Upcoming Conference Addresses Environmental Concerns along U.S./Mexico Border

There’s more that connects the San Diego and Tijuana region than the border crossing used by thousands every day. For years, many organizations have come together to address environmental issues that are commonly shared across border lines.

Urban streams on both sides of the border have had incredibly high concentrations of contaminants that have flowed to wetlands and beaches in San Diego. Pollution poses immediate hazards like raw sewage and polluted rainwater that flows across the international border. There’s also concern that local groundwater quantity and dependence on imported water has declined, as well as increased erosion and flood dangers, air pollution, and a reduction in the amount of safe, open and green areas.

The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego has convened environmental experts, policymakers, scientists and community leaders for the first bi-national conference to address these issues. “Greening Borders: Cooperation, Security and Diplomacy,” is from Nov. 18-20 at the School of Peace Studies and Tijuana River Estuary Visitor Center.

The goal of the conference is to:
 
• explore trans-boundary water management approaches from around the world to inspire multi-level and interdisciplinary dialogue locally
• engage in interactive working sessions that improve conflict management/resolution skills
• welcome diverse perspectives from both sides of the border
• recognize and build on previous regional and local initiatives
• participate in consensus-building workshops to identify shared priorities
• strive towards securing political support and funding

International negotiator and best-selling author William Ury, Ph.D. is the keynote speaker for the conference. Ury is the co-founder of the Harvard University Negotiation Project and co-author of “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.” His address, entitled “From the Boardroom to the Border: Negotiating for Sustainable Agreements,” is at 7 p.m., Nov. 18, at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre.

Ury has served as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts ranging from corporate mergers to wildcat strikes in a Kentucky coal mine to ethnic wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. With former president Jimmy Carter, he cofounded the International Negotiation Network, a non-governmental body seeking to end civil wars around the world. He has taught negotiation to tens of thousands of corporate executives, labor leaders, diplomats and military officers around the world. He helps organizations endeavor to reach mutually profitable agreements with customers, suppliers, unions, and joint-venture partners.

For more information, go to: http://www.sandiego.edu/peacestudies/news/events_calendar/greening_borders/.

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