Building a Movement for Biodiversity
Côte d'Ivoire's Young Biodiversity Ambassadors and the Network Shaping Environmental Action across the Country
Building a Movement for Biodiversity
Côte d'Ivoire's Young Biodiversity Ambassadors and the Network Shaping Environmental Action across the Country
Jean-Paul Aka is an agricultural engineer and specialist in forest governance, climate and sustainable agriculture, he brings more than 15 years of experience across West Africa. He leads UNDP Côte d'Ivoire's Sustainable Development and Climate Change Unit, coordinating initiatives that bring together sustainable agriculture, forestry and carbon finance to support the country's transition to a zero-deforestation economy. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of the national carbon market framework and to approaches linking cocoa, forests and land, and he supports innovative programmes such as Cocoa Carbone+ and Côte d'Ivoire Bleue, focused on climate-smart agriculture, land tenure security and compliance with new environmental regulations.
Abdoul Nasser supports the operational and technical implementation of the BES-Net programme, helping coordinate its biodiversity and ecosystem initiatives. His work spans monitoring activities, liaising with partners and supporting the technical teams to ensure interventions are carried through properly.
Jean-Paul Aka is an agricultural engineer and specialist in forest governance, climate and sustainable agriculture, he brings more than 15 years of experience across West Africa. He leads UNDP Côte d'Ivoire's Sustainable Development and Climate Change Unit, coordinating initiatives that bring together sustainable agriculture, forestry and carbon finance to support the country's transition to a zero-deforestation economy. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of the national carbon market framework and to approaches linking cocoa, forests and land, and he supports innovative programmes such as Cocoa Carbone+ and Côte d'Ivoire Bleue, focused on climate-smart agriculture, land tenure security and compliance with new environmental regulations.
Abdoul Nasser supports the operational and technical implementation of the BES-Net programme, helping coordinate its biodiversity and ecosystem initiatives. His work spans monitoring activities, liaising with partners and supporting the technical teams to ensure interventions are carried through properly.
Youth engagement has become a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation in Côte d’Ivoire, where the energy and innovation of young people are increasingly recognized as vital to shaping sustainable futures.
With biodiversity challenges intensifying, it is essential that youth voices are not only heard but actively integrated into national processes and plans. The 2025 Gnambélé Boot Camp organized by UNDP Côte d'Ivoire, with support from BES-Net among other contributing projects, was a significant milestone in this journey, offering training, mentorship and advocacy opportunities that empower young Ivorians to contribute meaningfully to biodiversity decision-making.
Designed to strengthen youth participation in biodiversity governance, the bootcamp focused on building capacity for policy advocacy, enhancing knowledge of global biodiversity frameworks and fostering networks of young champions committed to conservation. By equipping participants with practical skills and connecting them to national and international processes, the camp contributed to ensuring that youth are positioned as active contributors to Côte d’Ivoire’s biodiversity strategies.
In this Q&A, Jean-Paul Aka (Programme Specialist, Team Leader for Sustainable Development from UNDP Côte d'Ivoire) and Abdoul Nasser (Technical Assistant for BES-Net, UNDP Côte d'Ivoire), who co-organized the event, talk about the camp’s experience, impact and vision for youth-led biodiversity advocacy in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Côte d’Ivoire country team has placed a strong emphasis on youth engagement in biodiversity and climate action. Why was it important for the project to focus on young people as a key driver of environmental change, and what makes youth particularly influential in advancing biodiversity protection in the country?
In Côte d'Ivoire, more than 75% of the population is under 35. Youth are the defining reality of the country's development path, and any serious strategy for biodiversity, climate or sustainable development that fails to put them at its centre will fall short. We chose to focus on young people for three reasons. They are the primary users and stewards of the resources at stake, farming the land, fishing the waters and living in the communities hit first by biodiversity loss and climate change, which makes them present-day actors rather than future stakeholders. Through digital platforms, peer networks and creative expression, they also carry a capacity for innovation and social mobilization that traditional institutional channels cannot replicate. And investing in them creates a multiplier effect, where one trained, empowered young leader can shape the choices of dozens of peers, family members and community members over decades.
In Côte d'Ivoire, more than 75% of the population is under 35.
Youth are the defining reality of the country's development path, and any serious strategy for biodiversity, climate or sustainable development that fails to put them at its centre will fall short.
We chose to focus on young people for three reasons. They are the primary users and stewards of the resources at stake, farming the land, fishing the waters and living in the communities hit first by biodiversity loss and climate change, which makes them present-day actors rather than future stakeholders. Through digital platforms, peer networks and creative expression, they also carry a capacity for innovation and social mobilization that traditional institutional channels cannot replicate. And investing in them creates a multiplier effect, where one trained, empowered young leader can shape the choices of dozens of peers, family members and community members over decades.
What makes Ivorian youth particularly influential is their dual positioning, rooted in local ecosystems and traditional knowledge while connected through technology and social media to movements well beyond their borders. That capacity to bridge the local and the global, the traditional and the modern, the community and the policy table is what makes them such powerful agents of change for biodiversity. The Gnambêlê Bootcamp was designed precisely to activate this capacity.
“Youth are the defining reality of the country's development path, and any serious strategy for biodiversity, climate or sustainable development that fails to put them at its centre will fall short.”
What makes Ivorian youth particularly influential is their dual positioning, rooted in local ecosystems and traditional knowledge while connected through technology and social media to movements well beyond their borders. That capacity to bridge the local and the global, the traditional and the modern, the community and the policy table is what makes them such powerful agents of change for biodiversity. The Gnambêlê Bootcamp was designed precisely to activate this capacity.
The 2025 Gnambêlê Bootcamp mobilized around 700 young participants from across Côte d’Ivoire. What kind of transformation or leadership have you seen among young participants after these experiences, and how are they continuing to contribute to biodiversity action in their communities?
The Gnambêlê Bootcamp was never conceived as a single event but as the centre of a network that, through its preparatory and follow-up activities, now spans all 31 regions of Côte d'Ivoire and engages hundreds of youth organizations, cooperatives, student associations and community groups. The 700 young leaders it brought together are each embedded in their own networks, which means the reach of the Bootcamp extends well past the people who physically attended, cascading outward into communities across the country.
The Gnambêlê Bootcamp was never conceived as a single event but as the centre of a network that, through its preparatory and follow-up activities, now spans all 31 regions of Côte d'Ivoire and engages hundreds of youth organizations, cooperatives, student associations and community groups. The 700 young leaders it brought together are each embedded in their own networks, which means the reach of the Bootcamp extends well past the people who physically attended, cascading outward into communities across the country.
The transformation was profound and multi-dimensional. Before the Bootcamp, many participants had a general awareness of environmental issues but lacked the technical knowledge, confidence and networks to act on it. After seven days of immersive learning, through biodiversity mapping workshops, thematic laboratories, guided immersions in the Bingerville Botanical Garden and hackathons, we witnessed a genuine shift from awareness to agency. It showed cognitively, as participants developed a systemic understanding of how biodiversity, climate, food security and livelihoods connect; in leadership, as young people who arrived passive left as advocates and organizers equipped with advocacy, project design and negotiation skills; and in terms of identity, with many now seeing themselves as biodiversity champions rather than simply doing the work.
That shift has held, as participants have gone on to run community awareness campaigns, join national policy processes such as the revision of the Nationally Determined Contributions 3.0 and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, launch local reforestation and clean-up initiatives and mentor their peers, turning the Bootcamp into a living network that continues to generate impact well beyond the event itself.
The transformation was profound and multi-dimensional. Before the Bootcamp, many participants had a general awareness of environmental issues but lacked the technical knowledge, confidence and networks to act on it. After seven days of immersive learning, through biodiversity mapping workshops, thematic laboratories, guided immersions in the Bingerville Botanical Garden and hackathons, we witnessed a genuine shift from awareness to agency. It showed cognitively, as participants developed a systemic understanding of how biodiversity, climate, food security and livelihoods connect; in leadership, as young people who arrived passive left as advocates and organizers equipped with advocacy, project design and negotiation skills; and in terms of identity, with many now seeing themselves as biodiversity champions rather than simply doing the work.
That shift has held, as participants have gone on to run community awareness campaigns, join national policy processes such as the revision of the Nationally Determined Contributions 3.0 and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, launch local reforestation and clean-up initiatives and mentor their peers, turning the Bootcamp into a living network that continues to generate impact well beyond the event itself.
Following the bootcamp, participants were trained and designated as “UNDP biodiversity champions” to lead advocacy and awareness activities. How are these young ambassadors translating their knowledge and skills into real impact, whether through community initiatives, campaigns or engagement with decision-makers?
The examples can be seen across community action, policy and enterprise. In the Cavally region of western Côte d'Ivoire, ambassadors trained during the Bootcamp ran a mobilization campaign around the Taï National Park buffer zone, leading awareness sessions in 12 villages on the value of the forest ecosystem, the threat of invasive species and farming practices compatible with conservation, and bringing cocoa growers into agroforestry as a concrete alternative to deforestation. Others moved into the policy arena, formally joining the national consultations for the revision of the country's Nationally Determined Contributions 3.0 and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, where their contributions on youth employment in the green and blue sectors, digital tools for biodiversity monitoring and the role of traditional knowledge were substantively integrated into the official documents – a first in the country's history.
The same momentum carried into innovation and the arts. Out of the Bootcamp hackathons came youth-led ventures such as a mobile application prototype using AI image recognition for citizen-science monitoring of invasive species, and a social enterprise in Abidjan's Yopougon commune that turns food waste into compost for urban agriculture while easing pressure on peri-urban ecosystems. Young photographers and artists from the "Art for Climate" competition took travelling exhibitions to universities and cultural centres in Abidjan, Bouaké and San Pedro, reaching thousands with visual narratives of biodiversity loss and restoration that went on to feature in national and social media. Perhaps the most systemic result of all came when advocacy by Bootcamp alumni helped prompt the Ministry of Youth to launch its National Green and Blue Jobs Programme, now being developed into formal government policy – a sign that these ambassadors have reached beyond individual projects into the policy architecture of the country itself.
The examples can be seen across community action, policy and enterprise. In the Cavally region of western Côte d'Ivoire, ambassadors trained during the Bootcamp ran a mobilization campaign around the Taï National Park buffer zone, leading awareness sessions in 12 villages on the value of the forest ecosystem, the threat of invasive species and farming practices compatible with conservation, and bringing cocoa growers into agroforestry as a concrete alternative to deforestation. Others moved into the policy arena, formally joining the national consultations for the revision of the country's Nationally Determined Contributions 3.0 and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, where their contributions on youth employment in the green and blue sectors, digital tools for biodiversity monitoring and the role of traditional knowledge were substantively integrated into the official documents – a first in the country's history.
The same momentum carried into innovation and the arts. Out of the Bootcamp hackathons came youth-led ventures such as a mobile application prototype using AI image recognition for citizen-science monitoring of invasive species, and a social enterprise in Abidjan's Yopougon commune that turns food waste into compost for urban agriculture while easing pressure on peri-urban ecosystems. Young photographers and artists from the "Art for Climate" competition took travelling exhibitions to universities and cultural centres in Abidjan, Bouaké and San Pedro, reaching thousands with visual narratives of biodiversity loss and restoration that went on to feature in national and social media. Perhaps the most systemic result of all came when advocacy by Bootcamp alumni helped prompt the Ministry of Youth to launch its National Green and Blue Jobs Programme, now being developed into formal government policy – a sign that these ambassadors have reached beyond individual projects into the policy architecture of the country itself.
The country team has used creative approaches such as photography, art exhibitions and media engagement to promote biodiversity awareness. Why is storytelling through art and culture an effective way to engage the public on environmental issues?
In Côte d'Ivoire, and across Africa more broadly, culture is not a communication tool layered on top of a message but the primary medium through which societies understand and transmit their relationship with the world, carried for generations through oral tradition, music, dance, theatre and the visual arts.
When we use art to speak about biodiversity, we are drawing on the deepest and most effective knowledge systems the continent has. It works because it clears away the technical jargon, since a photograph of a degraded forest or a slam poem about coastal erosion says in seconds what a 50-page report cannot; because it carries emotional weight, reaching people where biodiversity loss is really felt, in livelihoods, identities and landscapes; and because it is inherently shareable, travelling through social media and community networks in ways an institutional report never will.
That reach was visible throughout the Bootcamp, where we built cultural expression in as a core pedagogical pillar rather than a side activity. The "Art for Climate" competition in photography and painting produced work that continues to circulate, including a series contrasting intact forest corridors with degraded landscapes near Taï National Park that drew significant media coverage and public debate, while filmed slam performances and short documentaries made by participants travelled across social media to audiences far beyond the 700 in the room. The deeper purpose was to shift young people from recipients of information into creators of narrative, and once they became storytellers, their stories carried the message further than any campaign we could have run ourselves. A movement, in the end, needs more than data and policy. It needs a culture, an aesthetic and an identity, and that is what the creative dimension of the Bootcamp was built to give it.
Looking ahead, what are your hopes for the network of youth champions and biodiversity ambassadors that have emerged from this initiative, and how could this model inspire similar efforts in other countries?
My hope is threefold: that this network becomes a permanent, recognized feature of environmental governance in Côte d'Ivoire rather than an ad hoc consultation, giving youth a structured and institutionalized voice in biodiversity and climate decisions; that the young champions who emerged from the Bootcamp become the environmental leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and scientists of the next decade – a generation that will define Africa's relationship with its natural heritage; and that the Gnambêlê model proves that investing in youth-led biodiversity action is not a cost but a high-return investment.
My hope is threefold: that this network becomes a permanent, recognized feature of environmental governance in Côte d'Ivoire rather than an ad hoc consultation, giving youth a structured and institutionalized voice in biodiversity and climate decisions; that the young champions who emerged from the Bootcamp become the environmental leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and scientists of the next decade – a generation that will define Africa's relationship with its natural heritage; and that the Gnambêlê model proves that investing in youth-led biodiversity action is not a cost but a high-return investment.
Built with Shorthand