Chrysalis Youth Fund

Resourcing young leaders and youth groups to mobilise for the environment

Securing a flourishing future for Earth’s biodiversity is both a cultural and an intergenerational challenge. Protecting biodiversity needs rigorous science and robust policies, but – to be effective – it must also be rooted in place-based, locally led approaches and include the knowledge and experience of Indigenous Peoples and local communities across all generations.

Around the world, young people are catalysing change through their energy, action, and commitment, but too often they lack the support networks and funding needed to scale up their work and have their voices heard. This absence of meaningful support often comes at a significant emotional, financial, and sometimes physical cost.

The Chrysalis Youth Fund (CYF) is designed to address this challenge. It aims to catalyse and support a growing global youth biodiversity movement to protect, restore, and advocate for Earth’s most at risk ecosystems and species. Co-designed with young people from across Synchronicity Earth’s network, the CYF provides direct core, flexible funding that aligns with their priorities, directing funding to where it is most needed and most impactful.

6 young people smile at the camera at a launch event in New York for the Chrysalis Youth Fund

Image © Leandro Justen/Atmos

Speakers and participants at the launch of the Chrysalis Youth Fund in New York in 2023. Left to Right: Tulio Viteri, Lucia Galarza, Wio Gualinga, Alexis Grefa, Majo Andrade Cerda, and Melina Sakiyama.

“Providing flexible core funding to nascent and more established youth-led organizations will allow them to grow and prepare them for bigger gifts from other donors, thus strengthening the resilience of the ecosystem as a whole. Synchronicity Earth’s collaborative approach, including its work with a youth advisory committee and trusted partners, enhances its ability to identify and support organizations with high potential for impact.”

– Sofia Fernandez – Program Associate, Global Initiative, Climate and Land Use Alliance

Why support the Chrysalis Youth Fund?

The fund is co-designed with the young people it looks to support

From the start, the Chrysalis Youth Fund has been co-designed with the young people it looks to support. In our London office, our Youth work is co-led by Félix Feider, who brings his extensive knowledge of the environmental youth movement in Europe and beyond, together with Programme Officer Agrita Dandriyal and Engagement Manager Isha Tickoo.

Swetha Stotra Bhashyam, our Youth affiliate, has been instrumental in building a powerful youth biodiversity movement for more than a decade. Her input and expertise have been integral in shaping the development of the CYF.

We have also co-created a Youth Committee with five youth leaders working around the globe to inform and recommend funding allocations to new grantees from the Fund. Regular meetings are held with Committee members to discuss potential support for young leaders and youth organisations operating in the Fund’s focal regions.

It provides flexible funding; core, long-term, and responsive

Young people mobilising for the environment, especially in the Global South, frequently find themselves working on shoestring budgets, unable to access the kind of long-term, core funding needed to create a fully inclusive, supportive, and resilient global environmental movement.

Simply put, there is a dire lack of funding for youth environmental action. Most existing funding tends to be skewed towards climate; young people focusing on conserving and restoring nature often find themselves overlooked, underfunded, and unheard. Support is too often short-term and tokenistic.

The Chrysalis Youth Fund recognises the value of direct, flexible, long-term, and core funding to mobilise young leaders, help build and strengthen the youth environmental movement and drive more youth-led action for biodiversity conservation.

It provides support for people and places that are often overlooked

Synchronicity Earth supports locally led environmental conservation in some of the most biodiverse regions on Earth: the partners we work with and fund are mostly in the ‘Global South’, in regions that are rich in biodiversity which, in conservation terms, tend to be overlooked and underfunded.

Our Chrysalis Youth Fund builds on this experience, recognising that caring for our environment is an intergenerational challenge taken up by people of all ages, from children and young people through to the oldest members of a community. Regions with high biodiversity also tend to have large youth populations, hence supporting young people to lead environmental initiatives is crucial for their longevity. We have witnessed young people in communities brimming with innovative ideas, and thought carefully about what we can do to fund and support a new generation mobilising for the environment.

The Chrysalis Youth Fund has a strong focus on inclusivity and addressing unmet needs, seeking to fill gaps and serve as a catalyst to ignite the remarkable potential held by young leaders worldwide.

It takes a 'pooled' approach, reducing admin and sharing learning

We believe that increasing effective funding for young people committed to protecting and restoring nature is an urgent challenge that calls for a collective, joined-up response from funders.

The Chrysalis Youth Fund is a collaborative ‘pooled’ fund driven by a shared vision of supporting young people to act, inspire, and mobilise for a brighter future.

The ‘pooled’ fund approach builds on our successful Congo Basin and Amphibian Programme pooled funds. It allows funders to work together to reduce the administrative burden on conservation partners, promote collaboration and learning, and increase the level and quality of funding getting to the ground.

Two young women holding microphones sitting together in conversation at CBP COP15 in Montreal

Ayisha Siddiqa (left) and Swetha Stotra Bhashyam speaking at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada. Image © GYBN

“I believe Synchronicity Earth plays an essential and unique role in the youth biodiversity space. In most youth-led spaces, accessing funding is incredibly difficult – grants are competitive and often unsuccessful. What makes Synchronicity Earth different is its regional approach, involving youth committees who advise on where funding is most needed. This ensures that resources reach underrepresented young people who are actively leading conservation efforts on the ground.”

– Alumita Sekinairai – Youth Committee member (paraphrased)

What does the Fund aim to do?

Catalyse grassroots action

– Increase direct funding to youth-led and youth-inclusive initiatives focused on conserving species and ecosystems.

– Support efforts that respect, protect, and revitalise Indigenous and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, led by or inclusive of young people

A young woman and a young man from the Terena Youth Collective at the COP27 Climate summit in Egypt

Strengthen alliances and advocacy

– Provide resources for knowledge sharing, capacity building, and organisational development – including support for wellbeing – to enable youth organisations and networks to thrive.

– Amplify youth voices in environmental advocacy, helping them shape policy, influence governance, and participate in decision-making at every level.

Images: Top – Tesoro Escondido Reserve, northwest Ecuador, where young members of the community play a key role in reforestation of an area of highly threatened Chocó forest. Bottom – Taily Terena and Cerizi Francelino Fialho of Terena Youth Collective at the COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt, 2022.

Case Studies

Kaajijayu GYBN Bolivia

Young women wearing firefighting clothes with equipment pictured in the forest

Part of Kaaijayu GYBN Bolivia’s work involves empowering Guarani youth in fire prevention skills. Image © Kaaijayu GYBN Bolivia

Kaaijayu GYBN Bolivia is the Bolivian chapter of the official youth constituency of the Convention on Biological Diversity Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), making their approach to biodiversity conservation in line with the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Kaaijayu GYBN Bolivia work to empower and build the capacities of Guarani, urban and rural youth across Bolivia to participate in national decision-making processes for biodiversity conservation and safeguarding of ancestral knowledge.

Since establishing in 2019, they have brought together Bolivian youth to promote systemic and transformative changes in national processes, such as updating the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, advocating for youth inclusive public policies and building youth capacity to implement on-ground biodiversity conservation initiatives.

Kaaijayu is the combination of two indigenous words, Kaa-Iya which means protector of the forest in Guarani, and Ajayu which means soul in Aymara, to bridge in a single meaning the cosmovision of the Bolivian indigenous peoples from the high lands and lowlands focused on the protection of nature.

With their current Defenders of the Living Forest project, they are taking a focused approach in defending forests of the Guayaros by empowering Guarani youth to lead in forest fire prevention, political advocacy and the defence of their life-sustaining territories and forests.

Laikipia North Community Conservation Initiative (LANCCI)

Laikipia North Community Conservation Initiative (LANCCI) is a youth-led Community-based Organisation in the Northern Kenyan County of Laikipia, predominantly inhabited by Indigenous Laikipiak Maasai whose main source of livelihoods is livestock keeping.

By convening youth from various communities in Laikipia for biodiversity conservation initiatives such as soil and water restoration, LANCCI are a leading example of how safeguarding of Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge can be utilised as an environmental peacebuilding tool between pastoralist communities often impacted by conflict over resources, further exacerbated by drought and privatisation of land. Not only are they prioritising biodiversity conservation and community cohesion but also building the capacities of Indigenous youth in leading on-ground biodiversity conservation and peace building between pastoralist communities.

Being part of the Kenyan Indigenous Youth Network (KIYN), they also play a key role in alliance-building with other Indigenous youth groups across Kenya, strengthening the youth-led grassroots movement to safeguarding Indigenous ecological knowledge and conserving land and water.

Future Generations Tribunal

The Future Generations Tribunal (FGT) is a global, youth-led movement working to secure the rights of future generations through curating new models of justice, community-centred governance, and movement-led accountability that can transform environmental and human rights law and policy. FGT was birthed by young activists, movement leaders, and changemakers as a catalyst for change – a bridge to unite movements, amplify frontline voices, and drive legal action that is informed by lived experiences and diverse knowledge systems to secure justice.

In December 2024, FGT launched globally with The People’s Assembly at The Hague, where 18 witnesses testified on climate-related injustices, including land theft, displacement, militarization, environmental racism, and the erasure of Indigenous knowledge. These testimonies are now used in international legal processes, including as official submissions to the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on climate change.

The People’s Assembly gave insight for FGT’s participatory legal model on a global stage and affirmed that communities can and must shape international legal frameworks through direct participation, testimony, and truth-telling. As FGT enter their next chapter, their first regional Tribunal in September 2025 will bring the power of FGT’s global vision into a grounded, place-based and community-rooted process. The East Africa Future Generations Tribunal in Kenya will serve as a living forum to forge intergenerational legal tools, memorialise frontline testimonies, and activate new pathways for justice rooted in ancestral wisdom, youth leadership, and collective strategy.

Initiatives conceived and led by young people play a central role in shaping positive outcomes for our planet and society. We invite like-minded funders to contribute to this fund and join forces to pave the way for a more just, sustainable, and equitable future.

To find out how you can get involved, contact Agrita Dandriyal:agrita@synchronicityearth.org