Conference Chair, Ramsar Secretary General, Contracting Parties, delegates.

 

Thank you for this opportunity to address Ramsar COP 13, and for the recognition of Young Wetlands Champion during the opening ceremony which highlighted the significant role of youth in this Convention.

 

We would like to thank the World Wetland Network as host of the Youth Forum and all those that supported us in our journey to the COP.

 

Moved by the urgent need to join efforts to preserve wetlands, youth from all over the world gathered here to be involved in the COP. We are equipped with passion, enthusiasm, new ideas, time and underutilised potential. We are here today, and we will be here tomorrow, committed to this urgent mission to save our wetlands.

 

Youth are an important asset and key stakeholder for wetland conservation and for achieving a sustainable future.

 

We call upon Contracting Parties, Ramsar partner organisations and all stakeholders to empower and involve us to actively participate in policy-making and implementation of the Ramsar Convention.

 

If all of the Ramsar resolutions were implemented faithfully, the future of wetlands would be assured. Youth call upon all parties to fully commit to this mission. With this objective, we propose the theme for Ramsar COP14 is Youth and Wetlands.

 

As COP13 comes to a close and we all head back home, we leave you with this message: even with all our differences, be it our nationalities, culture, gender or age, in the end, we are all moving towards one future - a future together.

 

Thank you!