation of several Kathmandu based I/NGOs and environmental entrepreneurs.

Three five posters were awarred including cash prize to winning three. Prizma Ghimire, Nirmal Jnawali, Kanchan Upadhyay, Laxman Kande and Prachan Bhujel respectively were the top 5 entrants to the poster competition). The award was given to them by Dr. David Molden, Director General of ICIMOD.