Young American Greens: Defending Land, Defending Life
The environment is not a separate issue — it is the centre of everything. Ahead of World Environment Day on 5 June 2026, we asked our partner organisation in Latin America, Jóvenes Verdes de las Américas (JVA), to share what this day means for them and for the young green activists building a different kind of politics across the Americas:
Why is World Environment Day important, and what does it mean for JVA?
World Environment Day reminds us that nature is not a resource — it is the foundation of our existence. For JVA, this day means recognizing that the environment cuts across all of our rights: without healthy land, without clean water, without free territories, no young person can fully develop.
It is also a day to celebrate our pre-Hispanic roots and the wisdom of peoples who knew how to live in balance with their surroundings, while we denounce that so-called global “development” was built — and continues to be built — at the expense of natural resources, affecting the Global South above all. For JVA, the environment is also a matter of comprehensive security: when the environment is destroyed, it is young people and the most vulnerable communities who suffer first.
Why is it important for JVA to engage with environmental issues?
For decades, the dominant development model bet on extractive economics and set aside environmental stewardship, leaving an enormous debt to territories and communities. We, as young people, have decided that path does not represent us. We believe in a sustainable vision of development and the circular economy.
We engage because we understand that there can be no social justice without environmental justice — that both struggles are one and the same. JVA is committed to a different kind of development: one that is cross-cutting, that puts people and nature at the center, and that builds a future without destroying the present.
What role and opportunities do you believe young people should have in environmental action?
Young people are the driving force of sustainable development and we have taken politics into our own hands — and we are not letting go. Our role is not only to protest what is wrong, but to actively build what comes next: new political leadership grounded in social and environmental justice, where no one is left behind.
The Green Youth of the Americas have a historic opportunity to place on the public agenda a vision where the poorest and most vulnerable come first, where balance with the environment is not optional but the starting point. We are not the future — we are the present of this change.
What is the most important message JVA should share on this day?
The message is clear: the environment is not a separate issue — it is the center of everything. There is no social justice without environmental justice. There are no rights without territory. There is no future while the peoples of the Global South continue paying with their resources and their communities for the development of others.
The youth of the Americas say it with conviction: the model that destroys the land does not represent us, and we do not want to inherit it either. We come from roots that knew how to live in balance, and from that foundation we build the politics we deserve — one where the most vulnerable come first, where nature has rights, and where no young person is left behind.
Today we do not only celebrate Environment Day. We declare that defending the land is defending life, and that is our cause and our central struggle.
About Jóvenes Verdes de las Américas
Jóvenes Verdes de las Américas (JVA) is the continental youth wing of the Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Américas (FPVA), the American branch of the Global Greens network. A group of young people passionate about ecopolitics as a model of social transformation, JVA represents a generational shift towards new champions for social and environmental justice across North, Central, and South America. They have been a partner organisation of Green Forum since 2022.
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