Serb pitches in to protect the environment
Igor Jezdimirovic, 25, believes that taking an active role in society is both a privilege and a responsibility. Not everyone has the opportunity to help make changes, but those who do need the emotional and financial support of their family to become active.
Igor considers that motivating young people to take the initiative is key. It has made all the difference in his life, because his family taught him to love and respect nature.
Deciding to fight back
"When I was growing up, I saw what people were doing to the environment. That was when I decided to fight back and protect something that I love. I believe that the fight for environmental protection is the noblest thing in our day and age."
Igor is founder and president of the Environment Engineering Group (EEG), a non-governmental organization that focuses on energy, biodiversity, sustainable development and environmental education. EEG organizes seminars to encourage youth involvement and raise awareness, and it works to strengthen regional co-operation with other national, as well as international, environmental NGOs. He wants to see Serbian environmental policy aligned with European standards.
Bringing young leaders together
Although he is busy completing a master's degree in environmental protection at Novi Sad University, Igor also participates in extra-curricular activities in environmental protection and photography. He is active in a number of NGOs, including the Students' Union of Serbia and the Youth Council of Vojvodina, which brought together young leaders to draft a youth policy in Vojvodina.
The OSCE Mission first met him in this capacity while preparing for the Kiev Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe organized by the OSCE in February 2003. Igor represented the Vojvodina Youth Council at the conference, presenting the group's activities in the field of youth and environmental protection as they drafted the Youth Policy and Action Plan for the implementation of Youth Policy in Vojvodina.
The Mission and Igor kept in close contact after this conference. Thanks to this co-operation, Igor organized workshops on environmental protection in 2004 and 2005 in Herceg Novi, Montenegro, attended by representatives from the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro, as it was called at that time.
"Igor Jezdimirovic is a highly responsible environmentalist. Being young himself, he is able to raise awareness particularly among other young people," says Dusan Vasiljevic, Head of the Mission's Economy and Environmental Department.
The workshops persuaded Igor that he needed to get further involved in environmental protection activities. He founded EEG in 2005.
"I would like the people in my country to respect, remember and learn from the past and to wisely plan future sustainable development."
Energy and ideas to change the world
Igor believes that environmental protection, the involvement of young people and international co-operation are the most important topics to discuss.
"The biggest challenge the world is facing today is environmental protection versus economic profit. But young people have energy, ideas and ideals to change the world," he says. "My hope is that young people are an active part of society and are treated as equal partners in the decision-making process."
Igor also has a few words of advice for these young people: "When somebody says to you 'your time will come, your time is in the future,' then say to them: 'The future is now.'"