Youthful and mature, or the youth for a healthy ecology

On the occasion of the International Youth Day, which is celebrated on 12 August, the FAO Moscow Office the day before held a round table entitled “Green Skills for Youth”. Students, young scientists and entrepreneurs, social activists discussed the skills necessary for the youth to promote sustainable development in the twenty-first century, shared their experiences and projects, and told about the challenges and obstacles that they managed to overcome.

“On 17 December 1999, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution on the proclamation of the International Youth Day,” said moderator Varvara Parilova, Specialist on Indigenous Peoples at the FAO Moscow Office. – “Since then, the important and constructive contribution of the youth to the efforts to maintain peace and security as well as its role as one of the main agents of sustainable development have been increasingly recognized every year.”

“The theme of this year’s International Day – “Green Skills for Youth” – reminds us that it is today’s youth who will soon lead the efforts towards building sustainable and resource-efficient society, and overcome the environmental emergency. Today, we are going to discuss how the youth can contribute to the improvement of ecology and how young people can get ready for the changes in the labour market associated with the “green transition.”

“There are 1.2 billion young people aged 15-24 years worldwide, which is 16% of the total population, and almost 90% of them live in developing countries,” said Aghasi Harutyunyan, Deputy Director of the FAO Moscow Office.

 Photo: © FAO/Anna Glukhova

“Young people are the main driving force of change, because they have a huge innovative potential,” stressed Aghasi Harutyunyan. “Working for and with young people, as well as investing in their empowerment, are key factors for the prosperity of societies and inclusive transformation of rural areas.

About 40% of all FAO employees are younger than 40 years old. They determine the future of FAO and play a key role in introducing innovative modern processes within FAO and the global agricultural sector.”

“For our part, we confirm the relevance of the ecological Agenda. Last year, we joined the Ecomolodezhka.ru platform and we are planning together with our colleagues to launch the track “Agroecology”, said Dmitry Pekurovsky, Chairman of the All-Russian Youth Public Organization “Russian Union of Rural Youth” (RURY). “We want to educate farmers, rural producers on the topic of agroecology, implement educational programmes dedicated to the conversion of waste (of the animal husbandry) into by-products.”

RURY, as Dmitry Pekurovsky said, intends to conduct agricultural classes, create agricultural schools in order to instill interest in green issues from the “earliest possible age”. Together with the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, RURY launched the “Cadres for the Village” programme. This programme (also related to environmental education) is designed to form a new image of the village and popular professions.

“We help understand,” Dmitry Pekurovsky concluded, “what skills young people should have to be the main driving force of sustainable eco-friendly development in the twenty-first century.”

The “green economy” is an economy focused on improving human well–being and social justice, due to a significant reduction in environmental risks and environmental scarcity,” Valery Burmatnov, Lecturer at the Russian Biotechnological University (ROSBIOTECH), emphasized in his presentation. He noted that ROSBIOTECH is a leader among Russian universities, which provides training for students in accordance with the principles of the “green economy”.

ROSBIOTECH makes a significant contribution to making the transition to “green economy” more fair and equitable to all, not leaving anyone behind, by introducing “green competencies” into the educational process, highlighted Valery Burmatnov.

Alexey Gorkov, student in the master’s programme at the Higher School of Economics (HSE), identified four high-tech products that will contribute to solving a number of environmental problems related to agriculture. This is Big Data, a system that converts large flows of information into perceptible results. This is artificial intelligence (AI) – a self-adapting system that develops by the method of “trial” and “error”. This is the Internet of Things, which unites physical objects into a single information network. This is a blockchain, which is a system of accumulation and storage of data on all operations during the product lifecycle.

“In the twenty-first century we need clean, “green”, healthy, safe and more sustainable economy, and it is the youth who can play the decisive role,” noted Valeria Platonova and Savely Volkov, representing Moscow State Linguistic University (MSLU), in their presentation.

The Reserve School of the Russian Geographical Society is a project implemented in specially protected natural areas (SPNA) of the Russian Federation; pupils as well as volunteers from 18 to 35 years old take part in it, said Victoria Grudinskaya from the Russian Geographical Society (RGS). These devotees carry out ecological and volunteer activities; conduct environmental monitoring; participate in an educational programme developed by nature conservation experts and SPNA employees.

In his closing remarks, Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Moscow Office, mentioned the activities of the FAO Youth Committee, created on the initiative of Director-General Qu Dongyu. “This Committee now conveys ideas of innovation within the Organization. The participation of the youth has also significantly revitalized the work of the Committee on World Food Security, within the framework of the annual sessions of which the World Food Forum is now being held," Oleg Kobiakov stressed.

“In Russia, our FAO Office has already formed its own fan club. I would like a FAO Russian youth club to be formed as a result of such meetings. I am very glad that many of the participants of today’s round table present their ideas and developments at our events not for the first time.

We are ready to provide our platform, support youth initiatives to strengthen contacts between young people, students, graduate students, teachers who work in all areas falling under the mandate of FAO,” Oleg Kobiakov said in conclusion. “And let us remember that a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step!"

Photo: © FAO/Anna Glukhova

The following speakers also made statements at the round table of the FAO discussion platform: Viktor Malorodov, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists and Specialists, RSAU – MAA named after K.A. Timiryazev; Natalya Ryazanova, Head of Laboratory, Department of Integrated International Ecological Problems and Wildlife Management, MGIMO; Ekaterina Bliznetskaya, Lecturer, Department of Integrated International Ecological Problems and Wildlife Management, MGIMO, Expert of the FAO Information Centre at MGIMO; Sergey Vanuito, Deputy Chairman of the Youth Parliament at the Legislative Assembly of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Chairman of the territorial-neighbouring community of Indigenous small-numbered Peoples “Samodiyskaya”; Anna Bobrik, Assistant Dean for work with schoolchildren, Department of General Soil Science, Moscow State University; Dauddin Daudi, Winner of the All-Russian competition for young entrepreneurs in the category “The best project in the field of ESG technologies” – 2022.

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