Welcome to AFRIKA!
The region of Hope, Resiliency and Action. At Youth4Nature Afrika, we are on a mission to raise the Afrikan spirit higher by highlighting and celebrating youth restoration and climate action work happening across the region.
Here, be sure to look out for #Y4NSpotlightSeries, regional briefs, webinars, blogs and other relevant content in the region.
Interested in collaborating on a project/webinar/workshop, or have ideas on meaningful collaborations we can forge or explore? Reach out to our office, t, at hello@youth4nature.org.
INUKA PILOT: WE LAUNCHED
Youth4Nature has LAUNCHED its first-of-a-kind, for-youth-by-youth restoration project-INUKA. The project, which launched on 20 March 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya, seeks to take advantage of experiential learning to deliver training on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) best practices, youth leadership and storytelling and scale-up solutions across five key landscapes in Kenya (Coastal Mangrove ecosystems, Inland wetlands, Semi-Arid, Highland forests and Agro-forestry ecosystems).
INUKA, a Swahili word for “rise up”, taps into youth actions and leadership in NbS by bringing to light the incredible on-the-ground restoration work they do while inculcating International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Global Standard for NbS as an effective tool for assessment, design and verification of NbS.
INUKA’s goals include;
Biodiversity and NbS best practice
Sustainable Livelihoods and Youth Leadership
Community Building and Storytelling
Meet the #Y4NAfrika team that is headed to the Africa Protected Areas Congress this July in Kigali, Rwanda!
Afrikan youth are already leaders for protected areas and need a seat at the table to co-shape policy and implementation processes and decisions. At APAC we will be doing just that - advocating for the role of youth and local and Indigenous communities and hosting events to create space for youth to exchange and add their voices.
Learn more about what we are planning and get to the know the team here! More details coming soon about our events and how you can get involved.
#PhotoChallenge
To inspire action across the region, our #PhotoChallenge takes on the warmth of our inspiring Y4N Global Ambassadors from Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt and many other Afrikan nations.
These photos inspire action from all of us, by showcasing the amazing landscapes, environments and actions young people are taking at the local level. And for you, we hope that these equally inspire you!
#PhotoChallenge takes us into the depths of June, with varying experiences, landscapes and pollinators - all towards the goal of sharing the stories of our ecosystems across Afrika, from whereabouts our amazing Global Ambassadors are based.
Afrika team shares with us content of their different landscapes, to learn, get inspired, and imagine a better Afrika
Y4N Afrika ushers us into what April has been for them, while pressing on into their #PhotoChallenge monthly feature. Join them as they celebrate our precious planet, with actions on the streets, impacts and solutions to soil erosion, views from the lake, moments along the coast, and resilience in the deserts.
It is March. And we are at it again. Greeting you with the amazing oozes from our array of landscapes. Afrika, we march on, crafting the story that makes us who we are, from eons before, to eons to come. Take a moment, dive into every single one of these stories, and explore with us across the stunning landscapes featured this month.
February is here with us. A month of love, a month of vibes, a month to continue inspiring the world. For our team in Afrika, we are at it again. Showing our love via our landscapes. Telling you as it is. Because we are all connected, and storytelling is an important part of us and our cultures. We give these to you, as we continue to craft the positive Afrikan story about us, our nature, and inspiration for what we can achieve.
#Y4NSpotlightSeries
The Youth Spotlight Series project seeks to challenge the status quo and offer a platform for youth in the global south to share their stories (as activists, stories of their initiatives or projects, their journeys in community leadership), and have those unique stories profiled and amplified on Youth4Nature’s social platforms, as well as linking the youth action to networks that can support their cause. Initially designed to highlight the youth in Africa, this project is expected to be rolled out to other parts of the global south, with cooperation among the Youth4Nature regional directors and regional programs. The aims are to:
Highlight unrecognized youth working to drive impact in their communities
Incorporate existing exemplary youth action at the grassroots
Listen to their stories and compile it/ profile it
Use their stories to amplify their efforts
Bring in a new perspective to inspire underrepresented youth
Pitch these stories to partners/ local/ national/ regional actors
Create a lasting catalytic change on how youth engagement is done
We were honored to host our guest for the July spotlight - Munduru Mwajuma, Founder and Executive Director at Family Uplift Uganda, to delve deeper into financial literacy and how it contributes to restoration efforts led by women and youth.
Meet Sarah, founder of the Kilimanjaro Project, which mobilises rural communities and international cooperation to create a more just and green world! Watch our short interview with Sarah to learn more about her work in Tanzania and what is up next for her projects!
On the shores of Lake Victoria, Michelle and her younger brother Jeremy set out to co-found Bring Back the L.Victoria. With a vision to restore the lake to it’s pristine condition, Bring Back L.Victoria started as a campaign to rid the lake ecosystem of plastic waste and to create a thriving haven for biodiversity and communities once again. On our April edition of the #Y4NSpotlightSeries, we hosted a
In the month of February 2021, we embarked on our Y4N Spotlight Series. On this feature, we hosted Mr. Chile Kangwa, a youth leader from the southern African country of Zambia, to understand more about his story and his organisation, action for nature. Here is the conversation Chile had with our Regional Director for Africa, Kaluki.
STORYTELLING
African Youth, you are invited to submit your story! For more, click here.
La gouvernance des AMP devrait se baser sur l’existence de rapport, d’accords ou même de sources vérifications de la conception à l’établissement des instances liés à la gouvernance, à la gestion et à la planification pour asseoir une bonne conservation et donc de leurs capacités à être éligible à la liste verte de l’UICN.
Le Parc National de Kahuzi-Biega est menacé par le braconnage, l’abattage d’arbres et bien d’autres problèmes par les peuples autochtones riverains qui n’ont pas d’autres moyens d’existence/ subsistance. A cela s’ajoutent des activités minières qui se développent dans le Parc et ses environs.
L'histoire parle de la sauvegarde d'un écosystème marécageux à partir de la mise en valeur d'une particularité culturelle propre au village.
My story is on how I became and environmentalist. Human actions damage it, and how individuals can help. The essay focuses on individuals because while I and you may not be able to influence international commitments or government actions, we can change our attitudes toward our environment, which spreads to those around us, and I am confident that if over 7 billion people do the same, we will achieve our goal of saving the planet Earth.
My story is on how I became and environmentalist. Human actions damage it, and how individuals can help. The essay focuses on individuals because while I and you may not be able to influence international commitments or government actions, we can change our attitudes toward our environment, which spreads to those around us, and I am confident that if over 7 billion people do the same, we will achieve our goal of saving the planet Earth.
As a young 11-year-old girl in primary school, I was denied a right. Human-wildlife conflict around my area led to us being fearful, with children seeking to drop out of school for the sake of their safety. My personal school experience, which I’m proud to discuss, stretched my mindset and belief systems, making me who I am today. I envision a world where every child has a safe place to learn and a child’s education is not compromised by environmental factors like human-wildlife conflict, especially with ongoing climate change.
Douala, the commercial capital of Cameroon, has recently been experiencing an upsurge in plastic waste pollution. This is mostly due to increased production from the brewery and water bottling companies and inadequate waste management infrastructures. In 2017 the city of Douala produced more than 20,000 tons of plastic waste daily, of which about 2% was collected and less than 1% recycled. Environment and Food Foundation (E2F) in Cameroon is bringing up a new collection, reusing and recycling systems for plastic waste, with a traceable social and environmental impact on global waste management. Our innovative approach seeks to strengthen the plastic supply and value chains, create new jobs, and relieve Douala from plastics pollution.
Use of alternative sources of clean energy in the Kisumu Informal settlement in mitigating respiratory infection, carbon emission and reduced infant mortality rate.
Let's not lose more than we stand to gain. Deforestation is causing extensive loss of our biodiversity, hunger and extreme poverty due to compromised rainfall patterns when trees that act as rainfall catchments in tropical forests are constantly cut down for commercial reasons. A bleak future awaits a generation which will not put in place accurate measures to denounce deforestation.
For more than three decades, the youth in Malawi have been marginalised, in actions that strengthen the climate agenda. Despite the growing awareness of the need for intergenerational equity, being a young environmental defender, especially from a marginalised background, has proven to be challenging. My personal experience is a brief snapshot of the realities of a young environmental defender, seeking to identify barriers and protection gaps in the existing frameworks. And the opportunities that exist within rapid response mechanisms, in providing immediate support to young activists.
BLOGS
Past WEBINARS
Join Adiza to learn more about what happened at the first ever Africa Protected Areas Congress, and to share in discussions about what we do next for people and for our planet.
Join us in the Youth Pavilion at the Africa Protected Areas Congress on Wednesday, July 20 at 2:00 - 3:30 pm for conversation and exchange about NbS across Afrika!
Meet us in the Youth Pavilion at the Africa Protected Areas Congress for an engaging and interactive discussion with youth who are leading conservation initiatives across Afrika.
Join us on Sunday, September 26, 2021, for a conversation about restoration in Africa with local youth leaders as part of Africa Climate Week 2021! Learn more and register.
Youth projects and organisations are always on the hunt for money! Build your proposal and grant writing skills with Y4N Regional Director for Africa, Kaluki and Y4N Engagement Director, Caroline at our workshop with Kenya Inter-University Environmental Students Association.
In the third and final part of this series, we are taking a practical approach to pollinators and will introduce various actions that citizens can take to understand and help these little friends! Join us to learn more about the “how-to” and to get the glimpse of what you can do for pollinators, wherever you are, with whatever you have. Ranging from…
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are becoming an increasingly contested issue in several policy fora. While many governments, businesses and even big NGOs in the climate space are pushing for swift global implementation and are praising NbS as an important response to climate change, many grassroot NGOs, Indigenous and local communities as well as…
This intergenerational event will bring together expert speakers from NGOs, global governance, multinational corporations, environmental consultancy firms, and other fields to focus on the private sector’s engagement with nature through supply chains and externalities, as well as opportunities for improvement and youth engagement. The event will have a global, intergenerational focus, with voices from various UN global regions.
Join us as we bring together experts to discuss the reality for pollinators in Africa today, and the fate of humans and nature without them.
Y4 Nature y RELLAC-jóven te invitan al webinar: " El poder de tus historias"
Acompáñanos a conocer 5 historias de conservacionistas cuya vida cambió trabajando de cerca con la naturaleza y haciendo eco de su historia.
Viernes 10 de Julio a las 4 pm (hora México)
Registrate en
Meet the #Y4NAfrica Team
Nbs resources
Cities are an extremely valuable aspect of nature-based solutions, as they are not only where majority of the world’s population lives, but where there is the most capacity for building urban adaptation, climate change mitigation, community resilience, and building or greening sustainable urban centres.
UNFCCC COP25 is more complicated than ever. As youth, we face many barriers to participation in these high-level forums, one of the largest of which is an explanation on how it all works. Meaningful climate action attempts to break down barriers like these, which is why we’re sharing some guiding resources on the who, what, how, and why of COP.
This group of four is working on a volunteer basis to direct public attention towards Natural Climate Solutions and to champion the work of others. Their mission is to catalyse global enthusiasm for drawing down carbon by restoring ecosystems: the single most undervalued and underfunded tool for climate mitigation.
An interdisciplinary programme of research, policy advice, and education. Based out of Oxford, the NBS Initiative is a great resource for the latest science, and their policy platform makes it easy to visualize the action different countries are taking on nature-based solutions.
One third of the solution, yet only 1% of the conversation, and 3% of the funding. Nature4Climate is working to change that.