UNEP Foresight Panel on SIDS

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has organized a high-level panel of 15 experts on islands to prepare a Foresight Report on emerging problems and possibilities for sustainable development in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as an input to the 3rd UN Conference of Small Island Developing States to be held in Apia, Samoa, in 2014. The panel members prepared suggestions for emerging challenges in SIDS, and then met for three days in Cambridge, England, on 14-16 May, to identify the priority emerging issues for further development in their report.

The panel meeting took place at beautiful Madingley Hall, an Elizabethan manor outside of Cambridge that is used by the University of Cambridge as a conference centre. The UNEP panel met in the wood-panelled Library, and another UNDESA group on socio-economic issues met in a conference room. We also had joint meetings, and gathered together for lunch in the dining room. In the evenings, we walked into the village of Madingley to eat at the pub. The last night we went to Cambridge, where a local academic took us to a pub on Jesus Green alongside the River Cam for dinner.

Madingley Hall sign


Madingley HallMadingley Hall . Madingley Hall gate

Madingley Hall . Madingley Hall weather vane . Madingley Hall

Madingley Hall . Madingley Hall . Madingley Hall

Madingley Hall gardens . Madingley Hall gardens . Madingley Hall gardens
The gardens of Madingley House

Madingley Hall gardens . Madingley Hall gardens . Madingley Hall gardens
Beautifully-kept gardens and topiary collection

Madingley Hall gardens . Madingley Hall gate house . Madingley Hall view
Gardens; the thatched gate house; view from the front of Madingley House

Madingley Hall church . lake . toad underpass
The church and lake on the Madingley House grounds; a barrier and tunnel to help toads cross the road

UNEP Foresight Panel . UNEP Foresight Panel . UNEP Foresight Panel
The UNEP Foresight Panel for SIDS met in the library

Marc Gramberger . Marc Gramberger . UNEP Foresight Panel
Marc Gramberger, facilitator of the foresight group

UNEP Foresight Panel . Library . Dining Room

Dining Room . Dining Room . Dining Room
Lunch was served at long tables in the ornate dining room
pub in Madingley . departure . fields of rapeseed
The Three Horseshoes Pub in Madingley, where we had dinner; departure; rapeseed fields on the way to Cambridge

Cambridge
River Cam . River Cam
The River Cam, with its locks and houseboats
Jesus Green . Jesus Green . knitted lampost
Jesus Green in the middle of Cambridge, and one of a row of odd knitted coverings for lamp posts



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Last updated 21 May 2013

Photographs copyright © Arthur Lyon Dahl 2013