SERES Facilitator joins Vulnerable Central America COP 22 planning meeting in Honduras

Berta Cáceres, a 44-year old environmental activist from Honduras, was tragically murdered in March 2016 for her environmental activism. Throughout her life and in her death, she brought to light on a global scale the deep environmental and social challenges that continue on in Central America. Central America, a resource-rich and beautiful land stretching from Guatemala to Panamá, is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, facing increasingly extreme and unprecedented weather events that are causing major impacts on human and biological systems, such as drought, water loss, soil degradation, and crop loss. Community leaders here feel that these issues were not sufficiently taken into account during COP 21 in Paris. They met in July in Berta’s honour to discuss ongoing challenges and to plan actions to present a unified voice at COP 22 this coming November in Marrakesh, Morocco. What is Central America's position? Indigenous and non-indigenous leaders convened on July 12 & 13, 2016 at the 7th Vulnerable Central America, United for Life meeting called "Berta Cáceres, Vive" in Honduras. On the heels of yet another murder in early July of one of Berta's associates, Lesbia Janeth Urquía, attendance by Berta's daughter Olivia Marcela Zuniga and her mother Austra Bertha showed that their deaths should not be in vain. We agreed to continue to fight with unity as a region to protect human rights and build climate change resilience for present and future generations. The meeting brought together over 200 representatives from organizations around Central America, including the Mesoamerican Campaign Climate Justice Indigenous Council, the Regional Coordination for Risk Management, the Honduran Alliance on Climate Change, the Nicaraguan Alliance on Climate Change, the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations of Honduras and the Latin American Observatory of Sustainability. Together they have formed “Vulnerable Central America, United for Life”, an inter-organizational group that has gathered since 2009 to discuss issues and take action on change. I travelled to Honduras to attend the meeting as a youth representative from El Salvador. In Central America, the youth population is very large and faces many social, economic and political challenges, but we have a vision of a sustainable and equitable future in which people can live and develop. It is within this vision that many are working from our communities with our people and attracting more young to join our work. We want to take actions to achieve a larger, real and chain impact. What will be the actions coming out of Central America? The forum's objective during the two-day meeting was to review the Central American position on key issues addressed in global negotiations related to climate change, integrated risk management and sustainable development, in reference to The Action Framework agreement of COP 21 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They aimed to develop proposals that can be presented to the governments of the Central American countries who will attend COP 22. The voice of our youth was heard with power (see video). Some of the young representatives of organizations and indigenous peoples participated in different working groups where we shared ideas and proposals to address different political and social situations. We also discussed international trade and resource extraction projects that endanger nature as our main livelihood and add pressure to the communities most affected by the current climate change effects. The resulting actions that were proposed utilized the social and environmental knowledge of local and indigenous peoples, science, and academia in determining the best ways to begin meeting the SDGs, like reducing inequalities, enabling peace and justice, and protecting land and water. In coordination with national and international governments, the leaders hope to work towards sustainable development for future human and biological environments. What are the next steps for "Vulnerable Central America: United for Life"? Leaders agreed that actions that are taken at the community level and beyond will be monitored and shared amongst all organizations within the forum, so that everyone involved will share the steps and achievements in each country in preparation for COP 22.  You can read more about the specific action requests made to the UNFCCC in 2015, outlined in their position paper. The next meeting of Central America’s newly formed “Central Vulnerable, united for life!” is set for next year in Guatemala, to continue defining the Central American position in the larger global perspective, and deciding on actions in adapting to and building resilience in all populations for climate change. Surely, Berta would have been a strong force within these meetings. We must hope that her family will find some peace in knowing that her life continues to inspire unified movement towards protecting the earth and humanity. By C. Recínos SERES Youth Facilitator and Change-maker El Salvador, Central America Additional Resources Foro Centroamérica Vulnerable Unida por la Vida on Facebook Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030