We are the
generation rising
for all life on earth

The Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) connects young
people across 150+ countries to protect biodiversity, challenge
injustice, and reimagine our relationship with nature.

Purpose

Founded in 2010, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) is a vibrant
global coalition and a movement of young people and youth organizations who
have joined forces to lead, support, and accelerate collective action for a just and
equitable world that lives in harmony with nature. 

GYBN as a youth-led movement is acting to safeguard biodiversity and
address the social-ecological crisis faced by our and future generations. Our
network operates at the grassroots level to the global level, implementing on-the-
ground actions, advocating for policy changes, fostering alliances, and carrying
out transformative education for biodiversity.

GYBN has been recognized as the international coordination platform for youth
participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) since 2012.

Values & Principles

Reach

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What We Do

Policy & Advocacy

GYBN ensures youth voices remain strong and coordinated in global policy arenas through participation in all key CBD intersessional meetings and COPs. Our Youth Policy Fellows Programme provides continuity, skill-building and representation across the KMGBF process as well as several expert meetings. Our chapters also provide inputs at NBSAP discussions that happen at the regional/country level.

Community & Capacity Building

GYBN builds resilient, community-rooted leadership through fellowships, regional trainings, Indigenous youth workshops, and hybrid learning programmes. We focus especially on regions with low youth representation and high biodiversity vulnerability, ensuring that young people most affected are equipped to lead change.

Narrative & Culture Change

Guided by IPBES’s whole-of-society approach, GYBN advances storytelling, art, cultural revitalisation, and narrative change to spark transformative grassroots biodiversity action. Through this work, we uplift diverse cultural relationships with the Earth, embed decolonial narratives, and amplify community-led solutions that strengthen biocultural resilience and support global biodiversity goals.