We take a look at ongoing initiatives involving young people from different communities in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia to promote cultural and environmental education, aiming to tackle the climate change threats posed to their city.

The Líbano neighbourhood of Colombia’s historic city, Cartagena de Indias, has been the focus of recent community-organising efforts.

Establecimiento Público Ambiental (EPA in Spanish, Public Environmental Agency in English), together with CDKN and Environmental Watch, held a community event in Líbano in July 2021, as part of implementing the Integrated Climate Change Management Plan (PIGCC-4C in Spanish) in Cartagena de Indias.

Environmental Watch is a group made up of 40 young people from the National Youth Environment Network. Workshops were held on ocean conservation, proper management of solid waste, and various other topics to promote the improvement of climate action and sustainable development. Twenty-four teenagers participated in the event.

The work had an educational focus: aiming to raise awareness of the importance of the city’s mangrove system, the importance of conserving this abundant system and of the significance of mangroves for tackling climate change. Mangroves not only lock up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but they also provide a natural buffer for high waves – or ‘storm surges’ – that affect the coast.

The initial youth conference was followed by another in July 2021, where topics such as climate change, adaptation and mitigation, risk management, solid waste management, among others were discussed.

Environmental Watch will also support environmental education and research programmes, seek to inform public policies, programmes and projects that respond to social and environmental needs, and undertake actions to strengthen the National Youth Environment Network.