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Published on September 8, 2007

Concern for the environment opened the door for a boy from Ubon Ratchathani to attend a world youth conference in Germany. 

Siriwat "Big" Rittapai, who has been interested in ecological preservation for many years, was Thailand's representative at the "Tunza International Youth Conference" hosted by Bayer AG in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The 19-year-old Benchamamaharat School student was among 180 environmentalists aged 15 to 24 from 85 countries who swapped ideas on "Technology in Service of the Environment" at the event from August 26 to 30.

"It's a great opportunity to make new friends from all over the world who have the same interest. Each of us has his own ideas and experiences that can be shared to prevent global warming," he says during a break at the camp.

This was his second time at the environmental forum in Germany. Last year he and four other teenagers from the Bayer Young Environment Envoy programme, established by Bayer Thai, represented Thailand on a five-day field trip.

The Matthayom 6 student was very impressed with the German government's policy to protect the environment through such measures as renewable energy and waste separation.

The young environmentalists debated key global environmental issues such as climate change, renewable energy, technology transfer and the agenda for environmental work in their own countries.

The programme also included excursions to model environmental projects and facilities in Germany, including TÜV Rheinland's solar-cell testing lab in which Siriwat took a keen interest.

"I will finish high school this year and I'm eager to learn about renewable energy, something that Germany is well-advanced in. I've talked with an engineer here on where and how I could study in this field," he says.

However, Siriwat will need to find a scholarship to study in Germany. If that plan fails, he'll go King Mongkut's Institute of Technology in Thonburi.

Siriwat says the inspiration for his concern for the environment was his participation in an environmental and energy camp at King Mongkut's three years ago.

"Then I became a speaker for an environment club at my school and we did all sorts of activities based on the issue."

Another highlight of the "Tunza" programme was a presentation by astronaut Gerhard Thiele, head of the Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency.

Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, said at the opening ceremony that he hoped the conference would give an overview on the state of environmental protection in an industrialised country, but also have a motivating effect on the young minds present.

"Our hope is that on the basis of discussions at this conference, 180 young people will return to their communities and nations and become beacons for many others to play a part in addressing environmental challenges."

Werner Wenning, chairman of Bayer, said the German company supported UNEP's activities in the areas of youth and the environment because youths' commitment to sustainable development had earned respect, and the voice of the young must be heard.

At the event, Steiner and Wenning signed a new three-year cooperation agreement, with Bayer supporting UNEP with its own programmes and a yearly payment of ¤1.2 million (Bt54 million), up from the ¤1 million of the past three years.

UNEP chose the 180 participants from more than 1,000 applications in an online selection process. All the applicants were nominated by organisations or schools where they had actively contributed to projects supporting environmental work in their country.

The word "Tunza" that appears in the conference's title comes from the East African language Swahili and means "to treat with care and affection". It is also the slogan for UNEP's complete programme for young people and children. The organisation is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

The "Tunza" programme, endorsed in 2003, is a comprehensive, six-year strategy to promote the participation of children and youths in every part of the world in environmental activities.

It focuses on four thematic areas - awareness building, capacity building, information exchange and facilitating the involvement of young people in environmental decision making.

The event in Leverkusen followed conferences in Dubna, Russia, in 2003 and Bangalore, India, in 2005.

At the end of the conference, participants from each region elected their own representative to serve on the Tunza Youth Advisory Council, which will advise UNEP on issues relating to youth environmental work for the next two years.

Young environmentalists from China and the Philippines are the new Tunza Youth Advisory Council members representing Asia-Pacific.

"I want to make the voices of young people heard," says Sara Svensson, from Sweden, a new member for Europe. "The council is a place where we can also share ideas on ways to have a better future."

Check out video footage from the Tunza conference at blog.nationmultimedia.com/somroutai.

Somroutai Sapsomboon

 The Nation

Leverkusen, Germany