Impressions of IUCN Congress

Here we are at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. What a turn out. We are here with a possible 7,997 other participants.

With so many participants you have to be extremely organized and this Congress sure is because things have been moving smoothly. Carolee arrived on Saturday and Elise and I arrived on Sunday. We went to go register ourselves and get our badges late in the afternoon on Sunday right after arriving from the airport. There wasn't even a line-up, but there was one for trying to get into the opening ceremony and that was a long line-up.

The opening ceremony began at 5:00pm and it was a real treat, to say the least.  We had the pleasure of listening to the Director General of IUCN, the Princess of Thailand, the Prince Of Spain and Mohammed Yunnus, to name a few.

We also watched wonderful performances by Cirque Du Soleil.

The Congress has three official languages: English, French and Spanish and depending on the speaker the language can quickly switch from one of these into another. Lucky for many of us there are as many language headsets available as there are participants. 

Today we attended a workshop of Leaders for Nature and had the chance to meet other Young participants at an Event organized and hosted by IUCN and IISD called ‘Sailing to Barcelona.' Here we are with a couple of the people who came to the event.

It has been an exciting and busy start and we are looking forward to the days ahead!!!