7-04-07, 9:02 am
How to confront climate change, considered the greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century, was the important focus of discussion at the 6th International Convention on Environment and Development which, at the close of this edition, was meeting in Havana attended by 800 experts from 30 Ibero-American, European and North American countries.
At the event, which featured five conferences, Achim Steiner, director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and Susan McDade, permanent representative of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Cuba, were scheduled to give master lectures.
The conferences taking place within the convention were: the 6th on Environmental Education; the 1st on Water Resources; the 1st on Ecosystems and Biodiversity; the 5th on Protected Areas, and the 3rd on Environmental Management.
During the convention, Doctor José Antonio Díaz-Duque, Cuban deputy minister of science, technology and the environment, was to present the National Environmental Strategy for 2007-2010. Experts from various CITMA agencies will address Cuba’s experience in eliminating substances that are harming the ozone layer; regulatory activity as a tool for protecting the environment, and scientific development for managing the environment and natural resources.
In addition, the results of Cuban-Venezuelan cooperation in preventing and mitigating global and local environmental problems were to be detailed, and a Chilean-Cuban meeting was scheduled to discuss experiences and lessons learned for the conservation of sea and coastal biodiversity.
Participants were also to discuss current trends in desertification and drought; the interrelationship between environment and society and its importance for sustainable management of ecosystems, and the sustainable development of Cuba’s mountain areas: 20 years of Plan Turquino, among other themes.
Likewise, products and services were to be presented at a parallel Fair/Exposition. Another feature is a display of drawings of Cuban endemic birds and macaws of the Americas, by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five serving unjust sentences in U.S. prisons for combating terrorism. From Granma International
