Youth for Biodiversity- Hyderabad Declaration

We, the Youth of the World, want our voices to be stronger and formal in all the decision-making processes of UN conventions related to biodiversity, environment, sustainable development and socio-economic issues. On the occasion of the Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity we met in Hyderabad, India on 8-19 October 2012 and agreed on the following:

Recalling the Hague Youth Declaration, Netherlands, 13-18 April 2002;

Also recalling other Youth Declarations;

Also recalling the Rio20 + Outcome „The Future We Want‟

Also recalling United Nations General Assembly Resolution 65/161 declaring the period 2011-2020 as the “United Nations Decade on Biodiversity”;

We, the Youth of the World,

Urge the Parties to consider adopting the “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth”

Acknowledge the importance of biological diversity in sustaining our lives and making the world a better place for people to live in harmony with nature;

Recognise that problems associated with the loss of biological diversity concern everyone and that we need to act urgently as decisions made will greatly influence our future;

Rise our youth voices to ensure the position of youth in decision-making for all UN conventions related to biodiversity, environment, sustainable development and socio-economy;

Ensure participation and cooperation among all youth, which is vital for the preservation of the world‟s biodiversity;

Ensure the involvement of indigenous youth, which is especially important, as their valuable knowledge from living close to nature can be put to great use in the conservation of biological diversity;

Participate actively in decision-making in our respective countries‟ National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets by 2020;

Take action and give ground-level inputs to achieve all twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets by 2020;

Give inputs in Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) to support and allow early enforcement and implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS;

Take part in regional and national programmes on the Sustainable Ocean Initiative;

Acknowledge the Go4BioDiv declaration on “Conserving Coastal and Marine Biodiversity for Sustaining Life and Livelihoods”;

Acknowledge the importance of forming an intergovernmental youth body or organization by treaty; 

Urge UN Secretariat to recognize such Intergovernmental youth body or organization;

Prepare the 2020 Action and Implementation Plan to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets;

We, the Youth of the world, gathered in this meeting, hereby adopt this Declaration at the Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in Hyderabad, on 19 October 2012.