Concurring with the mandatory and urgent actions needed to confront the ecological and environmental effects of global climate change, produced by the emission of green-house gases (GG), the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation meetings will initiate a carbon-neutral campaign. Through the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management Ltd (http://www.eccm.uk.com), and the generous financial support of the Environmental Ministry of Mexico (SEMARNAT), we have calculated that the Morelia meeting will liberate to the atmosphere 1070 CO₂ tonnes. This amount accounts for plane and terrestrial travels of delegates, as well as the electricity and waste materials that will be consumed in hotels and in the meeting activities (for details click here). Practically all of these emissions will be due to the delegate travels (99.8%).

To be carbon-neutral, we have the goal of offsetting 535 t CO₂ in Mexico and 535 t CO₂ in Ecuador. In each country, we have identified certified carbon sequestering programs based on tree plantations, agro forestry, and restoration activities employing rain forest native species, conducted by local people and supervised by academic institutions.  In Mexico the “Scole té” project is developing such programs at several rural localities of the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca (click here for details). Based on the cost of CO₂ sequestering of these projects in Mexico (US $6/t, $3,212.9) and Ecuador ($14.3/t), we need $10,836 to accomplish the offsetting goal. Given that we expect 800 delegates at the Morelia ATBC meeting, we are asking each delegate to donate carbon offsetting fees as follow: $20 US dollars for delegates coming from outside Mexico and $5 for locals. We understand that not all delegates could donate the carbon-neutral fee. Therefore, we are encouraging delegates with the possibility of contributing with donations to consider these fees as a minimum. Payment for carbon-offsets by those attending the Morelia meeting will be voluntary this year, but the ATBC leadership will propose that carbon-offsetting be adopted as normal practice for future meetings.  ATBC members attending the plenary session in Morelia will have an opportunity to vote on this new initiative.   

Additionally, accompanying this carbon-neutral initiative the meeting organizers at Morelia are making their best effort to reduce as much as possible the use of non-recyclable materials. For example, you will receive meeting kits made locally with natural products and with artisan hands, and locally produced coffee mugs will be washed.

 

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atbc2007@oikos.unam.mx Tel:+52-(55) 56232706 Fax:+(52)-(55) 5623-2719