Daily Archives: April 23, 2023

Election Day on May 6 is quickly approaching and on the ballot are candidates for Carrollton Mayor and Carrollton City Council with a seat each for Place 2, Place 4, and Place 6. Early voting occurs Monday, April 24 through Tuesday, May 2.

Voters can access specific voting information regarding times and locations through their respective county websites in Collin, Denton, or Dallas County.

Learn more about your candidates below.

STEVE BABICK: As the incumbent running for Re-Election, we have so many positive things in motion and I am running to keep the momentum strong on our work-in-process. I have a long-standing results-oriented record of service, proven leadership to build a consensus with Council, responsiveness and transparency to residents and businesses, and unsurpassed engagement-level with the community attending through virtually all events. My record of service and experience provides an unwavering and unflappable vision for the city, ensuring a bright future for all Our Work is Not Done read more at http://www.Babick4Carrollton.com.

ADAM POLTER: I am running because, as a current city councilman, I have seen firsthand the results of bad leadership, and I care too much about my city to stand by and not challenge the status quo! Current leadership has repeatedly shown they value political expediency and doing favors over the best interests of the city. Also, Carrollton's City Council is dysfunctional as groupthink is pervasive, with most of the sitting members too afraid to vote in such a way that might go against the mayor, staff's recommendations, or might result in them being part of the minority in a 6-1, 5-2, or 4-3 vote. Courage is missing on Carrollton City Council, and that is what I hope to restore.

From a more practical standpoint, our city is not agile and is failing to adapt and keep up in order to remain competitive and deliver the greatest value to our residents and business-owners. For example, we have several infrastructure projects that were funded ten years ago, in 2013, but have yet to be completed and, in some cases, have yet to break ground. Some will suggest they are proud of how lean Carrollton city government is, and how we do more with less. From my observation, we are doing LESS with LESS.

Speaking of less, our police department is shorthanded almost two full shifts and we are having difficulty retaining officers because of our current pay structure and lack of basic benefits such as tuition reimbursement and paid holidays. We are also failing to fully utilize available technology options such as the Flock cameras which can act as a force multiplier for a lean police force. We also suffer from a fire department that lacks diversity with over 90% of the firefighters being white and with only one female firefighter.

We are Carrollton, and we can do better!

YOUNG SUNG: I would like to set a precedent for the city of Carrollton. Despite being a majority minority city, there has never been a minority mayor in over 100 years. It is time for a change. I would like to promote initiatives to improve our public safety, improve infrastructure, promote economic development, and enhance education for our citizens.

JASON CARPENTER: My service to our city over the years as chair of Planning and Zoning Commission, chair of Traffic Advisory Committee and as a member of the Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee has motivated me to step up and serve all residents in Carrollton as their elected representative. I believe my demonstrated experience and leadership has prepared me for this office and I look forward to serving the citizens of Carrollton.

EDDIE LOPEZ: I am running for city council because I feel the status quo that currently exists is detrimental to the growth of our city.

ANDREW PALACIOS: I am running for re-election to the City Council for the City of Carrollton, Place 4, an at-large seat. It has been an immense honor to serve as your Mayor Pro Tem for the past year, as your Councilmember for Place 4 for the past three years, and on various committees, including my role as Chair of the Audit/Finance Committee for the past two years. This experience has provided me with the essential skills to tackle any challenges our city may encounter in the future.

BRITTNEY VERDELL: As a social worker, I have dedicated my life to being an advocate for those who are most vulnerable. I have seen firsthand the struggles that families in communities face. They need someone who will not only listen to them, but they need someone who will truly fight for them. That is why I am running for City Council - it's an extension of my passion to be a true advocate for all members of our community. The people of our city know that I am committed to making a positive difference in the lives of the residents of Carrollton, and I am eager to serve as their City Council member.

DAISY PALOMO: I am motivated to run for office to make sure that we continue to have a safe community to live in. I want to see our community and its residents prosper. Keeping low tax rates and encouraging economic growth are critical to Carrollton. I am a fifth generation Texan and was born and raised in Dallas, TX. I grew up in a single parent home with very limited economic means. I was the first in my family to go to college and Im proud to say I fought hard and earned my MBA in 2006. I am running because I want to make changes for the best in our city. I also want to inspire other young ladies and men to pursue more civic engagement and become thriving members of our city. I want to make a difference and leave Carrollton better than it was yesterday.

MIKE DOOLING: I have led a lifetime of service. For the last eight years, I have stepped up locally, regularly attending city council meetings and work sessions, Attending various board and commission meetings, and traveling to Austin to discuss legislative matters with our legislature members. I believe in being informed and involved and that the role of a council member is to represent all the people of Carrollton.

We can do better as a city, and I will work to improve transparency and interaction between the community and the city. Through the years, I have learned the importance of people making a difference in their community. I appreciate the value of conviction and compromise, and most importantly, I believe we need to listen to each other. We must bring people together from all walks of life and find common ground. Our city is diverse, and it's time we celebrate that diversity instead of allowing it to divide us.

STEVE BABICK: I have served the city through school district PTA/Booster clubs from an early age of my children supporting CFBISDs First Lego League STEM club in the district with my kids in 5th grade along with becoming a CFBISD Ambassador. Serving my Neighborhood Association as Block Captain/Crime Watch, Treasurer and President while also servicing on Carrollton Boards and Commissions (Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone TIRZ, and Property Standards Board/Board of Adjustments), I was encouraged by the community to run for Council in 2014. I have served on council since 2014, prior to running for Mayor in CY2022 under a Special Election to complete Denton County Commissioner Falconers term as Mayor. During my term on council and as Mayor, I have served on virtually all Boards and Commissions as liaison to our citizen volunteers, served as Chair to all Council Committees and represented the city on community non-profit and chamber of commerce organizations supporting local concerns. Additionally, I have and/or currently serve on the Regional Transportation Council, the Trinity River Authority & Regional Wastewater board, the the Regional Mobility Coalition, the North Texas Council of Governments (COG), the North Texas Commission, the Metrocrest Mayor's Council and the Metroplex Mayor's Advisory Committee including focus on our Veterans Committee and Blue Ribbon committees. Active through my church, a member of the rotary and a member of the Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association and Firefighters Academy Alumni Associations, my family and I have a strong record of community service for 30+ years.

ADAM POLTER: Current Carrollton City Council Member, Place 2; 1987 to 1991 U.S. Army; Desert Storm combat veteran; 21-year Carrollton resident; Provided pro bono IT design and project management services to Childrens Advocacy Center of Denton County/North Texas during construction of their new facility; Lobbied TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) to prevent/limit expansion of Camelot Landfill on Carrolltons NW border; Fought successfully to preserve Carrolltons green space and rallied nearly 2000 residents to save Indian Creek Golf Course, the only public amenity in Carrollton that pays for itself, from being closed and sold off to developers; Nextdoor.com Neighborhood Founder and Community Lead; Two years on Carrolltons Parks Board including one year as liaison to the Capital Improvement Plan Advisory Committee; Successfully lobbied Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) to expand public transportation access to NW Carrollton, west of Josey and north of Frankford; Graduate of Leadership Metrocrest and Leadership North Texas; Graduate of Carrollton Citizens Fire Academy; Graduate of Carrollton Citizens Police Academy; Regular volunteer and ambassador for Metrocrest Services. Also, a volunteer member of the Metrocrest Services board nominating committee. Currently providing pro bono IT design and consulting services to Metrocrest Services as they construct their new HQ facility off Josey Ln, just north of Beltline. Expected opening in May 23; Lovepacs and Sack Summer Hunger volunteer helping to fight childhood food insecurity; United Way charity golf event and campaign organizer; Four-time Denton County Election Judge; Member of Denton County Medical Reserve Corp having volunteered at numerous are COVID-19 vaccine clinics; Member of Denton County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT); Member of Carrollton Disaster Response Alliance; Member of Metrocrest Services Homeless Alliance and participant in every Point-in-Time (PiT) unsheltered homeless count since 2019; Served on Transit-Oriented Development Committee; Chair of Environmental Distinction Award Committee; Serving on Technology Committee; Member of the Carrollton American Legion, Post 597.

YOUNG SUNG: Served in City of Carrollton Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee; Member of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Rotary Club; Honor to have served on the DFW Meals on Wheels; Sponsor of the Newman Smith High School Exchange Student of South Korea; Former member of the Metrocrest and Korean Chamber of Commerce.

JASON CARPENTER: I have served my community in the following capacities: former chair of Planning and Zoning Commission, former chair of Traffic Advisory Committee, former member of Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee, and graduate of Carrollton Citizens Police Academy

EDDIE LOPEZ: I have been involved with the American Legion in Carrollton since 2017. I was the historian and moved up to 1st VIce Commander and am now the current commander.

ANDREW PALACIOS: Four years ago, before my journey to the council, I was featured in the Carrollton Leader as a volunteer and educator in the "Bridging the Gap" article. It's like opening a time capsule, showcasing my genuine involvement in our community long before I took public office. The article highlights my time serving on Carrollton's Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee (CIPAC) and as a member of the CarrolltonCitizen Police Academy Alumni Association. Although the answers are from four years ago, they still offer a glimpse into who I am as a person beyond my platform. I enjoy spending time with my family, meeting new people, overcoming challenges, and celebrating others' success. It is a fun and authentic snapshot of who I am, and I thought it would be great to share it with all of you!

Additionally, as featured in the Carrollton Leader in 2020, before my time on Council, I was part of an effort to prevent violence through education. I took this responsibility to heart, reaching out to various communities, not just Spanish-speaking ones, to understand their needs and opinions. This resulted in a trilingual community event - Carrollton's first multi-language active shooter response training event. This personal experience highlighted the value of listening to others and implementing their suggestions.

As the most tenured Councilmember running for re-election, I am also devoted to mentoring and helping newer council members navigate their upcoming leadership positions. Having gained valuable experience and knowledge of the inner workings of our city government during my first term, I am eager to provide continued leadership, see our vision and strategies through, and ensure certain projects reach completion. This includes initiatives like continuing to leverage opportunities around transit-oriented development, increasing the property and sales tax base, improving accessibility to our services, and enhancing the reputation of our city brand.

BRITTNEY VERDELL: My daughter is a former girl scout and I have given my time in several areas of service.

DAISY PALOMO: I am an advocate for youth and promoting higher education to open more doors of opportunity and financial freedom; I volunteer as a guest speaker at CFBISD high schools to share my journey and present the opportunity for teens to reach higher and dream big; I am a board member for Grace Christian Preschool of Carrollton; I am a classroom facilitator for the Make It Count (formerly Bea's Kids) program where I teach character development to 9th and 11th graders in CFBISD; I am an active volunteer in our community outreach through the church where my husband and I are part of the pastoral team, specific to youth and young adults; I volunteer with the Thanksgiving Day Soup Kitchen who feeds thousands on Thanksgiving, but also provides meals year round to seniors and shelters; I volunteer with our Police Department at various events and graduated from the Citizens Police Academy; I am currently in the 9th class of Citizens Fire Academy; I attend city council meetings and engage with our city staff and management; I am a proud mother of a future marine (June2023) and am the Chaplain for the American Legion Auxiliary Post 597.

MIKE DOOLING: Carrollton American Legion Post 597; Airborne Angel Cadets of Texas; Honor Flight; Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery; Habitat for Humanity; Metrocrest Services; Stack-Up.org; Co-Founder of Military Veterans Network at work to coordinate with local veterans' service organizations; Team Rubicon GreyShirt disaster response strike teams across the country; Savoy Josey Ranch Neighborhood Association board; 2018 Carrollton Citizens Fire Academy; 2019 Carrollton Citizens Police Academy; Dallas County Grand Jury; 2021-present Mayor's Advisory Council (now Citizens Government Academy); Carrollton Disaster Response Alliance (CDRA).

STEVE BABICK: I come from a typical Carrollton family, where we raised our 2 kids in public schools with one now graduated from Texas Tech (Michael) and one from Texas A&M (Sarah), two dogs and a cat. We attend St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church (where we were married, kids baptized, first communion and confirmation) and have welcomed a daughter-in-law (Kaleigh Putter) to the family in the last two years.

I was raised from a large, blended military family of five kids, four step siblings where virtually all grandparents, uncles and aunts, parents, and brothers and sisters have served or married into military families inspired by a grandfather (Stallings) who lost his life in WWII and earned the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service awards and family of immigrants from Croatia (Babick). Such tradition and service motivated my earning of Eagle Scout and Order of the Arrow, while in Scouting.

As a graduate of Florida State University (Finance & Accounting) and MBA while working full time from Amber University I was well equipped early to augment hard work for a successful career. Professionally, as a Finance Executive starting my career at Texas Instruments where we spun off a Technology Company, went through IPO and grew through acquisition and M&A, I have also launched, funded and mentored several small startup and mid-cap companies through the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, Addison Treehouse and more.

I am a member of the Forbes Finance Committee and a contributing author as well as a graduate of the Harvard, Kennedy School of Leadership Certificate program sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

ADAM POLTER: I am a 3rd generation Texan that grew up just fifteen minutes away in Dallas. I learned to be service minded directly from the example set by my parents and grandparents. At a young age I accompanied my grandmother as she delivered Meals on Wheels to homebound seniors, and I saw my own mother dedicate herself and her time to the PTA, to the Dallas Resource Center, the Visiting Nurse Association, the League of Women Voters of Dallas, the Womens Foundation, and many other causes and organizations. My grandfather on my fathers side, and also my father, served our country, in the military, with my grandfather enlisting in the Navy, and my father having served in the Army Medical Corp. After retiring, my father, a gastroenterologist, continued to provide free medical services to indigent patients for several years on a salary of $1 per year. These are the amazing examples I had the opportunity to follow.

I also enjoy being active to include golf, disc golf, long bike rides on our area trails, walks, working out at the gym or one of our rec centers, keeping my 18-year-old truck running, and smoking the occasional brisket. I invite you to also visit my campaign website at https://adampolter.com where you can learn more about me, my campaign, and most importantly my priorities for our city and my vision for moving Carrollton forward.

YOUNG SUNG: My name is Young Sung, and I am a proud resident and business owner in the city of Carrollton. I have lived and worked in this vibrant community for many years, and it has been a privilege to call it my home. I, my wife, and my daughter, graduated from Newman Smith High School in 1985, 1990, and 2020 respectively. My son is also in the US Army as an intel analyst.

It was here in Carrollton that I learned the importance of hard work, community involvement, and dedication to excellence. Over the years, I have been fortunate to witness the growth and development of Carrollton. I am honored to have the chance to serve my fellow residents and work towards building a brighter future for Carrollton.

JASON CARPENTER: I believe serving others is one of the greatest opportunities we each have as we live, work, and interact with each other as a community. I believe elected officials work for the community and should seek to serve their community to the best of their ability. I believe I have demonstrated this over the years of service to Carrollton and fully intend to continue that service as your elected councilmember.

EDDIE LOPEZ: I am a US Marine veteran. I'm married to Monica and we have four children and three grandchildren.

ANDREW PALACIOS: As the only Councilmember fluent in both spoken and written Spanish and English, I am deeply committed to the progress and safety of our diverse community. While serving on Council in 2021, I participated in a Univision 23 interview during a Drowning Prevention Event. As a parent of two children, I remain focused on aligning our city's resources with the essential services and needs of our residents, such as parks, police and fire, sidewalks and streets.

In this particular instance, I discussed aquatic safety and drowning prevention in Carrollton. By conducting the interview entirely in Spanish, I showcased my genuine dedication to bridging language barriers and fostering a united community. My leadership goes beyond titles; it is guided by my heart and integrity. My voting record serves as concrete evidence of my commitment to public safety, which, as summertime approaches, includes ensuring the safety of our children when they visit our city's fantastic amenities like our parks.

BRITTNEY VERDELL: Voters should know that I am committed and value serving others. I truly enjoy being a mom and a social worker.

DAISY PALOMO: I work hard for what I believe in and for everything I have. I am just like all the working-class residents in Carrollton and would be honored to serve on City Council to give everyone a voice.

MIKE DOOLING: My professional and volunteer experiences have taught me: to listen, to ask the right questions, to discuss new ideas, possibilities, to collaborate and engage, to identify BRIDGES so we FIND SOLUTIONS.

STEVE BABICK: My #CarrolltonPRIDE campaign is grounded on Fiscal Transparency and Accountability, to be the Community that Families and Businesses want to call home through focus on three key areas of #DestinationCarrollton, #CarrolltonExperience, and #Silverline.

My Priority Details include:

P Public Safety: To keep our People, Places and Things Safe and Secure through investment in Police and Fire to ensure our #FirstResponders have the tools of the trade to keep us safe and to ensure we have their back to keep them safe.

R Redevelopment Renaissance: Turning what was old new again and fueling our Renaissance to bring vibrancy back to Carrollton with bustling, cosmopolitan shopping and commercial spaces and quiet, safe neighborhoods.

I Infrastructure: Ensuring care, maintenance and rehabilitation of Infrastructure that is seen and unseen, including Streets, Alley, Walks, Sewage, Water, Facilities and Cyber networks to ensure a sustainable community that can support a thriving local economy as an asset vs. liability.

D Diversity: Leveraging our diverse community as an asset to attract investment catering to our broad ethnic population and allowing all to live in harmony with one another.

E Economic Development: Leverage ROI-Based AAA Policies and fiscal budgets to ensure we attract investment, to grow the tax base, fuel Sales & Use Tax and keep the tax burden on residents low.

ADAM POLTER: Combatting Fentanyl and drug overdoses has to be the top priority because that has caused more preventable deaths of Carrolltons youngest residents than anything else these past six months. While eliminating this scourge is all but impossible, we damn sure are going to try and do the best with the resources we can muster. This starts by getting CPD fully staffed to the 182-officer level, of which we are currently operating closer to 155. We will rejoin the area drug task force, and dedicate the resources required to attack this problem and make Carrollton a very unwelcome community for those that want to distribute drugs here. This has to include quarterly drug education and interdiction programs, both hosted by the city and the schools.

CFBISD also has to address their truancy policies and enforcement. Carrollton also needs to invest more in South Carrollton to help lift some of these neighborhoods up and provide alternatives where these kids can spend time after school and on weekends participating in activities and in surroundings that support their educational goals, promotes physical and mental health, and helps them build the self-esteem and tools to combat peer pressure that so often leads to drug use. Carrollton should also partner with organizations like the Recovery Resource Councils Overdose Response Team (ORT), to provide aftercare and services for those kids who do survive an overdose, so that they reenter the schools and community with the support and backing that can help prevent them from using again.

My next priority is addressing the concept that Carrollton is somehow doing more with less, compared to other cities around us. Im of the belief that Carrollton is doing less with less. I believe that is shown in CPDs staffing, and our inability to cover any of the overlapping beats. I believe it is evident in the pace with which we complete already funded projects, with some taking more than ten years to break ground and thus delaying any value that would be realized by the community upon their completion. I also believe that we are doing less with less when some basic maintenance tasks go unfixed. For example, for a city of our size, I would expect us to have an HVAC trained tech on staff. It is my understanding that we dont. To address this, we have to fight to create a new mindset, and have many serious discussions about Carrolltons value proposition and the contract that we have with our residents and business owners. We need to deliver more, we need to deliver in a timelier fashion, and we need to do so in such a way that it protects and where possible enhances the quality of life of our residents.

My third priority is that Carrollton MUST become competitive. Addressing this will require approaching it from many angles. We must modernize and present a more contemporary, energetic, and vibrant city. We must expand and become much more creative in our economic development efforts to create opportunities for Carrollton to stand out. We also must create DESTINATIONS in Carrollton that draw people to our city, instead of them simply passing through on our highways and streets on their way to somewhere else.

YOUNG SUNG: Public Safety - I would promote policy initiatives that focus on building relationships between police officers and community members. This approach can help to increase trust and cooperation between the police and the public, which can in turn lead to safer neighborhoods. Some examples include-

Ensure that the communities receive training to prevent school shootings and other violent incidents. This would involve working with community leaders and law enforcement agencies to develop training programs that are culturally sensitive and effective.

I would focus on addressing the root causes of crime, such as poverty, lack of education, and substance abuse. This could involve investing in education and job training programs, supporting substance abuse treatment programs, and working with community organizations to provide resources and support to those in need.

Repurpose vacant retail spaces, such as the one close to RL Turner High School and old Downtown Carrollton, into satellite offices for our police officers. This would involve working with property owners, city officials, and community members to identify and repurpose these spaces.

Develop a program to hire more paid community outreach directors to promote civic engagement and ensure that all voices are heard. These directors would work with residents and community organizations to provide information and resources, and to identify and address community concerns.

I would invest in smart technology, such as better surveillance cameras, dash and body cameras, license plate readers, and shot detection systems, to help police quickly respond to incidents and prevent crime.

Improve Infrastructure - I believe that improving our infrastructure is critical to creating a more efficient, sustainable, and resilient city that benefits all residents. Here's how I plan to achieve this:

Continuing and Expanding Grant Programs: I would continue and expand grant programs aimed at improving our older communities. This will involve working closely with community leaders, property owners, and other stakeholders to identify areas that require immediate attention and prioritize funding for infrastructure projects.

Updating Sewage and Trash Systems: I would prioritize updating our sewage and trash systems to ensure that they meet the needs of our growing population and proactively address any future waste-related challenges that may arise. This will involve investing in new technologies and processes to make these systems more efficient and sustainable.

Updating Transportation Systems: I would work to update our transportation systems to make them more commuter-friendly, such as by improving access to DART and the A-Train. This will involve investing in new infrastructure projects, such as new transit stations and improved road networks, as well as promoting the use of alternative transportation methods such as biking and walking.

Improving Roads and Bridges: I would prioritize improving our roads and bridges to ensure that they are safe, efficient, and able to support the needs of our growing population.

Embracing New Software and Technologies: I would embrace new software and technologies to reduce construction and wait times. This will involve working with tech companies to develop new solutions that can help streamline the construction process and improve the overall efficiency of our infrastructure projects.

Economic development - I believe that creating a thriving business environment is critical to the growth and success of our city. One of my top priorities in this area would be to increase the tax base while lowering the tax rate by:

Encouraging Density: By promoting mixed-use development and transit-oriented development, we can make the most of our limited space and create vibrant, walkable communities that attract both residents and businesses. Additionally, by providing affordable housing options, we can ensure that the workforce has access to quality housing that is close to job opportunities.

Attracting International Businesses: Attracting international businesses to our city will help create high paying jobs and new opportunities for our residents. I have prior experience in bringing international companies, such as Daewoo and GS Global, into Carrollton, and I will leverage that knowledge to attract more businesses.

Enhancing Local Businesses: Supporting and growing existing local businesses is just as important as attracting new ones. I will work to create a business-friendly environment that reduces regulatory burdens and provides incentives for businesses to invest in our city. This will involve streamlining permitting processes, providing resources for small businesses, and supporting entrepreneurship.

Education - I believe that education is crucial to the success of our city. Here's how I plan to achieve this:

Collaboration with Educational Entities: I would collaborate with the Carrollton Independent School District and other educational entities to ensure that they work together towards a common goal of providing high-quality education for all students. I would also work to ensure that all educational entities have equal representation and a voice at City Hall

Supporting Teachers: I would advocate for more support and resources for teachers, including competitive salaries. This would help to attract and retain high-quality teachers and improve the overall quality of education.

Community Engagement: I would engage with parents, community organizations, and local businesses to promote a culture of education and support for all residents. I would prioritize inclusive communication, regardless of English proficiency, by implementing an outreach program that ensures translation access to crucial information and public service announcements.

JASON CARPENTER: Carrollton must continue to manage the budget wisely and continue to reduce taxes. While doing this, we must continue to keep public safety the number one priority in our community. Finally, we must continue to encourage development in our city which includes new development as well as redevelopment of our aging infrastructure.

EDDIE LOPEZ: My top priorities will be safety, infrastructure and transparency.

ANDREW PALACIOS: As a candidate for Place 4, I stand out as the only proven choice with a track record of delivering tangible results. My top priorities as I seek re-election are:

Prosperity and Financial Responsibility: I will continue to support initiatives that strengthen our city's financial standing, enhance our tax base, and bring new job opportunities to our area. My community involvement and consistent voting record over the past three years already demonstrate this commitment.

A Stronger, More United Community: As the sole incumbent in the Place 4 race, I have worked tirelessly to make our city a desirable destination for families and businesses. I will maintain my focus on improving our infrastructure, including parks, city green spaces, trails, sidewalks, and roads, to foster a lively and interconnected community.

Enhanced Safety and Reduced Crime: Public safety is a crucial aspect of my campaign, which is why I have consistently supported our police and fire departments. My dedication to this cause is evident in my participation in the Citizens Police Academy, Class #54 in 2018 before my Council tenure, and the Citizens Fire Academy #7 in 2022 during my time on Council. My voting record shows my commitment to supporting our first responders and ensuring they have the necessary training and resources to protect our families.

BRITTNEY VERDELL: My vision for this city is simple: I want to make Carrollton a thriving place to live, work, and raise a family. I believe that by working together, we can build a brighter future for our community.

To achieve this goal, I will focus on several key priorities. First and foremost, I will work to improve the quality of life for our residents by promoting economic growth, ensuring safety and security, and improving social services. I will also work to promote more job opportunities within the city, and I will support small businesses to ensure that our city remains affordable and accessible to all.

DAISY PALOMO: Public Safety I will advocate for our first responders and make sure they receive all the resources they need to do their difficult jobs well. Forging strong relationships with our city and the CFB school district - I would like to bridge the gap between city council and the CFBISD school board and engage and share municipal inputs with the school board trustees. Economic Development I want to ensure to foster economic growth and development in Carrollton by inviting great businesses here. At the same time, I want to maintain full transparency and remain fiscally responsible with city funds and budget. My overarching goal is to keep our community informed, get questions answered and be a strong advocate for our residents. A thriving community is important to me and will remain at the center of all my proposed initiatives.

MIKE DOOLING: Public Safety: Carrollton PD is 25 officers short-staffed. We need to understand why. Is this the same problem plaguing hiring companies across the country right now, or is there something systemic with the city and/or departments we can address locally? I am also committed to improving public safety in our community by working closely with law enforcement and community leaders to address issues like crime prevention and emergency preparedness. We must ensure that all residents feel safe and secure in their neighborhoods and have access to the resources they need to stay informed and protected. We need to work on educating our community on the dangers of Fentanyl while trying to eliminate this problem. Improved Infrastructure: When the city builds something, it is responsible for maintaining it. We need to ensure timely maintenance and repairs and transparency of such efforts. We can better balance the new development with the old's maintenance.

Property Rights & Taxes: We must be responsible stewards of our taxpayer dollars. We have had nine years of property tax reductions, and I want to see us continue, if not improve on that trend. We must continually reevaluate our priorities and responsibilities. Further, we should send representatives to Austin and DC to learn and advocate for our city through the legislative process, supporting helpful bills and policies.

Economic Development: A couple of years ago, Carrollton reached a threshold where over half the citys tax revenue was now from business, not residential property taxes. This is a good thing, as it provides a level of relief for homeowners. We need to continue development in Carrollton to maintain growth, although we need to ensure that locally-owned, small businesses can call Carrollton home. We can continue to encourage larger businesses to make our city home. Still, we must keep our finger on the pulse of small businesses, as they are the lifeblood of the Carrollton economic engine. Carrollton is now landlocked and can no longer grow free, so growth must be via in-fill and redevelopment. As we redevelop, the housing shortage requires us to become more housing-dense in some areas. This will be a painful stage in Carrollton as we become more urban.

STEVE BABICK: As a large city (top 25 city in Texas) in a larger metroplex, Carrollton is approaching build-out, aging infrastructure and outside influences challenging our Police as they keep us safe. The City should be (and is) focusing on all three of these areas as fundamental levers to continue to be the community that families and businesses want to call home.

Approaching Buildout: With vacant parcels spoken for, and infill redevelopment fueling a Carrollton Renaissance, I will continue to add fuel to this Renaissance to ensure the Carrollton of tomorrow is brighter and more vibrant than today as we transform our front door through a $1B http://www.trinitymillsstation.com development at IH35/PGBT to the west and a cypress waters type development on the east at NTTA/PGBT. This transformation will bring 3,500-5,000 new high paying jobs to the area and $17M in annual property tax from commercial payers to shift the tax burden off residents and fund incremental Police & Firefighter resources to keep us safe along with Sales Tax revenue to augment amenities to enhance infrastructure and the #CarrolltonExperience.

Infrastructure we have invested 3X the 10-year average and 2X prior year on infrastructure in the current fiscal year along with a voter approved $132M bond to fund 5-years of repair and replacement that augments $25M+ of excess sales tax per year that has been put aside to fund Infrastructure. This fiscally conservative approach has ensured our debt service remains low, allows us to reduce tax rates to citizens and bring our data-driven report card on Infrastructure up by almost a full letter grade for streets, alleys, sidewalks, sewage, parks and facilities.

Public Safety The urban sprawl and mass immigration from other States into Texas has created pressures on our Police and Firefighter first responders. Fentanyl coming from Mexico along IH35 enroute to other states has also begun infiltrating our schools throughout the DFW area and Carrollton is not immune. With ~20 vacancies in our Police Force, I am committed to ensuring competitive wages, results-oriented recruiting and retention and ensuring they have the tools of the trade and best-in-class training to take a bite out of Crime. Attracting and Retaining a Qualified, Motivated Team where we are the sought-after Department will continue to be my priority to ensure Homelessness and Fentanyl among other emerging trends are minimized in Carrollton.

ADAM POLTER: I believe that every ten years or so, a city, such as Carrollton, should take a deep dive into operations, the character of the city, its brand and reputation, its competitiveness relative to nearby competing cities, and complete a full SWOT analysis where we establish the citys Strengths, identify its Weaknesses, acknowledge the available or future Opportunities, and expose any foreseeable Threats. This should be complemented with a wide variety of public input and feedback from residents and our business owners/operators, providing as many differing perspectives as possible. The results should be both a short-term action plan, and a long-term strategic plan. This is an imperative for both staff and Council and represents a tool that would be invaluable as we seek to shape Carrolltons path forward.

At this stage of growth, Carrolltons neighborhoods and industrial areas are aging and Carrollton is mostly built out and defined geographically. The path to progress lies in redevelopment, modernization, and redefining our city in such a way that we have a recognizable and appealing identity and brand with whom others want to be associated. Currently, Carrollton has a trite and overused tagline, The city where families and businesses want to call home. This seems to be where our branding and identity ends, and to me that is both a weakness and an opportunity. I believe Carrollton has the exciting opportunity to define itself as it is today, and also define what Carrollton is going to be tomorrow.

YOUNG SUNG: I believe that the city's top priorities at this stage of its growth should include investing in more domestic and international business. By doing so, we can create more job opportunities for our residents, increase the tax base, and promote economic growth.

JASON CARPENTER: We must continue to invest in and continue to encourage investment by others in Carrollton. We have an amazing city, in a prime location within the Metroplex and capitalizing on our assets should continue to be a priority. We have tremendous opportunities in our transit oriented districts as well as in our city gateways that will continue to enhance the image of and opportunities for Carrollton.

EDDIE LOPEZ: The top issue at this stage is becoming a destination city and not just a pass-through city. Carrolltonoffers very little to attract residents or visitors. We don't have a movie theater, an indoor or outdoor music venue or anything substantial. People drive through Carrollton to go to Plano, The Colony, Frisco, etc. to get to their destination.

ANDREW PALACIOS: At this stage of Carrollton's growth, one of the top priorities should be addressing the city's infrastructure needs. We face multiple challenges, including aging infrastructure stock, limited funding, labor and material shortages, rising material costs, and varying infrastructure life spans. The presence of a large amount of pre-1990s development, inconsistent design standards from before the late 1980s, and dynamic soils only serve to complicate the situation further.

To tackle this priority, I will advocate for ongoing evaluation of our city's infrastructure, such as our trail network, roads, and sidewalks. This continuous assessment will enable us to identify which areas require the most improvement, which areas stand to benefit from strategic investments, and which areas present the greatest challenges.

Another pressing priority is enhancing the fiber and cable infrastructure at several key locations. Carrollton's expanding network of on-street facilities forms vital connections between destinations and other trail infrastructure. We must consistently maintain and develop this infrastructure throughout the city.

Our trail system consists of various trail types and supporting infrastructure, including hike and bike trails, on-street bikeways, crossings, sidewalk connectors, trailheads, portals, and branding. As a candidate seeking re-election, I will continue to vote for and support reinvestment in our city to maintain and upgrade these essential infrastructure elements.

Furthermore, I prioritize the responsible care and maintenance of our infrastructure. I firmly believe that reinvesting in our infrastructure, along with core city services like police and fire, is crucial for sustaining a thriving, diverse financial base while being excellent stewards of city resources. This approach will help us offer a high quality of life where all residents feel safe, valued, and respected.

Drawing from my in-depth understanding of the scale and scope needed to maintain and improve Carrollton's infrastructure, I am dedicated to ensuring that postponing crucial maintenance is not employed as a method to balance the budget. Rather, I believe that infrastructure projects aligning with the city council's strategic goals and promoting community sustainability should be expedited when lower interest rates and construction costs can generate savings for the city, all while preserving fund balance and complying with other financial policy requirements.

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Carrollton Mayor and City Council Election Preview 2023: Meet your ... - Star Local Media

~~Gov. Also Signs Bill to Increase Access to Higher Education for Veterans~~

TOPEKA Governor Laura Kelly signed Senate Bill 66, a bipartisan bill that allows Kansas to join the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, making it easier for educators within the multi-state agreement to move to and work in Kansas.The bill also expands scholarship opportunities for Kansans studying to become teachers.

Teacher shortages have been a challenge across the country, but it has been particularly tough on our rural communities, said Governor Laura Kelly. This bill addresses the teacher shortage here in Kansas by helping to fill vacancies with qualified educators who want to move to our state. Thats good for our students, for our rural communities, and for our growing economy.

I am so proud that Governor Kelly has signed SB 66 into law, Senator Pat Pettey, Kansas Senate District 6, said. This bipartisan legislation preserves the existing state-based licensure system while creating an alternative path to licensure for teachers relocating to and from a compact state. Not only does this create an agreed-upon regulatory framework for teacher reciprocity, it also speeds up the application process for relocating licensees, reduces time and resources spent by licensing agencies, and adds one more tool to the State Board of Education Licensure tool box.

In addition to Senate Bill 66, Governor Kelly signed Senate Bill 123, which will grow Kansas educator workforce by expanding the Promise Scholarship program to students pursuing degrees in elementary and secondary education. The bill also creates the Adult Learner Grant Act, a grant for adult learners pursuing certain fields of study. It also creates an incentive program for schools to support students pursuing careers and technical education and allows veterans and their families to qualify for in-state tuition.

Investing in education at every level is not only good for our students, but good for our economy, said Governor Laura Kelly. As the daughter of a career Army officer, Im pleased with the steps this bill takes to make college more affordable for heroes who have served and for their dependents. This bill invests in our students looking to pursue a degree, career, or technical education right here in Kansas, and will keep our workforce strong.

As a military child myself, I knew the pain of having to move out of a school district that I had grown to love, said Senator Jeff Pittman. Military dependents make daily sacrifices, experiencing fears and distinct challenges as a result of their parents serving our country; they are forced to break relationships as they move and often find themselves on an island adrift from a geographic home. I was proud to be one of the two sponsors of SB 123 to give in-state college tuition to military dependents who have been previously stationed in Kansas but have since been deployed elsewhere. For a community that sacrifices so much, this is a small way for Kansas to say welcome home.

We must use every resource available to ensure students at all levels have the tools and opportunities they need to thrive, said Cynthia Lane, Member of the Kansas Board of Regents. This bill opens up doors for our students pursuing higher education, whether at a four-year institution, a community college, or a technical school, and eliminates barriers to their success. Id like to thank Governor Kelly and the legislature for coming together on such an important and impactful issue.

Governor Kelly also signed three other bipartisan bills into law:

Senate Bill 132: Provides for the buffalo soldier distinctive license plate.

Senate Bill 189: Requires applicants seeking employment in law enforcement to disclose previous employment records, including any misconduct.

House Sub for Senate Bill 116: Removes fees for obtaining a license to carry concealed handguns, eliminating a barrier to safety training for concealed carry.

Governor Kelly also vetoed Senate Bill 26, Senate Bill 180, Senate Bill 228, and Senate Substitute for House Bill 2138. The vetoes come after certain discriminatory and federally non-compliant provisions were added to SB 228 and S Sub HB 2138.

The following veto message is from Governor Kelly regarding her vetoes of Senate Bill 26, Senate Bill 180, Senate Bill 228, and Senate Substitute for House Bill 2138:

Companies have made it clear that they are not interested in doing business with states that discriminate against workers and their families. By stripping away rights from Kansans and opening the state up to expensive and unnecessary lawsuits, these bills would hurt our ability to continue breaking economic records and landing new business deals.

Im focused on the economy. Anyone care to join me?

Under Article 2, Section 14(a) of the Constitution, I hereby veto Senate Bill 26, Senate Bill 180, Senate Bill 228, and House Bill 2138.

###

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Governor Kelly Signs Bipartisan Bill to Expand Teacher Workforce in ... - Kansas Governor

The EPAs Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers include a network of over 160 partners to provide resources to unlock access to President Bidens historic investments in America

April 20, 2023

DALLAS, TEXAS (April 20th, 2023)Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced The Deep South for Environmental Justice and the New Mexico State University has been selected to serve as Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJ TCTACs) that will receive at least $10 million each to help communities across the Region 6 access funds from President Bidens Investing in America agenda. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice will receive $13,000,000 and the New Mexico State University will receive $10,000,000.

We know that so many communities across the nation have the solutions to the environmental challenges they face. Unfortunately, many have lacked access or faced barriers when it comes to the crucial federal resources needed to deliver these solutions, said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. Today were taking another step to break down these barriers. Establishing these Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers across the nation will ensure all communities can access benefits from the Presidents historic agenda, which includes groundbreaking investments in clean air, clean water, and our clean energy future.

For far too long, overburdened, underserved, and rural communities have lacked the resources and technical assistance they need from the federal government to overcome barriers critical to their energy needs and create new, long-lasting economic opportunities, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. Thanks to President Bidens Investing in America agenda, DOE now has historic levels of new funding to pull from to help revitalize disadvantaged communities across the nation and ensure theyre not left behind in our transition to a clean energy future.

Thanks to the focus of this Administration, we are delivering crucial solutions to communities who have long faced multiple barriers to achieving equitable outcomes, said Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance. This funding will create a hub for communities to access fundamental resources and shows that EPA is listening to communities with environmental needs. I would like to thank the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and the New Mexico State University for their legacy of advancing environmental justice and serving in this new role to benefit our region.

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice was founded in 1992 and is considered the longest running environmental justice center dedicated to improving the lives of children and families harmed by pollution and vulnerable to climate change through research, education, community, and student engagement, as well as environmental, health and safety workforce training. The DSCEJ plans to establish a Community Investment and Recovery Center as a Technical Assistance Center to serve rural, remote, and underserved communities in each of the states located in Regions 4 and 6.

The New Mexico State University plans to lead an experienced team of community-based partners to create the multi-faceted South-Central Environmental Justice Resource Center. SCEJRC activities will focus on providing relevant outreach programming and resources within Region 6 to enhance environmental and energy justice, with a focus on disinvested populations in underserved communities and those in rural and remote areas.

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and the New Mexico State University are among 17 Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers, or EJ TCTACs, the EPA announced to receive a total of more than $177 million to remove barriers and improve accessibility for communities with environmental justice concerns. With this critical investment, these centers will provide training and other assistance to build capacity for navigating federal grant application systems, writing strong grant proposals, and effectively managing grant funding. In addition, these centers will provide guidance on community engagement, meeting facilitation, and translation and interpretation services for limited English-speaking participants, thus removing barriers and improving accessibility for communities with environmental justice concerns. Each of the technical assistance centers will also create and manage communication channels to ensure all communities have direct access to resources and information.

The EPA will deliver these resources in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, whose funding allows the EJ TCTACs to provide support for identifying community opportunities for clean energy transition and financing options, including public-private partnerships supporting clean energy demonstration, deployment, workforce development and outreach opportunities that advance energy justice objectives.

The formation of the EJ technical assistance centers is in direct response to feedback from communities and environmental justice leaders who have long called for technical assistance and capacity building support for communities and their partners as they work to access critical federal resources. The 17 centers will provide comprehensive coverage for the entire United States through a network of over 160 partners including community-based organizations, additional academic institutions, and Environmental Finance Centers, so that more communities can access federal funding opportunities like those made available through President Bidens Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

In addition to Region 6's selectees, the EPA has selected three national EJ TCTACS that will provide additional assistance across the country, with particular capacity to assist tribes, including:

Additional award information for each selectee will be announced in Summer 2023.

The EJ TCTAC program is part of the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network and delivers on the Biden-Harris Administrations Justice40 Initiative to ensure that 40% of the benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities. The new technical assistance centers will help ensure communities with environmental justice concerns can access President Bidens historic investments in America to address generational disinvestment, legacy pollution, infrastructure challenges, and build a clean energy economy that will lower energy costs, strengthen our energy security, and meet our climate goals.

Todays announcement builds on the $100 million announced earlier this year under the Environmental Justice Government to Government Program and the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program, with applications due on April 14, 2023.The EPA has also announced $550 million through the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, with applications due May 31, 2023.

Learn more about the selectees, their partners, and the EJ TCTAC program.

Learn more about environmental justice at EPA.

Connect with the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 on Facebook, Twitter, or visit our homepage.

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The EPA Region 6 Announces a Total of $23 Million to ... - U.S. EPA.gov

Calling attention to the myriad challenges, violations and injustices faced by their communities, speakers stressed that the rights of Indigenous Peoples cannot be realized without their full, meaningful representation and participation in decision-making processes at all levels affecting their territories, governance and families, as the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continued its twenty-second session with a day-long discussion on the human rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Francisco Cal, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said he could not report that threats to the human rights of Indigenous People have become less serious than when he presented to the Forum in2022. Development of mega-projects in Indigenous territories, including conservation and green-economy projects, without the consent of Indigenous Peoples, has led to the displacement, dispossession, violence and systematic discrimination against such peoples. Noting his two official country visits to Denmark and Greenland and to Canada, he urged States in the Asia and Africa regions to accept requests for such official visits.

Binota Dhamai, Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, stressed that the Expert Mechanism, Permanent Forum, Special Rapporteur and the Voluntary Fund must continue to work together to strengthen the recognition of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensure their right to participate in decision-making within the United Nations system and beyond. A study adopted by the Expert Mechanism during its 2022session sets forth measures that States, Indigenous Peoples and other stakeholders can take to ensure the full enjoyment by Indigenous Peoples of their right to the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements concluded with States.

Dev Kumar Sunuwar, Chair of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples, said the Fund has supported the participation of over 3,000Indigenous representatives in relevant United Nations mechanisms over the past 38years. Starting in2023, the Fund will support 25grantees to certain regional meetings. This is the first time that the Fund is supporting United Nations processes that are relevant to Indigenous issues at the regional level, thereby ensuring full participation for Indigenous Peoples in these mechanisms and processes.

As the floor opened for dialogue and general discussion, representatives of Indigenous Peoples, non-governmental organizations and Member States took the floor to alternately spotlight the injustices visited on Indigenous Peoples, detail State efforts to protect such Peoples rights and recommend actions that could improve the lives of Indigenous Peoples across the world.

The representative of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Bolivia said that the major private and transnational interests working in Indigenous territories are a form of legal colonialism of foreign capital. He joined others in urging the United Nations to guarantee Indigenous Peoples participation in issues that directly affect them, also calling for the recognition of their collective rights so they can continue to care for Mother Earth.

Similarly, the representative of the Organizacin Nacional Indgena de Colombia noted that drug trafficking and illegal mining is causing huge damage to Indigenous territories, where Indigenous leaders and environmental activists are being killed, a point that was repeatedly emphasized by a number of speakers throughout the day. He stressed that it is not up to the weakest links to tackle these challenges; rather, the highest levels must act.

On that point, Vital Bambanze, Permanent Forum member from Burundi, encouraged Member States to participate in the Forum, spotlighting all the recommendations piling up in the United Nations that are not being implemented. States cannot wait for Indigenous or disabled individuals to reach out for help; rather, they have a duty to encourage Indigenous Peoples.

The representative of Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka, also speaking on States responsibility, pointed out that, while progress has been made in recognizing Indigenous rights, the challenge lies in implementing these advances. He noted that Governments often prefer to promote Indigenous culture rather than Indigenous rights, warning against backsliding amidst the looting of ancestral territory, environmental predation and the dismantling of traditional structures.

Like many speakers today, the representative of the Inuit Circumpolar Council offered an example of that backsliding, expressing concern over the disproportionally high number of Inuit children that are removed from their parents and placed in families with no cultural or linguistic ties to the Inuit. She called on the United Nations to press for such childrens right to remain in their homeland, also spotlighting the consequences of increased militarization across Inuit Nunangat.

Representatives of Member States also took the floor today, with many spotlighting national efforts to protect and support the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

One such speaker was South Africas delegate, who pointed out that his Government has worked continuously since1994 to restore the dignity of previously marginalized peoples through a process of recognition, redress and restoration of what was stolen and exploited by the Apartheid government. Detailing such efforts, he spotlighted bioprospecting and biotrade agreements concluded with the Khoisan community to ensure that they are able to progressively develop and grow as Peoples.

Closing the meeting, Mr.Cal urged Member States to commit not only to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, but also to support them as they did in2007 with the approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. States must protect these rights, he stressed, emphasizing that the Indigenous Peoples of the world are not stakeholders, but rightsholders who enjoy collective rights like self-determination in relation to their lands and resources.

The Permanent Forum will next meet at 10a.m. on Thursday, 20April, to continue its work.

Panel Discussion

The Permanent Forum held a panel discussion on the item Human rights dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with presentations by Francisco Cal, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Binota Dhamai, Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and Dev Kumar Sunuwar, Chair of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples.

Mr. CAL said he could not report that threats to the human rights of Indigenous People have become less serious than when he presented to the Forum in2022. He said that the biggest challenge is the development of mega-projects in Indigenous territories, including conservation and green-economy projects, without the consent of Indigenous Peoples. This leads to displacement, dispossession, violence and systematic discrimination against such people. Updating the Forum on his work since his last address, he noted that he carried out two official country visits to Denmark and Greenland in February and to Canada in March, along with six academic visits. He also urged States in the Asia and Africa regions to accept requests for such official visits, additionally detailing his collaboration with United Nations specialized entities, international organizations and regional human-rights bodies.

He went on to say that he will focus his annual report to the General Assembly on tourism as it relates to the rights of Indigenous Peoples, reviewing the ways in which tourism both negatively and positively impacts such Peoples by examining the role of States, international organizations and the private sector in developing tourism facilities.Meanwhile, he pointed out that his annual report to the Human Rights Council will focus on green financing and a just transition to protect Indigenous Peoples rights. It will cover the potential impact to such rights by international climate-finance mechanisms, carbon credit markets, international conservation organizations, international financial institutions and United Nations agencies financing green energy, sustainable development projects and biodiversity targets. Expressing hope that this session of the Permanent Forum will identify constructive ways forward to ensure Indigenous Peoples rights, he looked forward to discussions from the floor.

Mr. DHAMAI said that, during its 2022fifteenth session in Geneva via a hybrid format, the Expert Mechanism finalized and adopted a Study and Advice on treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements, between Indigenous Peoples and States, as well as the Expert Mechanisms annual report to the Human Rights Council. Its study identified the principles and conditions, as well as the gaps and challenges, in the realization and exercise of Indigenous Peoples rights to conclude treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States.The studys Advice No.15, set forth measures that States, Indigenous Peoples and other stakeholders can take to ensure the full enjoyment of article37 in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It also held an interactive dialogue with the Human Rights Council at its fifty-first session on the annual report.

Unfortunately, the Expert Mechanism could not undertake country-engagement missions in2022 due to the slowdown in travel because of the pandemic, he reported. However, it has continued dialogues with several stakeholders to prepare for country visits in the coming months, including with Australia, Norway and Canada, with a visit to Australia scheduled for September. The Expert Mechanisms agenda for its upcoming sixteenth session in Geneva will include two panel discussions on the impact of the legacies of colonialism on the rights of LGBTQIA+ Indigenous Peoples, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities. The Expert Mechanism, Permanent Forum, Special Rapporteur and the Voluntary Fund must continue to work together collaboratively to strengthen the recognition of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensure their right to participate in decision-making within the United Nations system and beyond, he stressed.

Mr. SUNUWAR, providing an update on the work of the Voluntary Fund, said that the Fund has supported the participation of over 3,000Indigenous representatives in relevant United Nations mechanisms over the past 38years. In2022 alone, the Fund supported 145Indigenous representatives from more than 50countries in 13different United Nations meetings and processes almost triple the number of grantees than in previous years.In2023, the Fund will support a total of 162Indigenous representatives to United Nations meetings in New York, Geneva, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Starting in2023, the Fund will support 25grantees to certain regional meetings, including those of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platforms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is the first time that the Fund is supporting United Nations processes that are relevant to Indigenous issues at the regional level, thereby ensuring full participation for Indigenous Peoples in these mechanisms and processes.

In addition to providing such grants, the Fund allocates resources to build Indigenous Peoples capacity so they can effectively participate in United Nations meetings, he continued. To that end, the Fund launched, with partners, a yearlong Training Calendar that regularly organizes thematic and mechanism-specific trainings online. In2022 alone, 600Indigenous representatives participated in the Funds online preparatory trainings, which were offered in English, French, Russian and Spanish. Emphasizing that the Fund is contributing to increased international awareness and action regarding the rights, status and conditions of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, he said: We are increasingly seeing the results and impact of effective engagement of Indigenous Peoples representatives in the work of relevant United Nations bodies. This has resulted in specific action and recommendations for the promotion, respect, protection and fulfilment of such Peoples rights.

The floor then opened for the interactive dialogue.

The representative of Finland, also speaking for Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, said that Indigenous womens in-depth understanding of nature and natural resources can significantly contribute to mitigating against the catastrophic impacts of climate change.It remains a joint priority of all Nordic countries to ensure that indigenous women and girls, in all their diversity, can fully enjoy their human rights, and contribute to the well-being of their communities, society at large and the planet, she underscored. Success in finding sustainable solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss or attacks on human rights and democracy will not be achieved without the knowledge and know-how of Indigenous Peoples of their culture, traditions, lands and territories.

The representative of a delegation of organizations, including, among others,Centro Nacional de Metrologa,National Indigenous Women Forum of Nepal, Tohono O'odham Nation,Young Women Initiative of the Philippines andZenab for Women in Development of Sudan, demanded that Member States ratify the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW), if they have not done so, and implement General Recommendation No.39 on the rights of Indigenous women and girls. Member States must respect and acknowledge the collective identities and rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially women and girls and those with disabilities.They must formally recognize Indigenous Peoples as transmitters of traditional knowledge and custodians of biodiversity and climate action, and immediately stop reprisals against Indigenous activists.

The representative of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Bolivia, highlighted the major private and transnational interests working in their territories, calling it a legal colonialism of foreign capital.Before colonialists had invaded their land, their peoples had their own legal system and forms of organization based on a profound respect for nature, which is still being maintained. The United Nations must guarantee their participation, not only in issues that directly affect Indigenous Peoples, but also in the recognition of their collective rights so that they can continue to care for Mother Earth. He asked the Special Rapporteur to elaborate on the three priority topics identified in his latest trips that are important to Indigenous Peoples.

The representative of the Torres Strait Regional Authority said it is driven by the vision to empower its people, including in its work to support and improve human health, address climate change and manage their lands and seas for future generations. The Torres Strait islanders, alongside the Aboriginal people, are recognized as First Nations Indigenous Peoples of Australia, she said, noting that their continued stewardship has kept the Torres Strait one of the richest and most intact cultural and ecological regions on Earth. The Torres Strait is at the forefront of climate impact, she said, noting that its peoples are working in partnership with the Government of Australia to achieve climate adaptation outcomes.

The representative of the Organizacin Nacional Indgena de Colombia said drug trafficking and illegal mining are causing huge damage to their territories where leaders and environmental activists are also being killed. Underscoring the need to tackle these challenges, he said: It is not up to the weakest links to achieve this, but to the highest levels. Something is not working in the Colombian State, which has been obstructing prior, free and informed consent. He asked the panellists to provide their recommendations for the Colombian State, stressing that all efforts must be coordinated with the Indigenous Peoples who should be fully incorporated in the national development plan.

The representative of the Suoma Sami Nuorat said the Human Rights Committee has specifically demanded Finland to rectify an ongoing trampling of Sami democratic processes.However, two months ago, the Finnish Government failed to pass the Sami Parliament Act, which would have secured the right to self-representation. With this failure, Finland has revealed that it is the only State knowingly acting against the explicit recommendation by the Human Rights Committee. Pointing to the crackdown of Sami democratic processes in Finland, she stressed that the Sami people are waiting to see how the State will meddle with the Samis upcoming September elections. Voicing hope that the Special Rapporteur will closely monitor the situation, she pointed out that Finland has created a situation that her generation and younger will be forced to clean up for years to come.

The representative of the Grand Council of the Crees and Cree Government, reporting that Alberta had the highest number of Indian residential schools in Canada, recalled Pope Francis visit and personal apology to former students and survivors of such schools, saying that he learned from testimony that a genocide was committed in Alberta. The recent repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery offers the opportunity not only to forgive, but to heal, he noted, and to advance reconciliation together. Adding, however, that recent legislation in Alberta signalled that more must be done, he urged the Special Rapporteur to establish an Alberta Council on Reconciliation.

The representative of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation said that, on 8March, Vietnamese authorities summoned more than 10Indigenous individuals for interrogation following their participation in an event marking International Womens Day. Some were detained for more than 24hours and forced to sign false confession letters. Underscoring that this is deeply concerning, especially because Viet Nam is part of the Human Rights Council, she urged the Forum to ask Viet Nam to respect the human rights of the Khmer Krom, and for it to ensure such Peoples rights are respected and protected.

The representative of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, underscoring that the Russian Federation has been trying to destroy the Crimean Tatar Nation for centuries, reported that over 1,000Crimean Tatars have been subjected to political persecution since the beginning of the occupation in2014. In2022, Crimea became a springboard for the Russian Federations full-scale invasion, and hundreds of Crimean Tatars were forced to leave the peninsula to avoid conscription into the Russian armed forces. Underscoring that Indigenous Peoples cannot enjoy their rights when a permanent member of the Security Council is waging the most brutal war of the twenty-first century with impunity, she stressed that only sanctions and pressure on the Russian Federation will save our lives.

VITAL BAMBANZE, Permanent Forum member from Burundi, encouraging States to participate in the Forum, spotlighted all the recommendations piling up in the United Nations that are not being applied and have not been applied since the Forum was established. He therefore urged technical and financial partners to support capacity-building, also calling on States to understand that they must respect all people living in their territory. States cannot wait for Indigenous or disabled individuals to reach out for help; rather, States have a duty to encourage Indigenous Peoples and not persecute them. On that point, he declared: You cant go to church and then, after that, persecute people.

The representative of the Endorois Indigenous Women Empowerment Network, underlined the urgent need to understand the health impacts of climate change among marginalized communities in the Global South. Increased flooding around Lake Bogoria has disrupted the lives of the Endorois a traditionally pastoral Indigenous People. The Endorois have faced evictions from ancestral lands, subsequent displacement across the region and now flooding that is destroying their homes, sacred sites, roads and health centres causing high livestock mortality due to disease. Such impacts are particularly felt by women and those with disabilities because of structural barriers to their capacity to adapt to these changes. She asked for support for her organization to address these challenges.

The representative of the Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka highlighted Indigenous Peoples including his own, the Miskito tireless fight over decades. While progress has been made in recognizing such Peoples rights in legal systems at the national level and in instruments at the international level, the challenge is actually implementing these advances. This is particularly true at the national level due to Governments lack of political will in this area. Pointing out that Governments prefer to promote Indigenous culture such as folklore, gastronomy and artisanship rather than Indigenous rights, he warned against backsliding amidst the looting of ancestral territory, environmental predation and the dismantling of traditional structures.

Responding, Mr. CAL thanked those present for supporting the report, also stating that he took note of the suggestions and contributions made during the discussion and hopes to reflect them in that text. He expressed regret, however, over low participation by Member States, urging all of them to commit themselves not only to respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, but also to supporting them as they did in2007 with the approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He also expressed regret that certain Indigenous leaders were unable to participate in the Forum due to their arbitrary detention by certain States.

Mr. DHAMAI emphasized that the Expert Mechanisms particular mandate is country engagement, with increasing relevance in the future for Indigenous Peoples organizations and Member States.It is there to identify the best way to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the national level, through developing laws, policies and regulatory frameworks. He invited the Forum attendees to participate in the Expert Mechanisms official station in Geneva.

Mr. SUNUWAR said the Voluntary Fund, since its establishment in1985, has been offering financial support to help Indigenous Peoples participation and representation in United Nations mechanisms and meetings.It has been instrumental in ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples and that their voices are heard within the United Nations. In addition, the Voluntary Fund provides training and capacity-building, he said, noting that it has planned a series of modular courses this year for grantees.

The Permanent Forum then continued its consideration of the topic Human rights dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in a general discussion.

The representative of the United Nations LGBTI Core Group, underscored that State measures to improve conditions for Indigenous Peoples pursuant to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must consider, respect and protect diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and sex characteristics. Detailing Indigenous Peoples particular vulnerability to the direct consequences of climate change, he underscored the importance of collecting disaggregated data, in accordance with relevant national contexts and characteristics. He also noted the Special Rapporteurs efforts to defend and promote the rights of Indigenous Peoples experiencing multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination, particularly his work to combat gender-based violence.

The representative of the Inuit Circumpolar Council expressed concern over the disproportionally high number of Inuit children that are removed from their parents and placed in families that have no cultural or linguistic ties to the Inuit. The United Nations should press for such childrens right to remain in their homeland. She also welcomed work to implement the principles of free, prior and informed consent and on self-determination in this context, spotlighting, for example, the consequences of increased militarization across Inuit Nunangat. Her people gift knowledge through the spoken word, and she has done so today to ask for help bringing to light the human rights violations the Inuit are experiencing within their homeland, she said.

The representative of the European Union, in its capacity as observer, said Indigenous women play a crucial role in preserving ecosystems, but, at the same time, are disproportionately impacted by climate change, drought and desertification. Indigenous human rights defenders play a key role in addressing growing environmental degradation, but are experiencing increasing threats, harassment, reprisals and murder, as well as land invasions, arbitrary forced evictions and other abusive practices. The world must do better in protecting Indigenous Peoples. He asked the Special Rapporteur how the international community can ensure that Indigenous Peoples are fully recognized as stakeholders in conservation efforts and what more can be done to prevent attacks on them, not least in business contexts.

The representative of the Indigenous Peoples of African Continent Committee, also speaking for the Community Leaders Network of Southern Africa, spotlighted a grave misinterpretation of the Indigenous Peoples rights issue in the region, namely that some Member States in the region are promoting the interests of one Indigenous Peoples group above another, creating privileges and exclusion. He also called on Western Europes animal rights groups to join hands with regional Governments to combat poaching crime syndicates and other crime networks, and ensure adherence to free, prior and informed consultation within their wildlife economy. The Forum and all policymakers must to stand against legislation that disrespects the rights of his people and support sustainable and cost-effective wildlife conservation.

The representative of Ecuador said that Indigenous Peoples still face enormous challenges in her country, a State whose Constitution recognizes plurinationality and multiculturality. To address this, the Government has prioritized promoting and strengthening such Peoples participation, which includes the creation of a commission tasked with generating disaggregated data to guide public policy and regularly assess the situation of historically relegated Peoples.Also detailing national efforts to promote Ecuadors many languages, she spotlighted another commission this one tasked with revitalizing the languages and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples.

RODRIGO EDUARDO PAILLALEF MONNARD, Permanent Forum member from Chile, asked certain interpreters to use Indigenous Peoples and not Indigenous Populations, as the former is the correct appellation.

The representative of Organisasi Pribunmi Papua Barat underscored that the agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands concerning West Papua established by General Assembly resolution1752 has made a giant disaster of our life. He asked the Assembly to put that resolution on the Trusteeship Councils agenda, as Indonesia has sent thousands of troops to fight the West Papua National Liberation Army, and Indigenous People are dying as a result. He urged the Special Rapporteur to look into what is happening in West Papua and called on the General Assembly to revoke its resolution2504 that established a related fake referendum.

The representative of Colombia said that her country recently hosted the Forums Preparatory Committee where delegates discussed the challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples, especially regarding care for the planet. Indigenous Peoples have taught the international community what it means to oppose a model of oppression or accumulation, she said, recalling the many years of war, poverty and inequality in her country. President Gustavo Petro of Colombia was able to express those challenges very clearly with regard to peace and a new economic model.Spaces like the Permanent Forum are important in helping rebuild the planet and in building peace.

The representative of the Association of Indigenous Village Leaders in Suriname, said the collective struggle of Indigenous Peoples has made some of them victims, recalling those who have been assassinated, namely Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. Organized crime has acted on many fronts, while trade policies and exploitation of natural resources have strengthened States. The Inter-American Commission [on Human Rights] already issued a measure against Brazil, and even so, we are still marked for death, including myself and 11other brothers who fight, he stressed. He urged the Forum to recommend to Brazil that it guarantee the effective protection of Indigenous territories and to recommend to the Inter-American Commission to strengthen guarantees granted in [precautionary] measure449-22 in their favour.

The representative of South Africa noted that his countrys history is well-known in the corridors of the United Nations because the Organization and the international community played a key role in the struggle against Apartheid. Since the dawn of democracy in1994, the Government has been working continuously to restore the dignity of previously marginalized peoples through a process of recognition, redress and restoration of what was stolen and exploited by the Apartheid government. Detailing some of those efforts, he spotlighted bioprospecting and biotrade agreements concluded with the Khoisan community to ensure that they are able to progressively develop and grow as Peoples.

The representative of the Native Council of Prince Edward Island expressed concern over ongoing violations of Indigenous rights in Canada. Two years ago, Canada adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without reservation. However, it included its own preamble that defines the peoples to whom the Declaration applies. This undermines that instrument and is nothing more than neo-colonialism masquerading as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation, he stressed. Noting that it has been two years since his community submitted a formal complaint against Canada to the Human Rights Council concerning the treatment of Indigenous children, he called on the international community to condemn Canada for its continued genocidal and exclusionary practices towards his community.

The representative of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, noting its distinction-based approach to Indigenous policymaking, said Canada has chosen only to engage in consultation and negotiation with the three recognized groups, none of whom represent the interests or voices of off-reserve Indigenous Peoples. Moreover, it has failed to engage with or meet the needs of rural or urban Indigenous Peoples, who make up the majority of Indigenous Peoples in the country.Canadian policies mainly focus on on-reserve communities to the exclusion of vast numbers of off-reserve people. Recently Canada introduced BillC-29, a reconciliation bill which has left out 85percent of off-reserve people, he pointed out, calling it the illusion of inclusion bill.

The representative of New Zealand spotlighted the Governments ongoing development of a plan to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since the pandemic and more recently, his country has seen the benefit of indigenous led nationally supported solutions. The Government will continue to support its Indigenous communities as they respond to the devastating consequences of recent weather events and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. However, that support should not be limited to times of emergencies or crises. New Zealands many diverse communities must have a good understanding of Indigenous rights, he stressed, noting that his country throughout the year will focus on developing greater public understanding and support for the Declaration.

The representative of Indigenous Peoples Rights International spotlighted continuing cases of criminalization and violence against Indigenous Peoples in all regions of the world linked to conservation. Their right to self-determination regarding their lands and resources is being ignored. She urged the Forum to monitor the implementation of relevant recommendations contained in the Special Rapporteurs report. Also noting that the Rapporteur called for information regarding tourisms impact on Indigenous rights, she pointed out that tourism is often linked to the creation of conservation areas or cultural heritage sites in Indigenous Peoples territory. She expressed hope that the Forum will consider the forced displacement resulting from this, along with the commercialization of Indigenous arts, culture and spirituality.

The representative of Indonesia said that her country is committed to promoting the rights of women, which are protected by the Constitution and further advanced through national and local policies. She expressed regret, however, that these positive efforts have been hindered by groups in some parts of Papua that spread falsehoods and instigate violence, while claiming to represent Indigenous communities to which they have no attachment. Underscoring that Papua was, is and will always be an integral part of Indonesia which has been confirmed by the General Assembly and the international community through General Assembly resolution2504 she expressed regret that the Forum is being used to advance a separatist agenda.

The representative of Viet Nam said the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, a foreign-based based organization, has abused the Forums platform to falsely malign his country. That organization does not represent the ethnic Khmer people in Viet Nam and its participation in the Forum should be categorically rejected. It has used the platform for its own politically motivated agenda and its aim is to sow seeds of division among Vietnamese ethnic groups. Viet Nam is a country of 54ethnic groups, which enjoy a long history of living together in peace and harmony, he emphasized, adding that the promotion and protection of the rights of ethnic minorities, including the Khmer people, are among the Governments top priorities.

HANIEH MOGHANI, Permanent Forum member from Iran, said that she comes from West Asia, a place the colonialist world called the Middle East.That regions Indigenous Peoples have for years shouldered unilateral coercive measures, she said, noting the Special Rapporteurs report on the negative impact of such measures on Indigenous communities. Pointing to other obstacles which prevent Indigenous Peoples meaningful participation, she said many people of her region are rarely represented at these meetings. It is the responsibility of Governments and international organizations to facilitate Indigenous representatives participation in the Forum. The practice of restricting attendance due to non-issuance of visa and processing delays should not be normalized, she added.

Mr. DHAMAI said the Expert Mechanisms study aims to promote demilitarization efforts and the continued exercise by Indigenous Peoples of their right to live in freedom, peace and security. The Expert Mechanism will devote an item in this regard at its upcoming session and the draft study will be shared with States in the Organizations six official languages for their comment, he added, emphasizing that the study is in line with its mandate. Governments and State representatives should see Indigenous Peoples not as enemies, but as a good friend with whom they can have a faithful relationship and meaningful and effective engagement in decision-making processes.

Mr. CAL, in closing, agreed with calls to collect disaggregated data regarding Indigenous Peoples access to land, health and education.He also underscored that such peoples are not stakeholders, but rightsholders who enjoy collective rights like self-determination in relation to their lands and resources. States must protect these rights, even if those who would violate them are third parties, such as businesses. He called on States to, among other measures, ensure that Indigenous Peoples are fully recognized as rightsholders in conservation efforts; allocate funding for Indigenous-led conservation, adopt a rights-based approach when assessing conservation measures, include Indigenous knowledge and rights in conservation education, and support Indigenous participation in international conservation processes.

Also speaking today were representatives from the following organizations: the Association of Comprehensive Studies for Independence of the Lew Chewans; Assembly of First Nations; Consejo Shipibo Konibo Yetebo; Human Rights Commission of New Zealand; International Indian Treaty Council; Manaaki Matakaoa; International Indigenous Forum of World Heritage; Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales; Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti Bangladesh; Shoshone Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley; Indigenous Network on Economics and Trade; Chagossian Voices; NSW Aboriginal Land Council; Organizacion Nacional de Mujeres Indigenas; Native Council of Nova Scotia; Association Tin-Hinan, Sahel; UNIVADA; Confederacion de Nacionalidades Indigenas del Ecuador; Ontario Native Womens Association; Sami Parliament of Finland; International Working Group for Indigenous; Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and Caucus Affairs; FundacinEgdolina Thomas,para la Defensade losDerechosde losHabitantes de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua; Stichting Mulokot; Global Indigenous Youth Caucus; Saami Council, Chagossian Voices, Inisiasi Masyarakat Adat, Centro Cultural Techantit, Indian Law Resource Center, Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indigenas de las Americas, Indigenous Peoples Organization-Australia Parliamentarians; and la Coordinadora Nacional de Defensa de los Territorios Indgenas Originarios Campesinos y reas Protegidas de Bolivia-VIVAT International.

Forum members speaking today included Suleiman Mamutov from Ukraine, Tove Svndahl Gant from Denmark, Keith Harper from the United States, Vital Bambanze from Burandi and Geoffrey Roth from the United States.

Also speaking today were the representatives of Brazil, Chile Philippines, Mexico, China, Guyana, Canada, Russian Federation, Guatemala Ukraine, United States, Panama, Spain, Denmark, Peru, Bangladesh, Iran and Burundi.

The representative of the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean spoke, as did the International Labour Organization (ILO).

__________

* The 3rd & 4th Meetings were not covered.

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Indigenous Peoples Must Have Full Representation, Participation in ... - United Nations

TOPEKA Gov. Laura Kelly used her veto pen Friday to strike GOP-backed portions of the state budget that would set aside funding for anti-abortion programs and ban critical race theory and diversity considerations at universities.

Lawmakers passed a $17.9 billion spending blueprint before adjourning in early April. Kelly signed the 243-page budget Friday, just ahead of the Legislatures return next week.

Thanks to our laser-sharp focus on growing the economy, we have a record surplus that we can use to make critical investments in health care, affordable housing, our foster care system, and other essential services everyday Kansans rely on, Kelly said.

The budget adds $600 million to the states rainy day fund, putting the balance at $1.6 billion.

The budget includes $20 million for a Housing Revolving Loan Program to expand available housing, especially in rural Kansas. More than $17 million will go toward increasing foster care placement rates for foster homes and family preservation services, along with funding for evidence-based programing for juveniles. More than $100 million goes to a KanCare program to fund services for low-income Kansans, adds funding for mental health, and sets aside funding for substance use disorder treatment for uninsured Kansans.

The governor used a line item veto on more than a dozen provisions of the budget, including funding for pregnancy crisis centers and restrictions on diversity initiatives.

One provision of the Legislatures budget wouldve banned universities from asking faculty members, students and contractors about diversity, equity and inclusion, unless the DEI was thought to be relevant to the persons field.

Another section in the budget banned using DEI as a condition for receiving or renewing licenses with the Behavioral Science Regulatory Board.

The budget stipulated that applicants didnt need to go through or demonstrate understanding of education and instruction programs for DEI, anti-racism, critical race theory or other related topics except for equal opportunity protections against discrimination covered by state and federal law.

This funding restriction limits the ability for these professionals to be trained in potentially lifesaving practices that address the individualized needs of every Kansan, Kelly said.

The board regulates social workers and psychologists, among other people who typically work with marginalized populations.

Kelly also struck out a program that would divert $2 million in state funding into a program to promote childbirth for unplanned pregnancies.

The program would include resources such as pregnancy support assistance, maternity homes and adoption assistance, with the goal of having pregnant women who are considering abortion think of other options. A nonprofit organization contracted by the state treasurer would provide these services.

In other states where similar programs have been implemented, a lack of nonprofit regulation has led to financial abuse. Kansas already has a state grant program designed to help low-income women with pregnancies.

Kelly said she didnt think overseeing a pregnancy program fell within the state treasurers jurisdiction.

This proviso creates a sole source contract for an unknown entity to provide taxpayer funding for largely unregulated pregnancy resource centers, Kelly said. This is not an evidence-based approach or even an effective method for preventing unplanned pregnancies.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said Republicans in the Legislature would attempt to override the vetoes upon their return, a message he has issued for all of Kellys vetoes announced this month.

The middle of the road governor vetoed everything from supporting women in need to a provision preventing the promotion of radical ideology to be advanced with tax payer dollars at our state universities, to even making it harder for Kansas youth to enjoy outdoor activities, Hawkins said. Rest assured, the Legislature will examine each of these line items and will take up overrides on several of them next week.

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Kansas governor strikes funding for anti-abortion pregnancy centers ... - Kansas Reflector

Can organizations sincerely say they are leading the climate justice fight without also being unapologetically antiwar? Short answerno. Here's why.

We cannot end climate change without ending war. The United States military is the planet's largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses and consumer of oil. The U.S. military and its weapons, consistently deployed to secure economic dominance for the few while ensuring suffering for the many, have no place on a just and livable planet. The corporate interests and fascist, militarist tendencies that lead humanity into conflict are the very same that view our Earth, its atmosphere, and its abundant life as a resource to be exploited for profit. Ending war means ending the war economythe colonial system of extraction and exploitation that got us into this mess in the first place.

That a more peaceful world could be a result of the broad system change climate activists are calling for is no coincidence. But the theoretical intersection alone isn't enough! Environmentalists and climate change activists must make a commitment to peace explicitly. Our planet depends on it.

Demilitarization is one of the most important things we can do for the climate, and for living beings inside and outside conflict zones.

There are already plenty of reasons to oppose war such as the threat of nuclear destruction, massive civilian casualties, violence against women, and the concentration of fascist imperialist powers into corporatized hands. But if that is not enough for folks doing important work in climate justice to also oppose all wars, then let's also considermilitarism and the war economy.

The Pentagon is already the planet's largest single institutional emitter of fossil fuels, and U.S.-backed conflicts around the world since WWII can always be tied back to economic gain dominance, especially via the private control of fuel and natural resources. A war with China, which the U.S. has gradually encircled with hundreds of military bases and weaponry, is being provoked for economic reasons as the government and media manufacture the consent of the American public. This will only result in the increase of Pentagon funding (already at $858 billion), siphoning off billions of dollars of taxpayer money to infrastructure and weaponry that is destroying our climate.

Many people don't realize that every solution to climate change already exists. The problem is the government simply will not fund them while its priority is war. Demilitarization is one of the most important things we can do for the climate, and for living beings inside and outside conflict zones.

Currently, our measure of success as a country is based on how much we can destroy and exploit. While the basic tenets of capitalism are taught in America as economic law, this is hardly the case. The economic system we operate under is a choice. There are other options. Our broken and optional systemin which income inequality is at an all-time high, the poor have little access to healthcare, and the climate is nearing deadly tipping pointsis driven by capitalists and federal economists who love to talk about the profit-oriented metric Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. This metric, which is used as an indicator of our country's well-being, tells us the amount of financial profit produced by economic activity in a given time period. Which is pretty ridiculous when well-being is obviously a function of things that aren't liquid cash, like quality of education, healthcare, and biodiversity.

Essentially, under a GDP-oriented economy, half of a country's forest cover could be destroyed and the poverty rate in all major cities could double over the course of a year, but as long as billionaires continued to increase their profits, the illusion of progress would persist. But if we manage to change how we measure progress in this country, we may actually be able to achieve some. Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is a metric that places value on things like improving air quality and food security. With GPI in place, lawmakers and activists would have the most undeniable picture yet of the cost of war on people and planet.

And what is the cost of war to the environment? Take the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to massive death and displacement, as well as environmental damage with exponential increases in greenhouse gas emissions from rocket attacks and explosions. Attacks on infrastructurerailways, electrical grids, apartment buildings, oil depotshave led to hollowed-out cities blanketed by charred rubble and toxic munitions.

Additionally, the sabotage of the underwater Nord Stream pipelines supplying Russian gas to Germany led to the release of 300,000 tons of methane gas into the atmosphere, similar to the annual emissions of a million cars. According to the U.N. Environmental Programme, it was the largest release of methane gas emissions ever recorded.

The shelling of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, particularly the Zaporizhzhia plant, has increased fears of an explosion that would spread radiation throughout Ukraine and beyond.

As the fighting has now gone on for a year with no end in sight, Ukraine braces itself for further disruption of local ecosystems, forest fires, blackened trees, air pollution, sewage leaks, and chemical contamination of rivers and groundwater in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has mutated the global fuel market, with Russian cuts of fuel exports and Western sanctions leading many European countries to resume filthy coal-fired power generation. U.S. companies have also consolidated money and power as a result, dramatically increasing their exports of natural gas to Europe. These exorbitant profits will fuel the fossil fuel economy for years to come.

Funding endless war is an existential threat to human life and one of the leading causes of climate change. In order to achieve climate justice and secure a sustainable future, climate and environmental groups must adopt an antiwar position for people and the planet. To defend Earth, we must end wars.

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Can You Fight for Climate Justice Without Being Antiwar? - Common Dreams

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and an important source of foreign exchange and employment as well as social, economic and environmental welfare of many countries, especially developing countries. Marine or ocean tourism and coastal tourism are important parts of the economies of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Coastal Countries (LDCs) (see also the potential water economy report). as Community of Marine Action on Sustainable Water Economy).

The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as: Tourism that fully considers current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts and meets the needs of visitors, industries, the environment, and host communities.

Sustainable tourism considers the needs of the environment and local communities, taking into account current and future economic, social and environmental impacts. This includes protecting the natural environment and wildlife when developing and managing tourism activities, providing tourists with only authentic experiences that do not adequately misrepresent local heritage and culture, or teaching this by creating direct socio-economic benefits for Local communities through employment and employment.

More on Travel Laws

What does Sustainability mean?

Sustainability is about maintaining environmental, social and economic benefits without depleting the resources that future generations need to thrive. In the past, the ideal of sustainability tended to be business-oriented, but more modern definitions of sustainability focus on: It emphasizes finding ways to prevent the depletion of natural resources.

Different types of Sustainable Tourism

Soft Tourism

Soft tourism can promote an emphasis on local experiences, local languages and more time spent in individual regions. This is in contrast to hard tourism, which involves short visits, non-cultural trips, lots of selfies and a general sense of superiority as a tourist.

Community Tourism

Community-based tourism involves tourism where local residents invite travelers to their communities. It may be an overnight stay and is often done in rural and developing countries. This type of tourism fosters communication and allows tourists to gain in-depth knowledge of local habitats, wildlife and traditional culture. On the other hand, it provides direct economic benefits to the host community. Ecuador is a world leader in social tourism, offering unique lodges such as Sunny Lodge, run by the indigenous Quichua community, offering responsible cultural experiences in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest.

Eco Tourism

Ecotourism emphasizes responsible travel to natural areas with a focus on environmental protection. Sustainable tourism organizations support biodiversity conservation by responsibly managing their properties and by respecting or enhancing surrounding natural reserves (or areas of high biological value). In most cases, this appears to be financial compensation for conservation management, but it also includes ensuring that tours, attractions and infrastructure do not disrupt natural ecosystems.

Rural Tourism

Rural tourism refers to tourism that is carried out in non-urban areas such as national parks, forests, natural reserves and mountainous areas. That means everything from camping and glamping to hiking and woofing. Rural tourism is a great way to do sustainable tourism because it usually requires less use of natural resources.

How Tourism is made Sustainable?

As tourism affects and affects a wide range of activities and industries, all sectors and stakeholders tourists, governments, host communities and tourism operators must contribute to the success of sustainable tourism. We must cooperate.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations agency responsible for promoting sustainable tourism, and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the global standard for sustainable travel and tourism, are committed to making tourism sustainable. I feel the same way about it. What to do They explain that sustainable tourism maximizes environmental resources while protecting natural heritage and biodiversity, respects the social culture of local host communities, and promotes intercultural understanding. Economically, we need to ensure sustainable long-term operations that benefit all stakeholders, including sustainable employment for local residents, social services, and helping to reduce poverty.

GSTC has developed a set of standards to create a common language on sustainable travel and tourism. These criteria are used to distinguish sustainable destinations and organizations, but also help create sustainable policies for companies and government agencies. A global database consists of four pillars.

Focus on Environment

Protecting the natural environment is the foundation of sustainable tourism. CO2 emissions from tourism are expected to increase by 25% by 2030, according to data published by the World Tourism Organization. International long-haul travel was predicted to increase by 45% by 2030.1

The environmental impact of tourism goes beyond carbon emissions. Tourism with unsustainable management can create waste problems, cause land loss and soil erosion, increase the loss of natural habitats and put pressure on endangered species. Destruction of the environment on which the industry depends.

Industries and destinations seeking sustainability must do their part to conserve resources, reduce pollution, and protect biodiversity and vital ecosystems.

For this purpose, proper resource management and waste/disposal management are important. For example, in Bali, tourism consumes 65 percent of the regions water resources, while in Zanzibar, tourists use 15 times more water per night than locals.

Another factor of sustainable tourism centered on the environment is in the form of shopping. Does your tour operator, hotel or restaurant prefer local suppliers and products? How do they manage food waste and dispose of goods? Paper instead of plastic straws You can significantly reduce your organizations footprint by simply preparing a straw.

More and more companies are promoting carbon offsets recently. The idea behind carbon offsetting is to offset greenhouse gas emissions that are produced elsewhere. Similar to the idea that reduction or reuse should be considered before recycling, carbon offsets should not be a primary goal. A sustainable tourism industry always strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions first and offset what it cannot.

Well-managed sustainable tourism also has the power to provide alternatives to occupations and needs-based behaviors such as poaching. Often, especially in developing countries, residents resort to environmentally harmful practices due to poverty and other social problems. For example, the Periyar Tiger Reserve in India has seen a massive increase in tourism, making it more difficult to curb poaching in the area. In response, an environmental development program aimed at creating employment for the local population has turned 85 former hunters into reserve game managers. Under the supervision of reserve management staff, a group of hunters have developed a series of tourism packages and are now protecting the land rather than developing it. They found that responsible wildlife tourism businesses are more profitable than illegal businesses.

Focus on Economy

It is not difficult to make a business case for sustainable tourism, especially if one looks at the destination as a product. Think of protecting a destination, cultural monument or ecosystem as an investment. By maintaining a healthy environment and satisfied local residents, sustainable tourism maximizes the efficiency of business resources. This is especially true in places where locals are more likely to voice their concerns if they feel that industry is treating visitors better than residents.

Not only does reducing dependence on natural resources help save money in the long run, studies have shown that modern travelers are more likely to engage in eco-friendly tourism. In 2019, Booking.com found that 73% of travelers prefer an environmentally sustainable hotel over a traditional one, and 72% of travelers believe that people need to make sustainable travel choices for the sake of future generations.

Initiatives taken by different countries

A tourism industry is considered sustainable if it successfully meets the needs of travelers while providing long-term employment for local people with little impact on natural resources. By creating positive experiences for local people, travelers and the industry itself, well-managed and sustainable tourism can meet the needs of the present without compromising the future.

As people pay more attention to the sustainability and direct and indirect effects of their actions, the goals and organizations also follow this trend. For example, Tourism New Zealands Sustainability Pledge aims to commit all New Zealand tourism businesses to sustainability by 2025, while the island nation of Palau has required visitors to sign an environmental pledge on arrival since 2017.

Focus of India through the G20 Summit

The G20 chairmanship provides a strong platform for India to advance its agenda to develop sustainable/green tourism practices.

The G20 presidency could not have come at a better time for India, especially its tourism sector. India is witnessing a resurgence in inbound and domestic travel. With the G20, we need to meet pre-Covid-19 figures and perhaps surpass them this year to deliver a long-term agenda to promote sustainable tourism globally.

During Indias year-long chairmanship of the G20, we are hosting more than 200 meetings in more than 59 destinations. It brings together representatives of the Group of 20 of 19 countries and the European Union (EU) to discuss key issues related to the global economy, including international financial stability, the climate crisis and sustainable development. All these issues affect the tourism sector. We have identified five priority areas for tourism during the G20. Greening the tourism sector, facilitating digitization, empowering youth with skills, strengthening small tourism enterprises, small and medium enterprises and start-ups and strategic management of destinations.

Contributed Ankit Raj Sharma

Edited Imtiaz Ullah

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Sustainable Tourism: A World leading to the road of Environment consciousness - Nomad Lawyer - NomadLawyer

In Real Time is a monthly series on our blog by Stan Cox, author ofThe Path to a Livable FutureandThe Green New Deal and Beyond. The series follows the climate, voting rights, and justice movements as they navigate Americas unfolding crisis of democracy.

Along the South River, in the southwest corner of DeKalb County, Georgia, lies a forested area of about 300 acres that has been owned by the nearby City of Atlanta for over a century. It was once part of a vastly larger wooded landscape, home to the Muskogee (Creek) people. They gave the river and forest the name Weelaunee.

In 2021, Atlanta officials decided to split 85 acres off this remnant of the Weelaunee forest and lease it to the Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization, for construction of a $90 million tactical training center. If built, it will be one of the countrys largest such facilities and include an entire mock village in which cops can practice doing the kinds of things cops do.

For the past two years, a broad, loose coalition comprising neighborhood associations, schools, environmental groups, justice activists, civic leaders, and forest defenders has been pushing back hard against what they call Cop City. Writing forAtlantamagazine in January, Timothy Prattcaptured the sheer breadthof the coalitions motives and goals:

These disparate groups have in common opposition to the training center, with sometimes differing rationales. Some see the importance of preserving intact forests, as ecosystems, amid a climate crisis increasingly being felt in the Southeastbut may support building the training center elsewhere. Some worry about further contaminating a forest and river that are already contaminated. Others question the wisdom of investing tens of millions of public dollars in policingparticularly to build a training center in a majority-Black area that has seen decades of disinvestment. Yet others see a connection between environmental contamination and the neglect of majority-Black neighborhoods in the Atlanta metro, concerns exacerbated by a haphazard process for collecting public input on the proposed facility. At the center of it all is a piece of land that has already endured centuries of contesting visions for what people in Atlanta, particularly Black people, need and deserve.

Two months later, inThe Guardian, Prattreported ona media blitz by city officials scrambling to build support for the training centeran effort that ran head-on into a surge of resistance by community members and groups. Will Potter, the author ofGreen Is the New Red: An Insiders Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, was also in Atlanta to follow the struggle, and told Pratt, You get the feeling everybody is talking about this; everybody knows its going on. Its like the issue has saturated the public discourse; its permeated everywhere.

Meanwhile, forest defenders have camped and protested, both under and up in the trees, for more than a year, while enduring repeated police raids and thekilling by policeof one of their own: Manuel Paez Tern, a Venezuelan eco-activist known as Tortuguita (Little Turtle), in January. During protests prompted by Tortuguitas killing, dozens of forest defenders have beenarrestedon state domestic terrorism charges, 23 of them during a concert.

A positionstatementby Defend the Atlanta Forest, a self-described autonomous movement for the future of South Atlanta captures the tangle of issues at the heart of the defenders struggle:

The fight[s] against ecological destruction and racialized violence in Atlanta, and beyond, are inextricably linked. Today, climate collapse disproportionately affects disadvantaged groups such as Atlantas Black communities. Rather than investing in solutions to the environmental crisis, governments are investing in heavier policing, especially of those disadvantaged groups. Atlantas tree canopy is one of its main sources of resiliency in the face of climate change. [But] rather than address the problems as they really present themselves, world and local leaders are hurling us into the fire. As we fight for a life worth living, the system seems prepared to prop up its petroleum-based economy with tear gas and lines of riot police.

Colonialism, then and now

Through the 18th and early 19th centuries, first the English and then US settlers encroached on millions of acres of Muskogee lands across a broad swath of Florida and Georgia that included the Weelaunee forest. Then, about 200 years ago, the federal government seized all of the Muskogee territory outright. The stolen forest was soon converted to a plantation worked first by enslaved labor and later through sharecropping. In 1922, the plantation owners sold the property to the City of Atlanta. On it, the city built a prison farm where inmates would grow food for their fellow incarcerated people. The farm, notorious for abuse of prisoners, especially Black prisoners, operated all the way up to 1990, when it was abandoned. The forest has since reclaimed the acreage, thanks to the Southeasts favorable climate for lush plant growth. But now, if Cop City is built, the long, cruel, racist history of this plot of land will soon take up where it left off three decades ago.

Plans for Cop City emerged from a corporate process, not a democratic one. Of its entire cost, two-thirds, $60 million, has been pledged by the Atlanta Police Foundation, whose board of directors is drawn from a whos who of Atlanta-based corporations, including Delta Airlines, Waffle House, Home Depot, Georgia Pacific, Equifax, Accenture, Wells Fargo, and UPS. Morgan Simon, a senior contributor toForbes, hascompiled a list of some of the major Atlanta-area donors supporting the branch of the foundation that, it appears, will be funding Cop City. Among them are Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola, UPS, Gas South (which sells fossil gas in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and New Jersey), Georgia Pacific (which grinds up zillions of trees to make paper pulp), Rollins Inc. (which performs chemical pest control), and Norfolk Southern Railway (which delivered clouds of hydrogen chloride and phosgene to East Palestine, Ohio, with its catastrophic derailment in February). With eyebrows raised, Simon notes that four of the Cop City fundersChick-fil-A, UPS, Coca-Cola, and Norfolk Southern all made prior racial equity commitments in the wake of George Floyds murder.

If the project comes to fruition, this corporate investment in police militarization will have heavy ecological consequences. In 2021, the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club and 15 other environmental justice groups sent aletterto Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the Atlanta City Council opposing construction of the facility. The letter charged that, among other impacts, it would release into the atmosphere large amounts of carbon that the forest ecosystem has been capturing from the air and storing for decades. It would also, they wrote, leave the surrounding areas susceptible to stormwater flooding, which is Atlantas top natural disaster, continually increasing in intensity due to climate change. And, the letter said, by bulldozing a significant portion of the forest and draining wetlands within it, the project would imperil one of the last breeding grounds for many amphibians in the region, as well as an important site for migratory and wading birds. As a further consequence, research shows, environmental injustice will reverberate far beyond the Cop City construction site.

Urban forests and climate justice

Atlanta, which has more tree cover than any other major US city, has been nicknamed the city in a forest. But today, its wooded areas are under constant pressure from development. Cutting down and paving over a chunk of Atlantas largest forest to build something akin to a movie set for ersatz urban conflict would deal a huge blow to the livability of the surrounding area. And that blow would land hardest on marginalized communities. A 2017meta-analysisof 40 academic research reports on the relationship between urban forests and race found that predominantly Black residential areas had more tree cover on private property than other areas, suggesting that perhaps minority residents have a stronger preference for vegetation than other groups. However, Black neighborhoods tended to have much less tree cover on their public land, suggesting that decisions by municipal policymakers tend to produce inequity in public service provision. Through historical happenstance, the predominantly Black neighborhoods around the Weelaunee forest fragment, having an unusually large public urban forest close by, are a sharp exception to that trend. Now that prized local asset is under threat.

The neighborhoods arenot so luckyin other respects. More than one-fourth of the residents live in poverty. In the vicinity are six landfills, five prisons, the ruins of now-demolished public housing, and a lot of dirty industry. Given that, the forest is all the more a local treasure; the last thing residents want is to see it partially destroyed to build Cop City.

Weelaunee and other urban forests are crucial to environmental justice, and in the hot, humid Southeast, to climate justice in particular. Inall but six of the 175most populous cities of the United States, the average person of color endures more intense summer heat than the average non-Latino white person. Overall, Black residents are hit by more than twice the urban heat impact that white residents endure. And its getting worse. Dr. Brian Stone, an urban-planning professor at Georgia Tech,toldAtlantamagazine models predict that with global climate change, by 2030 heat waves like the historic one that hit Atlanta in 1995 will be fairly routinewell probably see it every couple of years, instead of every 10 or 20 years.

Stone says that an electrical grid failure coinciding with an intense heat wave is probably the deadliest climate-related event we can imagine in the United States. He estimates that if a blackout hits during a heat wave as severe as the one endured in 1995, fully 70 percent of Atlantas population would experience life-threatening indoor temperatures. The paucity of facilities to provide relief for people with inadequate housing, or none at all, would further heighten the peril. There are only five public cooling centers in the entire city, the magazine noted, and they arent required to have backup power generators.

With those dangers looming, the last thing the people of southeast Atlanta and southwest DeKalb County need is local deforestation. Dr. Cassandra Johnson Gaither, who researches the relationship between social vulnerability and resource use for the US Forest Service in Georgia, says, Cities are hotter than surrounding areas because of the urban heat island effect, so the more green tree canopy you have, the more cooling there is for homes and people. In a 2021report, scientists at Yale University and Imperial College London concluded, Maintenance and expansion of urban forests rather than generic urban greening is . . . a key factor for mitigating urban summer heat. Urban trees have been shown todramatically reduce summer temperatures, cutting by 7 percent the amount of energy required to cool US homes. That saves households$7.8 billionannually while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Johnson Gaither points out that urban forests also act as a check on the constant stream of pollutants being emitted in the surrounding area, and studies have shown that has human health benefits. More generally, she adds, The more trees you have in the surrounding area, the better peoples physical and mental health is. Just being near trees, near urban green spaces, research shows, has calming effects. Researchers at North Carolina State University have indeedfound that spending time in places like urban forests improves mental health.

Can Cop City be stopped?

Before the Weelaunee forest was targeted by the police foundation, a coalition of southwest DeKalb County residents and environmental, civic, and community groups had begun urging the establishment of a conservation area 10 times larger, which they would call theSouth River Forest. The project, still aspirational, would expand and interconnect the forest, five existing public parks, and some well-wooded neighborhoods, all of them in that corner of the county. The coalition, of course, opposes having the police facility plopped down in the midst of the Weelaunee forest, which they envision as the biggest gem in an emerald necklaceof connected public greenspaces bordering economically distressed southeast Atlanta.

The original plan for Cop City called for a 150-acre site, notesAtlantas Pratt, but community opposition early on managed to get the plan whittled down to the current 85 acres. The South River Forest Coalition, the forest defenders, and other groups are carrying on the struggle to push the acreage all the way down to zero and scuttle the Cop City idea entirely. But others see the project, with its heavy backing from City Hall and big business, as an inevitability that will just have to be reckoned with. The goals then would come down to limiting damage to the local environment and quality of life in surrounding neighborhoods. while carrying on the long struggle against systemic racism, rights abuses, and the culture of killing in the police department.

I asked Johnson Gaither what the consequences would be, for both the forest and its human neighbors, if a fate that some now see as unavoidable does come to pass. With Cop City occupying almost 30 percent of the forests current acreage, wont the ecological integrity of the entire area be undermined?

Yeah, she said, thats sort of the 64-million-dollar question, isnt it? Given that uncertainty, she added, some in the local community are just trying to limit the damage, whatever it may be: I understand that groups of residents have been organizing, requesting that buffers be added around the new training facility. Theyve been in constant dialogue with the police to say, Well, if you want to expand this, and its on this 85 acres, and we have to live right next to it, this is what we want, so that the impacts are reduced.

Meanwhile, the broader groundswell against Cop City appears moreenergizedthan ever, so maybe, when this is all over, the trees will live on and no buffers will be needed.

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Atlanta's Cop City and the Struggle for Climate Justice - Resilience

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankars recent visit to three African nations hardly gathered any media interest in India. It is perhaps only to be expected in a country that devotes reams of newspapers and aeons of airtime to Bilawal Bhuttos impending arrival for an SCO summit or better still, Hina Rabbani Khars Birkin bag.

Thats a bit of a shame. Jaishankars trip to Africa demands close attention. After decades of neglect, absence of any long-term strategy or sense of direction, India is making a strong play to be counted as a big stakeholder in Africa. And it is doing so based on the principles of cooperation, mutual respect and equality, instead of looking at the continent as a big prize to be won in great power competition or as a test ground for neocolonial aggression and exploitative policies.

India does not have the geopolitical clout of the United States. It cannot compete with Russia in selling arms, nor can it outspend China. What it can, however, and is attempting to do right now is adopt smarter strategies that involve capacity building and human resource development. By focusing on core proficiencies and increasing engagement with nations where strategic interests align, India is making a difference. Under the Narendra Modi government, it is also acting swifter and nimbler.

Jaishankars visit to Uganda and Mozambique, with a transit stopover in Ethiopia, is a case in point. In Uganda, the external affairs minister inaugurated National Forensic Science Universitys (NFSU) first offshore campus in Jinja province. This marks the first instance of a government university opening a campus abroad. The MoU for this was signed last year with the Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF).

NFSU, which has nine campuses across India, offers courses and promotes research in forensic and behavioural sciences, cyber security, digital forensics and allied fields. These courses enjoy high demand from African students who avail of scholarships and fellowships funded by the GoI. Additionally, talks are reportedly going on for the opening of IITs first campus outside India in Tanzania. Classes may start by the end of this year.

These moves indicate that India is moving fast on implementing projects and is doing so guided by Africas requirements and priorities. The decision also illustrates how India is using education diplomacy to strengthen bilateral ties and building capacity.

Apart from the education sector, where India wants to cement its place as a destination for quality and affordability, defence relations are also an area of focus. Ugandan armed forces receive training from a four-member Indian military training team stationed at the Ugandan Armys Senior Command and Staff College, Kimaka, since 2010. UPDF officers also visit India every year to take courses.

Jaishankar also inaugurated a solar water pump project which, when constructed, would bring clean drinking water to half a million Ugandans spread across 20 districts. It is an area where the interests of both countries coincide.

In Mozambique, the minister took a ride in a Made in India train from capital Maputo to Machava and held discussions on green transport, railways, electric mobility and waterways connectivity.

Mozambique, as former ambassador to African Union Gurjit Singh writes in Firstpost, has been one of the leading recipients of lines of credit (LoC) from India along with Tanzania and Ethiopia. These LoCs catalysed the implementation of projects in a diverse range, including in solar energy, training institutions, and infrastructure; a 132-km long road and bridge project is a significant connectivity project.

The LoC helped the Mozambican government source Diesel Electric Motor Units (DEMUs) and coaches from India. Jaishankar also (virtually) inaugurated the 717 metre-long-bridge over River Buzi that is part of a 132-km-long Tica-Buzi-Nova-Sofala Roadbeing constructed by an Indian private player under concessional credit that will connect Maputo to Beira, a port city, and boost Mozambican economy.

As with Uganda, Indias engagement with Mozambique, a nation boasting of an extensive Indian Ocean coastline, is strategic. Indias ties with the African nation spans security, defence, infrastructure, trade, HADR and energy security domains.

Abhishek Mishra points out in ORF that after Mauritius, Mozambique is Indias second-largest destination for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into Africa and Maputo is a vital partner for New Delhi to shore up its energy security by importing liquified natural gas India has also exported many of its Made in India self-defence indigenous equipment like fast interceptor boats and armoured vehicles to boost Mozambiques defence preparedness and military capabilities.

Counter-terrorism is another area where the two interests of the two countries align. An inter-ministerial team led by Indias deputy national security advisor Vikram Misri visited Mozambique last year to expand defence ties and address maritime security challenges.

Evidently, instead of throwing money around, going on a lending spree and burying the African nations under mountains of debt, more often not through unviable white elephant projects, India is making strategic investments and partnerships guided by the 10 Kampala Principles that prime minister Modi outlined during his address at the Ugandan Parliament in July 2018.

China is Africas biggest trade partner by far, but India is slowly raking up the numbers by working towards strengthening its economic ties with Africa. In 2021, India launched theIndia-Africa trade council to enhance trade and investment. Indian companies are also investing in Africa in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and technology.

India is among the top five investors in the continent with cumulative investments at $73.9 billion from 1996-2021. New Delhi has extended lines of credit (LoCs) worth $12.26 billion which makes Africa the second-largest recipient of concessions loans from India. According to MEA figures, under these LoCs 193 projects have been completed and 66 projects are currently under execution, while 88 are in the pre-execution stage in various sectors such as oil and gas, mining, banking, pharma, textiles, the automotive sector and agriculture. Indias bilateral trade with Africa stands at $89.5 billion in 2021-22, up from $56 billion the previous year. The African continental free trade agreement, or AfCFTA, may help in further ramping up bilateral trade.

Formed in 2021 with the objective of creating a single African market for 55 countries of the African Union and eight regional economic communities for the free movement of goods, services, labour, and capital, and increase intra-African trade, AfCFTA is expected to push up intra-regional trade from 16% of Africas total trade to 52% in the next five years, with removal of tariffs on 90% of goods.

But if India hopes to benefit from AfCFTA, so can China, and a quick comparison gives an idea of the kind of influence Beijing wields in the continent. China is Africas biggest trade partner, and two-way trade surged to a record US$282 billion in 2022 an 11 per cent year-on-year increase owing to rising commodity prices. No prizes for guessing that it was in Chinas favour with Beijings exports totalling $164.49 billion and imports $117.51 billion.

India has been trying to get a slice of Africas arms imports pie as a reliable, low-cost provider of arms, equipment and technology compared to western nations underlined by a collaborative approach. On the sidelines of the second edition of Africa-India Joint Exercise (AFINDEX) in Pune in March this year, New Delhi held the inaugural India-Africa Army Chiefs Conclave. It was attended by COAS General Manoj Pande and army chiefs and representatives from 31 African nations.

India pitched 75 indigenous products including artillery guns, armoured vehicles, radars, simulators and ammunitions from 32 industries showcasing Make in India initiative. Union defence minister Rajnath Singh urged African countries to explore Indian defence equipment and said that India is ready to empower our African friends to indigenously meet their defence requirements and committed to sharing our expertise and knowledge in defence manufacturing, research and development.

Indias pitch is ambitious. Though it is making modest gains in this endeavour, here too China is an influential player. While Russia remains the biggest arms exporter to the continent, Chinas ability to supply relatively less-sophisticated weaponry remains an attractive option to local buyers. This is especially the case for lower-income countries where arms budgets are smaller, such as many sub-Saharan African nations During the period between 20162020, China was the second-biggest supplier of arms to sub-Saharan Africa (20%), after Moscow (30%), France (9.5%) and the US (5.4%).

In terms of trade, investment, infrastructure, lending and development initiatives, China remains by far the most entrenched and influential nation in the African continent. It offers no-strings aid and floods African markets with low-cost products. China is building a coastal railway line in Nigeria, Bagamoyo Port in Tanzania, mining infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Chad-Sudan Railway and the Mphanda Nkuwa Dam and Hydroelectric Station, reports Nikkei Asia.

While competing with such a behemoth seems impossible, India has had an opening due to two reasons. First, Chinese businesses in Africa have been accused of racial abuse, illegal mining activities, ill-treatment of miners and extractive policies to exploit the continents abundant natural resources. Chinese firms edge out local competitors and pay scant regard to environmental degradation.

Yale School of Environment cites a major World Bank analysis of nearly 3,000 projects to observe that Chinese foreign investors and companies often predominate in poorer nations with weak environmental regulations and controls, causing those nations to become pollution havens for Chinese enterprises.

China has also received flak for the poor quality of its infrastructure projects and economically unfeasible vanity ventures. Sierra Leone, for instance, cancelled a $400m (304m) Chinese-funded project to build a new airport outside the capital Freetown in 2018 owing to economic unviability.

Washington Post points to a 2016 Afrobarometer survey of 35 African countries that indicated an average of 35 percent of respondents perceived the quality of Chinese products in Africa as problematic for Chinas image. Despite the benefits of providing cheaper options of products to African consumers with meager incomes, consumers dont want to see substandard materials in infrastructure building, or risk purchasing fake pharmaceutical products.

In contrast, India has pledged to work with Africa as per Africas priorities, Africas comfort and Africas aspirations. Indias policy of enabling co-capabilities and co-benefits while promoting local ownership has resulted in high level of trust and a partnership based on mutual benefit and solidarity. India had stood by Africa during the peak of COVID-19 outbreak and supplied vaccines, medical equipment and medicines to over 40 nations, underlining the leitmotif of trust and reliability.

To quote from former Indian ambassador to the UN TS Tirumurtis address in 2019 on Africa Day event at IDSA, Indias partnership with Africa is based on a model of cooperation which is responsive to the needs of African countries. It is demand-driven and free of conditionalities. It is based on our history of friendship, historical ties, and a sense of deep solidarity. As Prime Minister has underlined, African priorities are our priorities.

As the current G20 chair, India has a chance to act an enabler of South-South cooperation, enhancing African voices on the global forum, batting for the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member of the grouping. Indias cultural ties with Africa, powered by a 3 million-strong diaspora, gives India an added advantage. As Indias interests grow in the continent, under the framework of Kampala Principles it must move towards greater institutionalization of the partnership.

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Updated Date: April 22, 2023 15:57:17 IST

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Jaishankars visit to Uganda, Mozambique went almost unnoticed but it indicated Indias bold gambit in Africa - Firstpost