October 5th, 2020. Bucharest, Romania. Young Romanians speak about ecological connectivity in the Carpathians to Romanian President, German Ambassador and other high-ranking guests during the live event* organized by the Embassy to celebrate the National Day of Germany – German Unity Day.

* the full event video can be seen here on the Facebook Page of the German Embassy to Romania (ecological connectivity presented at minute 36:20 by Armina Ismail – 15 years old – and her moving speech)

In 2020, all over Europe, German embassies brought youth and environmental topics in the spotlight for the German Unity Day. The European-wide initiative invited young people to speak up for the environment within the project Earth Speakr coordinated by Goethe Institut. The project is a digital artwork by scandiavian artist Olafur Eliasson - via a dedicated phone app young people created videos speaking to people on behalf of nature.

ConnectGREEN (via WWF Romania) was invited by Goethe Institut to coach a group of Romanian teens passionate about nature, who signed up for a series of online and live seminars on a topic important for nature conservation in this region: ecological connectivity. After participating in the seminars, the youngsters reflected their perspective on the topic of connectivity in videos that they uploaded on the Earth Speakr website. You can see a few of these videos in this compilation on YouTube.

As a high point of the Earth Speakr, 4 young people were invited to become spokespersons for the 4 environmental topics that were “hot” in Romania. The spokesperson for Ecological Connectivity was Armina Ismail (15 y/o) who directly addressed the Romanian President – Klaus Werner Iohannis, the German Ambassador  - Cord Meier-Klodt and the other high-level guests. The Romanian President thanked the youth for their involvement and the German Ambassador assured them that their messages were heared.

Armina decided to convey the following message – bringing the Carpathians in focus:

(EN) My name is Armina Ismail and I come from Bucharest. Animal protection is important. In Romania there are still many species of animals that have disappeared in other parts of the world. The Carpathian Mountains are home to almost a third of Europe's carnivores! We must protect their habitats and facilitate their freedom of movement. People can protect nature, or they can destroy it. The choice is ours. We address you, grownups: If you don't take care of nature now, tomorrow we won't have anything to take care of!

(RO) Numele meu este Armina Ismail si vin din Bucuresti. Protectia animalelor este importanta. In Romania exista inca multe specii de animale care in alte locuri ale planetei au disparut. Muntii Carpati gazduiesc aproape o treime din animalele carnivore din Europa! Trebuie sa le protejam habitatele si sa le inlesnim libertatea de miscare. 

Oamenii pot proteja natura, sau o pot distruge. Alegerea este a noastra. 

Ne adresam voua, oamenilor mari :  Daca nu aveti grija acum de natura, maine noi nu vom mai avea ce sa  ingrijim !

(DE) Mein Name ist Armina Ismail, und komme aus Bukarest. Tierschutz ist wichtig. In Rumänien gibt es immer noch viele Tierarten, die in anderen Teilen der Welt verschwunden sind. In den Karpaten leben fast ein Drittel der Fleischfresser aus Europa! Wir müssen ihre Lebensräume schützen und ihnen die Bewegung erleichtern.

Menschen können sich um die Natur kümmern oder sie zerstören. Die Wahl liegt bei uns.

Erwachsene, kümmert euch jetzt falls nicht,  gibt es morgen sonst nichts mehr was wir übernehmen können.