Different contexts, common aspirations: young voices shaping the future of conservation

Camille Lau, Young Professional with IUCN’s Protected and Conserved and Heritage Areas Team, has found that one of the most important lessons of working in conservation is understanding just how complex it is.

“Conservation has taught me just how complex and multifaceted nature is. It brings together a wide range of technical specialities while working across different ecological, social and institutional contexts.”

For her, navigating this complexity requires more than technical knowledge. Conservation brings together different disciplines, perspectives and interests, making collaboration and openness essential. It also means recognising the perspectives of different rightsholders and stakeholders and ensuring that they can contribute to decisions that affect them.

For young professionals entering such a complex field, finding their place can itself be a challenge.

“At the beginning of your career, it can be difficult to understand the value you can bring. Young people bring curiosity, fresh perspectives and a willingness to rethink how things can be done, but opportunities to learn by doing are incredibly important.”

That experience is shared in different ways by other young conservation professionals at IUCN.

For Yves Olatoundji, co-chair of IUCN WCPA’s Early Career Professional group, insecure employment was one of the most significant challenges he encountered at the beginning of his career.

“If I should name the top challenge I faced, it would be insecure work in my initial years. This impacted my ability to focus earlier on nature conservation in all its facets.”

For Angie Orejuela, Young Professional with the Protected and Conserved and Heritage Areas Team, the challenge has been different: finding the confidence to speak up and make sure her perspective is heard.

“One of the biggest challenges I have faced has been finding my voice and making sure it is heard.”

Learning from more experienced colleagues is an important part of professional development, she says. But creating space for younger perspectives is equally important.

These experiences reflect the central message of International Youth Day 2026: young people may live and work in very different contexts, but many of their aspirations are shared. Access to employment, opportunities to learn, meaningful participation and the ability to influence decisions are essential to enabling young people to contribute fully to their communities and to the issues that matter to them.

From different experiences to new perspectives

The diversity of young people's experiences is also a source of strength for conservation.

For Angie, learning to adapt has been a defining part of her professional journey.

“In nature, the ability to adapt to different contexts, environments and challenges is often what determines success, and I have found the same to be true in conservation work.”

That adaptability is particularly relevant in a sector where environmental challenges rarely fit neatly within disciplinary or geographical boundaries. Biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and climate change are interconnected, requiring people to work across different areas of expertise and bring together different forms of knowledge.
Camille has similarly learned the importance of remaining curious and open to perspectives beyond her own.

“As a young professional, this has taught me to listen, stay curious and consider different perspectives.”

These qualities – curiosity, adaptability and openness – are not simply attributes of young professionals. They are increasingly important to conservation as the sector responds to complex and rapidly changing challenges.

They are also reflected in Nature 2030: One Nature, One Future – the IUCN Programme 2026–2029, which sets out an ambition to scale up conservation action while advancing transformative change for nature and people. Delivering this ambition will require collaboration across generations, disciplines and geographies and meaningful opportunities for young people to contribute to that work.

Creating the conditions for young people to contribute

For the young professionals interviewed, meaningful participation is not only about having a voice. It is also about having the support, networks and opportunities needed to turn that voice into action.

For Yves, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Young Professionals network has played an important role in his engagement in Protected and Conserved Areas conservation globally.

“The network has played an important role in my overall engagement in Protected and Conserved Areas conservation globally through mentoring, support, trust and empowerment.”

That experience has also encouraged him to support other young conservationists and contribute to opportunities for their professional development.

Camille points to the value of structured opportunities to learn through experience. The IUCN Young Professional Programme, she says, provided two years of hands-on experience that helped her build knowledge, networks and a deeper understanding of conservation programmes.

For her, IUCN can build on this experience by encouraging Members and partners to create more career pathways and opportunities for meaningful youth participation.

Angie similarly stresses the importance of continuity.

“Long-term involvement allows young people to develop their skills, build networks and see the outcomes of their efforts.”

Taken together, these experiences point to a simple but important lesson: meaningful youth engagement cannot be limited to one-off opportunities. Mentorship, professional development, networks and sustained involvement can help young people build the confidence and expertise to contribute over the longer term.

Different contexts, common aspirations

The experiences of Camille, Yves and Angie are different. Their career paths, professional interests and experiences have not been the same. Yet, their reflections reveal common aspirations: to learn, to contribute, to be heard and to play a meaningful role in shaping the future of conservation.

These aspirations are shared by young people across contexts, and they matter for conservation as a whole.
As IUCN implements Nature 2030: One Nature, One Future, creating meaningful opportunities for young people to participate in and shape conservation action will be an important part of delivering its ambition for a just world that values and conserves nature.

Young people are not only the conservation leaders of tomorrow. They are colleagues, practitioners, researchers, communicators and changemakers contributing to conservation today.

On International Youth Day 2026, their experiences offer a reminder that while contexts may differ, the aspiration to contribute to a better future for nature and people is widely shared – and that creating the space for young people to turn those aspirations into action is a responsibility shared across generations.