All aboard for One Planet Youth
By: Wwf Hk
Tags: Youth, Environmental Education, Hong Kong, Sustainability, Conservation

by Thomas Gomersall

Launched by WWF in 2017, the One Planet Youth (OPY) programme seeks to equip young people to become the next generation of conservation leaders and environmental spokespersons. OPY comprises a Citizen Science programme and a Leadership Training Programme, which seeks to harness the passion, energy, motivation and creativity of young people to preserve our planet.

“[Young people] are the leaders of tomorrow, so they are the ones who should be empowered to contribute to sustainability and conservation,” says Yamme Leung, Director of Education for WWF-Hong Kong. “Our OPY programme is the ideal platform to empower our youth to take up their new responsibilities to save our planet.”

Each year, the programme recruits 30 young people between the ages of 15 to 30 for an immersive, educational experience to actively engage them in WWF’s work and to make their own distinct contributions to conservation. To date, nearly 1,000 youths have taken part in OPY , whether or not they have a background in environmental science.

“Around 50 per cent of our participants are studying ecology or biology. The rest know almost nothing about it,” says Augustine Chung, Senior Education Officer for WWF-Hong Kong and supervisor of the OPY Leadership and Training programmes. “They are just eager to learn more and to experience nature.”

OPY members take part in a three-day orientation camp at Hoi Ha Wan. Photo credit: WWF-Hong Kong

Running from October to July, OPY begins with a three-day orientation camp at which participants learn about local environmental issues through exploring natural habitats and seeing firsthand the threats facing them, as well as learning survey techniques used in conservation. Just as importantly, it is an opportunity for participants to come up with ideas for their own group projects and to build the skills and team relationships they will later need to carry these out. Plus, with activities like snorkelling in Hoi Ha Wan or dolphin-watching included, it’s also a lot of fun.

OPY leaders carry out biodiversity surveys at Mai Po Nature Reserve. Photo credit: WWF-Hong Kong

Over the next several months, participants must then contribute at least 40 service hours to supporting WWF’s conservation and education work, including (but not limited to) biodiversity checks at Mai Po and Hoi Ha Wan and surveying marine litter in Hong Kong. OPY findings contribute to WWF’s environmental work. “The beauty of citizen science is that we have lots of people and they can do large-scale surveys and monitoring,” says Chung.

OPY Leadership team members gather for a mid-term review online in April. Photo credit: Matt Ming WWF-Hong Kong

Participants are also required to develop their own conservation projects, for which WWF will provide consultancy, financial support and technical advice. For instance, if a group is doing a project on fast fashion, WWF’s sustainability team will offer advice on how best to approach it. In April, groups convened for a mid-term workshop to report on their progress and to gain advice on how to proceed based on peer reviews. The main implementation of the projects then takes place over the following two months.

One OPY project seeks to educate the public on the importance of bats to our ecology. Photo credit: Gary Ades

Five projects are currently underway for the 2019–2020 programme, mostly aimed at helping Hong Kongers to live more environmentally friendly lives. For instance, one project aims to educate the public about bats, negative opinions of which have only intensified in the age of COVID-19. To do this, the project leaders conducted online surveys on people’s thoughts on bats, whilst giving them an opportunity to learn more about the importance of bats and observe real ones in their roost. They then surveyed respondents after this experience to see if their views had changed. Unfortunately, for some, old prejudices die hard. But in a more encouraging sign, all respondents surveyed so far said that they recognised the importance of not encroaching on bat habitats and were more prepared to live in harmony with bats as a result.

Promoting consumption of locally sourced produce is another project being undtaken by an OPY team. Photo credit: Thomas Gomersall

Another OPY project aims to encourage Hong Kongers to eat more locally sourced produce, as the city currently imports 90 per cent of its food from as far away as Brazil and the US. Setting an example, the leaders of this project have committed to buying food from markets that sell locally grown vegetables and keeping records on the origins of not only the products they buy, but also the ingredients used to make them. This makes buying some products harder than others, particularly bread as the ingredients used to make most bread sold in Hong Kong are imported from all over the world. However, it is hoped that this project will inspire more Hong Kongers to choose local produce over imports and thus diminish the city’s large food-related carbon footprint.

Conservation projects such as a recent trip to Bhutan allow OPY members to apply their learnings in the past year

As an added bonus, OPY participants also get the chance to take part in conservation projects abroad. Past examples have included assisting in tiger conservation in India, taking part in a City Nature Challenge activity in Malaysia and most recently, helping out at a WWF camp in Bhutan to involve local children in environmental activities.

But the benefits of the programme don’t end with the graduation ceremony in July. OPY alumni can then go on to assist WWF in workshops, leading programmes and guiding eco-tours and citizen science surveys. OPY also teaches young people skills in research, organisation and leadership useful for future careers. Perhaps most importantly, it instils in them a passion to continue spreading the word of the need to protect our planet to those around them.

“The nine months spent with the OPY programme was enjoyable and helped me become more mature,” says Karol Fong, OPY project leader for the 2017–2018 programme. “With my passion, I hope to share experiencing the beauty of nature.”