We asked high school students across Canberra what actions they want to see taken to protect nature. Postcards were sent to schools inviting students to respond to the prompt:
Imagine you can make one new rule to protect nature in Canberra. What’s your rule?
This project follows on from our 2023 report on young people’s hopes for the environment, which focussed predominately on the perspectives of primary school kids.
We received 435 postcards from 7 schools across the ACT. Young people’s concerns followed three clear themes of conservation, waste management and land use.
Students offered many solutions to these environmental problems. They called for stronger laws and regulations, harsher penalties for breaching laws, and increased funding for the environment.
To bring young people’s voices to the decision-making table, we developed a short booklet for ACT policymakers that summarises what we heard. We also created a set of interactive Storymaps that explore the top three themes in more detail. Check these out below!
Summary Booklet “Protect all habitats” – Conservation Storymap “No more single-use” – Waste Storymap “Stop building houses where animals live” – Land Use Storymap
