 Download Issue as PDF (3MB)
Inside this Issue: Yale Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy Half-Way Through and Running on Empty The UN Watercourses Convention Sanitation Reaches the End of the Beginning (Perhaps) Environmental Champions League Reconstruction with Transformation: Changing the Way We Rebuild |
 |
Monday, May 12, 2008Yale Conference on Environmental Governance and DemocracyOver 100 academics and practitioners came together over the weekend at a conference organized by Yale University and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to discuss participatory approaches to environmental governance. Organizers felt that bringing together a diverse set of practitioners that are implementing various methods of public participation in environmental governance at various levels with relevant academics, would produce new and innovative ideas for research and initiate the development of a network of like-minded individuals to advance the field. In various sessions the Conference addressed questions such as: “How do institutional settings affect the inclusiveness of participation and recognition of diverse forms of knowledge?” and, “To what extent are the capacities of civil society organizations sufficient to ensure consistent, equal and effective public participation?” In the session on ‘International Environmental Governance’, participants discussed the successes and failures of intergovernmental bodies, such as the CSD, and tried to identify ways in which they could be improved. The Conference organizers will provide a summary report to interested delegates at a side event scheduled for Tuesday at 1:15 in Conference Room C. |