Sabah’s indigenous youths want role in development

PENAMPANG: In the run-up to the 11th Conference of Youth (COY11) and the 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris in November and December, a group of Sabah’s indigenous youths is asking to be included in the country’s development to protect their environment, their ancestral heritage and their future.

Calling themselves the Green Voices of Borneo, the 20 youths between the ages of 16 and 27, cite uncontrolled human activity as one of the main culprits for the environmental problems and climate change experienced by their communities today.

The youths represent the Dusun, Kadazan, Kadazandusun, SinoKadazan, Rungus and Tombonuo indigenous communities in Sabah.

“For our community, climate change refers to the changes that occur in our community and around us. These include erosion, deforestation and oil spills. The rivers become polluted and our mangrove swamps are destroyed. It is a threat to marine life and wildlife; and it changes the way of life of the indigenous people in Sabah,” said Sudin Ipung, a Tombonuo indigenous youth from Kg. Sungai Eloi, Pitas, Sabah. Digital mapping The Green Voices of Borneo is part of the UNICEF Voices of Youth Climate Change Digital Mapping global initiative to bring youth concerns and solutions on climate change and climate action to the COP21 and the COY11.

“Youth have the right perspective. Youth are thinking 100 years ahead. Youth are thinking way beyond 2050. Young people are a part of the solution by committing to personal changes in their lives and demanding that governments worldwide take action to protect our planet from the impact of climate change,” said UNICEF Malaysia chief of communication, Soraya Bermejo.

More than 200 young people from 11 countries, including Malaysia, have helped to piece together a climate change map that identifies climate and environmental challenges and solutions in their respective communities. Each young mapper has documented these with photos and texts uploaded to the Voices of Youth digital mapping system at http://climatesummit.unicefgis.org, developed by UNICEF, the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, and MIT Mobile Experience Lab.

The 11 participating countries are Chad, China, France, Guatemala, Ireland, Kiribati, Malaysia, Niger, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Youth action For their climate change mapping in Malaysia, the Green Voices of Borneo spent ten days in October in three locations in Sabah, namely, Pitas, Ulu Papar and Sook, to map their concerns around unsustainable development; deforestation, destroyed ecosystems; risk of flooding; community displacement; as well as environmental and water pollution linked to the destruction of mangrove swamps, the proposed Kaiduan Dam and unsustainable palm oil plantations. The Malaysia project is guided and coordinated by TONIBUNG, an NGO in Sabah experienced in community mapping.

“This Voices of Youth project is a golden opportunity for me to play my part to help our environment, especially in combating climate change,” said Bellinda Debra Raymond from the Kadazandusun indigenous community.

Bellinda, a third year undergraduate studying for her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Bio-Conservation, will represent the Green Voices of Borneo as a UNICEF Youth Climate Ambassador at the COY11 and COP21. She will join 5,000 youths in Paris to jointly deliver messages to world leaders and attend the workshops during the COY11.

Digi has also provided internetenabled Lenovo Android 4.4 tablets to each of the 20 youths in support of UNICEF’s global efforts to empower youth to participate in sustainable development. The tablets are packaged with the Digital Map application to enable the youth to continue and sustain their climate action initiatives beyond COP21.