NicaNet climate change delegation to Nicaragua: June 10-21, 2013

Note: I’ve travelled many times to Nicaragua, including the first environmental justice delegation after the 1998 Hurricane Mitch.  One of our findings from that delegation was that Hurricane Mitch’s devastation was exacerbated by climate change.  I’ve worked with Nicaragua Network and the head of this delegation, Paul Baker-Hernandez, over two decades now. I’ve stayed with Paul and his family in Managua and I’ve traveled overland from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast with Paul. I’m looking forward to hearing the report back and the findings. And if you go, ask Paul to sing “Comandante Che Guevara.”

-Orin Langelle for the GJEP Team

Nicaragua Network Announces:

Delegation to Nicaragua!
Climate Change, Water, and Sustainability
June 10 – 21, 2013
$950 (all lodging, meals, and in-country travel)

At the crossroads between North and South America, Nicaragua is astonishingly bio-diverse and is a regional leader in terms of energy from renewable resources. It is also on the frontline of climate change, suffering increasingly from desertification, flooding and crop devastation. And, this little country is also profoundly engaged in two projects that could re-shape the world.

The first, Hugo Chavez’s great legacy, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas, ALBA, is an international trading system based on justice, cooperation and caring for the Earth – a ready-functioning alternative to the dog-eat-dog depredations of catastrophic consumerism.

The second, a vast trans-isthmus canal, will bring post-Panamax behemoths plowing up the very heart of Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua), one of largest fresh water lakes in the world. For the Sandinista government, ALBA and the canal are vital to development; for others, the canal is absolute catastrophe.

This is an historic moment, for Nicaragua and for the planet. Nicaragua is also on the frontline of climate change, responding with imaginative people-based initiatives to increasing desertification,flooding and crop devastation.

Join us to visit communities developing local creative responses to climate change: cooking gas from dung, cleansing grey water, making dried-up rivers live again. And discuss with regular folks, experts and government officials the burning questions: ‘Whither the regional integration of ALBA now that Chavez is gone?’ and ‘The Grand Canal: Development or Disaster?’ ”

Highlights of the delegation will include:

*Visits to cities and rural areas outside Managua to see projects coping with climate change, including Leon, Masaya, Esteli, San Juan de Limay, El Cua and Apanas. 

*Projects to conserve rain water, small scale hydro electric plants to provide electricity to one or two small communities, sustainable agricultural projects, and solar, geothermal and/or wind energy projects. 

*The group will visit Granada and learn about the proposed inter-oceanic canal and talk to people for and against it. 

*A cultural night and a beach day at a turtle sanctuary will also be part of the itinerary. 

Fee of $950 includes all in-country travel, all meals, lodging, guide, translation, and materials. 

This delegation will be led by long-time Nicaragua resident Paul Baker-Hernandez, former Managua Coordinator of the Nicaragua Network and well-known environmental and peace activist. Paul is also a well known musician in Latin America’s New Song tradition.