By Megan Daley (Posted: September 9, 2013)
On July 30-31, The Access Initiative, in partnership with the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Easter Europe and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and through Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental (CEDA), Iniciativa de Acceso Mexico (IA-Mex) and World Resources Institute (WRI), hosted the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) and Europe Exchange: Moving Forward to a LAC Convention on P10 workshop in Quito, Ecuador. Additionally, the meeting included partners from 19 different countries across the Americas and Europe. The main goal of the workshop was to exchange ideas between the European and TAI LAC partners.
The LAC Convention strives to contribute to good governance, democracy, and sustainable development. This will be achieved through establishing standards and procedures for access rights, preventing and reducing environmental conflicts, reducing poverty, protecting natural resources, and strengthening transparency. The Quito meeting yielded many results that correspond to these goals, including an Advocacy and Outreach Strategy (attached) that outlined key actions, responsibilities of the partners, and intended deadlines. Objectives of the strategy included increasing the number of Caribbean signatories of the P10 Declaration, gaining more political support, and increasing the number of participants registered for the LAC Process. One of the most important goals to emerge, however, was the advocacy for the creation of a process for legally binding conventions with governments by 2014. If achieved, this objective will increase legitimacy, cooperation, and government support for TAI partners and the LAC Process. Finally, it was agreed upon that TAI partners would utilize social media more to update others on the LAC Process, inform their various networks on progress, and distribute information on the process at regional meetings.
Overall, the Quito Workshop included interactive engagement and dialogue amongst partners that led to ambitious objectives. The exchange of ideas will greatly benefit TAI’s future goals and tactics in the LAC Process.
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