Sri Lanka Youth – Rio+20

 

Rio 20+ is the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, currently being held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (June 2012). Sri Lanka has sent the largest official delegation of all delegations in the world! That is the Govt. delegation taking advantage of using a Sri Lankan Airlines plane for which the monthly leasing cost exceeds over US$300,000, costing over $10,000 a day, just to keep the plane on the tarmac not counting maintenance charges. The example of a wastage and huge carbon footprint will not be lost on the world!

On top of that there is an NGO presence of various people and media personnel. It is a very important conference, but in the end the decisions taken by them, may or may not be acted upon by the various governments.

The Original Rio 1992, which is being commemorated this year came up with principles of sustainable development which have barely been touched upon. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned these 20 years have resulted in a level of environmental degradation that has been unprecedented and in the last 5 years it has increased at an exponential level.

The lead of politicians who are involved in this degradation, does not give a chance to either the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) or the Ministry of Environment to act on the powers vested in them.

I need not go through the individual items here. As far as the youth input here is concerned I take an extract which is self explanatory from Beyond Borders, a blog in the Sri Lankan blogosphere published today.

The statement that encapsulates several vital areas in sustainable development was drafted by over 30 youth-led and youth-focus local organizations that are involved in environmental conservation, management, climate change, sustainable development and advocacy for environmental issues. Bringing these organizations together and orchestrating Sri Lanka’s participation in the Rio Summit, is the Youth for a Greener Sri Lanka (YGSL) that was established earlier this year (March 2012). The statement is a position paper on which future projects will be based.

A large team of local environmentally conscious youths has formulated a multipronged action plan, addressing several key areas that are intrinsic in the development of a nation. Top of the list and under the umbrella of youth policy positions, the statement mentions society’s role in sustainable development. The activists believe that equality is essential, they explained “our aspiration is equality for all, and not the luxury of the 20 per cent of the world’s people who enjoy the exploitation of 80 per cent of its resources.”

Well-being and happiness as well as right mindfulness were also highlighted as the cornerstone to sustainable development. Society being at the heart of development, even with an extraordinary physical plan, it cannot fruition sans the right mindset of the people.

The economy is another key area that needs to be addressed, and therefore, the team included environmental sustainability and poverty reduction, and a Green Economy in the statement. YGSL explains, “A Green Economy should replace the current economic order of inequity, destruction and greed. A Green Economy should be an economic system that ensures social equity, protects the ecological balance and creates economic sufficiency. The core idea of a Green Economy should be to enforce sustainability, specifically the wellbeing of all people and respecting and preserving the biodiversity of Earth’s ecosystems.

On that note they believe it is necessary to establish an office for the ombudsperson — high commission for future generations. “We the youth representatives of Youth for a Greener Sri Lanka understand that there is a lacuna in current decision making processes and institutions of the world, especially as all of them fail to consider the long term effects of decisions made today. The proposal stated at paragraph 57 of the Zero Outcome document calling for the establishment of an Ombudsperson/High Commissioner for Future Generations is thus an opportunity to meet this short coming and by establishing such an office, we believe that both the aspirations of youth and future generations will be protected.”  From  www.beyond borders.wordpress.com  June 22^nd 2012.

The Above extracts from the blog entry are noble principles of expression of Sri Lankan Youth who I believe are more aware of the environmental issues than many adults, but do not see a positive way they can contribute and make a difference to the cause of sustainability.

I believe that along with these themes, we must set up a training program that is part of the school curriculum that covers the principles of sustainability over a one week period, which is uniformly taught by a roving team on say an environmental bus, run on renewable energy!! In this way there is consistency of the message and the attendees get a certificate of attendance and a pledge to protect the environment.

We must involve youth in an active program that they can see after being made aware of the issues from such so that they are fully armed with the rationale and basis that will carry them throughout their lives and who by living by example will teach everyone of the importance of sustainability as a method of spreading the message throughout the island in a practical manner. I have found that no amount of talking can substitute for an act of doing such as recycling waste as just one example of what we can do at home. In the latter case I believe Sri Lanka is seriously lacking in insight.