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Event

JPAC Regular Session 12-03 and Workshop – Reducing Ecosystem Vulnerability, Responding to Community Needs: Tools and Information for North American Action

Merida, Yucatan, Mexico Fiesta Americana Mérida Paseo de Montejo 451, colonia Centro, 97000
Mexico

13 and 14 December, 2012

Public

North America’s ecosystems are under enormous stress—from a changing climate, the pollution emitted into the air and water, and the overconsumption of natural resources. This stress has already made many of our ecosystems vulnerable to irreversible change, with direct impacts on the human communities that depend on those ecosystems.

This workshop will take a close look at what makes ecosystems and our communities vulnerable to a changing environment, and where in North America the threats to them are most extreme. Participants will gain hands-on experience with a range of new tools for assessing vulnerability, mapping environmental changes and stressors, and improving the health of vulnerable human communities.

Working with North American experts and members of the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee, they will also identify actions for individuals, communities and governments to improve these tools and their dissemination, especially for the rural and indigenous communities most affected by environmental change.

Flamingos in their habitat

Recorded Webcast

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Eduardo Batllori Sampedro, Irasema Coronado, Martín Gutiérrez Lacayo
Opening and introductory remarks

Francisco Padrón Gil
Presentation of objectives, methodology and participants

Elizabeth Smith, Evelia Rivera Arriaga, Carl Sidney, Albert Miller
Ecosystem vulnerability

Orlando Cabrera, Mario Rivero
Presentation: Framework for capacity building to improve the health of vulnerable communities in North America

Karen Richardson
Group exercise: Tools to map and identify vulnerable systems (natural and human) and to estimate future change

Francisco Padrón Gil
Group work

NAC and GAC
Report by representatives of the national and governmental advisory committees

Agenda

Thursday, 13 December 2012

8:00–9:00
Salón Yucatán 1

Registration of Participants

9:00–9:30

Opening and introductory remarks

Eduardo Batllori Sampedro
Secretary of Urban Development and Environment of the State of Yucatán

Irasema Coronado
Executive Director, Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)

Martín Gutiérrez Lacayo
JPAC Chair for 2012

9:30–9:45

Presentation of objectives, methodology and participants

Francisco Padrón Gil
Director, IMAC

9:45–10:05

Keynote presentation

Elizabeth Smith
Associate National Program Director, Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program, US EPA
Download Presentation

10:05–10:30

Question and answer period

10:30–11:30

Presentations: The impact of increased ecosystem vulnerability on the livelihoods and health of communities in North America

Evelia Rivera Arriaga
Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development of the State of Campeche

Chief Carl Sidney
Chief Executive Officer of the Teslin Tlingit Council Yukon

Albert W. Miller
Commissioner, Jeff Davis County

11:30–11:45

Break

11:45–13:30

Dialog between panelists and public on their perceptions of increased ecosystem vulnerability on the livelihoods and health of communities in North America

13:30–14:30
Salones Yucatán 3 & 4

Lunch [provided]

14:30–14:50

Presentation: Framework for capacity building to improve the health of vulnerable communities in North America

Orlando Cabrera
CEC Program Manager, Air Quality and PRTR
Download Presentation

14:50–15:00

Question and answer period

15:00–16:15

Group work to generate feedback on the framework document

  • What are the opportunities and the most effective ways to distribute the Framework document to all of North America?
  • What are the potential applications (tools, guides, etc.) of the Framework?
  • What tools are needed to reduce human vulnerability to chemical pollution?
  • What are the challenges that tool developers may face with the creation of these tools?
16:15–16:30

Break

16:30–18:00

Group exercise: Tools to map and identify vulnerable systems (natural and human) and to estimate future change

Group work:

  • Geographic areas undergoing large amounts of change
  • Factors generating change
  • Factors that can already be measured and factors for which data are needed
  • Different ways to integrate stressors and conditions
  • Ways to visualize possible future conditions

Karen Richardson
Program Manager, Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems
Download Presentation

18:00

Wrap-up by Francisco Padrón Gil

Wrap-up by Francisco Padrón Gil

9:00–10:30

Group work: The main objective of the session will be to develop proposals for actions, to strengthen the ability of North Americans to identify vulnerable ecosystems and human communities, including an assessment of access to current information and needs to improve access. Proposals to include actions for individuals and for local and federal governments.

10:30–10:45

Break

10:45–12:45

Submission of proposals for action, by rapporteurs and facilitator

12:45–13:00

Conclusions, by facilitator and JPAC Chair

13:00–13:15

Report by representatives of the national and governmental advisory committees (NAC and GAC)

13:15–13:30

Update on JPAC work and administrative matters

  1. Election of JPAC Chair for 2013
  2. JPAC priorities for 2013 and next meetings
13:30

Closing

13:30–14:30
Salones Yucatán 3 & 4

Lunch [provided]

Contact

Marcela Orozco
Head of Unit, Advisory Groups and Private Sector Engagement
(514) 350-4305