Young stakeholders are key actors in social-ecological systems, who have the capacity to be agents of sustainability transformation but are also at high risk of exclusion in the unfolding of global change challenges. Despite the focus of sustainability on future generations, there has been little research effort aimed at understanding young actors’ roles as biosphere stewards. In this work we investigate how young stakeholders perceive and participate in the implementation of sustainability objectives in 74 Biosphere Reserves of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme across 83 countries, through participatory group workshops, individual surveys and grey literature review. We explore to what extent youth perceptions are aligned or not with current understandings of Biosphere Reserves and how young stakeholders are acting in pursuit of Biosphere Reserve objectives. We find that young stakeholders have a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by environmental governance, such as resilience and adaptation to global change and the governance challenges of implementing adaptive co-management and increasing stakeholder participation. We also show that young stakeholders can be active participants in a wide range of activities that contribute to achieving conservation and development goals in their territories. They are particularly concerned with youth participation within all levels of Biosphere Reserve functioning and with the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities that will allow future generations to remain in their native territories. Our study provides evidence of the importance of young stakeholder knowledge and perspectives as central actors in conservation and development initiatives, like Biosphere Reserves, and of the need to increase young stakeholder integration and participation within environmental governance.

年轻的利益相关者是社会生态系统中的关键角色，他们有能力成为可持续发展转型的推动者，但在全球变化挑战不断发展的过程中也极有可能被排斥。尽管可持续性的重点是子孙后代，但很少有研究工作旨在了解年轻演员作为生物圈管理者的角色。在这项工作中，我们通过参与性小组调查了83个国家/地区的74个联合国教育，科学及文化组织（教科文组织）人与生物圈计划（MAB）的74个生物圈保护区中年轻的利益相关者如何看待和参与可持续性目标的实施研讨会，个人调查和灰色文献评论。我们将探讨青年人的看法在多大程度上与当前对生物圈保护区的理解相一致，以及青年利益相关者在追求生物圈保护区目标方面如何行动。我们发现，年轻的利益相关者对环境治理所面临的机遇和挑战有全面的了解，例如适应和适应全球变化以及实施适应性共同管理和增加利益相关者参与的治理挑战。我们还表明，年轻的利益相关者可以积极参与各种活动，这些活动有助于实现其领土上的保护和发展目标。他们特别关注青年人在生物圈保护区各个层面的参与以及创造可持续的生计机会，使后代得以留在其本国领土上。我们的研究提供了证据，证明了年轻的利益相关者的知识和观点作为生物圈保护区等保护和发展计划中的中心角色的重要性，以及有必要增加年轻的利益相关者在环境治理中的整合和参与。