Minett Biosphere Youth Forum '23

Minett Biosphere Youth Forum ’23

From Wednesday 12 July to Sunday 16 July, the Minett UNESCO Biosphere organised its second youth forum, #beyouthsphere23. Fifteen young adults, aged between 18 and 28, from Germany, France, Poland, Sweden and Luxembourg, whose attendance was funded by the European Erasmus+ scholarship programme, took part in the five-day event. The aim of this year’s youth forum was to find a concrete solution to an environmental problem in the Minett region, which had been identified and described at the forum in April 2022.

A year ago, participants at the first youth forum identified the design of signs in nature conservation areas as unattractive and too impersonal. Walkers passing through the old open-cast mines would hardly feel challenged by the signage on site.

This year, the challenge for the participants in the second youth forum was to create an awareness-raising campaign aimed at visitors in the nature reserves of our biosphere, and to provide them information on the rules to be followed to protect nature, in a positive way.

Last Wednesday, at the opening of the Forum, Philippe Pypaert, project manager for UNESCO’s ‘Man and the Biosphere’ programme, and Simone Beck, President of the Luxembourg Commission for UNESCO, stressed the importance of involving young people living in or near biosphere reserves in the daily work and development of their biosphere.

© Minett UNESCO Biosphere / Syndicat PRO-SUD

The programme for the first full day of the Youth Forum on Thursday included an excursion to one of Minett’s nature reserves. Accompanied by Jan Herr, who is responsible for the protection and conservation of the former open-cast mines within the Nature and Forestry Administration, the participants discovered the Brucherbierg-Lallengerbierg nature reserve and gained an insight into the rich biodiversity of the former iron ore mine between Schifflange and Esch-sur-Alzette. In the afternoon, a workshop on eco-system services was organised to demonstrate the importance of nature conservation in the current biodiversity crisis.

© Minett UNESCO Biosphere / Syndicat PRO-SUD

Friday and Saturday were dedicated to developing a campaign and prototypes of signs to raise awareness of the need to protect the core areas of the Minett UNESCO Biosphere. The creative collective ‘La Bonneterie‘, whose participation in the Youth Forum was made possible thanks to the financial support of the André Losch Foundation, led the workshops at the Ellergronn Nature and Forest Centre. In just two days, the Youth Forum participants created a campaign, which was presented on Sunday.

Present at the launch of the campaign were Joëlle Welfring, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Simone Beck, President of the Luxembourg Commission for UNESCO, Georges Mischo, President of the PRO-SUD intermunicipal syndicate, which manages the Minett UNESCO Biosphere, and other members of the PRO-SUD board and committee. The participants gave a presentation on their work and then discussed with the politicians how their ideas could be put into practice in the core areas of the biosphere reserve to better protect its ecological importance in the future.

Over the coming weeks and months, the Minett UNESCO Biosphere team will be working closely with the relevant departments of the Nature Administration to implement the campaign.