Happy New Year everyone! As you make your way to Whakatane from overseas or other places in New Zealand, here are a few reminders:

AIRPORT ARRIVALS: Complimentary transport for Conference participants on all incoming flights into Whakatane from January 9th to January 11th at 1935 will be provided. Advise your drivers your name and accommodation details.

REGISTRATION: Conference registrations will be open from 1300 to 1700 at the Liberty Centre, Wairaka Road, Whakatane. If you have pre-registered and prepaid, this process will take no more than 15 minutes. If you have not registered and/or not paid registration fees, it will take up to 45 minutes.

OPENING CEREMONY: Please be at the Liberty Centre at 1700 to catch the buses for the Powhiri (Opening Ceremiony). You will need your registration tag to board the buses.

If you need any assistance, please phone (07) 307-0760 and ask for the Sharing Power Conference helpdesk.

The full list of all confirmed presenters/panelists and the titles of their presentations is now available on this website under 'PROGRAMME'.  If any details are incorrect please contact us.

Registrations are fast approaching our ideal limit of 150 participants if you are intending to come to the Sharing Power Conference please register before we close off registrations.  We've had such a great response to Marae Accommodation we are currently securing a second Marae.

Just over 100 proposals were received for a diverse range of contributions for the Sharing Power Conference. The Committee has reviewed each proposal and all submitters have been contacted.  If you submitted a contribution and have not heard from us, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   We are now working with submitters to finalise abstracts and will be uploading the Conference programme by the end of November.

The Sharing Power Conference Committee is currently reviewing all Contributions received. Thanks to everyone who submitted. There are some very exciting proposals. We hope to provide a response to everyone who submitted a contribution irrespective of whether your proposal was accepted or not by October 31st.  If your proposal is accepted you will be assured of the early Conference registration rate.  Thank you for your patience.

The limited funds available for funding assistance to participate in the Sharing Power Conference have been allocated. There are no further grants available.

An opportunity to stay in a traditional Maori meeting house. Marae-style accommodation is a great way to meet people and interact with local hosts. Those who choose marae-style sleep in a large carved meetiing house on mattresses on the floor. A bottom sheet and pillow are provided. You are asked to bring your own bedding and towels. Package rate for conference, 5 nights is NZ $200 or a daily rate of NZ$40. See Accommodation section of this website for more information.

The Marae we will be using for the Conference is three blocks from the Conference venue and very close to the city.  It's a very convenient location. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Up to fifty places are available.

The deadline for 'Call for Contributions' has been extended until Monday, 4 October 2010.

Registrations for the Sharing Power conference are now open.  Please go to registrations page to register for the conference.

The September edition of the IUCN CEESP Newsletter has been published.

Ngā Wawata o ngā Rangatahi o te Ao - Global Youth Network

The issues being discussed at this Conference require actions by this generation but have far greater implications for future generations. The participation and perspectives of youth are essential to the effectiveness of Sharing Power.  If you are 15-35 years, and would like to join our global youth network to: discuss the issues covered in the Sharing Power Conference; help identify youth speakers; offer a specific session within the Conference; and discuss how this network might de be developed after the Conference, please join the Facebook Group 'Ngā Wawata o ngā Rangatahi' or contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ngā Wawata o ngā Rangatahi is a Māori (NZ) phrase that means 'the aspirations of the world's youth.'

A number of panel sessions that potential contributors might wish to express an interest are; an inter-faith dialogue, a session to inform participants on relevant global processes (e.g. the Earth Charter, the Cochabamba Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, Rio +20, the Great Transition Initiative and other initiatives), a session on communicating change,  panels of global and indigenous business leaders on a new paradigm for business, a panel of eminent indigenous leaders and traditional knowledge experts, a panel of eminent scientists on how science can take a greater role in promoting a more multi-disciplinary approach to environmental and economic policy, an inter-generational responsibility youth panel. The deadline for expressions of interest to offer a contribution is: 18 September 2010. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

The Call for Contributions is now open.  To read more about the Conference themes and types of presentations being sought, and to complete an on-line submission of your abstract please click here

The June 2010 newsletter of IUCN-CEESP is available for reading HERE

Nikita Lopoukhine, Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas WCPA), Shelia Abed, Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) and Keith Wheeler, Chair of the Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), will be joining CEESP Chair, Aroha Te Pareake Mead, at the Sharing Power: A New Vision for Development Conference.

The Sharing Power conference is honoured to confirm a line up of five outstanding inspirational keynote speakers. Elinor Ostrom (USA) was awarded the Nobel Prize 2009 in Economic Sciences for her analysis of economic governance, and in demonstratiung how common property could be successrfully managed by groups using it.  Elinor is also a long- standing member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic & Social Policy.  Ashok Khosla (India), one of the world's leading thinkers in sustainable development and Julia Marton-Lefevre (Hungary, France & USA) a distinguished scientist reknown for promotion of sustainable development science.

Winona LaDuke lives and works on the White Earth Anishinaabe Reservation in northern Minnesota. Winona is the Program Director of Honor the Earth and the Founding Director of White Earth Land Recovery Project.

Leading Honor the Earth she provides vision and leadership for the organization’s Regranting Program and its Strategic Initiatives on Native environmental issues and the survival of sustainable Native communities. In addition, she has worked for two decades on the land issues of the White Earth Reservation, including litigation over land rights in the 1980s. In 1989, she received the Reebok Human Rights Award, with which in part she began the White Earth Land Recovery Project to continue the land recovery efforts and work on environmental and cultural stewardship.

2010 is The International Year for Biodiversity  – a year for communities, peoples, countries and companies of the world to focus on the protection of biodiversity at a time of unparalleled levels of extraction and usage of natural resources. Biodiversity is on the decline and the international community has declared this year, as a year to focus on how can we better utilise and protect the natural resources gifted to us in trust by our ancestors. “Hei whakapumau mo inaianei, a mo nga uri whakahaere” – a Māori term to describe the inter-generational responsibility we have to not only pass on to our descendants in at least no worse condition, but to do everything we can to improve, the quality of their heritage.