Green?

The Members' Assembly of the IUCN, second phase of the World Conservation Congress has started this morning. Candidates standing for election or re-election on the IUCN Council are giving their respective speeches to the Plenary. Since most speeches are...not very inspiring I thought I'd come back to my blog.

Viviana Urani from Clic-Clac who's here with us handling the logistics of our Pew team just showed me a Made in China plastic handband the Canadian Wildlife Federation is distributing in support of their Water under Fire campaign. Viviana asks me if that sort of junk is in line with IUCN's Green Congress concept and objectives.

Between now and Monday negotiations over a number of key draft motions are likely to be hectic. As they require 50% of the votes in both the Governments and NGO Chamber of the IUCN, these resolutions reflect the lowest common denominator of Governments and NGOs. Of course, with my friends from Pew and from the rest of the environmental community, we're here to help lift the bar.