In this sixth episode of the  #WorldForestVoices podcast, we bring your attention to youth in the forest and land-use sector. Youth are very instrumental in building green, healthy, and resilient futures.

Over the recent past, young people have continued to air their voices on the need to foster intergenerational collaborations, build their capacity and strengthen their position in contributing to creating a sustainable future.

Most recently, youth at the 7th Mediterranean Week released a statement conceived through a dialogue on the main challenges and recommendations highlighted by young people in the region, who also shared their initiatives, work, and research. The XV World Forestry Congress also adopted the Work with Us – Youth Call for Action which highlights key areas to leverage the potential of youth and enhance their contribution to building a sustainable future with forests.

In this podcast, we host Erica Di Girolami who discusses the “Work with Us – Youth Call to Action” and Lucia Rivera who delves into the Mediterranean youth statement.  Erica is the Focal Point for the UNFF-MGCY, and Lucia is a consultant for the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) and the Silva Mediterranean Secretariat at FAO.

They share their journey into forestry, their current work, and their connection to nature/the environment. Then they provide us a brief overview of the recent youth calls to work with the youth for a sustainable future in the forest and land-use sector and why it is important for other stakeholders to heed the voice of youth and adopt the call.

Lastly, they share with us their hopes for the future regarding uplifting the status of youth in contributing to building a green healthy, and resilient future with forests and nature.

Listen and enjoy the voices of people and forests! Catch up with previous episodes here.

Social media, traditional media and journalism play an instrumental role in services as the eyes of the public, access to information and amplifying messages. With such a capacity, the media as a whole possesses an enormous potential to amplify messages and accelerate mass mobilization for action on forests and the environment – however, it is evident that the media is still far from sufficiently projecting the role of forests in the global sustainable development agenda.

In this fourth episode of the #WorldForestVoices podcast, we hosted two special guests: Elna Schutz, a freelance journalist specialising in narrative journalism and podcasting, focusing on stories around science, health, and more, and Yeshiel Panchia, a freelance journalist working in multimedia, producing breaking news photos, photo-essays and video content for local and international publications. Both our guests participated in the GLF-FAO media seminar organised in the lead of the World Forestry Congress.

Listen and enjoy the voices of people and forests!

And do not miss out on the next episode, subscribe to the #WorldForestVoices podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

In this third episode, we host two youth leaders: Vinamra Mathur, from India, PhD student and the Youth4Nature regional director for Asia-Pacific, and Jennifer Hong from Canada, a policy analyst with Natural Resources Canada. Both are mobilizing young people around the world towards nature and forest conservation through their respective spheres of influence. And today they share with us the story behind Faces of Forestry, a campaign to promote and showcase the diversity of the forest sector and provide a platform for individuals to share their lived experiences and perspectives in the sector.

Our guests share with us their personal journeys into the forest sector and the work that they are doing with youth in nature conservation. They then discuss the imperative and value of storytelling as a novel communication tool being adopted by young people to transmit messages and reflect the diversity of experiences within the forest sector. They underline how storytelling has changed the face of environmental advocacy as a medium of mobilizing masses and sharing perspectives of marginalized voices. Further, they guide us through how the Faces of Forestry campaign will rally young people and interested persons around the world to the cause of forests.

Lastly, they share with us their opinion about multi-stakeholder international events like the World Forestry Congress and what can be done to fully leverage on international events and their reach, especially when it comes to youth representation and storytelling.

Listen and enjoy the voices of people and forests!

And do not miss out on the next episode, subscribe to the #WorldForestVoices podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

In this second episode of  #WorldForestVoices, we host two inspiring young forest and landscape restoration change-makers - Analí Bustos from Argentina and Eva Makandi from Kenya - who are transforming the livelihoods of their communities through forest ecosystem restoration-based approaches.

Both winners of the Global Landscapes Forum Restoration Stewards programme and Anali a winner of the WFC youth forest change-maker competition, shared with us their personal journey into forestry and forest landscapes restoration. They then share stories of how they transformed their curiosity, passion and plans to on-the-ground restoration projects to address some of the important forest ecosystem and landscape-related challenges in their communities.

They also share the strategic role of forest-science-policy-practice communication events and multi-stakeholder fora in moving from plans to action.  

Finally, the guests reflect on some of the challenges youth and young changemakers have to face today and share  pieces of advice to the youth who intend to transform their ecosystems and community’s livelihoods and recommendations to higher stakeholders on supporting youth action.

Listen and enjoy the voices of people and forests!

In this short episode that marks the launch of the #WorldForestVoices podcast, listen to the co-hosts, Alina Gerke and Amos Amanubo interviewed by Pier Andrea Pirani about the purpose of the podcast, what listeners can expect and the diversity of guests we will host in upcoming episodes.

Enjoy the voices of people and forests! #WorldForestVoices