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Friday, 5 November 2021 | By Youth4MPAs
In August this year, the Youth4MPAs in partnership with WILDOCEANS held a virtual African Youth Summit (AYS) which aimed to build ownership and stewardship amongst African Youth on several themes related to Ocean Protection.
One of the key goals of the summit was to help craft coherent messages from youth across Africa on challenges that the African continent faces, particularly in the space of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The submitted letter contains the key messages drawn from the AYS Youth Statement,
The countries represented by the attendees included South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Gabon, Tanzania, Malawi, Liberia, Mauritius, Gambia, Mozambique, Ghana, Namibia, Madagascar, Morocco, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
This letter was submitted as part of the Our World in Your Hands series.
Dear leaders,
As you all gather in November, each of you will be tasked with making vital decisions about protecting our planet and develop coordinated action against the climate crisis that we all face. As you take these decisions, we would like to remind you that you not only represent the existing human population, but also the generations to come. There is great responsibility that sits with you in the coming days, and as youth we hope that you will take the necessary steps to address the urgent issues we face today.
We urge you to not neglect the ocean, because without the ocean our fight against the climate crisis would be incomplete and ineffective. We need to come together to protect both land and sea, in a collective manner that will help sustain our planet for the generations to come.
In August this year, youth from across Africa came together at the African Youth Summit: Our Africa, Our Ocean, Our Future with the aim of unpacking ocean protection from an African perspective. Throughout the summit, young people led and engaged in sessions with experts and other youth leaders in marine conservation, policy, campaigning, and creative arts professions in a concerted effort to identify and develop tailor-made solutions for Africa’s marine space, its people, and future generations.
The youth networks from the African Youth Summit have together developed this unified statement from the two-day discussions, to echo the voices of Africa’s youth, calling our African and global leaders to take urgent action to secure a healthy future for our planet.
We are all facing a rapidly changing climate and alarming loss of biodiversity. Support is urgently required for ambitious global targets and tailor-made, action-orientated solutions that improve ocean protection for the African continent.
It is now well-recognised that the global 30×30 target of protecting our oceans is not only important for the long-term health of our oceans, but also a target that needs to be implemented immediately to prevent further degradation and collapse of these ecosystems.
To achieve this vision as quickly as possible, we, the Youth of Africa believe there are some critical considerations for leaders and policymakers to acknowledge and act decisively on, as listed below:
The achievement of ambitious targets for ocean protection is imperative and urgent, and 30% by 2030 is a vital target that must be fast-tracked along with other critical targets such as sustainable use of natural resources outside MPAs, restoration of degraded ecosystems and equitable benefit-sharing. A suite of synergistic ambitious targets needs to be met to heal our oceans.
We thank you for listening to our voices,
The Youth of Africa