Vote for the youth speakers submissions – Part 8

Qasir Rafiq is a young Pakistani activist, social scientist and a change maker. He started his activism as a volunteer in natural disasters, a peer educator on sexual health and HIV/AIDS and a professional worker with Non Profits.

Qasir was born between Pakistan and India (Azad State of Jammu & Kashmir). He did his Master’s in Business Administration from University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan. Aside from his professional life, he is also interested in international relations, children education especially girls and conflict issues.

In this the modern age of social communication and networking, it is clear that Qasir Rafiq has chosen to be a catalyst of his own destiny and has decided to redefine the nature of our generation rather than fall into its idleness. His unrelenting drive and sincere motivation provides inspiration to others. He is a spark which is igniting a social revolution his nation and around the globe. He has broken the cycle of apathy. He is leading a great cause and has been defined as great leader.

While in Pakistan, he was involved in numerous students and youth led initiatives, organizations and societies, both within and outside of university life. Most of the Qasir’s initiatives revolved around social activism, community services, education for children and, above all, public speaking. Qasir is a young leader who continues support his peers and his community. Qasir is passionate about quality education and technology in rural areas of Pakistan.

Qasir is currently President of International Youth Council of Pakistan; Youth Ambassador of SPMUDA for Pakistan, MDGs Youth Ambassador, Ambassador Energy Globe, Founder/CEO of The Pakistan Debates, MEAL Officer with Prepared (NGO) and Founder of Apni Dunya School. In past he has been worked with Catholic Relief Services (as a agriculture expert), Save the Children UK, Save the Children USA and Children First.

He has been participated in many national and international conferences like UN Youth Assembly New York USA 2013, MaD 2013 Hong Kong, World Innovation Summit for Education (Qatar) 2009, 2010, ICASA 2011 (Ethiopia), and IYC Youth Summit (USA) 2012. He is also involved in developing the School for Social Entrepreneurs in Pakistan, an expansion site of the program that provides action-based learning for social entrepreneurs.

Qasir’s long-term goal is to open a non-profit organization to educate children and older people in his home country and, last but not least, he would like to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Oluyede lives in Ekiti State, south-western Nigeria. His early education was at ECWA Nur/pry school challenge Ibadan. He attend Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun state in 1997 to 2003, after which he started is experience in agriculture with dog rearing.

He latter moved forward in is education carrieer in 2007 by apply to Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State. Degree in industrial design.

A thought leader, with records in various position from his year one in university as class representative 2007, pioneer director family affairs JCI FUTA 2008, director of project JCI FUTA 2009, Assistance General secretary student union 2009, Akindeko hall representative to student union legislative 2010, Special adviser to the chapter president JCI FUTA 2011, General legal counsel JCI FUTA 2012, Assistance leader youth on commercial agriculture development (nursery operation), Ekiti state 2013, just to mention few.

Combining poultry operation with nursery operation: the unnoticed gain and the pain. This talk is aimed to enlighten the people on how they can make better nursery operation with waste from the poultry.

I am a Masters student in Integrated Natural Resource Management at Humboldt University in Berlin and work as a research assistant in climate and resource policy at Ecologic Institute. I am also one of three Leaders of the Slow Food Youth Germany (SFY Germany) National Convivium. I have been active with SFY Germany for nearly 2 years organizing events and managing volunteers in Berlin.

Talk description: “Positivity moves! Getting youth on their feet for a more sustainable food system”

SFY Germany is a group of young activists from all disciplines that are actively involved in their communities to create a better food system. We put on events, such as Schnippeldiskos, to make consumers more aware of the issues affecting our food system and connect them with agriculture and food. What makes our movement special is that we present a positive message of how great food and agriculture could be.

In this way, we reach a diverse audience and inspire young people to seek positive change and engagement with how their food is produced, as both consumers and producers. Through positivity we seek to improve the image of agriculture and the value of food and food production in modern society. Affirming messages and setting a positive example mean changing the world by having fun and building supportive communities – an approach that many can learn from and apply to their work to motivate young people to seek change!

“Climate Asia” is the largest ever study of people’s experience of climate change in seven countries – Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal,Pakistan and Vietnam. The study included 33,500 interviews with people across Asia and included more than 14,000 interviews with people aged under 35.

This unique data provides information for governments, donors, the media, NGOs and everyone who wants to support people to adapt to a changing environment.

In this session, Tan Copsey of BBC Media Action, draws from “Climate Asia” research to provide insights into the potential of rural youth across Asia to take action to respond to climate change. Building on findings and case studies from quantitative and qualitative research he will highlight how media and communication can encourage this group to take action to adapt to changes in climate and how they can inspire others to do so.

An environmentalist and political activist, Almir Narayamoga Surui was elected Chief at 17, and is the first member of his tribe to attend college. Over 20 years Almir has fought to save both his Paiter-Surui tribe and the Amazon rainforest.

To achieve this goal, he contacted Google Earth to teach the Surui how to use digital technology to monitor and map the forest. Under his leadership the Surui became the first indigenous people in the world to generate REDD+ credits in 2013 under the rigorous criteria of the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).

Almir successfully lobbied the state government to build schools, wells and medical clinics for tribes in the rainforest, spearheading the creation of a “50-year plan” to ensure the economic vitality of the Paiter-Surui. The plan encompasses large-scale conservation efforts, reforestation projects and activities that offer economic alternatives to exploiting the forest.

Almir convinced the World Bank to re-structure a regional development program to better benefit local indigenous groups. His efforts are credited with almost single-handedly bringing his tribe back from the brink of extinction.

His efforts have earned him accolades around the world, including the prestigious 2013 United Nations Forest Hero Award for Latin America and the Caribbean; 2008 Human Rights Prize from the International Society for Human Rights in Geneva. In 2011 Almir was named as one of the 100 most creative people in the world by Fast Company, the world’s leading progressive media brand which focuses on innovation and leadership.

Link: Indigenous activist fights to save his tribe and the Amazon rainforest

Since age 11, Madison and Rhiannon have been raising awareness on endangered orangutans and their rapidly diminishing rainforest habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Now in their teens, the girls have expanded their work, launching multiple campaigns to ensure Girl Scout Cookies are made from sustainable resources.

Their work prompted Girl Scouts USA to commit to improving sustainability of their cookies and boosted efforts to reduce deforestation for palm oil. Rhiannon and Madison won the prestigious 2011 United Nations Forest Hero Award for North America.

Link: Forest heroes

Paul Rosolie is a naturalist, author, and award-winning wildlife filmmaker who has specialized in the western Amazon for nearly a decade. He runs a conservation project called Tamandua Expeditions that uses tourism to support rainforest conservation.

Paul has traveled with poachers into deep jungle to document the black market trade in endangered species (the third largest black market globally, after guns and drugs), he has learned from indigenous trackers about the Amazon’s flora and fauna, and has explored a previously undocumented ecosystem that has come to be called the ‘floating forest’.

His work with anacondas has attracted the attention of major television networks such as NatGeo Wild and Discovery Science. According to Paul, “telling the story of places like the Amazon and other threatened biomes and the species within them is a crucial link in the process of protecting them. These stories need to be accessible to a wider audience, not just biologists and conservationists. The loss of biodiversity and ecosystems affects all of us as a global community.” Paul’s has worked on conservation projects in tropical ecosystems all over the world; his experience covers locations in India, Indonesia, Brazil and Peru.

Specializing in the upper Amazon, Rosolie has been featured by conservation news sources for his work with anacondas and his work with indigenous communities leading volunteers from all over the world into the rainforest to protect biodiversity.

At the age of 22 he was featured in Mongabay.com’s Young Scientists series for his conservation work with Tamandua Expeditions. In 2012 he sold the rights to his first book, Mother of God to Harper Collins. ‘An Unseen World’ weaves together camera trap footage taken on an Amazon Rainforest tributary located in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. The film was won top prize at the International Forests Short Film Festival in 2013.

Juror Len Dickter described ‘An Unseen World’ as “nature filmmaking at its most raw and innovative – a stark drama of unfolding forest life as it happens.” The film gives us a glimpse of the rich biodiversity of the region – from patrolling pumas and hunting jaguars to curious anteaters.

Link: An Unseen World

I hold a Bachelor of Agriculture degree and a Masters degree in Environmental Biology.

Having acquired training in agriculture, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and having been actively engaged in agriculture as a youth through field participation and social media (blogging), I have come to develop some perspectives on the issues of youth in agriculture. Among these issues is the “negative” image of agriculture among young people, an issue on which I have previously presented my views.

Besides from my active participation in youth issues and the feedbacks I have gotten from sharing my stories, I believe I can rightly consider myself a thought leader in the area of youth involvement in agriculture and landscape matters – especially with my experience as a young Foresight participant.

Therefore, if given the opportunity, I would focus my speech on the theme, “The influence of images on young minds: How positive stories can help feed the world”; in which I intend to present personal stories and stories of young people doing well in agriculture/agribusinesses – as against the negative narratives more often publicized – to inspire more youth to embrace farming and agri-ventures.

As a landscape ecologist cum spatial analyst, I have been engaged in action research that aimed to feed into decision making process, building capacity of stakeholders, exchange with partners/communities, policy dialogue.

Post a Ph.D degree in 2005, I worked with CGIAR (IWMI, World Fish), IUCN, APEC Climate Center, Oxford and Leibniz University (currently) around land use systems and more recently around climate change adaptation. Apart from scientific outputs as peer reviewed publications, I have made parallel effort to communicate my findings via non-academic knowledge products such as policy briefs, contributions to newsletters, blogs, and social media tools. Am currently based in Germany at Institute of Environmental Planning Leibniz University-Hannover (more)

I am a trained landscape ecologist: aware, informed and concerned about current challenges in monitoring and maintaining classical land use
systems and associated livelihoods, especially agro ecosystems.

As an active contributor and steering committee member of YPARD, a platform that provided me an opportunity to better understand the trend of landscape transformation via insights and impressions of young professional (more specifically from the ARD: Agriculture research and development community).Third, my work association/experience with government agency, CGIAR, IUCN and in academia offered me varied understandings on how different groups perceive land use systems, drivers that impact these systems and processes that are impacted by change in these systems.

About the proposed talk: Multifunctional Landscapes– reflectors of change or victims of change?
From, Rio to Rio+20 and Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), host of global challenges got added to priority charts. This includes: economic turmoil, profound indications of
ecological and climatic vulnerability for resources and for the people.

These shifting paradigms attracted reasonable attention for land and water resources that are considered central to social wellbeing and ecological sustenance. The trans-boundary nature of water resources kept that dialogue active, yet, limited.

Whilst, the future of water and land resources is entwined, the land use systems are much more local in terms of impact and need for solutions. Conflict of interest, competing use, issues of ownerships, declining interest on land based livelihoods i.e. agriculture cumulatively add to the concern on the future of landscapes… and to twined future of food … future of mankind …

Nevertheless, the complex challenge would need a handful of solutions and not just a single magical move to reverse and at least regulate stochastic landscape dynamics worldwide. Up-to-date monitoring and assessment of landscape resources using robust scientific measures, economic and development planning procedures (policies) that factor clear benefits for social capital engaged in landuse systems, mainly agriculture. Well informed youth to steer sustainable landscapes with innovation in thought and action.

A concluding remark:
…It is not the case that for sustaining agro-ecosystems ……”we need less science and more tradition, but rather that we need more and better science [informed by traditional knowledge and allowing and involving farmers to apply it in wider contexts” (adopted from Vandermeer, 2010)

Temitope is the Operations Director at Wennovation Hub, Nigeria’s leading incubation Hub. He is an Associate at Loftyinc Allied Partners Limited and Chief Developer of Interntain, a soon-to-be-launched social internship app. He has attended the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University and participated in youth forums and conferences on four continents. He is an award-winning writer and a versatile web developer & programmer. He is currently committed to identifying the future generation of innovators on Nigeria’s campuses as coordinator of Wennohunt 1.0 (www.wennovationhub.org) and co-director of Lyfecamp 2014 (www.lyfecamp.com).

Description: As the climate debate rages on, here I am sitting in my office with the power to influence dreamy young innovators on creating technologies that favour the environment. Here i am at a corner of the world often relegated to the background in technology battles. But the advantage of being late is the opportunity to get it really right once and for all.

Africa is late, technology-wise, but with the rapid growth being witnessed in the start-up/tech scene, we have an opportunity to get our technology right. How can we environmentally mentor or influence the energetic African youths working tirelessly to launch their continent into technology relevance?

I’m 24 years old and I come from Solomon Islands, a small islands state in the south pacific with a population just over half a million.

For a start I work with a non-government organisation (NGO) called Solomon Islands Renewable Energy and Environmental Management Services (SIREEMS) as a youth development officer. SIREEMS usually works along side the Solomon Islands’s government in promoting clean energy in a clean and sustainable environment. My role in SIREEMS is mainly to promote and give awareness in rural areas about what is renewable energy and how renewable energy can be used to help improve their livelihood in rural areas. In my country eighty percent (80%) of the population lives in the rural areas where it is isolated from much of the government services.

It is my responsibility to educate young people especially about renewable energy on how it can benefit their communities and how young people can be the part in renewable energy as a way forward for a better future for our country. Therefore it is my prime role to promote and educate renewable energy to the rural population and give them some insight of the importance of renewable energy economically and environmentally.

The Global Landscape Forum Warsaw offer an ideal venue and opportunity for me to share my experiences, opinions, thoughts and contribute in discussing and debating the challenges and issues we small islands states are facing with regards to climate change.

If I were to be given the opportunity to this event, I will be one of the speakers on climate change sharing the experiences and issues that my country and other fellow neighbour islands states in the pacific region are facing with regards to the effects of climate change as we small low lying islands states are the frontiers to the effects of climate change. The limited resources we have, we try to look into other alternatives to sustain our resources and environment where our livelihood depends entirely on.

Therefore it would be such a big achievement for me personally as a young person and a leader and for my country as a whole to be select to take part in this very important forum of UN where important global policies and decision concerning us all are debated, so it would be a dream come true and once in a life time opportunity for me personally to be part of this very important occasion.

Philippe has participated and organized various youth activities at national and international level, including conferences, advocacy and activism-oriented work. He is an active member of various national and international organizations, including Taking IT Global, African Youth Initiative for the fight against climate change in Central Africa, African Youth Panel.

He also has extensive knowledge, experience and exposure to civil society through either working or volunteering, Climate Change, Sustainable Development. He worked as an environmentalist in NEPADCA.

Philippe Junior year is licensing geography. He has a specialty in Computer Maintenance and Network. He holds a Water Right and Wrongs of Youth and certificates in leadership, environmental education, peace.

My initiative is on sustainable development climate change, the role of youth in the implementation of this initiative is through volunteer work throughout the process including planning, the project or activity. These young people are involved all levels of the project as a whole.

Burundi is a small country in the central and eastern Africa which is also called “the heart of Africa” because of his beauty and geographical position on the Map of Africa. Then, Burundi was lead by the Ganwa dynasty more 500 years before the end of that dynasty in 1966.

The story I want to share with you is from the MWEZI GISABO kingdom, one of the last kings who has fought against colonization penetration. King Mwezi ruled since from 1950 to 1908, and fought against foreign army penetration during more than 7 years.

After the foreign armies somehow failed, they created a rebellion in Burundi, lead by KILIMA who has attacked from Eastern CONGO (DRC). One day after losing many of his army, councilors told him to burn the KIBIRA (forest).

He refused to do that with that argument: “KIBIRA (forest) is the only one link between God and His people.

After more than 100 years, this idea is ruling Burundi environmentalists and scientists. In 2008, the actual Burundi President Peter NKURUNDIZA was rewarded a price on the name of KING MWEZI GISABO, for having planted many trees by ACVE, one of the big NGOs in environment protection in Burundi.

With that simple ideas, many young people’s initiatives were born individually or collectively, inspired by the idea from an illiterate King: For instance the young JADO NKURUNZIZA call also GITI (TREE) for having planted so many trees.

It is my vision to plant trees around RUVUBU national park where I was born, to provide wood to my community and effectively protected that biggest Park of Burundi.

I am a student of Law at Tbilisi State University in Georgia.

I’ve been active in the field of Environment since 2009 when I first started a project aiming at recovering the green layer of our country after the war in 2008.
In 2011 I took part in a project “Oikos Greening Days” when we planted thousands of trees in the place where a junkyard used to be.

The next project was the Oikos International Photo Contest “Sustainable Unity”.

In 2012 I took part in the governmental project “Eco-tourism Popularisation – Eco-education of the Protected Areas” where I provided information to the students about the unique flora and fauna of Georgia and the harm of pollution. Later, I became a volunteer to “Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development”, held by the Georgian Government.

Since February, 2013, I’ve been working on my personal project “For the GREEN”.

GLF will be an opportunity for me to share the experience I’ve gained through the years, speak about the Environmental Policy in Georgia, also present my innovative project idea, a new approach to various environmental problems through education and playing real games with the real results.

Tochukwu was born in 1983, in River state – Nigeria. He is a graduate of agric extension, A Thought leader, a pioneer president of the Nigerian association of agricultural students representing all students studying agriculture in university of Port-Harcourt

He stirred up a consciousness amongst most students, that agriculture is the surest way to self-employment, self-empowerment, wealth creation and poverty reduction. This formed the cardinal objectives of his tenure which spanned from 2005 to 2009.

This undying desire to change the mindsets of fellow students and majority of youths in the volatile Niger Delta region led to a public lecture titled “Agriculture is a sure way to economic development” in 2007, which had experts as guest speakers including the director of agriculture in Niger delta development commission . It preceded an aggressive agricultural extension campaign alongside his team in 3 senatorial districts of River state.

It became a turning point to a whole lot of young people who after the thought revealing experience started small farm businesses mostly fish and poultry farms.
As a NEPAD youth ambassador he regularly participates in different forums advocating a national policy on agriculture powered by the youths to reduce high unemployment rate and grow the GDP.