Recap of Events:

Day 1 (23 November 2009). The keynote speech for the Youth Forum was given by Jose Atienza Jr., Secretary of DENR, Philippines. He underlined climate change as the major threat facing the future, calling on youth to become actively involved. Atienza stressed that the rich megadiversity in East Asia needs to be used sustainably and not abused, and that the environment was “getting back at us” for recent abuse. He highlighted that today’s youth is more knowledgeable and better equipped than previous generations, and challenged participants to use their knowledge to repair the environment for theirs and future generations.

In addressing questions Atienza said air pollution was Manila’s biggest environmental challenge and the DENR’s biggest recent achievement was raising public environmental awareness.

In the second keynote speech, Antonio Oposa, an environmental lawyer from the Philippines, gave an interactive presentation on the role of the youth in drawing the world towards a sustainable future. He lamented that it has taken the world 200 years to consume resources that it took the earth hundreds of millions of years to generate, and raised concerns about a world that values “gold more than water.” He defined environment as the source of life, comprising land, air and water, and emphasized the need to safeguard it for future generations. Oposa then called on the youth to refrain from using the words “developed” and “developing” when referring to countries’ economies and replace them with “over-consuming” and “low-consuming” respectively. Stressing the need to educate young people on sustainable living, he said that the solution to the world’s economic crisis is a focus on conserving, preserving and restoring the environment.

Felino Lansigan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, spoke on climate change, noting the latest IPCC knowledge, observational evidences, projections, and impacts and adaptations. He highlighted the downscaled versions of global climate models for regions in the Philippines and showed youth participants how anthropogenic forces are projected to change the country’s summer and winter rainfall. In the ensuing discussion, participants discussed how climate affects economy.

On the SDS-SEA, ICM and Climate Change, Neviaty Zamani, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia, noted that the actions of coastal peoples in one country affect other countries. On climate change, she noted the threat of inundation to small islands, and described the risks it poses to coral reefs. She said ICM can reduce these risks as countries share best practices.

Beverly Goh, National Institute of Education, Singapore, spoke on how youth participants could effectively communicate the messages from the forum to others. She presented the “S.O.S.” system for action that emphasizes: seeking and making sense of an area of interest and seizing opportunities; organizing ideas, orchestrating actions and taking ownership of projects; and finally sharing the passion with others, and selling the ideas. She stressed her belief that the mission of teachers is to “touch the minds of others.” She gave numerous examples of projects carried out using the S.O.S. approach, which puts strong emphasis on experiential learning.

Day 2 (24 November 2009). The Youth Hour with Legislators was chaired by Senator Pia Cayetano, who was joined by: Senator Mean Soman, Cambodia, Je Jong-Geel, Korea, and Nguyen Chu Hoi, Vietnam. They answered questions from youth on regional cooperation in ICM, climate change, and youth participation in environmental issues.