Youth Eco Forum

Brief Information

Leading region: rotation of regions

Participating regions: Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia), Hokkaido (Japan)

Brief information: The Youth Eco-Forum meets every year or a year and is a great place for teenagers and young people. At the forum, they not only can get to know each other and have a good time, but also share their experience about the environmental problems of the places where they come from. Focal topics - prevention of climate change, improving environmental literacy of citizens, urban ecology and the like; moreover, topics are updated for each new forum.

Current activity:

The Youth Eco Forum (YEF) was created to support comprehensive and balanced environmental education in order to realize the creative and leadership potential of Northern Youth. YEF is fostering a generation of youth that is proactive in addressing environmental issues, it is enhancing international relations through shared experiences in unique northern settings, and provides the tools for youth to make a difference in their home region.

Since 2001, the YEF has been organized on a regular basis by the international organization of the northern regions "The Northern Forum" (Executive Director Mikhail Pogodaev), on places provided by the member regions of the Northern Forum. This year the YEF was organized in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland, with the full support of the Government of Lapland, represented by the Governor Mika Riipi, and the University of Lapland. Youth Ecological Forums have been held almost every year for more than 10 years. The first Forum was held in 2001 in Edmonton (Canada), and brought together 20 students from 7 countries and regions. Over the years, the Forum was hosted by such cities as Sapporo (Japan), Akureyri (Iceland), Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), Anchorage (USA), Whitehorse (Canada), Yakutsk (Russia).

August 8-14, 2012, Canada’s Yukon Territory hosted the 2012 Northern Forum’s Youth Eco-Forum on the theme of “Climate Change and Creating Balance”.

August 1-10, 2014, Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, hosted the 2014 Northern Forum’s Youth Eco-Forum on the theme of “Clean city – clean planet”.

April 13-16, 2017, Salekhard, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, hosted the 2017 Northern Forum’s Youth Eco-Forum on the theme of “The Arctic – is Our Home”.

October 6-10, 2018, Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland, hosted the 2018 Northern Forum’s Youth Eco-Forum on the theme of “Voice of Northern Regions Youth for biodiversity conservation”.

During the Youth Eco Forum – 2018 participants presented their reports on Northern biodiversity, prepared poster presentations, visited the Arktikum Science Center, listened to lectures by leading international experts in the field of biodiversity conservation, and adopted the Lapland Declaration – 2018. The County Governor of Lapland Mika Riipi congratulated the participants of the Youth Eco-Forum - 2018 at the plenary session on October 8, 2018. On October 9-10 YEF participants, as observers, were involved in the events of the International Youth Eco-Summit and the International Congress on the Conservation of Arctic Biodiversity.

October 7-10, 2019. The Northern Forum is organizing the Youth Eco-Forum (YEF) in Akureyri, Iceland. The YEF will gather youth representatives and educators from the Northern Forum member-regions, such as the Sakha Republic, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Yugra, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia), Akureyri (Iceland) and Hokkaido (Japan). The theme of the YEF – 2019 is “Protection of the Arctic water resources”. During the YEF participants will present their reports and projects, and listen to lectures by Arctic Council’s experts.

Youth Eco-Forum Terms and Conditions