International Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development in HAVANA, July 3-12

[magbana]

The 7th International Conference on the Environment
and Sustainable Development:
“Creating Awareness to Save the Planet”

Havana, CUBA
July 6 - 10, 2009

Including Extended Research Tour and Site Visits:
July 3 – 12, 2009

How might U.S. and Cuban environmental scientists work together, in this uncertain environmental and economic time,
toward hemispheric sustainability?

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We at ECO CUBA EXCHANGE invite you to participate in the 7th International Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development in Havana, Cuba, July 6 - 10, 2009 with an Optional Trip Extension before and after the Conference for further study and site visits, July 3 - 12, 2009.

Five Congresses:

Climate Change
Protected Areas
Ecosystems and Biodiversity Management
Environmental Policy and Management
Environmental Education and Action

Seven Colloquiums:

Agriculture, Bioenergy and Food Security
RISKS OF MINING AND OIL ACTIVITIES
Risks of Globalization and Roles for Civil Society
Eco-Health: Natural Disasters and Climate Change
Risk Assessment to Reduce Natural Disasters
Environmental Management
Environmental Law and Justice

(See more information on ECO CUBA EXCHANGE, the CONFERENCE and the official CONFERENCE BROCHURE here:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/sustainable/index.html)

Participants who wish to make presentations will contact the Cuban organizers directly. The contact information is available in the Conference Brochure, along with a detailed conference schedule at the above website.

The extended research tour will address both the environmental and the human aspects of Sustainable Development and allow for further meetings between conference participants and their Cuban colleagues, in accordance with the individual fields and interests of the participants.

For twenty years, Global Exchange has organized delegations of U.S. professionals and enthusiasts to study Cuba's internationally recognized struggles and successes in all fields of sustainable development. We look forward to assisting you as you explore Cuba’s environmental programs and how U.S. environmental scientists can learn from them as well as contribute to their research and support.

BACKGROUND

In its 2006 Sustainability Index Report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) determined that there is only one nation in the world that could be designated as living “sustainably,” and that nation is Cuba. In making this determination, the WWF utilized a combination of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (educational achievement; adequate food; clean, available water; access to health care, etc.) and the Ecological Footprint (or natural resource use per capita) of nations. The ideal, of course is a high HDI and a low Ecological Footprint. How did Cuba, a small island nation of 11,000,000 people, struggling with issues of poverty, the U.S. embargo, and devastating annual hurricanes, achieve this extraordinary distinction? And what can environmentalists in the U.S. learn from Cuba’s struggles and successes?

Throughout the 1960's, 70's and 80's, the Cuban people enjoyed the highest quality-of-life indices in Latin America, rivaling the United States and other countries of the developed world. Cuba was internationally praised as the one developing country that had eradicated hunger and the World Health Organization touted the Cuban health care system as a "model for the world." In 1989, Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the Overseas Development Council’s Physical Quality of Life Index, (low infant mortality rate, high life expectancy and close to 100% literacy).

After the setbacks of the 1990's, caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the U.S. Embargo, Cuba's quality of life indices did decline slightly for a few years, but then steadily improved. Denied their former imports of petroleum products and pharmaceuticals, Cuba’s 35,000 scientists, operating in 200 research institutes across the island, began to explore indigenous and more sustainable ways to meet their food, medicine and energy needs. Extraordinary innovations in organic agriculture and urban gardens earned Cuban agriculturists the Alternative Nobel Prize/Right Livelihood Award; advances in renewable energy including solar, wind, micro-hydro, biogas, and biomass, and island-wide energy efficiency campaigns earned the Cuban NGO Cuba Solar the UN Global 500 Award; and the development of alternative and traditional health care practices earned this Cuban program recognition by the United Nations Development Council, as one of the five most important projects in health care internationally.

Cuba was the one of the first nations to complete its biodiversity census after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992; 25% of its land is officially designated "Protected Areas;" it’s coral reefs are healthy (Jacques Cousteau used to say that whenever he was in despair about the state of the world's oceans, he thought of Cuba and his hope was rejuvenated); and Cuba is one of the few nations in the world to have increased its percentage of forested land in the past several decades.

Cuba seems to model, for the rest of the world, the possibility of obtaining a decent and equitable quality of life for its citizens, on a small national budget, while utilizing low levels of the planet's limited resources. Is this tiny island nation is showing us a possible way to live simply, healthfully, and sustainably on the Earth? And most importantly, how might U.S. and Cuban environmental scientists work together, in this uncertain environmental and economic time, toward hemispheric sustainability?

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The price of the 10 day research tour is $2000 – 2500 (To be determined, based on number of participants.)


Price includes: the RT flight from Miami; Cuban visa; conference fees; double occupancy accommodations (for single occupancy, add $300); two meals per day; translation; transportation; and program fees.

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For more information on ECO CUBA EXCHANGE, articles and videos on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in Cuba:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/sustainable/index.html

We look forward to hearing from you,

Pamela Montanaro, MS, and Michele Frank, MD
ECO CUBA EXCHANGE
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/sustainable/index.html
Global Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org
2017 Mission Street, Second Floor
San Francisco, CA 94110
http://www.globalexchange.org

Travel for ECO CUBA EXCHANGE is organized by a Cuba Travel Service Provider licensed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department. Conference and Research Tour participants must qualify under a general license or specific license as full-time professionals in a relevant field or as journalists. We will assist you in this process.

If you have questions about the Conference or the content of the Extended Tour, or wish to register, please contact:
Pamela Montanaro, [e-mail] or call 510-649-1052.

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Some additional websites and articles on the Environment and Sustainable Development in Cuba:

BIODIVERSITY AND PROTECTED REGIONS

“Deep Cuba” by Chris Clarke and Bill Belleville, Earth Island Journal
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/deep_cuba/

“Cuba Naturally” by Steve Winter, National Geographic, November 2003,
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0311/feature4/index.html

The Nature of Cuba by Eugene Linden, Smithsonian Magazine, May 2003
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/The_Nature_of_Cuba.html


RENEWABLE ENERGY

Five Articles by Laurie Stone, Solar Energy International on Renewable Energy in Cuba
http://www.solarenergy.org/resources/articles.html


SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

"Cuba's New Agricultural Revolution: The Transformation of Food Crop Production in Contemporary Cuba," by Laura Enriquez, May 2000 http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/271

"Cultivating Havana: Urban Agriculture and Food Security in the Years of Crisis,"
by Catherine Murphy, Feb 18, 1999 http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/273

"The Greening of Cuba," by Peter Rosset. ACLA Report on the Americas, 1994
http://www.interconnection.org/resources/cuba.htm


HEALTH CARE AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1733


URBAN SUSTAINABILITY

“The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil”
by Megan Quinn, Community Solutions, February 2006
http://globalpublicmedia.com/articles/657


EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL US-CUBA SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION

http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/cubaproject/cubaproject.htm#IPR

2007
"To Protect the Gulf of Mexico: U.S.-Cuba Cooperation on Marine Conservation," International Policy Report by Wayne Smith and Jennifer Schuett, December 2007

"Facing the Storms Together: CIP convenes first U.S. - Cuba hurricane conference," International Policy Report by Wayne Smith and Jennifer Schuett, August 2007

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Pam Montanaro
Eco Cuba Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/sustainable/index.html
Global Exchange
510-649-1052 home office
[e-mail] home office email

[Judi Lynn]

1. So good learning people from Global Exchange will be going. Thanks. n/t