Open Letter to PP10 partners

Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 June 2009 23:29 Written by Administrator Wednesday, 03 June 2009 18:09

Dear partner,

On April 2008, CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS received the mandate and the transference of the Global Secretariat of PP10 with another Chilean institution. Although, CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS developed most of the Global Secretariat's work alone since last July 2008. In October 2008, the other Chilean institution sent a letter to WRI comunicating its withdrawal of the Global Secretariat.

The last twelve months CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS has been developing different tasks to work hard. We developed a Global Strategy to move our partnership forward to respond the emerging environmental agenda in a global-local context of Climate Change, working with model cases -with all the stakeholders involved- to be replicable and scalable in the national, continental and global levels and to develop a consistent advocacy to all the key mechanisms and tools vinculated to Environment and Sustainable Development. Besides, we have been assisting our partners, coordinating the Peer Review Processes of new members, working with some potential governments to be partners in order to strengthen national PP10 alliances with present and new civil societies members. Our institution also developed different conversations with international fundations about potential donnors and funds that could be reached by our partnership. Suddenly, the international crisis appeared as a big challenge to deal with to all of us and to every country.

In all that context, and keeping the support solicited to our partners, CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS decided to evaluate how to work for the partnership. The evaluation moved us to redesign and develop to fit the plan and focused the strategy focusing the opportunities that also give this context to all of us. With these new tools, we decided to use our own budgets in order to spend more days during our international scientific exchanges in Europe to meet some donnors and ask to them to have their feedback and advice about our new tools and to analyze how the international cooperation is moving in this situation. With that important feedback and advice, CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS elaborated an integrated proposal to search for funds to develop the focused plan and the strategy. We returned to our office and ask for support to our Board. They gave us their trust and their support to keep working ProBono all the time needed. Then, we also asked for assistance and received affirmative answers of international leaders to support our solicitudes for funds and for the advocacy needed to be done in the next years.

All of this express our firm intention and purpose to work for Principle 10 with dedication, responding to your trust. According to that CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS want to ask to all our partners to give us your official support -answering to this email- to continue as the Global Secretariat of PP10 in order to develop an aggresive search for funds to work more closely together with all of you to move forward our PP10.

We strongly believe that this hard time for all of us need and urge our partnership to be creative and propositive to work for our communities and ecosystems to make visible and possible the Environmental Governance with Principle 10. As an effective partnership, our concrete results and impacts must also be shown and shared in all levels, moving forward and during the next expected Sustainable Development Summit in 2012.

We do want to thank to all our partners that have been working closely to us during this year in this special context and also desires to all of you the best.

Moving forward, very truly yours,

 

CODESOSUR-SINERGIAS

Global Secretariat PP10

Oscar Vollmer 366, Puerto Montt

Región de Los Lagos, Chile

Tel-Fax: (56-65) 714391

http://pp10.org

 

Guide on access to information and participation in environmental issues in Colombia.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 March 2009 12:52 Sunday, 22 March 2009 21:02

 
 

The Access Initiative Colombia in this guide presents a collection of tools for the right to information and participation in matters related to environment and natural resources. It is a contribution to progress in developing a participatory culture.

This guide aims to confront the challenges in the implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration (1992). The Guide provides the reader with a tool for approaching the issue of access to environmental information and participation from a legal point of view. It seeks to explain the importance of these issues in the context of national and international environmental issues.
The first part presents, in general terms, the most important aspects of access to environmental information, its legal nature, the principles that guide the national and international legal framework on the subject, the mechanisms for its effective implementation, the overview of the national Information system and agencies in the field.

The following parts present different tools to access environmental information and to find out what information is available on the subject. The second part of the document refers to participation in > environmental decision-making, establishing not only the conceptual and regulatory framework, but the different forms and mechanisms for participation that exist in Colombia. The guide includes the formats to be used for general use and to exercise participatory rights under these mechanisms.

Convinced of the importance of information and social participation, the Access Initiative Colombia has atempted to contribute to achieve participatory democracy and a culture with regard to the environment, and has offered the reader a text which has been the result the joint work of academics and NGOs. Hopefully, this small effort will strengthen environmental management in Colombia.
 
Article written by ILSA-Access Initiative Colombia