Panel 8.2. Should I stay or should I go? Youth, outmigration and engagement in commons management

Erosion of human connection to the natural world is pervasive worldwide, and influenced by local ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural conditions. Rural communities often face severe economic pressures including exploitation of land for agriculture, mining, and logging, forcing youth into towns. In urban, suburban, and rural areas, additional factors deepening the chasm between youth and nature, include standardized education and technology.

Given the intertwined climate, biodiversity, and youth mental health crises, it is critical to assess how alternative educational models can contribute to restoring ecological and human health. Research indicates that the intellectual, psychological, and emotional wellbeing of youth is nurtured through hands-on experiences outdoors, involving intergenerational contact.

Examples of youth engagement in local environmental issues are drawn from across regions. In the Philippines, the Mobile Forest School is energizing indigenous Negrito youth through week-long forest workshops, and cultural revival festivals featuring native foods, dance, and music. In Mexico, migrants in Oaxaca and Chiapas are maintaining a strong link to their communities, investing time and resources in cultural festivities which remain an important expression of the commons. In Cameroon, youth participate in knowledge sharing programs to support threatened traditional management practices. And in the United States, teens restore forests while learning how native species maintain biodiversity and mitigate climate change.

Some elements of success across regions connecting youth and commons include actions which: are co-created and based on local needs, imbue value to natural and cultural history, instill pride and sense of place, include women and girls, integrate science and local knowledge, promote intergenerational exchange, incorporate traditional language, food, art, dance, and legends, and celebrate the unique nature of people and place.

Youth integration in Indigenous territorial governance challenges cultural, political and economic barriers. Traditionally, decision-making positions in Indigenous territories have been granted to “experienced” leaders, mostly adults who built up their leadership recognition through time. Therefore, youth, who often lack leadership experience, are often underrepresented in decision-making positions. On the other end, opportunities for engagement in territorial governance are becoming scarcer, given the persistent instability of indigenous governance structures. Thus, the majority of Indigenous youth are alienated from their territories, adopting non-traditional livelihoods (i.e., motor-riders) for a living in their territories, or deciding to migrate to large cities, in search of opportunities. In Bolivian Lowlands, development projects have applied a variety of strategic interventions to promote indigenous youth engagement in their territorial governance systems; through the Forest For a Just Future program, IBIF has come up with three strategic interventions for greater impact and change to promote youth engagement in territorial governance, 1. the strengthening of organizational capacities, 2. Strengthening the articulation of indigenous youth organizations to local, national and regional youth networks and 3. strengthening project management and entrepreneurship capacities. The three strategies combined, or separately, have played a significant role in visibilizing youth's key role in local and territorial development and governance, it has also increased youth’s chances to demonstrate their leadership capacities, and some were elected in decision-making positions within their communities, territories and networks. Indigenous youth envision a decent life, if they decide to stay in their communities, and represent a great force to strengthen their territories’, and the planet earth’s capacities to adapt and mitigate climate change and reduce poverty.

This opening paper provides an overview that sets context ahead of the other panel presentations, building on key insights from multi-year and multi-sited empirical work investigating youth mobility, its impact on rural commons, and the responses to those impacts. It explores: whether the structures and institutions of communal life, work and governance are factors in young peoples’ decision to stay (in their home communities), migrate away, or return; the kinds of commons regimes that young people want to be a part of; and, strategies that communities (and youth members) are experimenting with to navigate the pressures, changes, and opportunities that migration can bring. This allows reflection as to the implications of this social phenomenon for commons scholarship. Insights are drawn from youth visioning workshops that have taken place across different global regions over a 7-year period, and ethnographic work conducted in multiple Latin American countries. Communities are looking to adapt to demographic and cultural change, as out-migration drives shortfalls in collective labor and territorial presence. In many ways, youth are leading, or wanting to lead, this response, asking community leaderships to empower them as actors in community spaces and, in doing so, challenge some of the cultural norms that have long characterized these regimes.

Rural migration erodes traditional knowledge and social cohesion, weakening commons regimes. We worked with young Indigenous people from El Condor, an Andean community in Northwest Argentina to examine what drives youth to leave, what encourages them to stay, and how management of a common-pool resource shapes young people’s community engagement. Workshops were held with youth, both in the home community and in La Quiaca, a nearby urban center. Youth migrate because of limited job and educational opportunities, while the desire to stay is motivated by cultural ties, family connections, and to preserve traditions and relationship to the land. Out-migration to a nearby urban centre helps maintain those ties. We also find that the communal management of vicuña, a wild South American camelid of important cultural, economic, and conservation value, offers youth a way to contribute socially and economically to their community. Their continued involvement in this management shows how the commons can provide youth with a connection to community, to their elders, and their identity. For those working to support sustainable CPR use, finding ways to strengthen collective identity and cohesion in a context of increased mobility will be an essential part of securing resilient, rural commons

The modernization of indigenous irrigation systems into large scale modern irrigation systems has witnessed tremendous interest and investments by the governments and international financial institutions in developing countries in recent years. These are high priority projects in national development plans that visibly aims for high farm productivity, import substitution and economic growth. Additionally, such projects come with an agenda of creating local livelihood opportunities and reduce youth out-migration. Evidence suggest that despite the expansion of large scale irrigation systems, youth mostly men, continue to out-migrate for labour jobs. Women, (mostly from marginalised sections) are increasingly stepping into roles traditionally held by men, however, they are largely excluded from decision making processes related to irrigation management. Furthermore, without adequate interventions to address underlying structural constraints, they are increasingly exposed to newer forms of gendered vulnerabilities and violence, issues that have been less documented.

These dynamics raise critical concerns about the future of indigenous irrigation systems, as well as youth’s relations to irrigation commons. Despite being integral to the questions of sustainable irrigation futures, the existing scholarship lacks a systematic assessment of knowledge regarding the intersection of irrigation and youth. This presentation aims to fill this gap by providing an overview of existing scientific literature on changing human-water relationships with a specific focus on youth (differentiated by gender, caste, class, age) and irrigation. The review will explore key questions including how youth’s engagement with irrigation water have been conceptualised in the literature, and what this means for youth’s future as stewards of irrigation commons.
This is a work in progress. In addition to the review findings, the presentation will include insights from exploratory field visit in Nepal.

Key words: Commons, Indigenous, Irrigation, Systemic review, Youth