SeaTrust Institute and NAB Contribute to RIO+20 Zero Draft Document - March 2012
SeaTrust Institute's Dr. Lynn Wilson and Nurses Across the Borders' Peters Omoragbon team to present a joint statement on the future of sustainability and the potentials for RIO+20.
See the full draft text on the UNCSD website or download from http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=423&menu=20.
SEATRUST INSTITUTE PRESENTS at the UNFCCC November/December, 2011
SeaTrust Institute's Dr. Lynn Wilson will present an official Side Event at COP17, the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban South Africa on November 30, 2011. The event, Health as a Driver of Climate Change Policy - Local Efforts: Global Action, highlights catalytic adaptation projects by the South/North NGO partnership Nurses Across the Borders (NAB), Nigeria and SeaTrust Institute. These projects build local capacity for adaptation to climate change by training local health practitioners to undertake local-to-global actions to increase the awareness of health as the universal social, economic and environmental driver for changes in climate policy.
In 2011,NAB's CEO, Peters Omoragbon visited SeaTrust Institute's offices in Olympia, Washington to explore a more active working relationship between the two organizations by on the ground capacity buiding in locations throughout the world to augment their UNFCCC partnership as Co-Chairs of the Coalition on Health and Environment: Climate Change Initiative. As a result, the partnership between the two NGOs has grown and strengthened to include a strong Disaster Risk Reduction component. Together with Mr. Omoragbon, Dr. Wilson demonstrates in this Side Event how, by empowering health professionals in low adaptive capacity areas, a South/North partnership with Nurses Across the Borders links research and capacity building with global action to build momentum for health as the universal societal and environmental driver for climate policy.
Global Nurses Mentorship Program- October/November, 2011
As the focal point and official United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) delegate to the UNFCCC for SeaTrust Institute, Dr. Lynn Wilson is honored to been invited by the African Union to join Peters Omoragbon of Nurses Across the Borders in hosting a day at the African Pavilion in Durban, South Africa at the upcoming global climate change meetings, COP17. On November 29th, Dr. Wilson and Mr. Omoragbon will hold a discussion about the role that the partnership Nurses Across the Borders and SeaTrust Institute play in Climate Change Disaster Risk Reduction, highlighting the complementation applications of human health in diaster risk reduction strategies. Panels and presentations with policy and medical experts mark this event.
Global Nurses Mentorship Program- October/November, 2011
The Global Nurses Mentorship Program is part of the partnership established by SeaTrust Institute with Nurses Across the Borders Humanitarian Initative. Mentors are working nurses and midwives who provide nurses from developing countries with knowledge and collaboration on health related issues through a secure virtual site at SeaTrust Institute.
Mentors support includes training in climate change and health connections, scenarios for supporting decisions and a variety of resources and networking connections in health and environmental issues. Mentor membership levels for students are at a reduced fee and include the ability to shadow a working nurse mentor and access to resources.
Mentees receive one-on-one mentorship matches with nurses a variety of clinical settings and access the the mentorship network of services. At present, over 1,000 African nurses are awaiting mentors in our program.
Dr. Hugh Montgomery:Climate, Health & Security
Professor Hugh Montgomery on Human Health and Performance speaking to OneClimate at The Health and Security Perspectives of Climate Change conference, October 17 2011
Interview with OneClimate (click to view)United Nations Climate Change Conference, SB34 - June 10, 2011
SeaTrust Institute and Nurses Across the Borders hosted an event during the 34th sessions of the SBSTA and the SBI, the second part of the 16th session of the AWG-KP and the second part of the 14th session of the AWG-LCA held at the Hotel Maritim, Bonn. Dr. Lynn Wilson and Pastor Peters Omoragbon team again to present a proposal for participation in the 2011 UNFCCC negotiations for researchers, practitioners and anyone who believes that health is a binding issue in creating consensus on climate change actions.
Consultative Forum for the Coalition on Health and Environment: Climate Change Initiative Presented by SeaTrust Institute and Nurses Across the Borders Humanitarian Initiative. The focus of this event is to provide a focus and venue for global colleagues, parties and stakeholders to work together throughout 2011-2012 to craft innovative ways to give health its proper place in the global climate change discussions. Key to this effort is involving Ministers of Health and recruiting their participation at COP17 in Durban, South Africa in December, 2012.
Indigenous Tourism to Inform Marine Policy - May 16, 2011
Dr. Lynn Wilson, SeaTrust Institute Executive Director and CEO together with visiting scholar Dr. Diane Lee from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia gave a joint presentation on May 16 entitled “Indigenous Tourism to Inform Marine Policy” at the International Marine Conservation Congress, IMCC2, in Victoria, BC. The talk outlined the concepts behind the project SeaTrust Institute is developing with tribal and educational partners to interweave western science with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in specialized tours in conjunction with Pacific Northwest Native Americans. Dr. Lee compared the Australian experience with WAITOC to show examples of global indigenous tourism; Dr. Wilson compared the Northwest and the Australian aboriginal policy frameworks to illustrate areas of uniqueness and areas in which the SeaTrust Institute indigenous interpretation program could be replicated with other indigenous peoples. IMCC is the marine section for the Society for Conservation Biology.
"The Message" by Charles Elliott • The IMCC2 logo depicts a human reaching out to a killer whale. The raven in the hair of the person is a messenger, carrying news from one place to the next. In the flukes and tail of the orca there are two seabirds, representing all other life in the oceans. The hand of the person is reaching for friendship with the creatures of the ocean, and also expressing a symbol of dialogue.
Pastor Peters Omoragbon - March 15, 2011
SeaTrust Institute is honored to welcome special guest Pastor Peters Omoragbon on March 19-April 3, 2011. Peters is CEO of Nurses Across the Borders Humanitarian Initiative (NABHI) from Nigeria.
Peters visits the Pacific Northwest to work with SeaTrust Institute on our capacity building project for local medical professionals in Nigeria and around the world on climate change adaptation strategies, disease surveillance and policy related to climate and health. Through incorporating other African and international organizational and governmental interest that this work including climate change issues related to women and violence and policy applications of climate and medical science, local projects for developing countries attend to specific regional climate change and health concerns.
During his two week visit, we formalize our joint 2011-2012 approach as NGO partners on climate and health in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Our collaborative presentations will be shown at the intersessional United Nations climate meetings in Bonn, Germany in June; new developments will be highlighted at COP 17 at both an official UNFCCC Side Event and through the Coalition on Health and Environment: Climate Change Initiative presentation on health and climate to negotiators in Durban, South Africa.
It will not be all work, however. We arranged a series of special events to introduce Peters to our ways here in the coastal Pacific Northwest. While it has been suggested that our more reserved culture here in the cold northern climes pales next to Sub-Saharan African hospitality, we shall do our best to rise to the challenge.
We warmly (and effusively) welcome our friend and partner, Peters Omoragbon!
Dr. Diane Lee - March 15, 2011
Visiting scholar Dr. Diane Lee arrived in early February from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. Diane will be assisting us throughout the year with developing a program in nature based tourism and indigenous interpretation. Within a few short weeks of her arrival, she had already prepared and submitted a preliminary proposal for a co-operative approach to work with the SeaTrust Institute; University of Washington; Murdoch University (Australia) and an indigenous coastal community in Washington State.
Diane is an accomplished scholar, lecturer and researcher with over 20 years work in tourism and indigenous peoples in various parts of the world. We are extremely fortunate to have access to her expertise in working with local tribes and coastal communities to develop a business strategy approach for Marine Based Tourism that provides traditional interpretation and environmental data collection opportunities for tourists, with analytical support from NGO and academic capabilities. The focus of the plan will be on sustainable development that addresses the triple bottom line of socio/cultural capacity building, environmental maintenance and economic viability (people, planet, prosperity).
Having previously spent time here in the Pacific Northwest, Diane is an “old hand” with our customs but will lend some Western Australian spice to our ways.
We are looking forward to a fabulous year together. It is our great pleasure to welcome Diane!
SeaTrust Institute at the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention - Feb 28, 2011
From Cancun (COP16) to Durban (COP17)
Progress made during the 2010 climate change meetings in Cancun, Mexico included expanding the audience for health as a critical factor to consider in all aspects of climate change. The World Health Organization (WHO) organized three briefings under the informal “Friends of Public Health” to catalyze participation on health issues in the negotiation venue and participated in several formal events highlighting health issues in climate change negotiations. SeaTrust Institute and Nurses Across the Borders organized and presented a special UN Side Event " Human Health: The Issue of/for Climate Change Adaptation Strategies" during which speakers from Africa, the Europe and the US explored how scientific knowledge can better be used to support practitioners in climate change adaptation actions, highlighting malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. An important outcome of COP16 was the formalization of the Health and Environment Coalition Climate Change Initiative. The Coalition begins work now in the run up to COP17 in Durban, South Africa in 2011.
Co-Chaired by SeaTrust Institute’s Dr. Lynn Wilson and African based Nurses Across the Borders’s Peters Omoragbon, the Coalition’s goal is to help bring health to the heart of the climate change negotiations. It will do this by assembling and presenting the research and mobilizing an active global community who believe that health is a key organizing point around which climate decisions need to be considered. SeaTrust Institute's primary role is to coordinate and lead a research team to gather and review studies, current projects and published research on the linkages between climate change and health and to liaise with the World Health Organization and other organizations to ensure that those studies reach the negotiators in South Africa as they consider the human health effects of their policy decisions. Nurses Across the Borders leads the effort to invite key global leaders in health, climate and finance to come together on this important issue, support the role of health, and attract ministerial level attendance from health at key UNFCCC meetings.
This Coalition's mission is closely aligned with SeaTrust Institute's Consortium on Climate Change and Population Health which is comprised of working researchers who will collaborate over the next several years to build new knowledge on health and climate change.