The Venice Agreement: Protecting Global Peatlands Locally was signed
As Kreen Foundation we join this commitment and collaborate with peatland protection networks in Chilean Patagonia. In the Meullín-Puye Wildlife Sanctuary we can find pristine peatlands, which support a valuable diversity of native species and contribute to the balance of ecological functions.
Developed during a two-day meeting at TBA 21’s Ocean Space, The Venice Agreement was born from the transdisciplinary work of Ensayos and WCS-Chile, supported by the Greifswald Mire Centre. Camila Marambio of Ensayos curated the project and was supported in design and organization by Bárbara Saavedra, Nicole Püschel, and Antonieta Eguren of WCS-Chile, with Susanne Abel and Jan Peters participating from the Succow Foundation / Greifswald Mire Centre. The first sparks for the Agreement appeared one year ago, during the second Bi-national Peatland Seminar between Chile and Argentina, which gave rise to the Patagonian Peatland Initiative and to the curatorial project Turba Tol. The latter represents Chile at the 59th Venice Art Biennale, highlighting the collaboration between artists, scientists, and the Selk’nam community from Tierra del Fuego to promote the conservation of the peatlands of Patagonia. The transdisciplinary nature of Ensayos, the Patagonia Peatland Initiative, and Turba Tol forged the vision for a convening of specialists from the fields of ecological science, conservation practice, and climate change policy, with representatives from First Nations and environmental artists to create a novel declaration. After the creation process, overseen by an editorial committee that included the Chilean graphic designer Rosario Ureta, it was signed by 38 participants.
“We meet today and tomorrow to practice technologies of agreement, with a vision to create a unified global call for the Care for Peatlands from a local perspective.” These were Camila Marambio’s opening words in the morning of June 1st, giving rise to two full days of dialogue, collaborative envisioning and writing, choreographic play, and editorial work. “The global peatland policy agenda is based on high-level conventions, but action for conservation and restoration only happens and persists if dedicated local initiatives, driven by various motivations, act as loving custodians of their peatlands,” added Jan Peters, director of the Succow Foundation / Greifswald Mire Centre. During the last session of the second day, Professor Hans Joosten of the Greifswald
Mire Centre, who participated in the editorial committee, described how, despite his initial skepticism, he was “once again amazed at how it is possible for humans to make accords despite our language and cultural differences. We have managed to come up with a strong, poetic, political, and practical claim to protect global peatlands locally.” This achievement is equally the result of those who generously shared knowledge in person, giving embodied force to the agreement process, and of the participants of eleven on-the-ground workshops who submitted their input days prior to meeting in Venice. These remote “nodes” worked with an agreement tool kit that captured the diversity of local approaches to valuation and protection of peatlands around the world, in Karukinka Park and Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego), Elk Island (Canada), Everglades (Florida), Alston Moor (UK), Aysén, Puerto Varas and Chiloé (Chile), Brandenburg and Greifswald (Germany), and Minjerribah (Australia). The Venice Agreement effort aims to keep adding localities and signatories in the coming years. This aim is aligned with the work of the Global Peatland Initiative, whose coordinator at UN Environment, Dianna Kopansky, was present in Venice. In her words: “Strengthening the relations between local expertise and global decision makers is vital for the future.”
For further information we encourage you to visit these links:
This year, for World Peatlands Day and within the framework of the Venice Biennale, the Venice Agreement: Protecting Global Peatlands Locally was signed
As Kreen Foundation we join this commitment and collaborate with peatland protection networks in Chilean Patagonia. In the Meullín-Puye Wildlife Sanctuary we can find pristine peatlands, which support a valuable diversity of native species and contribute to the balance of ecological functions.
Developed during a two-day meeting at TBA 21’s Ocean Space, The Venice Agreement was born from the transdisciplinary work of Ensayos and WCS-Chile, supported by the Greifswald Mire Centre. Camila Marambio of Ensayos curated the project and was supported in design and organization by Bárbara Saavedra, Nicole Püschel, and Antonieta Eguren of WCS-Chile, with Susanne Abel and Jan Peters participating from the Succow Foundation / Greifswald Mire Centre. The first sparks for the Agreement appeared one year ago, during the second Bi-national Peatland Seminar between Chile and Argentina, which gave rise to the Patagonian Peatland Initiative and to the curatorial project Turba Tol. The latter represents Chile at the 59th Venice Art Biennale, highlighting the collaboration between artists, scientists, and the Selk’nam community from Tierra del Fuego to promote the conservation of the peatlands of Patagonia. The transdisciplinary nature of Ensayos, the Patagonia Peatland Initiative, and Turba Tol forged the vision for a convening of specialists from the fields of ecological science, conservation practice, and climate change policy, with representatives from First Nations and environmental artists to create a novel declaration. After the creation process, overseen by an editorial committee that included the Chilean graphic designer Rosario Ureta, it was signed by 38 participants.
“We meet today and tomorrow to practice technologies of agreement, with a vision to create a unified global call for the Care for Peatlands from a local perspective.” These were Camila Marambio’s opening words in the morning of June 1st, giving rise to two full days of dialogue, collaborative envisioning and writing, choreographic play, and editorial work. “The global peatland policy agenda is based on high-level conventions, but action for conservation and restoration only happens and persists if dedicated local initiatives, driven by various motivations, act as loving custodians of their peatlands,” added Jan Peters, director of the Succow Foundation / Greifswald Mire Centre. During the last session of the second day, Professor Hans Joosten of the Greifswald
Mire Centre, who participated in the editorial committee, described how, despite his initial skepticism, he was “once again amazed at how it is possible for humans to make accords despite our language and cultural differences. We have managed to come up with a strong, poetic, political, and practical claim to protect global peatlands locally.” This achievement is equally the result of those who generously shared knowledge in person, giving embodied force to the agreement process, and of the participants of eleven on-the-ground workshops who submitted their input days prior to meeting in Venice. These remote “nodes” worked with an agreement tool kit that captured the diversity of local approaches to valuation and protection of peatlands around the world, in Karukinka Park and Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego), Elk Island (Canada), Everglades (Florida), Alston Moor (UK), Aysén, Puerto Varas and Chiloé (Chile), Brandenburg and Greifswald (Germany), and Minjerribah (Australia). The Venice Agreement effort aims to keep adding localities and signatories in the coming years. This aim is aligned with the work of the Global Peatland Initiative, whose coordinator at UN Environment, Dianna Kopansky, was present in Venice. In her words: “Strengthening the relations between local expertise and global decision makers is vital for the future.”
For further information we encourage you to visit these links: