III NATIONAL CHILDREN AND YOUTH CONFERENCE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT LET'S TAKE CARE OF BRAZIL, BRAZILIA, BRAZIL

Charter of Responsibilities to Confront Global Environmental Change

We are young students from different regions of Brazil, and part of the III National Children and Youth Conference for the Environment. Little warriors of peace with the same intention and desire: taking care of Brazil and mobilizing the Brazilian population around global environmental change.
We recognize the national environmental outlook and we commit to fight for and defend the environment, not only by seeking knowledge and understanding, but also acting to minimize problems that cause environmental impacts.
Hence, together with thousands of schools and communities through out the country, we assume the following responsibilities:
1. Preserving the sources and borders of rivers, protecting existing riparian forests and restoring
those that are degraded.
2. Practising and promoting the 5 “R’s”: reflecting on the processes of production, from primary
materials to distribution and disposal; refusing products that cause damage to the environment
and our health; reducing consumption and the production of waste; reusing whenever possible
and recycling when necessary.
3. Sensitizing and stimulating our schools and communities to increase energy efficiency and to use energy that is clean, accessible and renewable.
4. Distributing and planting seeds and seedlings to increase the amounts of trees in schools, streets and communities.
5. Diminishing the use of plastic bags and adopting biodegradable, reusable and returnable packaging in our communities.
6. Together with the school community, denouncing the burning of forests, the irregularities of urban waste, and any action that degrades the environment, proposing as necessary corrective actions by the appropriate institutions.
7. Adding efforts and experiences, rethinking the modes of water use, and developing new sustainable values and attitudes for our daily lives.
8. Demonstrating to the communities the importance of reducing pollutive modes of transport,
encouraging and demanding government investment in public transport, and hence minimizing
the emissions of gases that increase global warming.
9. Disseminating knowledge to enable students and communities to protect and conserve the
planet, increasing their awareness about the consequences of global warming and its potential
solutions.
We, the youth of Brazil, are united in contributing to caring for the planet. This is our commitment. We ask for the complete support of the Brazilian society: authorities, public opinion, social movements, NGOs, schools and communities, so that these responsibilities can be fulfilled.
Let’s take care of Brazil? Join us!
Luziania, Goias, April 2009

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2ND ASIA AND THE PACIFIC-WIDE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY CELEBRATION 2009

Participants:

Central Asia Youth Environmental Network (CAYEN)
North East Asia Youth Environmental Network (NEAYEN)
South East Asia Youth Environmental Network (SEAYEN)
South Asia Youth Youth Environmental Network (SAYEN)
Pacific Youth Youth Environmental Network (PYEN)

Every year World Environment Day is celebrated around the world. We invite you, your network, your country, your city, your town or your village to celebrate this day with us.

The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.
All mandatory fields are marked with *

First name*:
Last name*:
Name of organization:
Address*:
City*:
Country*:
Telephone:
Fax number:
Email address*:
Website URL:
Description of event*
(max. 1500 characters)
Please submit this form to

Jessie James L. Marcellones, Youth Advisor for Asia and the Pacific region at marcellones_jl2003@yahoo.com

Satwant Kaur, UNEP ROAP at kaur@un.org

Pinky Lepiten, UNEP RCCAP at charina.Lepiten@rrcap.unep.org before May 20, 2009.

After June 5, 2009, please submit your pictures to the same contact persons above for documentation.

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WORLD SUMMIT YOUTH AWARD

The Winners of WSYA 2009 have been selected...

Up to 100 participating countries made it possible to have a great number of fabulous entries that take action in the cause of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The over 600 projects were evaluated in a three-round judging process by an international jury of 20 experts in the fields of youth engagement, new media and social entrepreneurship. Please find the winners under "Contest 09".

The WSYA winners will take centre stage in Monterrey, Mexico during the United Nations Global Forum on ICT and Development and WSA Winners Celebrations in June 10-13, 2009. They will showcase their projects to government and business leaders, representatives of civil society and the international community.

We would be happy to find many of you at the WSA Gala Events too...

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The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is the global contest for online or mobile initiatives to raise awareness and help resolve the most pressing global issues.

If you rely on the web for creating culture, overcoming gender inequality, lack of education and access to clean water or to address hunger, poverty, disease and environmental degradation, then you should take part!

The World Summit Youth Award showcases you as young developers and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together on the efforts of reaching the Millennium Development Goals!

The rewards are global recognition within the United Nations, invitations to the WSYA Winners events in Mexico and networking contacts on a global scale.

Please let us spread the word about how you’re helping reach the MDG’s with innovative use of the Internet!

The WSYA Volunteer Team

We invite you to develop inspiring Internet Content to promote and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations to create a humane, just and liveable world.

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PLANT FOR THE PLANET: THE BILLION TREE CAMPAIGN

Commit to Action - Join the Billion Tree Campaign! Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, people, communities, organizations, business and industry, civil society and governments are being encouraged to plant trees and enter their tree planting pledges on this web site. The objective is to plant at least one billion trees worldwide each year.The idea for the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign was inspired by Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2004 and founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30 million trees in 12 African countries since 1977. When a corporate group in the United States told Professor Maathai it was planning to plant a million trees, her response was: “That’s great, but what we really need is to plant a billion trees.”
A worldwide effort
Recognizing that there are many tree planting schemes around the world, UNEP proposes to federate these efforts in both rural and urban areas. People and entities – individuals, children and youth groups, schools, community groups, non-governmental organizations, farmers, private sector organizations, local authorities and national governments – are encouraged to enter pledges on the online form. Each pledge can be anything from a single tree to several million trees.

The responsibility will lie with the person/organization making the pledge via the campaign website to arrange for the tree planting. All contributing participants will receive a certificate of involvement. They will be encouraged to follow up via the web site so UNEP can verify that the trees have survived, in partnership with certification mechanisms, such as the Forest Stewardship Council. The website will record the ongoing tally of pledges, and also publish photos and accounts from registered campaign members of what they have achieved.

The campaign strongly encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees that are appropriate to the local environment. Advice on tree planting (How to plant a tree) is available via the website, as well as information about reforestation and other tree-related issues, including links to appropriate partner organizations best equipped to give locally tailored advice, such as the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Because ideal planting conditions vary in different regions, the campaign will operate throughout the year.

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BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

Mangrove ecology is one of the most productive and biodiversity wetlands on earth. Yet, these unique coastal tropical forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world.hey may be vanishing more quickly than inland tropical rainforests, and yet, with little public notice. Growing in the intertidal areas, mangroves provide and supply critical habitat for a diverse marine and terrestrial flora (plant life). Healthy mangrove forests are keys to a healthy marine ecology. However, in many areas of the world including the Philippines, mangrove deforestation is causing to fisheries declination, degradation and dilapidation of clean water supplies, and salinization of coastal soils, erosion, and land subsidence, as well as the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Statistics shows that mangrove forests once covered 3/4 of the coastlines of tropical and sub-tropical countries. Today, less than 50% remain, and of this remaining forest, over 50% is degraded and not in good form. There needs be greater protection on primary or high quality mangrove sites knowing that the total remaining area will continue to decrease. (http://www.earthisland.org/map/)

In the Philippines today, mangrove ecology is declining including the coastal areas in Davao City. That is why this project definitely resolves the continuous declination of the mangrove forest, and would sustain its development.

This project proposal is addressing the problem of the coastal area wherein, as of today the seashore is limited with mangrove tress, and full of garbage. Dirty seashore and lack of mangrove tress in the area (Lasang, Davao City) are the environmental problems, and are the current situation in that area that needs the management of the people in preserving its resources, and to maintain the cleanliness and greenness of the coastal area. Indeed, the environment needs the help of the people in preserving its resources. In fact, one of the major goals of the UN Millennium goals for the environment is to preserve our natural resources, and promote a clean and green environment. Now, with this project, it would address and help in the preservation of our environment.

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INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS MEETING: AN EXPERIENCE OF BRAZILIAN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION SYSTEM, BRASILIA, BRAZIL, SOUTH AMERICA

The Brazilian Ministry of Education organized an International Observers Meeting in conjunction with their national children and youth conference dubbed as “Let's Take Care of the Brazil” last April 3-8, 2009, which was held in Brasilia, Brazil.

It was held in order for them to get an overview on how to work with people around the world as Brazil will be hosting the International Children and Youth Conference on June 2009 where children and youth from all regions in the world will be invited to join. The upcoming international conference's theme next year will be “Let's Take Care of the Planet.”

I was one of the invited youth from Asia and the Pacific region to join the observers meeting in Brazil. The conference focused on the urgent topic to deal with, which is the issue of climate change, with some open perspective on how the Brazilian government, in its effort to address climate change, deal with children and youth in confronting the social environmental global changes.

The conference was in partnership with the Decade of Education for the Sustainable Development of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Education (UNESCO), one of the United Nation divisions that works with education, and Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for Human Progress.

Some of the invited participants for the conference were representatives of the Ministries of Education from different countries all over the world. The idea of holding this kind of observers meeting was to improve the international conference preparatory process as the Ministry of Eduation in Brazil wanted to experience how is it like working with diverse of people in one place.

We, the conferece participants, shared an open methodology on how to hold national conferences and international conferences in our countries and organizations. Aside from that, we drafted the international rules and regulations for national conferences and open conferencs, which will be adopted by the ministries of education by different countries after the Brazilian government will introduce the same to the heads of the ministries of education in different countries.

According to Rachel Trajber, the coordinator of the Environmental Education of the Ministry of Education of Brazil, she said that the meeting was a great opportunity for them as environmental educators and youth movements coordinators to improve their dialogues and knowledge within their local communities, building a web of care and protection where one generation learns with the other new ways and actions to reach the sustainability of life in our fragile planet.

Indeed, that was a great experience because aside from learning how Brazilian government works toward reversing the loss of our environment as well as adapting and mitigating climate change and how they deal with young people, I also learn how passionate Brazilian people are toward the international call for action to combat climate change.

While observing how the Ministry of Education of Brazil held a national conference, we, the international team also were given to chance to deal with children and youth and deliver to them our experiences regarding environmental education. It was a great experience because they were all listening to what we said eventhough it took long time for them to understand what we were saying
as most of them only speak Portuguese, and there was still a need to do some English translation. The communication barrier did not really affect the progress of learning process during the conference. After all, we all came there with knowledge with us already regarding what we were talking, and that is about issues sorrounding our planet. For feed backs, email me at marcellones_jl2003@yahoo.com.

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ASIA PACIFIC WED CELEBRATION 2008, ASIS PACIFIC REGION

Background: Kick The Habit, Towards a Low Carbon Economy.
World Environment Day (WED), commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. WED was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

World Environment Day will highlight resources and initiatives that promote low carbon economies and life-styles in the following ways of changing our lives:

o improved energy efficiency
o alternative energy sources
o forest conservation
o sustainable and eco-friendly consumption

• Make One Voice on 5 June

In 2008, Youth from All Over Asia Pacific will unite to save the climate by showing how Asians can live low carbon lifestyles!

As UNEP adopted a long-term youth engagement strategy called TUNZA, in 2003. Since then, there have been five sub-regional youth environment networks in Asia and the Pacific to provide perspectives on environmental issues and promote youth activities in Central Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Pacific Asia. Youth in NEAYEN, SEAYEN and SAYEN, CAYEN will promote WED agenda to public in creative, fun, innovative ways. Youth groups in YENs will organize various campaigns in their cities under same slogan.

• How to join

Encourage Youth Organizations in the Sub-regional Networks to complete and fill up the registration forms in two stages:

· (1) Youth organizations fill up the registration form in Annex I of this document and send to the respective YEN Secretariat.

· (2) YEN Secretariats register the collective actions at the global World Environment Day database
http://www.unep.org/wed/2008/english/Around_the_World/index.asp

• Timetable for 2008 WED

Month Process
May Release information kit on WED
Call and finalize youth network and organization registration from every country/city
Select at least one contact person (NFPs) for each country/city
Develop WED slogan in local Asian language and finalize collective (national and sub-regional) action through online groups/forum/email/chat
June DO WED Action!!!! In every city/country participating
Press Release in the AP/ every country
July Collect pictures and multi-media clips to HyunJin at NEAYEN Secretariat
Evaluation
Sept Release edited Asia Pacific United multi-media clip on WED 2008
Release Booklet on Youth actions for WED 2008 (Electronic version)

• Roles and Contact Information

Responsibility

WED 2008 Steering Committee * 8 people (2-3 Secretariat, 2 Youth Advisors, 1 UNEP)* Organizing monthly online meeting
UNEP * Release information Kit on WED and registration format* Press Release
Secretariat * Contact point between Steering Committee and NFPs*Collect registration information and monitor youth action* Collect outcomes (pictures, articles, multi-media clip) of WED
Youth Advisor * Spread WED campaign in AP at regional and international level * Support booklet development
NFPs/youth * Organize youth actions! * Press release at national level* Collect pictures & Multi-media clip

Northeast Asia: Ms. Jeon HyunJin (jeon@unep.or.kr, Tunza NEAYEN)
Ms. Wang Feng Zhu (wangerlover2007@yahoo.com.cn, Youth Adviser)
South Asia: Mr. Gopal Jain (gopal.jain@ceeindia.org, TUNZA SAYEN)
Southeast Asia: Ms. Aileen Yap (aileenyap@nyaa.org, Tunza SEAYEN)
Mr. Jessie James Marcellones (marcellones_jl2003@yahoo.com, Youth Adviser)
Central Asia: Ms. Anna Kirilenko/Mr. Rustam Murzakhanov (annakir7@mail.ru, naraspashku@gmail.com, TUNZA CAYEN)
UNEP: Ms. Catherine Candano (catherine.candano@rrcap.unep.org, UNEP)

Registration Form for Youth Campaign World Environment Day 2008
Information

Tunza Youth Network (Tunza-YEN and Website URL)
Country City
Main Organization (Name)
Main Coordinator (Name)
(Telephone number)
(Email Address)
(Yahoo messenger ID)
Sub-coordinator (Name)
(Telephone Number)
(Email Address)
(Yahoo messenger ID)
World Environment Day Campaign 2008
Place/Date
Description of activity (not more than 1500 characters)
l If coordinators do not have yahoo messenger ID, please join in since we have a plan to hold online meetings through yahoo messengerl After the WED campaign, please send the pictures with description and multimedia clips with a short report to HyunJin (Korea) at jeonjeon@gmail.com.

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ASIAN HONG KONG CLIMATE CHANGE COALITION CONFERENCE ON JULY

About Asian Hong Kong Climate Change Coalition (HKCCC)

The HKCCC Asian Youth Summit on Climate Change will be held from July 15 to 19, 2008 at the University of Hong Kong, China. Its main objective is to provide a platform for Asian university students to discuss climate change and investigate possible solutions. The goal is to have student delegates benefit from their participation as much as possible. The conference should not only be expanding the participants’ knowledge on climate change: it should empower them to take action on climate change upon returning home.The organisers aim to achieve this through a mix of workshops and expert panel discussions . Equally important are our social events that will foster a sense of belonging to one Asian community. This is important as climate change is a global problem that requires people from different places to work together.

HKCCC is originated from the Univeristy of Hong Kong. Previously we have organized activities like film show, forum and study trip to raise students’ awareness on climate change. We are also active in participating decision - making of green policy in the University.

In this summer, we are ready to organise a Youth Summit to gather Asian youth and voice out our opinions on climate change.

Should you be interested, please visit http://hkclimatechangecoalition.org/aycs08 for more information.

regards,

Jessie James L. Marcellones
UNEP TYAC for Asia and the Pacific
www.unep.org/tunza/youth

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