Guyana Shield Festival

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Dear addressees,

In the past months you have been approached by the Guiana Shield Facility (GSF), the secretariat of which is housed at the UNDP Office in Georgetown, Guyana, either directly by Patrick Chesney or by me, on behalf of the Facility, to participate and speak at the two events my institute has been asked to help organise for the Facility on 4 and 5 November 2015 in Brussels.

The reason for these events is to discuss funding options for the  GSF Work Programme 2016 – 2020, in draft attached. This draft is based upon the discussions and outcome of a workshop, held in March this year in Georgetown, and underlies the Donors’ Roundtable on the 5^th. A programme for the day is attached.

The Roundtable is preceded on the 4^th by, what we have dubbed, the “Festival”, as the tremendous ecological and cultural significance of the Guiana Shield ecoregion and the stunning beauty of its landscapes deserves a celebration which it has not yet received very frequently, so far.

Also, we would like to profile the importance of the Guiana Shield with its 270 million hectares of mostly intact tropical rainforest, storing 10% of terrestrial carbon, for the upcoming Paris Climate Summit, the COP21, from 30 November till 11 December.

The proposed programme for the  Festival is also attached.

Please note that in the programme of the 4^th, at 16.30, there is room for the representatives from the Guiana Shield countries to (briefly) mention a project or development in their respective countries, which they think should be shared with the audience. It is optional, but everybody would definitely like to hear from the countries!

The Festival starts at 15.30 with coffee and registration and then officially begins at 16.00 hrs. As you see in the attachment, the event will be held in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Rue d’ Idalie 35, in Brussels.

In the room of the hotel there will be tables for information material. It would be helpful if those who would like to bring information material would make that known to me and/or Warmolt Lameris (wlameris@envirosecurity.org `), who will be in time in the room to help organise the information stands and the technical equipment for the presentations.

The Radisson Blu hotel is also the hotel where participants from outside Brussels will be staying.

The next day, Thursday 5 November, the Donors’ Roundtable will be held at the building of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), a brief walk from the hotel, but as all European and EU  venues in Brussels there are rather strict security procedures to enter the EESC building.

Those who will join the meeting on the 5^th, please provide us with the following details, at your soonest convenience, but not later than Monday

2 November as we have to provide the list then to the EESC.

- Name

- Surname

- Nationality

- Date of Birth

- Number of ID document

NB: For privacy and practical reasons, please send this information to Warmolt Lameris only (wlameris@envirosecurity.org).

Many thanks in advance!

We will walk those staying in the Radisson Hotel  to the EESC. For those coming from elsewhere a map of the EESC location is attached.

Please also note that if you know of other people interested to join on the 4^th and/or the 5^th then listed above, they are most welcome!

It would be good if we would receive their names in advance, so we can properly welcome them and if they would like to join the Roundtable on the 5^th to provide us with the above-mentioned security details.

So far for the moment.

Do not hesitate to ask any question to me or Warmolt you may have.

We all look forward to welcome you in Brussels and we wish those coming from the Guiana Shield region or from other far-away places, safe travels to the Capital of the EU!

Kind regards,

Wouter Veening

Senior Advisor

Guiana Shield Facility

www.guianashield.org

President

Institute for Environmental Security

www.envirosecurity.org