Hakim Hayat

Since the early years of ASEAN’s establishment, leaders of its member nations have placed much importance of young people in the regional association’s agenda.

There are 213 million youth (persons aged 15-34) in ASEAN countries, constituting the largest ever cohort of a new generation of young people. It is expected to peak population at over 220 million in 2038, according to the ASEAN Secretariat.

The focus for a people-oriented ASEAN Community has provided opportunities for more participation and role of the youth in promoting and deepening ASEAN integration.

Over the years, youth have become more aware and involved in the ASEAN Community, thanks to the efforts of member states in developing them through various programmes at the regional and national levels.

These include student and youth exchanges, youth leadership programmes, and youth volunteerism opportunities. These initiatives have paved the way for a more coordinated development of youth in the implementation of ASEAN programmes and projects such as those under the ASEAN Work Plan on Youth 2016-2020 under the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Youth (SOMY).

ASEAN established SOMY in 2002 as a sectoral body consisting of national agencies responsible for youth development.

As Cambodia takes the helm of the ASEAN chairmanship this year, ASEAN is declaring 2022 as the Year of ASEAN Youth, in line with Cambodia’s 2022 chairmanship theme, “ASEAN ACT: Addressing Challenges Together”.

Under the online campaign platform #ASEANyouth2022, ASEAN invites young people and partners across the region to amplify messages on their leadership in community development throughout the year.

At the handover ceremony of the ASEAN Chairmanship to Cambodia last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen said, “Cambodia will strengthen the development of human resources to respond to the needs on the ground for community building, promote the participation of women and youth in building and maintaining peace, and develop an inclusive social protection system.”

The Year of ASEAN Youth will remain consistent with the post-2020 vision of the region’s youth development, focussing on fostering 21st Century skills and digital skills, and the institutionalisation of youth engagement mechanisms.

It will be guided by the soon-to-be-published ASEAN Work Plan on Youth 2021-2025.

The work plan encompasses five priority areas, which align with the domains of ASEAN Youth Development Index: education, health and well-being, employment and opportunity for all, and promotes and protects human rights of all including the youth.

In the spirit of One ASEAN Identity, youth as the current and future leaders of the region will come together and participate in the initiative.

At least four flagship activities under the ASEAN SOMY will contribute to the Year of ASEAN Youth 2022, namely the first ASEAN Youth Dialogue funded by the Republic of Korea; the 6th ASEAN Youth Video Contest in collaboration with ASEAN Foundation and US PROSPECT; ASEAN Youth Photo Competition; and ASEAN Youth Debate 2022.

Through these events and other youth and partner-led initiatives, ASEAN seeks to provide more platforms for young people with various backgrounds and interests to unleash their potentials and play an active role in addressing current challenges.

Towards the end of the year and through a series of consultations with various stakeholders, ASEAN expects to adopt a leaders’ statement on the Year of ASEAN Youth at participation and engagement, and ASEAN awareness, values and identity.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND (AP) – Newport, Rhode Island, is in a bind: Should the city continue propping up its landmark Cliff Walk, even though chunks of the path keep crumbling into the sea?

Last week, coastal erosion knocked out nine metres of the paved trail, which winds its way beside Gilded Age mansions high above the rocky shoreline for around 5.6 kilometres.

The breathtaking views have made it one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions, and a central part of Newport’s identity.

Peering down at the collapsed section of trail, where a chain-link fence still dangles in space, City Manager Joe Nicholson and Public Services Director Bill Riccio pondered whether to rebuild or retreat. It’s a question they’ve reckoned with before in Newport. Superstorm Sandy washed out sections of the Cliff Walk in 2012, and they were repaired.

Nicholson said he wants to rebuild, and is asking Rhode Island’s governor and congressional delegation for help. Like many locals, he has walked the path countless times.

“It’s something that’s in Newport’s DNA,” Nicholson said.

He and Riccio don’t know how long repairs could take, or how much it might cost. It won’t be done in time for the summer tourism season. Engineers were on the scene last Tuesday taking the first steps to evaluate the site.

Riccio said freeze-thaw cycles and mud layers within the cliff’s shale layers possibly contributed to the collapse.

But scientists said climate change may have created the underlying conditions for last week’s dramatic coastal erosion event.

That’s because more frequent, intense storms can combine with sea level rise to increase the threat of erosion, setting the stage for a weather event to trigger a collapse, said Director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University Michael Mann.

The first step is restoring and building coastal defences, but ultimately we’ll be forced into managed retreat, he added.

“We are now seeing the devastating consequences of climate change playing out in real time,” Mann said via email.

America’s coastline will see sea levels rise in the next 30 years by as much as they did in the entire 20th Century, a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and six other federal agencies warned in February.

The relative sea level in Newport has risen about 15 centimetres over the past 50 years and is expected to rise another 25-30 centimetres in the next 30 years, NOAA said.

A major appeal of the Cliff Walk is – as the name suggests – that it’s along cliffs. It isn’t a sidewalk next to a calm pond. There’s surf and a churning ocean below.

“We humans like to put fixed infrastructure at the coast, particularly nice cliff walks around mansions to look at the views,” said an expert in coastal geology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Jeffrey Donnelly.

“There’s always this tension between where we want to put things and the dynamic coast,” Donnelly said. That means the city of Newport should count on constant repairs to keep the walk where it’s at.

Director for The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island John Torgan anticipates cliff erosion will pose a growing challenge for the state’s coastline.

“I think The Nature Conservancy would generally favor retreat, meaning not trying to stop it but looking for ways to go inland and to do it greener,” Torgan said. “It’s super challenging and in some places, it’s impractical – but in due time, you know you can’t stop the ocean.”

Nicholson, the city manager, said he can’t predict the weather, hurricanes or disruptions caused by Mother Nature. And the fact that the walkway may get damaged again is not enough of a deterrent. A study estimated in 2018 that more than 1.3 million people visit annually. Nicholson thinks that number is higher now, with people seeking outdoor activities during the pandemic.

NGORONGORO, TANZANIA (AFP) – For over a century, Tanzania’s Maasai pastoralists have shared the famed Ngorongoro conservation area with zebras, elephants and wildebeests. But now they face the prospect of eviction as their exploding population poses a threat to wildlife.

Since 1959, the number of humans living in the World Heritage Site has shot up from 8,000 to more than 100,000 last year. The livestock population has grown even more quickly, from around 260,000 in 2017 to over one million today.

Tanzania has historically allowed indigenous communities such as the Maasai to live within some national parks, but the relationship between the pastoralists and wildlife can be fractious, with animals attacking people and livestock.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan sounded the alarm last year, warning: “Ngorongoro is getting lost.”

“We agreed to make it unique by allowing people and wildlife to stay together but the human population is now out of hand,” she said, ordering officials to examine the issue and put curbs on migration to the area.

As debate rages about the possible eviction of the Maasai, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has proposed a voluntary relocation scheme to Handeni district where the government has allocated 162,000 hectares for the pastoralists. “We are taking you to areas where you will have access to schools, hospitals and electricity,” in addition to land for grazing and farming, Majaliwa said.

The community is sharply divided over the issue, with many reluctant to leave the only home they have ever known.

“My father and mother were born here, and we have been living here as well. I am not ready to leave,” said one woman who only gave her name as Rose, citing her fear of the authorities.

Long before Tanzania created national parks aimed at attracting tourists, the Maasai co-existed with wildlife in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

But as climate change leads to prolonged droughts and low crop yields, pressure on the pastoralists has increased, forcing them into conflict with wildlife over access to food and water.

The expanding presence of livestock – and the noise of cowbells and other paraphernalia – also drives some animals away, posing a threat to the lucrative tourism industry, which accounts for nearly 18 per cent of Tanzania’s GDP.

During AFP’s visit to the area, zebras were the only wildlife seen grazing near the Maasai plots.

“If we allow this to continue, we will definitely disturb the wildebeest migration,” a conservation official told AFP, declining to give his name for security reasons. But tribal rights activists and opposition leaders have accused the authorities of using conservation as a fig leaf for economic exploitation, citing earlier cases when wealthy foreigners were granted trophy hunting rights in Ngorongoro district.

“Big companies are indirectly pushing us away from our ancestral land under the name of conservation,” a Maasai human rights activist Onesmo Olengurumwa said on Twitter.

In 2009, thousands of Maasai families were evicted from Loliondo, located 125 kilometres from the Ngorongoro conservation area, to allow the UAE-based safari company, Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC), to organise hunting trips there.

The government terminated the long-running agreement with OBC in 2017, following corruption allegations. Many remain suspicious of the government’s intent.

“The Maasai have been the biggest victims of forced evictions for conservation in Tanzania, for which they’ve never been lawfully and properly compensated,” deputy chairman of the opposition Chadema party Tundu Lissu said on Twitter.

“It’s long past time that these wrongs were righted, rather than to repeat old injustices. I stand with the Ngorongoro Maasai!”

An online petition on global advocacy website Avaaz against the potential eviction of the Maasai has garnered over three million signatures so far.