GEA (Giovani e Ambiente / Youth and Environment) is the interregional working group of the Italian Youth Association for UNESCO, created to promote environmental and sustainability themes in full harmony with UNESCO’s priorities.
The group aims to serve as an internal and external point of reference to raise awareness among young people, support the association’s network, and develop concrete, high-impact projects within local communities.
GEA’s journey began in 2021 at the Italian Youth Forum in Parma with the working group “Nutrire il Futuro” (Feeding the Future), created to contribute to the drafting of the Next Generation You Manifesto. Following institutional interest in proposals regarding food citizenship and the relaunch of the Unite4Earth campaign, GEA3 was initially established as an operational branch dedicated to food, agriculture, and the environment. Subsequently, the group expanded its scope and evolved into the current GEA (Giovani e Ambiente), becoming AIGU’s primary benchmark for all topics related to sustainability and environmental protection.
Objectives
GEA aligns its activities toward three main goals:
- Raising awareness among AIGU members: Promoting a culture of awareness around sustainability issues within the association.
- Integrating sustainability into AIGU projects: Ensuring that the environmental dimension is enhanced across all of the association’s initiatives.
- Engaging youth in local communities: Organizing regional events, projects, and initiatives to bring new generations closer to environmental protection.
