WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 15, 2025) — As world leaders convene for COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), together with youth representatives from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, has launched the Global Youth Network, a historic alliance uniting Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, local communities, and allied youth groups into a single global platform for solidarity, shared learning, and collective action.

The Global Youth Network marks a milestone in global youth organizing, creating a platform for young leaders to shape decisions on land, climate, and human rights, while ensuring local perspectives inform global action. The launch builds on the outcomes of the Global Youth Forum held in Bali, Indonesia, in July 2025, where 52 young leaders from 22 countries co-created two landmark frameworks: the Global Youth Roadmap and the Youth Climate Justice Statement. Together, these documents articulate a shared vision for intergenerational justice, equity, and community-driven solutions to the climate crisis.

Below are on-the-record quotes from youth representatives from the Global Youth Network. These statements may be used with attribution.

“The Global Youth Network embodies the collective power of young people who are no longer waiting to be included; they are already leading. By connecting local struggles to global platforms, this alliance creates a circular flow of youth voices that return to communities to inspire real change.” — Sabba Rani Maharjan, Asia Youth Convenor, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Nepal

“The Global Youth Network is more than an alliance; it is active hope. It represents the collective strength of our roots and the determination to transform the climate crisis into justice, where Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local youth are protagonists and not just witnesses to change. It is our time to be heard.” — Alejandra Palacios, Afro-descendant Youth Leader, Ecuador

“The Global Youth Network is another opportunity for young people to assert their much-needed spaces. May it serve as a venue for strengthening solidarity and capacity, and may it continue to foster an enabling environment where youth can fully express and develop their leadership potential.”  — Ned Tuguinay, Indigenous Igorot Youth Activist, Philippines

“The Global Youth Network embodies our shared determination to protect our lands, our cultures, and our dignity. By connecting Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community youth across regions, we are not just exchanging experiences and knowledges, we are building a generation capable of transforming justice, equity, and sustainability into lived realities.” — Anjatiana Radoharinirina, Youth Climate and Human Rights Activist, Madagascar

The Global Youth Roadmap outlines five shared priorities for action: securing land and human rights, advancing climate justice rooted in ancestral knowledge, decolonizing education to honor Indigenous languages and traditions, fostering intergenerational leadership, and ensuring direct, transparent financing for youth-led initiatives.

As part of this vision, the Youth Climate Justice Statement calls on governments and global institutions to move from promises to concrete action—urging decision-makers during COP30 to guarantee collective land rights and uphold Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), recognize and fund community-driven, Indigenous-led climate solutions, embed intergenerational justice into climate governance frameworks, and center youth, women, and marginalized communities in all stages of climate policymaking.

The Global Youth Network will serve as the foundation for ongoing regional dialogues across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, ensuring youth leadership remains grounded in community realities while shaping global advocacy. These dialogues will establish Regional Youth Advisory Groups to strengthen intergenerational collaboration and link local priorities with global decision-making processes.

“Today’s launch of the Global Youth Network of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples marks a turning point for RRI’s youth movement. The youth leading this effort are not only speaking truth to power—they are shaping the power of the future,” said Solange Bandiaky-Badji, RRI President and Coordinator

“Let COP30 be remembered not only as a milestone for climate ambition, but as the moment when the world truly began to listen to its youth and to act with them.”

About the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

The Rights and Resources Initiative is a global coalition of over 200 organizations dedicated to advancing the land, forest, and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities. Through evidence-based advocacy, coalition building, and innovative funding mechanisms such as CLARIFI (Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative), RRI works to ensure that communities have the legal and financial power to lead climate and conservation solutions.