A LACK of youth participation in environmental issues has inspired a group of youngsters to start the MyHutan initiative to get their voices heard.

The initiative started with the Malaysian Youth Delegation climate cluster, which had worked with the Undi18 group to educate young voters in 2020.

It consists of 30 volunteers, all of them are no older than 30.

MyHutan programme associate Cameron Tjoe, 21, said the youth must have a say in  environmental issues as it is they who will have to live with the consequences.

“We saw there was a lack of youth space when it came to environmentalism,” Tjoe told The Malaysian Insight.

“Not to belittle old and experienced groups and individuals, but the youth wanted their thoughts and voices to be heard.

“The youth perspective is important. The environment is being destroyed by people who may not be around in 30 or 40 years, but young people have to contend with the consequences.”

To get their message across, the group is engaging various stakeholders including environmental groups, lawmakers as well as the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry.

“We have to built bridges with government agencies and civil society groups.”

Through its MyHutan summit and the National Youth Climate Consultation, which took place in May, the group has collated the feedback of 100 participants which will be used for the purpose of advocacy.

“At the MyHutan summit, we polled the participants’ thoughts and asked them what policies they wanted.

“The results are still being tabulated. Nearly 100 people attended and gave diverse viewpoints. We are hoping to release it this month.

“We’ve met Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, and he agreed to receive our Youth Climate Demands when they’re completed next month.”

Besides advocacy, the group is also focused on empowerment and awareness its academy to educate youth about the need to protect the environment and how to get their views heard.

“The MyHutan academy is a youth empowerment initiative to get youth to be more aware and speak about environmental issues with their colleagues and friends,” Tjoe said.

“Our events and workshops are centred around environmental issues such as public litigation, indigenous rights, public health, sustainable climate infrastructure, communication for climate activists and logging, and policies.”

Around 300 people participated in the six events that have been held, Tjoe said.

“As a relatively young movement in the environment sphere, there is a lot to be done.”

According to the World Wildlife Foundation, about 54% of the total land area in Malaysia is forested.

From 2001 to 2019, about 8.12 million hectares of tree cover were lost  in Malaysia. This is equivalent to a 28% decrease.

Apart from deforestation, including by fire, the forests face the threats of logging and encroachment from agricultural and urbanisation activities. – August 3, 2022.