Fall 2011
Fall has arrived and with it new activities in preparation for COP17 in Durban, South Africa. We are fortunate enough to have been invited to host a day at the African Pavilion, courtesy of the African Union, in partnership with Nurses Across the Borders. We'll be leading a range of activites related on Climate Change Disaster Risk Reduction: The Complementary Applications of Human Health In DRR Strategies. We are also presenting an official side event, Health as a Driver of Cliamte Change Policy - Local Efforts: Global Action. These special honors make for a busy two weeks in South Africa where we will build new partnerships that bring our work into the wider focus of sustainability. It is our intention to take this work to Rio+20, the global meetings that will determine the fate of the Kyoto Protocol in June, 2012.
Making health a focus issue in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations continues to be our international platform. We have discovered that they key is in linking the global policy dialogue with local on the ground projects through a North-South partnership about something no one can ignore: as Peters says, “It’s your health; it’s my health; it’s everybody’s health.” Our global impact is enhanced by simultaneously working at the local level to build more resilient communities through climate adaptation and disease surveillance.
It is also time for fall fundraising activities. After a September gathering of academic environmental, health and business faculty and students from Evergreen and other local colleges, we launch our nurses' international Mentorship Program with US nurses and midwives wiht the intention of replicating the f2f effort in the Chicago and central Florida areas in order to catalyze our virtual nurse mentors for nearly 2,000 African nurses. Some of those nurses plan to join our partner Mr. Omoragbon in Durban. This program will expand to Latin America and the Pacific Islands in 2012.
Our global partnerships are expanding to Latin America. We have been forging relationships with a Costa Rican NGO focusing on water and climate issues. This paves the way for bringing our capacity building for nurses to Costa Rica including expanding the mentorship to Costa Rican nurses other educational programs are starting in fall and winter, including virtual scenario building for climate change and health adaptation.
2011 solidified current partnerships and brough new faces to SeaTrust Institute. Peters Omoragbon, CEO of Nurses Across the Borders, visited our offices in Olympia to plan a joint presentation for summer at the UNFCCC intersessional meetings in Bonn to strengthen our North-South partnership. NAB is meeting with the Minister of Health in Nigeria this fall to encourage them to support our efforts by recommending our joint organizations for support for local capacity building projects in Africa.
Visiting scholar Dr. Diane Lee from Murdoch University in Perth Australia joined me in making a presentation at the Marine Section of the Society for Conservation Biology, CONBIO /IMMC2meetings in Victoria, BC.and went on to Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island to introduce her to some old growth forests and some of our local marine life.
This year, Abigail Burns joins our delegation in Durban. Abigail is SeaTrust Institute's new Sr. Policy Analyst/ Lead Public Policy & Climate Adaptation Researcher. Her research interests center on human migration, labor and economic issues related to climate change. She is a most welcome addition to our team. It was a wonderful summer. Now we roll up our sleeves and get ready for the run up to Durban.
As always, we welcome your thoughts at seatrust@seatrustinstitute.org