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Email Oliver: oliver@intoorg.org

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GALICIA December 2013

I spent 2 days with our INTO member, Tesouros de Galicia (T deG), in the company of its President, Javier Losada, last week. Lots of meetings on the first day, notably with the President of La Coruna Province, Sr Diego Calvo Pouso and his team where I gave a presentation on the NT (EW&NI) and INTO. A newspaper report followed the next day. Click here to read it.
During the afternoon, a visit to a section of the Camino, the Pilgrims’ Way from La Coruna to Santiago de Compostela. This particular route is known as the English Way as the English Pilgrims arrived at the ports of La Coruna or Ferrol, further north, before embarking on the walk. T de G are keen to promote the heritage along the route, ensure it is maintained and form links with the British public to encourage more to visit and use the walk .
An evening meeting took place with the Mayor of the nearby town of Artexia to discuss a new balneario or spa hotel and the principles of sustainable tourism, particularly to the coastline around the municipality.
The following day we visited a museum associated with a nearby Iron Age Hill Fort which we went on to see. Stretching over 12 ha it is certainly an impressive site though, sadly, marred by the proximity of an enormous electricity station with associated pylons right on the boundary and cables crossing the fort !
From there we journeyed to Finisterre with another representative of T de G, saw the fishing museum in an old castle in the village and then on to the Lighthouse, accompanied by a Councillor for Finisterre Council. A newspaper article on this visit is also attached.
Back to the hotel in La Coruna where I was staying and a long evening meeting with Javier to discuss the visit, the forthcoming face-to face- meeting of the Executive Committee, to be hosted by T de G next September and, in advance of which, a fundraising walk for INTO by members of the Executive Committee, the Secretariat and others from Galicia and Britain
Oliver Maurice
10 Dec 2013

November 18, 2013 COP 19

Although INTO is not represented this year at the COP – the first Simon Molesworth and I have missed since COP 15 – we are receiving a number of daily bulletins from different organisations with whom we have worked and are working closely.
Chief of these is the Loss and Damage Group which was formed at COP 18 last year in Doha when 46 organisations, including INTO, signed an Open Letter to Ministers seeking a new framework to adddress loss and damage to include consideration of non-economic losses, including loss of culture, ecosystems, indigenous knowledge and territory.
The Group is headed by WWF, Action Aid and Care International. In the last few days, these organisations have drafted a further letter which will be presented to Ministers when they start to arrive this week in Warsaw. It is a global call for action for the establishment at the Warsaw COP of an international mechanism for loss and damage. It too has been signed on behalf of INTO by Bill Turner, Vice Chair, and myself. Loss and Damage has now become a key focus of the talks and is highly relevant to our work.
The text of the letter includes a number of issues that are highlighted in the Entebbe Declaration. As a consequence I have forwarded the Declaration to all members of the Loss and Damage Group.

Now Over 100 Non-Governmental Organisations have signed the “Stop The Madness” letter. Read it here in PDF” lettre.

ALSO available “ECO-newsletter” CAN-International’s ECO Newsletter-Warsaw-Nov 19

Climate Vulnerable Forum

20 developing countries participating in the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) are uniting behind a plan to push for international progress and to lift ambition through to 2015. The event will share the two-year Action Plan targeting progress in six different key multi-lateral sectors of international affairs and include a Q&A with high-level panelists.

Currently Chaired by Costa Rica, since 2009 the CVF has been an active mechanism for cooperation and knowledge building on climate change policy issues – advancing the common cause of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet.

More Information
Please contact: matthew.mckinnon@undp.org, / linyi.baidal@gmail.com / info@thecvf.org    See also: www.thecvf.org/cop19