New podcast: Giving a voice to young people

EUROPARC Podcast: Voices from the Parks brings inspiring stories from across the network when you’re on the go. In this episode: Ainya Taylor and Carolina Chinese talk about the importance of involving young people in Protected Areas.

Who is speaking?

Ainya Taylor is 25 and lives in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. She works in Community Justice Policy and is involved in the Cairngorm Youth Action Team (CYAT) in her spare time.

Carolina Chinese is an 18-years-old student from the North-East of Italy. She is a member of the Youth Advisory Board Man And Biosphere UNESCO Reserve “Italian Julian Alps”. With other youngsters, she works hard to involve peers and create activities and events that can improve the sense of belonging of young people to the Julian Alps valleys and mountains.

What are we talking about?

Both Ainya and Carolina are active in their Protected Areas through youth groups. These groups were created specifically to give young people a voice in these areas. They provide an opportunity for young people to speak up, advice and organise events that will keep these Parks attractive for other young people. As such, they are great examples of the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto put to work.

Cairngorms National Park and the Italian Julian Alps are both facing problems due to a lack of young people that want to stay and live in these areas. Ainya and Carolina and their peers are trying to change just that, by creating exciting opportunities for young people within the Protected Areas.

It’s important that National Areas look at how to appeal to young people, because there are so many things in these areas that don’t exist in other places.

Says Ainya. According to her, it’s time Protected Areas start flipping the narrative, and promote all the things that make these rural places so special.

We also touched upon bigger societal topics like Climate Change and we hear form Carolina how the Youth Advisory Board is spreading regional awareness on the topic.

In other words, loads of inspiration to be found in our new episode! You can listen to it here, or find our podcasts on Anchor.fm channel and all major podcast platforms!