We Are All Responsible: How A Young Filmmaker Seeks To Encourage Environmental Protection
By Abbie Barnes
It is easy to feel completely overwhelmed when it comes to conservation and “saving the planet.” There are a myriad of issues, from marine debris to palm oil production, the illegal pet trade, logging, and desertification. It can be tempting to brush the unseen aside and forget about it; to allow someone else, more experienced and with a greater understanding, to tackle it. But this practice is wrong. Every single person on this planet has a role to play when it comes to protecting the natural world. We are all responsible.
There are countless ways that we can each make a difference. Personally, I began using film in 2012 to highlight environmental messages after my short film about the devastating effects of palm oil production won a place in a national competition. This opened up the opportunity for me to speak to Members of the European Parliament about the importance of labelling the ingredient.
My work has since gained national and international recognition. Previous commendations include: a Field Studies Council scholarship, second place in the Action For Nature 2013 International Young Eco-Hero Awards, and special recognition by Sir David Attenborough after my film “Save Our Oceans” won the EcoTales Film Festival 2013. I have produced promotional films for companies across the country, local shows and events, the Jurassic Coast UNESCO team, and other organizations, whilst having facilitated the establishment of key international campaigns, such as World Orangutan Day. My articles have been published in major filmmaking/conservation books, I was a delegate at the Wildscreen Film Festival 2014, and I was also elected as an Associate member of the Linnean Society of London.
One of my biggest projects to date was summiting Mount Kilimanjaro whilst producing “Climb for Climate Action” – a full-length feature documentary that discussed the effects of global climate change on mountain glaciers, endemic wildlife species, local people, and the tourism industry. The film was recently screened at the Paris Climate Meetings in 2015 (COP21).
Throughout every aspect of my work, be it film, radio, photography or public speaking, I seek to educate – offering up-to-date facts and figures – whilst providing positive practical solutions for the issue in focus. I aim to inspire my audience to engage with the natural environment around them, in the hope that it will enhance their appreciation of their natural surroundings, and thus their desire to protect it for generations to come.
I hold the genuine belief that every action counts. The decisions that we make today about how we live, will and do influence people across the planet, and of course, future generations. It is crucial that we consider our impact habitually so that we can make amendments where necessary. The key thing is that we need to act now in order to halt the increasingly obvious obliteration of the natural world around us.
Making a positive difference on the planet does not have to be an inconvenient, time-consuming task. There are many minor changes that we can all make that accumulate over time, such as walking rather than driving to the local shops, recycling plastic bottles and tins, reducing food waste by planning your meals ahead and shopping only for what you need, being aware of additional waste packaging, avoiding unsustainable palm oil, buying local and organic products, turning off lights when not in use… the list is endless.
Whatever you do, however you do it, you can bring about change for the better.
About the Author:
Abbie Barnes is a 19-year-old semi-professional filmmaker, presenter and photographer, who specialises in promotional shorts, wildlife conservation, and expedition/adventure productions.
At its last meeting members of the Inter-agency Network on Youth Development elected UN WOMEN as its rotating co-chair for 2016-2017. UN WOMEN will take over the role from UNDP (2015-2016) at the next Annual Meeting of the Network to be held at the end of March. UN DESA remains permanent co-chair. To learn more about the Network and its members, click here.
UN Entities Highlighted News
ILO: Supporting Livelihoods and Job Opportunities in the Fishery Sector in Gaza
The ILO project Supporting Livelihoods and Job Opportunities in the Fishery Sector in Gaza gives young unemployed Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in the occupied Palestinian territory a chance to develop technical skills and improve their chances of future employment through an instruction and on-the-job training scheme designed to support the vital fishing sector in the Palestinian enclave. The ILO is supporting the post-conflict recovery of fisheries in the occupied Palestinian territory through capacity building, training and value chain analysis. More
IOM & UNAOC: PLURAL+ Youth Video Competition
The winning mediamakers, representing youth from around the world, travelled to New York for the seventh annual PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival and International Jury Awards. Featuring workshops led by UNICEF Voices of Youth and hitRECord, the all-day festival was open to the public with a roundtable event on youth-produced media in migrant and refugee communities, an expert panel on the role of media in shaping perspectives on youth incarceration, and an afternoon of partner award-winning video screenings. The evening’s International Jury Awards featured a performance by NYC Youth Poet Laureate, Crystal Valentine. The three International Jury Award winners – Breech Asher Harani, Haylee Nottaway and Camera-etc – were present to accept their awards following screenings of their videos. For more information and to see how you can be involved in PLURAL+ next year, please visit pluralplus.unaoc.org.
UNDP: Practice Note: Young People's Participation in Peacebuilding
The Working Group on Youth and Peacebuilding of the Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development has published the first Practice Note on Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding. The primary objective of this Practice Note is to inform policymakers and donors of key strategic and programming considerations for supporting young people’s participation to peacebuilding. The publication will be formally launched in February, at an event on Security Council Resolution 2250 (2015) on youth, peace and security, hosted at IPI in New York. More
UNDP: International Anti-Corruption Day South-East Asia Video Contest
A video contest for youth in South-East Asia was launched at the International Anti-Corruption Day Event on 9 December 2015. The contest requires participants to make a short video clip showing the negative impacts of corruption. The award ceremony will be held at the “Governance & Social Responsibility” Forum in Singapore in July 2016. The contest is co-organised by UNDP’s Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN), the ASEAN CSR Network, and the Global Compact Network, Singapore. Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2016. More
UNESCO: Engaging youth in building learning cities
The Youth Statement on Learning Cities was developed by youth delegates of the 2nd International Conference on Learning Cities that took place 28-30 September 2015 in Mexico City. The Statement consists of three recognitions of the importance of building learning cities and the involvement of youth in this regard; three calls for action directed at UNESCO; three expressions of encouragement directed at local and national governments; and three commitments from youth to contribute to the building of learning cities. The statement is now available in English, French and Spanish. More
UNFPA Albania: Giving voice to vulnerable girls in Albania
Gina became engaged at 15 and married soon afterward. By 19 years old, she was a mother. Unlike many girls in her situation, she finished high school and went on to university. Today, Gina works for Roma Active Albania and the UNFPA-supported Youth Voice campaign. She meets and works with young people who are facing the same issues she fought to overcome: entrenched poverty, gender inequality, child marriage, early pregnancy and pressure to drop out of school. More
UNFPA: A glimpse of Youth Voice achievements
During the Youth Voice regional camping roll-out, 23,334 young people from diverse social, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and marginalized communities were mobilized and engaged in a variety of consultative processes. The youth vision developed in each participating country was presented to a broad range of stakeholders, calling for the inclusion of youth priorities in local and national development plans and in the new Development Agenda. In 14 countries from the region, 438 decision-makers were reached in national advocacy actions. More
UNFPA Jordan: Bringing Syrian and Jordanian Youth Together
UNFPA Jordan is piloting a social cohesion through sports project with Syrian and Jordanian youth in Irbid Governorate with the Princess Basma Youth Resource Center.Success stories have emerged about youth’s resourcefulness. One example is of the inspiring young Syrian refugee who lost his leg in Syria when going to buy bread. He eagerly joined the football team as an assistant coach, then as a referee and is now a player. He was awarded a trophy as the “Perfect Team Player”. More
UNFPA Lebanon: 72 Hours Movie Challenge 2015
Within its 72 Hours Film Challenge annual activity, UNFPA Lebanon partnered with Visual and Performing Arts Association(VAPA), an NGO, and the Y-PEER network to encourage young people to compete to develop a movie within 72 hours. The theme of the year centered on “Youth involvement for social change” and more specifically on “Conflict prevention”. Three winning movies were selected by a renowned jury and provided with valuable gifts. More on the Challenge and the movies here.
UNFPA Palestine: Y-Peer Challenge: an innovative approach towards learning and peer education
Y-Peer Challenge is an innovative activity organized by Y-Peer Palestine towards learning and peer education for youth and adolescents. The "Challenge” was organized at the Environmental Educational Youth Village located near Ramallah and it aimed to exposeparticipants to various experiences and values including team building, competition, adventure and education. The participants engaged in outdoor activities and games that lead to further deepening of Y-Peer values together with addressing topics related to civic, engagement, volunteerism, and health. More
Youth in Action
Green Hope UAE: Youth Conference on the Sustainable Development Goals – The Way Forward
Green Hope, a youth sustainability organisation, conducted a day-long conference titled “SDG2030 – The First Steps” in Dubai with the overarching objective of creating awareness among the local youth fraternityabout the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and engage them in their implementation. Two hundred and fifty youth environmentalists from schools across the United Arab Emirates and Oman attended this conference and called for greater youth empowerment and involvement in the implementation process since it is their future that is at stake. Three hundred trees were planted at this event. More
Publications
ILO: Access to Finance and Enterprise growth: Evidence from an experiment in Uganda
This ILO working paper "Access to Finance and Enterprise growth: Evidence from an experiment in Uganda" was authored by Nathan Fiala and sets out to understand the challenges to business growth in Uganda, relying on a sample of 1,550 micro-enterprise owners from the Northern and Central regions.
ILO: Differences in the effects of vocational training on men and women: Constraints on women and drop-out behaviour
This ILO working paper “Differences in the effects of vocational training on men and women: Constraints on women and drop-out behaviour” was authored by the World Bank, Yale University and the Malawi National AIDS Commission, and evaluates the impact of the “Technical and Vocational Skills Training pilot programme (TVST)” for vulnerable youth, the first study of its kind to experimentally evaluate vocational training in Africa.
ILO: Does the work-study combination among youth improve the transition path?
Can working while studying act as a stepping stone to good labour market opportunities or is it rather a necessity-driven constraint of more vulnerable youth, taking focus away from studying? The objective of this ILO technical brief is to reflect on the role played by the work-study combination in the transition to stable and satisfactory employment.
ILO: Enhancing women’s entrepreneurship in Kenya: Initial qualitative assessment of the ILO’s GET Ahead business training programme
This ILO working paper, titled "Enhancing Women’s Entrepreneurship in Kenya: Initial Qualitative Assessment of the ILO’s GET Ahead Business Training Programme", reports the results from the initial qualitative data collection exercise. The qualitative evaluation relies on focus group discussions and key informant interviews with stakeholders and beneficiaries. It shows that business training leads to a broad range of positive outcomes among women, from improved business practices to increased skills and higher empowerment.
ILO: It runs in the family: Intra-household correlations in labour market outcomes
This ILO report explores the degree to which young people’s labour market and schooling outcomes are affected by those of their siblings. Based on School-to-work Transitions Surveys (SWTS) from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, the report studies the links between different household members’ transitions to the labour market using alternatively logistic regression and a survival analysis framework.
ILO: Labour market entry in Tunisia: The gender gap
This ILO report explores how gender issues interact with elements such as type of education and years of labour market experience, to determine young people’s transition outcomes in Tunisia. Based on the School-to-work Transition Survey (SWTS) run in 2013, the analysis concludes that labour market experience provides a strong protection against unemployment.
ILO: Women business training programme in Kenya: Impact of incentives
This ILO working paper “Women business training programme in Kenya: Impact of incentives” explores the issue of how to increase the take-up of ILO business training in Kenya, the Gender and Enterprise Together (GET) Ahead training programme. The researchers test three different types of invitations to the training, offering the participants different choices of accepting or declining participation.
ILO: Women’s economic empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa
This ILO working paper “Women’s economic empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa” by Oriana Bandiera et al. evaluates a programme delivered by the international NGO, BRAC called “Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents”. The programme offered a comprehensive package of life skills, vocational training and microloans to Ugandan adolescent girls aged 14 to 20.
