Biodiversity Sub-plenary Session: Forest Day

5 December 2010, Cancun Center, Conventions and Exhibitions, Boulevard Kukulcan, Cancún

The aim of this session at Forest Day 4 is to bring together a group of key experts and decision makers to identify and promote
synergies between efforts to safeguard biodiversity, tackle climate change, and implement sustainable forest management.
We will discuss achievements of the International Year of Biodiversity, and identify further opportunities for synergies in policy
and practice during the International Year of Forests in 2011 and towards Rio+20 in 2012.
Encouraging examples exist of the inclusion of biodiversity objectives in pilot and demonstration activities for Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), as well as in national climate change adaptation efforts.
The session will build on successful efforts at national level to conserve, restore and sustainably use forest biodiversity in
support of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and it will identify how the international policy framework could further
support such synergies.

A high level panel will address the following issues:
1. How are national governments mainstreaming biodiversity objectives into REDD+ pilot and demonstration activities?
2. How can countries harness the potential of forest biodiversity for climate change adaptation?
3. How can the international policy framework better support countries in their efforts to achieve biodiversity and climate
change synergies?
4. What opportunities for forest biodiversity lie ahead in the International Year of Forests 2011 and towards Rio +20 in 2012,
and how can we best use them?

Panelists:
• Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Minister of National Heritage, Ecuador (Very Good!!)
• Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action ( No Show)
• Jose Sarukhan, President, CONABIO, Mexico
• Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, TEBTEBBA (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education)

Tar Sands tailings poisons muskeg and nearby First Nations community

Tar Sands tailings poisons muskeg and nearby First Nations community | rabble.ca by Ben Powless with pictures.
The trip out to the tar sands tailings pond reminded me of other recent trips to places where indigenous people were trying to survive.

It recalled for me a trip out to the Russian Arctic earlier this year to visit a group of Saami (Indigenous) reindeer herders struggling to maintain their way of life, and also the work I did last year with a group of Amazonian peoples who were trying to stop oil companies and oil spills in the Peruvian jungles.

But in the end this was far worse, even compared with those two dire situations, and it was being promoted by the Canadian and Alberta governments.

We left on a pair of four wheelers in the afternoon, embracing the freezing temperatures and snow for about six hours to gather footage of what I was promised would be a shocking find. And it was -- when we finally arrived on the site of the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. -- CNRL -- tailings pond (which, at about five-km long and one-km wide, was more of a lake), we saw tailings being released on the opposite shore, flowing out and covering the muskeg and bush underneath. I was accompanied by Mike Orr, a councillor in the community of Fort McKay and avid hunter and trapper, and his daughter.

Here we were, standing on traplines and hunting trails that remain in use by members of the Fort McKay First Nation, as the toxic waste covered many hectares with an oily ooze...

Guy Saint-Jacques | adoptanegotiator.org

Catching up with Guy Saint-Jacques | adoptanegotiator.org

Guy Saint-Jacques replaces Micheal Martin (now in Privy Council) as chief negotiator??

Webcast: South Centre

UNFCCC Webcast: On demand

South Centre ,Based in Europe- where they still drink bottled water. A Press Briefing from here in Tianjin, China to Cancun, Mexico.

What I do not understand is that the Filipinos in Winnipeg North use paper plates,bottled water, drive gas guzzling SUV- with no awareness of the harm they are doing to our country's environment.
Is Kevin Lamoreux representing Liberal values?? NO- and wearing RED does not mean anything!

Again if I go to Cancun- I will be relegated to the social masses , with no power!

The Enclosure: Moon Palace & Cancun Messe.

COP16/CMP6 enclosure
The COP16/CMP6 will be held on the premises of Hotel Moon Palace and Cancunmesse , located along the Cancun- Chetumal road , a distance of approximately 7 km apart.

Access to government delegates , media and observers between the two spaces will be constant , safe and unhindered. However, if there is a contingency or force majeure, shall take the measures deemed necessary to guarantee safety of participants .

The number of observers who will have access to the various conference rooms in which to carry out the governmental negotiations are determined in accordance with United Nations practice . In this regard , the Secretariat of the Convention will distribute the corresponding secondary passes to ensure access to various meeting rooms in an orderly manner . The government of Mexico has no interference in it.

As usual it takes money to reserve a room at $265.00/night x 7 nights at the Moon Palace and the CancunMesse.
Maybe again , I will be along the fringe- and outsider looking in..I just hope that I will be safe- and maybe get a tan/healthy glow- and NOT get sick!

COP16 | CMP6 -Notice

COP16 CMP6 - Noticias - Sala de Prensa

Canada and the CEC as headed by JIM Prentice.
energy management stand of 13 cities in Mexico , USA and Canada
Mexico
Notimex
18/09/2010
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation ( CEC) , composed of the governments of Mexico, the United States and Canada, noted the success of energy management in 13 cities in the three countries as part of actions against climate change.