Land Dialogue: Pandemic, social unrest and war echoing in the Amazon

Over two years into the pandemic, its unwelcome impacts stemming have become apparent, particularly for tropical rainforests. A variety of factors, from decreases in ecotourism, to spikes in illegal fishing and wildlife trafficking and opportunistic criminals taking advantage of COVID-19-distracted governments to ramp up illegal logging activity, have had adverse impacts on Indigenous Peoples and local communities, who are vital in maintaining healthy rainforests. Overall, these activities have led to considerably higher tropical rainforest deforestation than in previous years, with the pandemic playing a part. More recently, the war in Ukraine has caused serious disruption to the global timber trade and these impacts are echoing in the Amazon rainforest.

This webinar will thus look at how global events are impacting the Amazon region, but will place a specific focus on solutions and what needs to change.

Register here!

* Webinar will be available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese*

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit un-ngocrip.net. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit csr-sustainability.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Language and Languages, please email the co-chairs at fmhult@umbc.edu or tonkin@hartford.edu. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

Stockholm +50: A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All – Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity

On 2 and 3 June 2022, a crucial international environmental meeting will be held in Stockholm, Sweden. Anchored in the Decade of Action, under the theme “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity,” this high-level meeting will follow months of consultations and discussions with individuals, communities, organizations and governments around the world. A one-day preparatory meeting was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 28 March 2022.

Stockholm+50 will commemorate the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and celebrate 50 years of global environmental action. By recognizing the importance of multilateralism in tackling the Earth’s triple planetary crisis – climate, nature, and pollution – the event aims to act as a springboard accelerate the implementation of the UN Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, including the 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement on climate change, the post-2020 global Biodiversity Framework, and encourage the adoption of green post-COVID-19 recovery plans.

Registration information for civil society: stockholm50.global/participate/accreditation-registration

For more information & the full program, please visit the event site: stockholm50.global

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

River Missionaries, Deforestation, and COVID-19

Rodrigo Pedroso is a Brazilian journalist who reports for CNN. As part of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund, his project “River Missionaries: The Catholic Counteroffensive in the Amazon” explores the dynamics and work of Catholic missionaries in an area where evangelical Christians and the theology of prosperity are booming alongside deforestation.

In this conversation, Pedroso will share the stories of parishes struggling to survive and missionaries who serve hard-to-reach villages in the Amazon region. He will be joined by Niyanta Spelman, founder and CEO of Rainforest Partnership, and the two will discuss the role of religious communities in combatting deforestation, as well as how Catholic, Indigenous, and local communities in the Amazon have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The dialogue will be moderated by Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith.

This event is part of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Register here: https://georgetown.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kY_8mGHbTz6K3KNAEX3kYQ

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.

ESD and Climate Emergency: Bend the curve for climate change

UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development – Pre-conference workshops

Since COVID-19 outbreak, the world’s attention has been focused on the pandemic and the coordination of the emergency response to the crisis. Meanwhile, major sustainable development challenges, including the greatest challenge of our times – climate change – remain unresolved.

Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests and farming livestock are responsible for the rise of the earth’s temperature. The only way to counter climate change is to transform our lifestyles and establish sustainable patterns of consumption and production worldwide.

Education has been recognized as a crucial element to counter climate change and is one of the priority areas of Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) because it has the power to transform the way people feel, think and behave. Education contributes to raising awareness on the physical mechanisms and the emergency of climate change and its impacts. Education empowers people to take action by promoting values, problem solving and critical thinking skills.

But, concretely, how can this happen? How can Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) contribute to urgent action for green and sustainable societies in light of the climate emergency?

This workshop will raise the parallels between the pandemic and climate emergency and discuss how the lessons learned from the public response to the Covid-19 crisis can help ‘flatten the curve of climate change,’ in particular through ESD’s contribution. This installment will also address the aforementioned question looking at examples from youth action and from formal education, and will review some recent data.

Register here: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C482BnaSQVWNpW5f5EYIRQ

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

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