mcalderon

Youth Statement on Stakeholder Engagement

mcalderon October 10, 2012 0 Comments

by Mariana Calderon During the opening ceremonies of the COP, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network was scheduled to deliver a youth intervention, but, like many other observers, we were pushed so far down the schedule by lengthy State speeches that our moment to speak never came. So, we decided to create our own opportunity. I spent much of today drafting a statement on item 5.4, Engagement of...

Day 2 of Working Group 2: Financing Biodiversity

mcalderon October 10, 2012 0 Comments

How to finance biodiversity, or, how parties will talk about it for a very long time by Mariana Calderon Working Group II -- Financial Resources and Mechanism: Day two of COP 11 to the Convention on Biological Diversity--my first day at the conference venue--opened rather earnestly, with scores of delegates still registering, picking up their complementary messenger bags and water bottles, and...

The Point of It All

mcalderon June 25, 2012 0 Comments

Point of No Return By Mariana Calderon Sitting back in a bed in a hostel in Rio de Janeiro, trying to regain some sense of normalcy through regular sleep and regular meals, I hardly dare to think back on the last two weeks - or the last 20 years - just yet. Some time to recover, please. Unfortunately, time is something we don’t have much of anymore. In the halls of the Rio Centro convention...

Tweeting, Blogging, Shouting, Learning

mcalderon June 5, 2012 0 Comments

By Mariana Calderon Recently, in an online conversation about expectations for Rio+20, and the point of it all, Nathan Thanki was informed that “nothing of any worth” would happen at the conference in June. Entirety of the conversation, arguments and responses aside, I was struck by a simple truth in Nathan’s reply: “We’re students, and so place value in learning.” We are students....

Vagabonds and Adventurists!

mcalderon March 21, 2012 0 Comments

By: Mariana Calderon As part of the Major Group of Children and Youth and as a student studying international policy, I am very interested in what my role at international negotiations can be. In this respect, I am just one of a very large number of individuals, organizations, and groups – Major Groups, that is. There are nine major groups recognized by Agenda 21, and...