One Earth

Emmanuel Prinet was selected by the Canadian Environmental Network (RCEN) to be International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) Champion for British Columbia.  This position was an important part of RCEN’s ongoing collaboration with Environment Canada’s Ecosystems and Biodiversity Priorities Division. Throughout 2010, Emmanuel and the other selected IYB Champions prepared short reports on what work environmental groups in their region were doing on biodiversity, and promoted the IYB and biodiversity activities.  To read the Champions’ reports, click here: http://rcen.ca/public-participation/engo-international-year-of-biodiversity-champions

300 people attended the launch of the Canadian Earth Summit Coalition in Vancouver. It’s a self-organized, independent and informal civil society network of non-governmental, academic and research organizations from across Canada that is working towards Canadian leadership at Rio+20. The launch party on 24 November featured inspiring talks, an eco fashion show, live painting, and videos. Details on the event here: http://earthsummit.ca/event.html. The Coalition’s call to action for Rio+20 is named “WE CANada“:

WE CAN.
WE CAN make a difference.
WE CAN join forces for the positive.
WE CAN change the world.
WE CAN.
WE CANada.
Let’s show the world what we can do.

WE CANada is a platform for education and action whose hub is the http://earthsummit.ca website.
WE CANada also has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/WE-CANada/120119944719249
A Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/wecanada and a Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/WECANADA2012 where you can watch the short WE CANada video. For more information or to become a partner, contact Aleksandra Nasteska, the Lead Coordinator of the WE CANada campaign and a One Earth Associate.

One Earth Executive Director Vanessa Timmer is selected as one of two North American civil society representatives to attend the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council in Nairobi. The selection took place at the UNEP Regional Office for North America civil society consultation in Washington DC.  Jeffrey Barber, Executive Director of Integrative Strategies Forum, is the other representative and they will travel to Nairobi in February, after consulting with a wide range of civil society actors, to deliver the key messages from the consultation.  Vanessa co-facilitated the meeting with Darian Rodriguez Heyman and facilitated the breakout dialogue on sustainable consumption and production and the green economy.  The key messages and co-facilitators report from the Washington meeting are available online. While in Washington DC, Vanessa also met with the North American Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption to prepare inputs for the upcoming United Nations meetings, and with Wendy Philleo, Executive Director for the Center for a New American Dream for joint project planning.