For the last week, Indigenous leaders from around the world have converged in New York for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII. It’s the largest global gathering of Indigenous peoples, and the forum provides space for participants to bring their issues to international authorities, often when their own governments have refused to take action. This year’s forum focuses on how U.N. member states’ have, or have not, protected the rights of Indigenous peoples, and conversations range from the environmental effects of extractive industries to climate change and violence against women, often led by Indigenous youth across the world.

The Forum is an intergenerational space, including Indigenous youth from across the world. Young people in attendance often work alongside elders and leaders to come up with solutions and address ongoing challenges. Grist interviewed seven Indigenous youth attending UNPFII this year hailing from Africa, the Pacific, North and South America, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Arctic.

Joshua Amponsem, 33, is Asante from Ghana and the founder of Green Africa Youth Organization, a youth-led group in Africa that promotes energy sustainability. He also is the co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund which provides funding opportunities to bolster youth participation in climate change solutions.

Since the Trump administration pulled all the funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, Amponsem has seen the Indigenous youth across the world he works with suffer from the loss of financial help.

It’s already hard to be a young person fighting climate change. Less than 1 percent of climate grants go to youth-led programs, according to the Youth Climate Justice Fund.

“I think everyone is very much worried,” he said, regarding Indigenous youth across the world fighting climate change. “That is leading to a lot of anxiety.”

Amponsem specifically mentioned the importance of groups like Africa Youth Pastoralist Initiatives — a coalition of youth who raise animals like sheep or cattle. Pastoralists need support to address climate change because the work of herding sheep and cattle gets more difficult as drought and resource scarcity persist, according to one report.

Read the full article about Indigenous youth fighting for climate justice by Taylar Dawn Stagner at Grist.