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Climate change is a controversial issue that will affect all countries and human societies. It is a complicated subject that will cause many devastating impacts, yet few concrete solutions have been taken to significantly mitigate these.
FUNDAR Galápagos recently held a regional conference to address the impact of climate change on islands – some of the Earth’s most vulnerable locations – and strategies for sustainability. Fundación Pachamama helped to co-facilitate this meeting.
Reflection and Action on an Urgent Issue
The conference, held on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galápagos Islands, was a space of reflection and action that focused on the use of didactic and creative dynamics, like the simulation of a tsunami at a local beach and the use of the World Café methodology to construct proposals.
Discussions were held on the activities and experiences of the NGO and government actors present from around Latin America, including:
- AVINA
- Conservation International
- Fundación Charles Darwin
- the Undersecretary of Climate Change from the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment
- the Galápagos National Park
- the government of Guayas province
- the Municipality of Santa Cruz
- the Metropolitan Municipality of Quito
- the SUSWATCH network of Nicaragua
- and members of the island of Chiloe in Chile
A Manifesto for Rio+20 and More
An important product of the conference was the elaboration of a Manifesto that will be presented in the Peoples Summit of Río+20, and the creation of RED RICC - the Island Network to Combat Climate Change - with a punctual timeline for work in the next six months.
The conference served as a platform for the members of RED RICC to share their insights, using the definition of adaptation objectives for islands as a starting point. Participants reaffirmed their commitment to and role in combating climate change, and created policies and programs to implement a new social paradigm of balance between human beings and Nature.
