Our History
The Journey That Led to Our Formation
The idea of establishing an international youth network to link young people interested in preserving biodiversity has existed earlier than 2008, and was raised by numerous youth at various events through many organizations. In October 2010, many of these passionate young people came together at the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to officially announce their interest in starting the Global Youth Biodiversity Network.
Click on the boxes below to learn more about each youth conference:
YouPEC 2010, July 2010
Asian Youth Conference on Biodiversity,
August 2009
Biodiversity on the Edge, May 2008
International Youth Conference on Biodiversity 2010,
August 2010
UNCBD COP-10, October 2010
With the coordination of the CBD Secretariat and GYBN Interim Steering Committee, composed of 16 members from thirteen countries (Japan, Indonesia, India, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Benin, Cameroon, Egypt and Uganda), the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) was formed immediately after COP-10 concluded.
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With the support of the CBD Executive Secretary at the time, Ahmed Djoghlaf, and the CBD Secretariat NGO Focal Points, the Interim Steering Committee worked together from November 2010 to prepare the establishment of a democratic, all-inclusive, transparent and globally-representative biodiversity youth network.
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Establishment of GYBN
Thanks to generous financial support from the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), all of these efforts eventually led to the official establishment of GYBN at an international Kick-Off conference hosted by NAJU in Berlin, Germany from August 21st to 27th, 2012. Thirty-five youth from thirteen countries attended the conference where they learned about biodiversity issues through participating in workshops and networking with each other. The final days of the conference were used to create a statute, mission, and vision for GYBN, and to create a position paper for the upcoming CBD COP-11.
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Following a recommendation by the CBD Secretariat on the legal implications of establishing an international organization, the Interim Steering Committee later decided to change the name of the organization to the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN).
The GYBN Statute was adopted at the GYBN Kick-Off Meeting held in Berlin, Germany in August 2012.
It has been amended as necessary by the GYBN Steering Committee through consultation with GYBN members.
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The most recent version of October 2015 is available here: GYBN Statute
Sponsors
