Having snowy mountains with actual snow, rivers with water, forests with trees may seem self-evident, but to Francisco Vera, a young Colombian human rights defender and environmentalist, it isn’t any longer. The climate crisis is changing the world and putting life itself at risk, he said.

At nine years old, Francisco realised he needed to defend the environment, after the shock of watching the devastating fires that ravaged the Amazon in 2019. He was also inspired by other young climate activists, such as Greta Thunberg.

"I can also transform my territory and that's how I founded Guardianes por la Vida" (Guardians for Life),” Francisco, now 13, said. 

The organization that started with six children in 2019, now has hundreds of members who defend the environment in Colombia and thousands of followers on social media. Its goal is to influence public policies to reduce pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change. In short, the group advocates for the human right to a healthy environment to become a reality.

Advocacy work as a child is not easy, but Francisco said age is no barrier to fight for the environment.

"It doesn't matter if we are children or not, really. We can all be part of the change,” he said. “Adults already have experience, so what we propose is to use that experience and take advantage of our energy, our desire, our enthusiasm to continue building a society as children, as teenagers, as young people".

"I think the first step is to recognize ourselves as political actors, that we are citizens, that we have a voice, a voice that must be included," Francisco continued. An intergenerational dialogue is needed that recognizes children as full subjects of rights, particularly in relation to the current climate crisis, he said.

As part of his continued advocacy work, Francisco recently visited Geneva, where he met with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. There he presented Türk with the Joint Declaration of Eco-Esperanza, a manifesto in defense of a healthy environment drafted with fellow Guardians for Life members and signed by more than 3,000 children.