GM organizes student seminar on international environmental governance

A student seminar on International Environmental Governance, was co-organized by Christian Mersmann, Managing Director of the GM and Nana Künkel, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) Climate Protection Programme for Developing Countries, on 16-17 November 2007 and 8-9 February 2008, at the Free University of Berlin.

 

The event provided an interesting opportunity for the GM to interact with students on environmental governance issues, and promote awareness of UNCCD-related matters, including the linkages between land degradation and climate change.  The seminar highlighted the far-reaching socio-economic costs of natural resource degradation, including forced migration, and stressed that UNCCD implementation is critical to wider sustainable development efforts.

 

Christian Mersmann presented an overview of the GM’ s work at country level, its response to the new international financial architecture, and the impact of its strategic programmes, including Climate Change and Compensation for Environmental Services, in increasing investment flows for sustainable land management (SLM). 

 

Teamwork and consensus building were strongly encouraged, with working groups negotiating on pertinent issues, presenting recommendations for more effective UNCCD implementation in light of the 10-Year Strategic Plan, and making proposals for enhanced coordination between the Rio Conventions. The students identified adaptation to climate change as a key issue in this regard due to the importance of SLM to adaptation efforts, and discussed the potential for integrating adaptation into National Action Plans (NAPs) for UNCCD implementation.

The GM values engagement with the younger generation highly, and looks forward to organizing similar events in the near future.

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