THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

2 February 2013

The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) organized a one day youth meets and officially launched Nepal Tunza Youth Environment Network (NTYEN) with the celebration of World Wetland Day 2013 to commemorate the World Wetland Day 2013 on 2 February at SEN hall, Buddhanagar, Kathmandu. The event was facilitated by Mr. Jeeban Panthi (Research Coordinator, SEN) and with a warm welcome remarks, he highlighted on the World Wetland Day.

Followed by the introduction of participants, Mr. Piyush Dahal (Program Coordinator, SEN) reflected on the Ramsar Convention and shared about the wetlands in Nepal. “Wetlands: Why are not Wasteland?”, questioned by Mr. Dahal and he emphasized the importance of wetland as the kidney of nature, natural sponges, wildlife and habitat for aquatic life, biological supermarket, protein supplement and food security, recreation and aesthetics.

Mr. Sagar Aryal (National Youth Advisor, NTYEN-UNEP TUNZA) disseminated the information about engagement of young people in UNEP’s network. He further shared the activities UNEP Tunza has been carrying worldwide. He encouraged the participants to get involved in the network and to actively participate in UNEP TUNZA upcoming events.

With an official announcement of launching of Nepal Tunza Youth Environment Network (NTYEN), Ms. Kabita Gautam (Mentor, NTYEN and Program Assistant, SEN) expressed her gratitude to Mr. Dhiraj Pradhananga (President, SEN and Advisor, NTYEN) and SEN team for hosting and supporting NTYEN. She explained about the objective and mission of NTYEN along with the present and upcoming activities. She also updated the participants about the NTYEN in social media. She made an announcement for the application call for the youth board of the network and requested the enthusiastic young people who have keen interest in the field of environment to join the team to increase Nepalese Young People participation in UNEP’s program. She also focused on the importance of media personnel to strengthen the voice of youth.

Ms. Gautam shared the Rio+20 outcome document and requested the participants to comment and give inputs to position paper for UNEP Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF-14) and Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) which will take place from February 16-22 in Nairobi, Kenya. She declared that February 2 will be celebrated annually as the anniversary of NTYEN with the continuation of such interactive event on Wetland Day and she hoped for the collaborative youth participation for awareness and advocacy and increase youth representation in decision-making processes at the national and regional levels.

Followed by the group photo session, the closing was done by Ms. Gautam by handing over the banner of the event to Ms. Anjani Joshi from Banners to Bag. “We will be handing over all the banners of our upcoming events to Banners to Bag”, announced by Ms. Gautam.