Case Study

Forming an association for Estonian Youth+ members

Contact name

Piia Tomingas

Institution name

Eesti Rahvusparkide Noorte Looduskaitsjate Selts (Association of Young Conservationists of Estonian National Parks)

Region & country

Estonia

Summary

In early 2020, the idea of creating an active Youth+ movement for the graduates of Estonian Junior Ranger courses started to arise. In November 2020, 8 Youth+ members in age 17-22 formed an NGO, gaining independence and motivation for contributing to nature protection in Estonia.

Background of the project

In Estonia, Junior Ranger courses take place every year in 5-6 national parks, and the communities of these gatherings have been persistent. Before 2020, we had heard about other successful Youth+ movements around Europe. Around that time, we started developing an idea of our own community for JR graduates, too, to keep the communities together and to contribute to nature conservation after growing out of the usual courses. In 2020, we had two meetings for 16+ youngsters.

The main trigger, why we decided to form an NGO, was that Youth+ movement was invited to be a part of the Youth Environmental Board which works under the Ministry of Environment in Estonia. To join the board, we were requested to have a “body” – a registered NGO. We also understood that this association could provide us with more motivation, independency and possibilities in the future, because so far we had mostly relied on the Environmental Agency and our supervisors from the JR times.

Solution and actions taken

We decided to register an NGO.

First, we gathered the JR graduates who were interested in taking part of our Youth+ movement. To write our statute and make our NGO official, we had a lot of online meetings during a few months.

Other institutions or parties involved

We had a lot of help and advice from our supervisors-mentors from the Environmental Agency.

Results

Since November 2020, we have started to organize events and participate in bigger movements. Our biggest accomplishment so far has been the Small Footprint January on Facebook, where we shared tips on why and how to reduce our ecological footprint. We expect to have some real-life events in summer. We are now a supportive member of the Youth Environmental Board – during 2021 we hope to become a main member, but right now we are focusing on our own progress to become a strong organization.

Challenges

As youngsters, we didn’t have any experience of forming an NGO before. Thankfully, it is quite easy in Estonia and we received a lot of help from various organizations.

Lessons learned

Firstly, we gained the knowledge that we are a great team and that we are doing the right thing for the world. It motivates us to keep going and fill in the spaces in nature conservation that we see around us. And secondly, ofcourse, we now know how to register an NGO.

Contact name

Piia Tomingas

Institution name

Eesti Rahvusparkide Noorte Looduskaitsjate Selts (Association of Young Conservationists of Estonian National Parks)

Website(s)

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