Our Letter to Parties at Resumed COP16 in Rome

[Scroll to read in Spanish below]

February 25, 2025
Rome, Italy

Dear Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity,

We are Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, a collective of over 125 people aged 26 and under from 30+ countries working to mobilize resources for biodiversity conservation through youth action. 

Through the individual efforts of thousands of youth participating in lemonade stands, bake sales, charity runs, and personal fundraising appeals, we have directly invested $320,000 into grassroots conservation projects since 2019, and mobilized more than $350,000 indirectly through our funding partners. We and our partners established the world’s first entirely youth-funded protected area in Ecuador, and we have since begun to develop a network of youth-supported projects around the world. Our investments have already prevented imminent extinctions and spawned scientific discoveries, but they represent a drop in the ocean of global finance that is required to stave off the biodiversity crisis.

We look to you—the Parties of the UN CBD COP16—to urgently approve an effective resource mobilization strategy with sufficient commitments to achieve the ambitious goals set in 2022, when you signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). We also ask that as these funds are put into action, you commit to monitoring techniques that are transparent, inclusive and collaborative, bearing in mind the varied challenges of local circumstances. 

But we particularly wish to emphasise that the process through which this funding is allocated is also important. More than half the global population is under 31 years old, and we are those who stand to lose the most in the face of ecological collapse. Yet youth-led efforts to combat biodiversity loss are severely under-resourced, and young people remain largely excluded from resource allocation decisions that will impact the rest of their lives. Unless we address this quickly, we will miss out on an opportunity to tap into the energy, ingenuity and talent of an entire generation that has proven itself eager to support the goals of the GBF.

We are asking for your support to ensure that the COP16 agreement reflects the critical need to engage and include young people in all aspects of resource mobilization. 

Specifically, we hope that you will call for*:

1. Parties and relevant actors to improve direct access of youth to financial resources1

2. The establishment of a new dedicated global financing instrument for biodiversity, with an equitable and representative governance structure (including youth representation)2

3. Reforms within the Global Environment Facility to ensure the direct access of youth to financial resources, and their participation in its decision-making3

As the biggest stakeholders in the future, youth must be empowered to play a meaningful role in the protection of the planet that they will inherit. We need your ambition to make that possible.

With urgency and hope,

Reserva: The Youth Land Trust 

---

*Specific text alterations advocated for, reflecting amendments proposed by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network:

Item 11A: Resource Mobilization

1. ADD TEXT:

1. Decision paragraph 17:
   Calls upon parties and other relevant actors to improve direct access to, and increase financial resources for indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth for the implementation of the Framework

2. Annex I: Strategy for resource mobilization paragraph 4(h): 
   Ensuring timely and direct access to financial resources and capacity-building for indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth, and other stakeholders;

3. Annex II.C Possible criteria for the development of an instrument on biodiversity finance paragraph 14:
   Equitable, and efficient and representative governance structure, including the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth

2. KEEP TEXT:

1. Decision paragraph 19:
   Decides to establish a dedicated global financing instrument for biodiversity to receive, disburse, mobilize and articulate funding from all sources, under the authority of the Conference of the Parties and to make it fully operational by 2030 

2. Decision paragraph 23:
   Requests the Subsidiary Body on Implementation to dedicate its seventh meeting to consider the elements in para 21 and report on the progress made to the 17th Conference of the Parties

Item 11B: Financial Mechanism

1. ADD TEXT:
   Review of the effectiveness of the financial mechanism Decision paragraph 37:
   Also requests the Council of the Global Environment Facility to ensure the effective engagement and explore ways for the participation of indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth in decision-making, given their contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity;

---

Dracula Youth Reserve in the Ecuadorian Tropical Andes is an example of how young people have teamed up with established organizations to mobilize resources for conservation. The footprint of this collaboration is the protection of more than 2,200 acres of Tropical Andes cloud forest. Photo by Callie Broaddus.

---

[Español]

25 de febrero de 2025
Roma, Italia

Estimadas Partes de la Convención sobre la Diversidad Biológica,

Somos Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, un colectivo de más de 125 personas menores de 26 años de más de 30 países, que trabaja movilizando recursos a través de acciones lideradas por jóvenes para la conservación de la biodiversidad.

A través de esfuerzos individuales de cientos de jóvenes participando en ventas de limonadas y pasteles, carreras benéficas y recaudación de fondos personales, hemos invertido directamente $320,000 en proyectos de conservación desde 2019, y movilizado más de $350,000 de forma indirecta a través de nuestros donantes financieros. Junto con nuestras organizaciones aliadas fundamos la primera reserva completamente financiada por jóvenes, en Ecuador, y desde entonces desarrollamos una red de proyectos apoyados por jóvenes en todo el mundo. Nuestras inversiones han evitado extinciones inminentes y permitido descubrimientos científicos, pero representan un grano de arena frente a los recursos financieros  necesarios para frenar la crisis de pérdida de biodiversidad.

Nos dirigimos a ustedes—las Partes de la COP16 de la CBD de la ONU—para que aprueben con urgencia una estrategia eficaz de movilización de recursos con compromisos suficientes para lograr los ambiciosos objetivos establecidos en 2022, cuando firmaron el Marco Global de Biodiversidad de Kunming-Montreal (GBF). También solicitamos que, al poner en acción estos fondos, se comprometan a aplicar técnicas de monitoreo que sean transparentes, inclusivas y colaborativas, teniendo en cuenta los desafíos de las circunstancias locales.

Queremos enfatizar particularmente que el proceso mediante el cual se asignan estos fondos también es importante. Más de la mitad de la población mundial tiene menos de 31 años, y somos nosotros los más afectados por el colapso ecológico. Los esfuerzos liderados por jóvenes para combatir la pérdida de biodiversidad están gravemente subfinanciados. Los jóvenes siguen siendo en gran medida excluidos de las decisiones sobre la asignación de los recursos que impactarán el resto de sus vidas. A menos que abordemos esto rápidamente, perderemos la energía, el ingenio y el talento de toda una generación que ha demostrado estar dispuesta a apoyar los objetivos del GBF.

Pedimos su apoyo para asegurar que el acuerdo de la COP16 refleje la necesidad crítica de involucrar e incluir a los jóvenes en todos los aspectos de la movilización de recursos.

Específicamente, esperamos que soliciten*:

• Que las Partes y actores relevantes mejoren el acceso directo de los jóvenes a los recursos financieros.

• El establecimiento de un nuevo instrumento global de financiamiento dedicado a la biodiversidad, con una estructura de gobernanza equitativa y representativa (incluida la representación juvenil).

• Reformas dentro del Fondo Global para el Medio Ambiente para garantizar el acceso directo de los jóvenes a los recursos financieros y su participación en la toma de decisiones.

Como los mayores interesados en el futuro, los jóvenes deben ser empoderados para desempeñar un rol significativo en la protección del planeta que heredarán. Necesitamos su ambición para hacer eso posible.

Con urgencia y esperanza,
Reserva: The Youth Land Trust

*Propuestas textuales específicas que reflejan enmiendas del Global Youth Biodiversity Network.