International Youth Summit 2008 Go 4 Biodiv

Young adults all over the world are committing themselves with great motivation and enthusiasm to the conservation of biological diversity. They experience biodiversity, and the loss of it, first hand. It is the young generation who will have to bear the consequences of the international community’s current actions.

At the International Youth Summit 2008 “Go 4 BioDiv”, young people had the opportunity to network with their peers from different cultural backgrounds, to work together to draw up proposals for the conservation of biological diversity and to present these ideas to the public.

The title of the International Youth Summit – “Go 4 BioDiv” – stands for the young participants’ motivation, ideas, enthusiasm and readiness for action and reflects their personal decision to commit themselves to the conservation of  biological and cultural diversity and to encourage others to do the same.

	Goals With their effective contributions these young adults gained the attention of policymakers and the public. The International Youth Summit strengthened the international network of young people who were working to conserve biological diversity and it boosted their technical and intercultural understanding. More
	Participants Participants were between the ages of 18 and 33, came from four continents and were committed to the conservation of biodiversity, either through their work or in a private capacity. The International Youth Summit focused on the young people’s personal experience, their skills and their different points of view. More
	COP9 Conference The supreme body of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Conference of the Parties (COP), met from 19 to 30 May 2008 in Bonn. 5,000 delegates negotiated measures for conserving biological diversity. More