This World Heritage Youth Forum from 23-28 November 2000 in Cairns, Australia, was the first such forum to be held in the Pacific region. This enabled a unique Pacific focus with students and teachers from 14 Pacific nations and East Timor participating in the Youth Forum and the simultaneous Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) Pacific region meeting.
The Forum concentrated on the environment and World Heritage and the ways that young people can contribute to the conservation of places outstanding universal value.
Due to the connection between the World Heritage Committee meeting and the Pacific World Heritage Youth Forum, there was a great deal of sharing and two-way learning; World Heritage Committee members learnt about the views and concerns of young people and the students were able to benefit from the experience and knowledge of representatives from the World Heritage Committee, the World Heritage Centre and the advisory bodies IUCN and ICOMOS. This was one of the most exciting elements of the Youth Forum.
During the Youth Forum the students learnt much about the many different cultures of the pacific region, about heritage places in their own lands and oceans and in those of their new friends. Special highlights of the Youth Forum were visits into the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and to Fitzroy Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Another highlight was meeting members of the World Heritage Committee and its advisory bodies, IUCN and ICOMOS, to discuss World Heritage and the World Heritage Conventions.
At the Youth Forum students increased their environmental awareness and became keen to lobby their governments to protect their peoples' natural and cultural sites. All of the students were very passionate about the need to protect their local heritage, and on the last day the Forum, a student delegation made a presentation to the 24th session of the World Heritage Committee in Cairns. This was a unique opportunity for the young people of the Pacific Member States to pledge their support for the protection of our world's heritage and put forward their specific recommendations and concrete plans of action for the future.
Main objectives
Main lines of action
Organisation of local preservation activities for young people
Pacific students networking
Setting up a network of Pacific Patrimonitos' Centres in our schools to:
UNESCO ASPnet;
the Australian National Commission for UNESCO;
UNESCO WHC
44 participants, of which
19 teachers and 25 students from: Australia, Cook Island, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and East Timor.
Australia, Cook Island, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, East Timor, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga.
Facilitators
Mr Alec Grehn, Planting Coordinator, Student Association, James Cook University
Ms Wendy Maddocks, local resident Daintree National Park
Mr Allen Shearer, Daintree National Park conservation group representative
Lyall Naylor, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Ranger
Mr Barry Duncan, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Janis Birkeland, Environment Australia
Guest speakers
M Mounir Bouchenaki
M Tor Hundloe
M Ken Wiltshire
M Robert Hill
M Rod Redford
Ms Edna Tait
M Mali Voi
M Hilton Noble