Young minds thinking alike

This is the sixth year that the Youth Environment Forum will take place. During that time, the Ministry has had the chance to meet a huge number of young, passionate individuals.

Previous delegates have been involved in various environmental projects within their communities, and some have even been Green Ribbon Award winners. These outstanding young individuals have shown that enthusiasm and dedication go a long way.

One young environmentalist out to make her mark is Brittany Packer, who took part in last year’s Youth Environment Forum.

Though Packer is only 17 years old, she has earned the respect of her Nelson community by establishing her ‘Plastic – Not so Fantastic’ campaign in 2005. As a founding member of ‘Green Teens’, Packer and her peers began the project, which was run with support from local supermarkets, with the aim to reduce plastic bags in Nelson by 20 per cent.

She says that the forum taught her many “tips and tricks” for her initiative. Since she began the project, Packer and her fellow ‘Green Teens’ have been educating and reminding the Nelson community about how to reduce their use of plastic bags.

The Youth Environment Forum sees about 45 young New Zealanders gathering together in Wellington to address questions and engage in projects around environmental issues such as climate change impacts, e-waste and water conservation. The students participate in four days of workshops and activities, and then present their projects to invited guests at Parliament.

The importance of the projects and the process of sharing and learning together cannot be overlooked. “Not only did we learn skills, techniques and ideas from more experienced people, but we also learned from people our own age, just by sharing ideas and stories,” Packer says.

One of the highlights of having the forum in Wellington is that the delegates feel connected to what is going on inside Government. Packer says that the delegates “got an amazing insight into the Government procedures, which was invaluable”.

Youth Environment Forum delegates are encouraged to use what they learn and get involved in community initiatives that promote environmental stewardship in their regions.

Packer has certainly done this, and she wants to keep up and encourage sustainable practices and get involved in environmental action in whatever she goes on to do.

“I plan to continue to advocate for our planet, because I believe that change is possible. We need this change because we are the future of New Zealand, we will be the ones to face the consequences of climate change, pollution and environmental deterioration. If we want to live in a beautiful, successful world, we need to fight for it now,” she says.

This year’s Youth Environment Forum will take place in Wellington from Sunday April 19 to Thursday 23 April.

For more information on the Youth Environment Forum see www.mfe.govt.nz/withyou/youth/

LEFT: The ‘Green Teens’ set up a ‘kids' corner’ at Ecofest where 300 ecobags were painted.
RIGHT: Non-plastic bag shoppers in Nelson are rewarded with treats from ‘Green fairies’.

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