presence2influence is a multi-sited, multi-year collaborative research project that seeks to understand how marginalized and underrepresented groups in global environmental governance access and influence these governance processes. Our sites currently include four events, the 2015 Paris Climate Summit (COP21), 2016 World Conservation Congress, 2018 XVI Congress of the Society of Ethnobiology, and the 2019 UNFCCC Climate Summit in Madrid (COP25) . We also draw from PI Marion Suiseeya's prior research at the 2014 World Parks Congress and the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity Negotiations in Nagoya, Japan.
UNFCCC COP25, Madrid, Spain, 2019
XVI Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology, Belém, Brazil, 2018
The 16th International Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology or (Belém +30) in coordination with the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology was organized by the Federal University of Pará and the Museu Goeldi in conjunction with the International Society of Ethnobiology and the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology. From August 7th-10th the Hangar Convention Center swelled with more than 5,000 participants from over 40 countries to attend Belém +30. Returning to the original location of the first Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology, the central theme was "Belém +30. The Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Populations and the Conservation of Biodiversity three decades after the Declaration of Belém." http://www.ethnobiology.net/about/
World Conservation Congress 2016
The 2016 World Conservation Congress was held from September 1-10 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Thousands of policy makers, practitioners, and civil society representatives converge once every four years to set the IUCN's conservation agenda for the next four years. Events include a high level parliamentary summit as well as hundreds of sessions, workshops, and debates to craft the future of conservation.
Paris Climate Summit - COP21
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an umbrella treaty for states to address climate change. Every year negotiators gather to discuss and make commitments to reduce their country's contributions to climate change and provide assistance for climate adaptation. The Paris Summit was the much anticipated event following the 2009 Copenhagen Summit and the 1997 Kyoto negotiations and parties are expected to finally come to a new binding agreement for mitigation, adaptation, and financing. More than 40,000 people and 147 heads of state participated in one of the largest negotiation summits ever held.
World Parks Congress 2014
In November 2014, Dr. Marion Suiseeya traveled to Sydney, Australia to study the ways in which conservation actors shaped and reshaped ideas and notions of justice during the World Parks Congress. The World Parks Congress is an event that takes place once every ten years and brings together government officials, civil society representations, the private sector, scholars, community leaders, and activists to shape the global protected area agenda for the next ten years.
Tenth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010)
In October 2010, Dr. Marion Suiseeya was part of a 17-member collaborative event ethnography team led by Dr. Lisa Campbell (Duke University), Dr. J. Peter Brosius (University of Georgia), Dr. Noella Gray (University of Guelph), and Dr. Ken MacDonald (University of Toronto). Although justice and rights were not a primary theme the larger team was following, Dr. Marion Suiseeya (at the time a graduate student) became interested in how ideas of justice and rights emerged at COP10. She published a paper based on the data collected at COP10 and has since continued her research in this area.
Marion Suiseeya, K. R. (2014). Negotiating the Nagoya Protocol: Indigenous Demands for Justice. Global Environmental Politics, 14(3), 102-124.
Marion Suiseeya, K. R. (2014). Negotiating the Nagoya Protocol: Indigenous Demands for Justice. Global Environmental Politics, 14(3), 102-124.