FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

¿What is the Fellowship Program?

Since 2022, GYBN’s fellowship programs have been a seedbed for youth-led action—nurturing ideas, strengthening local leadership, and creating space for young people in their own communities.  The spirit and impact of these fellowships have travelled far, reaching global stages like COP15 and COP16, where young leaders shared how their work is transforming the places they call home. 

Join the Global Transformation

#YouthAction #Biodiversity #GYBN

60+

GYBN CHAPTERS

77+

ACTIVITIES

267+

SPACES IMPACTED

We are supporting young leaders to transform the places they call home

In our latest cycle, the Youth Into Action Fellowship 2024–2025, 14 GYBN Chapters received dedicated support to bring community-rooted projects to life. From Africa (regional), Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Colombia, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Uganda, these chapters designed and carried out initiatives that reflect their cultures, ecosystems, and local priorities.

Across 77 activities—restoring landscapes, mobilizing youth, weaving art and activism, hosting workshops, deepening environmental education, and engaging Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities—fellows showed what becomes possible when young people are trusted with resources.

“Their efforts reached 267 communities, schools, and local institutions, each one becoming part of a growing network of care and action.”

AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITIES

ACTIVE FELLOWSHIPS

Youth Communications & Storytelling Fellowship

🕒 Deadline: April 7 2026

The Youth Communications & Storytelling Fellowship supports youth communicators and creatives to steward GYBN’s shared voice—amplifying youth-led narratives, community stories, and collective learning while shaping values-driven communication that strengthens connection and impact across the network.

Youth Policy Support Fellowship

🕒 Deadline: April 7 2026

The Youth Policy Support Fellowship supports young changemakers to accompany GYBN’s engagement in global and regional biodiversity policy spaces, assisting youth-led advocacy and coordination while gaining hands-on experience in policy support and systems change.

Youth Community Building Fellowship

🕒 Deadline: April 7 2026

The Youth Community Building Fellowship brings together youth leaders and organizers to support and nurture grassroots, youth-led communities across the GYBN network, strengthening connection, solidarity, and collective action across regions, cultures, and lived experiences.

Youth Capacity Building Fellowship

🕒 Deadline: April 7 2026

The Youth Capacity Building Fellowship supports community-rooted youth leaders to co-create and steward learning spaces within GYBN, where young people learn with and from one another, strengthening collective leadership, care, and shared responsibility for biodiversity conservation and transformative change.

"GYBN showed me the capacity I have within myself. "

Eshadi Mendis

GYBN Sri Lanka

"The capacity building workshops and meetings we had during COP15 are still resonating well to me even today."

Gcina Petros Dlamini

Swaziland

"COP was the best two weeks of my life. I have learnt so much in the two weeks in Montreal not only about the policies and the CBD but from the GYBN community and I will always be so grateful. It seemed like my entire career + academia I had been prepping for something like the CoP and everything that I will be doing going forward will be very closely dependent on it.”