The earth is a unit of interconnected ecosystem and when it comes to climate change or other environmental issues, everyone from every country should take part in mitigation efforts. This does not only concerns adults, but also children, seeing how they are the one who is going to inherit our earth in the future. Not to mention, establishing a sustainable lifestyle and good habits of preserving nature around us should begin as early as possible. Thus, United Nation Environment Program gathered children from all over the world in UNEP International Children’s Conference.

This year, Sahabat Alam was honored to represent Indonesian children in Aichi, Nagoya, Japan to congregate with 206 children from 35 countries. This year, the conference was talking about Biodiversity and was held in coordination with Aichi Prefectures and the City of Nagoya. In this event, delegates discussed and learned about biodiversity and its relation with climate change. Delegates also directly learn about biodiversity and its relation to culture and climate change in general through the Sayotama Experience, where they see how Japanese people live hand in hand with nature. To close the event, delegates composed The Biodiversity Map to be presented in front of Japanese officials, UNEP officers and VIPs on Plenary Session.

It was with great pleasure for Sahabat Alam to deliver Indonesian children’s opinion in an international forum and even greater to be able to share the knowledge obtained from the conference towards other children. It is hoped that through this conference children everywhere would be more aware about environmental issues and take more action to conserve nature.