where the conservatives are in the majority? me.others one, 1, 1 state advisory committee where the majority is conservative. ier and over and over again, am asked and told we cannot come up with them. .t is being pushed through i think it is inappropriate and i object. i suspecter castro: maybe some of this is because we have cameras here. commissioner heriot: have i not objected in the past? did youoner castro: raise north carolina before this? i have no doubt we would be pulling that off right now and looking for balance. you could've easily raised these

issues before the meeting today and we would have gladly pulled this aside. it was not brought to the attention of the chairman. i know you want to say something commissioner. commissioner narasaki: i just want to note that the commissioners are all well aware of which state advisory and needs are open recruitment. my staff and i have gone out of our way to help as much as the staff to identify people. i have to say that not every commissioner is doing that, so one of the problems we have, as knows,ioner heriot well we have a large number of stated by three committees who are open and not feel and we need to get them done because as we just heard from the report today,

they play a very important role. so staff is doing the best they can to try to get these slates up and running. awould be happy to entertain waiver of our rules to go back and add some people, if there are some qualified people to some of these slates, but we need to start getting some of these slate done. as the chair has pointed out, we held up d.c. because of your concerns, even though d.c. is hardly a majority republican place, and the reason is not through any malice or ill will or political gamesmanship. it's just sometimes in a place like d.c., for example, it's difficult to find people from the republican party in a state that votes 90% democrat. so i understand your frustration, but i would suggest

the way to deal with this in the is for the commissioners to get more active and really trying to help identify potential members for the staff. staffsioner castro: director, then commissioner heriot. >> i just want to be able to say that i have worked with every commissioner's special assistant, and in particular in this case, i worked with both commissioner heriot and the other special assistant when they brought attention to their concerns about the balance. asked themth them, i for their assistance. theireve on a couple of

recommendations, they did not submit applications. we wanted to prepare and give commissioners enough time to review the slates so that any objections to a specific ifividual could be resolved that were the case. there were none. i agree we need to do a better job working with balance. they cannot be perfect, it a one to one balance, but we do the best job we can with the applications of nominees. sometimes we get nominees from commissions and for whatever reason they don't submit an application. we go back to them and asked them if they are interested. they do not submit it in time for the deadline. so we had that situation with north carolina. we've had that situation with kansas.

several of them were able to submit applications on time. made withons were regard to the district of columbia, so we are working with special assistants to try to find a way to resolve those issues and get these sac's going. if we keep having you object because there's three more of one persuasion and to another, we will never get things done, and quite frankly, in the case there are five from one ideological persuasion and four from the other. conservative and for being bent, andprogressive to complete independent. so we're not here trying to stay that they always have to be one way or the other. we are trying to find the balance the best we can. is a complicated job, you're

trying to get 15 people to submit applications in a short period of time. i talked to the special assistants about their first they -- frustrations and our frustration about trying to pull all this together. one of the proposals is that we will do more of the -- the regional coordinator for the out and going to reach we've had preliminary discussions about this. 120 days before the expiration, what we are thinking of doing, we have not thought it through completely, is that we would put forward a notice to all c,mmissioners that this sa let's say new york, is going to expire in 120 days. please provide us with your nominees, if you have any.

there is a certain number seeking to be reappointed, but we would like to reach out to you and provide us with a list. 30 days after this, these are the nominees we receive from you and these are the ones who have responded to us. we still have 90 days before we together.t the sac 60 days out, we have a more robust and clear alignment of , so if there's another 30 days we need to get down and anda more balanced sac there are further objections, we have time to work on that, so by the time i give it to you which is two weeks before the vote, before the consideration, if there is an objection, we can pull it down and work our way through that. that is the idea. we are doing the best we can. i sense your frustration,

commissioner heriot and all the other missioners, and we are more than willing to work with you to find a way to get these completed so that we can hopefully reach the mandate and request of congress to have as many as we can fulfill before the end of the year. a couple of heriot: points here i think need to be made. first of all, on the notion of whether or not we should have well, wemore persons, -- regional staff members are telling us not to propose so many people. in fact, we were told that we should only propose people that we personally know, which is

again, just nonsense and not advice that i am planning to take. informedl assistant the staff director that that is the advice that we were getting and that we object to it, and she got no response on that. with regard to the notion that we don't always get applications, that is true, you have applications from the person proposed by ms. mulder, and yet somehow he didn't make it onto the list, despite the that this particular sac on the notion that maybe we should have procedures. we just worked for months to create a procedure that would eliminate the possibility of having to deal with this in a meeting. we are supposed to have a meeting of special assistance when a particular staff is thought to be unbalanced by the special assistants looking at

it. that did not happen in that case. we worked very hard on those procedures. them. already violating i would have more sympathy for the notion, now and then there will be a staff, where the liberals outnumber the conservatives. the notion that this is balanced because the number of republicans and democrats is similar, the problem is our independents are not democrats because they are further to the left of that. it is not a question of how many republicans and democrats you have.

you have to work at the actual political ideology. we are trying to get ideological diversity. so people can come together and talk about these issues. >> i will call this for a vote. >> my understanding, the issue of north carolina and meeting.s raised at a the second thing, around the issue of personal recommendation, i think what staff is dealing with, some commissioners would put forward the name of someone they did not know and they had not actually tried to recruit them to reply -- apply. the other issue is upon close

aboutationr, it is not partisan leanings, it is about backgrounds that are problematic . committed crimes or something like that, for example. in the case of ohio, the objection was not about political leaning. it was about having violated the commission's role. i take a front at this notion that somehow we are out to get the conservatives. i have recommended and gotten placed several republicans on the stated by three committees. i spent a lot of time telling people, we need to find more republicans for these state advisory committees. there is not some kind of conspiracy. it is important to make it clear that it does not exist.

case that all the independence on the state advisory committees are independent because they are so leaning left that they are falling off the earth. any of them are truly independent -- many of them are truly independent. >> i will call the question. >> how do you vote? are you still there? >> i vote no. >> i vote yes. >> i will abstain. chairman, i should have spoken up. i will vote no.

i feel like given the assertion that it is ideologically out of mean, i cannot tell whether what happened is characterized by commissioner harriet is what actually happened or did not happen, but as a commissioner, i want to andr to the explanation whatever happened, if it is the soe that it is ideologically out of balance, as a matter of -- we typically reconsider those things. i do want to associate myself

with commissioner norris saki's saki's comments. most of us lean over backwards someeate some parity, compliance with the spirit. i will vote no. that this iscase so unbalanced, it probably means to go back. for reconsideration. chair if shee vice thought this was balanced. if anybody should know whether this sac is reflective of north carolina, it should be our north

carolina representative. could you speak to this? >> are you interrupting the vote? [inaudible] frankly, i was surprised.

[inaudible] i did not realize there was a problem or concern about this. >> that was the concern many of us have. maybe we should pull this back and revisit it. >> i would ask that we do that. i would support that. because i had no

knowledge. >> i will table my motion and by consensus, we will possess over until september and in the interim, run it through the appropriate process to ensure everyone feels comfortable that there is balance. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> you are welcome. now onto kansas. let me make a motion that the committee appoint the following individuals. mildred edwards. russ brian. mark dodd. martha had smith. ron holt. christie lambert. phyllis nolan. gabriella vega. the commission appoints mildred

edwards, chair of the state advisory committee. under this motion, the commission authorizes the staff director to execute the appropriate paperwork for the appointments. do i have a second? what was that? the vice chair? discussion?s, we will call the question for a vote. commissioner harriet? >> i will vote yes. >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. yes. >> and i vote yes.

it is unanimous. we move on to management and operations. i will turn it over to our staff director for the discussion of a few items. staff director? >> i want to go over a couple of things quickly. it is almost noon and i know folks have things to catch. -- planes to catch. the one thing i do want to talk about, the 2017 business meeting calendar. i provided a draft of that to all of you and i worked with staff to make sure there were no conflicts with any religious holidays or federal holidays. this is the draft we have come up with. opinion of itour

or discussion about it and then if that is on that amenable so we can start planning for next year. around toan e-mail -- sinceommissioners this calendar is before me, i looked at my calendar and had a couple of proposed changes. i suggest january 27 be moved to generate 13. -- moved to january 13. i was informed by -- the latter out, our -- it turns

9,h anniversary is september if we were to hold a meeting on september 8, there might be a anyto marry our meeting and commemorations. changingsk reconsider the proposed january and september dates. >> september 8? that is fine with me. >> january 13 -- the 20th is inaugural. i thought the 13th might work as a result. our folks ok with that? -- are folks ok with that?

we have done meetings on friday the 13th and they always turn out well. i would make a motion that we accept the agenda of meeting dates with the change from .anuary 27 to january 13 is there a second? was that the vice chair? additional discussion? all those in favor, say aye. opposed? the ayes have it. >> as you mentioned, we are aware the 60th anniversary of the commission will occur next

year. we wanted to begin the planning process. wallick to brian lead the effort, since he has expertise in public media and public outreach. i wanted to throw that out there for a discussion. i am thinking about putting together a working group or .lanning group everybody is really busy in the next few weeks, but if we could get something going in early september. specific things people are interested in, we did a very good job working together for the commemoration of the 13th amendment. now is the time to start putting our thinking collapse --

thinking caps on. maybe put together an outline of preliminary planning. if anybody has any high-level or willxpress them now make it to the planning stages, that would be great. worked really well in a bipartisan fashion. in putting us together and i would imagine a very similar structure so we can begin to give some serious thought to this. it would be appropriate for us to his knowledge this important anniversary. -- russ to acknowledge -- for us to acknowledge this important

anniversary. interested in this group, let your staff director now. >> i sent an e-mail out earlier .his week regarding the website to make thatterate transition as smoothly as possible. bear with us and we will let you know. i want to call attention, we have made the vacancy announcement for the office of civil rights evaluation for the analyst. it was announced yesterday by

maureen rudolph. what we would really like, if you could send it out to your network so we get a good pool of applicants. chairman, i am working with brian to enhance the use of social media to amplify the commission's messaging to a wider audience. social media is not the only vehicle to do this, but it should be a part of the overall commission outreach. page hasing twitter 371 followers. we believe we can have a good potential increase, exponentially over the next three to six months. we are going to be standing up

the commission facebook -- setting up the commission's facebook page for the first time. we may be having to update the ai on public affairs. i wanted to let -- we will provide you with more information on we get to the point where we can get off. e kick it off. i wish everybody safe travels. >> any questions for the staff director before i adjourn? it is now 12:04 p.m. eastern time and this meeting is adjourned. thank you,

next on c-span, we hear from a survivor of the istanbul airport bombing. then a discussion on the international treaty governing migratory birds. and later, a meeting of the u.s. commission on civil rights. monday march the 20th anniversary of the 1996 welfare law, passed by a republican congress and signed by president bill clinton. our special program looks back at the senate debate over the 1996 law. >> the current welfare system has failed the very families it was intended to serve. >> i don't know of many people who want to humiliate themselves standing in a line waiting for their wealth check -- where fair check. they are druggies and drunks. there -- they are out there. a lot of those people are simply people who have not yet discovered a way out of their

misery and poverty. we have decided that legislators in it includes discussions on how the changes impacted. on, our nation's answer will no longer be a never-ending cycle of welfare. it will be the dignity, the power, the ethics of work. today, we are taking a historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be, a second chance, not a way of life. monday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. a panel discussion with

authors and educators about race relations, examining the relationship between police and the african-american community. moderates the discussion. other panelist include joy and author of fracture, barack obama, the clintons, and the racial divide. black,of democracy and president america of bennett college for women and author of are we better off, race, obama, and public policy. victory murray, author of the authoround, and of ghosts of jim crow, ending racism and post-racial america. watch live tuesday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two.

>> united methodist church global ministries general secretary talked about his personal experience surviving the istanbul airport attack earlier this year. thehares his thoughts on role of religion in combating terrorism and promoting peace. he outlined the missionary work and humanitarian assistance that his agency provides. club in national press washington, d.c., this is about 45 minutes. mr. hodes: welcome to the national press club. i am the moderator of this morning's press conference.

at the istanbul ataturk airport was thomas kemper, the ceo of the united methodist church, was in a lounge when three men arriving from a taxi began firing guns at the terminal entrance as they made their way inside the airport. the terrorists were quickly shot by security, then blew themselves up. this horrific attack was another in a series of terror attacks in turkey in the past year. according to the new york times, kurdish and islamic state militants have staged at least 14 attacks across turkey killing more than 280 people. thomas kemper, our speaker today, says the events that he witnessed and survived has become transformative for him personally. his moments together with other survivors of the attack, people of many nationalities and cultures, has brought renewed determination to connect with people of all faiths and nationalities and examine what it means to be human, to be understanding, and to care about strangers who want to feel safe

and want to be able to live their own lives. it is this moment of transformation and a lasting sense of importance of the dedication he brings to his mission in life that he will be discussing this morning. just a few procedural notes as i turn the floor over to mr. kemper, please remember to turn your cell phone to mute. once mr. kemper has completed his remarks, i will open the floor to questions. priority will go to credentialed media and national press club members, so when you are called on to pose a question, please identify yourself by name and organization. mr. kemper? mr. kemper: good morning and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. i want to say that i am really grateful for the journalists. the experience in istanbul has changed my view of journalists. it started that night with anderson cooper and the way he interviewed, the possibility to not just give some background of what happened and eyewitness reports, but also to be able to

express something i felt inwardly, and also as a person of religion and faith. so, thank you for this. it is exciting to be here. why was i in istanbul? that was a question that many people asks. really, i was there on a layover. there is nothing more dramatic to it. i wasn't even there to visit some of our partners in istanbul. i was there because i had a layover on the way to japan, and i had chosen to fly a turkish airline, and that had brought me to the lounge, so that was the reason i was there. but i am traveling a lot, you can see on the map, global ministries is the mission and development and disaster response arm of united methodist church. we have projects in 125 countries. we have over 350 missionaries. , being at airports is part of my daily life.

global ministries understands as humanitarian network, a network of global health, global mission connections around the world. to give you some highlights of our work, very briefly so you understand the context of where i come from, here this is a picture from the kurdistan region of iraq. the united methodist committee on relief, we work to supply food and give food aid to internally displaced people in iraq from iraq war. this work is being done together with the international blue crescent, the muslim partner organization of the international red cross, based in turkey. another example of our work is in bangladesh. here you see the first result for recovery work after the cyclone there. these children are now able to go back to school on this path which was constructed. here, our partner is muslim-aid.

so you see that there is a partnership with other faith organizations, especially in countries where it would be or difficult as a christian organization to be present and be in solidarity, especially after disasters. one big initiative of united methodist church in the last years was what we called imagine no malaria, a campaign to raise funds. we have raised $69 million for fighting deaths from malaria around the world. what is important for us here as united methodists is that we are not doing this alone. we have partnered with a global fund in geneva to fight aids, tb, and malaria. $28 million of the funds we have raised, we have pledged, and $20 million has already been given to the global fund. we cannot do this alone. if we are not connected, we cannot build partnerships, it is

not working. we were blessed to have the u.n. foundation and the melinda and bill gates foundation to give us a start up for this campaign. so far from our side, we have impacted 4.6 million lives through net distribution, training of midwives, community traditional birth attendants community health workers, , especially in africa. and we are now moving this campaign into the next step where we hope to reach one million children with life-saving interventions. as part of a worldwide campaign, the u.n. calls it "every woman, every child," reducing child mortality. this is part of the sustainable development goals which the world community has agreed on. we want to do our part in this effort. we hope to reach one million children with life-saving interventions, ensure safe births, remote breast-feeding, promote cures and prevent

childhood diseases. be not just somebody, an organization that , helps someone else, we also recognize the health challenges and issues here, right here in the united states. so as part of the campaign, we are challenging our churches that we find 10,000 churches in the next four years that sign-up and are ready to engage in some health-related work and ministry in their community, and their in their neighborhood where the church is situated. it could be a physical activity, healthy diet and nutrition, tobacco and drug-free living, or issues around mental health, education, and mental health promotion. if you only look at this one number here about obesity it has , risen two times in children and four times in adolescents in the united states in the last 30 years. so we have serious health issues also in this country, especially for children and young people.

as part of our work, we have missionaries, and i wanted to be very clear, these missionaries may look very different of what from what traditional people still think missionaries are. we call them missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. a minority today are from the united states. we have a program in the congo with our united methodist church where we have an aviation ministry. several planes, small cessna planes, which could reach any part of the congo and fly medical supplies, they do evacuation missions, and are an essential part of the ministry of the church. they are run and maintained by the missionaries of global ministries. back to this fateful day in june in istanbul. as i said, i was on a layover. it was just there to rest at this airport, and here you see

the lounge. this was a picture i took when everyone had left already come after the attack in that part. the lounge is a place of safety. you go there and you feel much calmer. i was really lying out, stretched out. i had taken off my shoes. and i was sleeping, waiting for my next flight. while i was sleeping, suddenly i heard this blast, very loud, and then shooting. you don't think it is happening. at this moment, i really thought it is a film, it is a dream, it is a nightmare. but then people started running by the bench where i was lying on, like in real panic. so i did not think much, i just grabbed my shoes. i didn't put them on. i grabbed my bag and started running as well. but then people came towards us from the other direction and we almost stumbled over each other and crashed into each other. and you can see this here, what

really happened we did not know , at the moment. only later be found out, is that there were three bombs almost at the same time. it was not surprising in the lounge where the red arrow is pointing, there was a bomb very close to us. there was glass, shattered glass, and everything in the lounge. when we started running away from it, we ran into the other direction with the other bomb had gone off. so it created an incredible panic for all of us. and i was really scared. what i think is in the minds of everybody, ok the bomb has gone off, the panic is there, but now they come for you. it is this image since orlando, since paris, which was in the my mind, in the mind of the people. where are these terrorists now? we had no information. we had no idea they were suicide bombers.

we thought now they come for us. where i wasoom hiding. it was behind the kitchen in the lounge. i found a little room. there was an asian man. we could not communicate, but we saw the fear in our eyes. we were hiding in this room here and others -- there was a young man from france, i talk to him later, and he was there with his girlfriend. he grabbed a chair and banged it against the glass windows trying to get out because we were kind of trapped in that corner of the airport. everybody trying to hide. everybody trying to find a place to live and to survive. i posted from there shortly after and that really started , this whole media interest and the conversations and the many opportunities to speak. and what i said here was, "very scary, i am safe now, but terror coming so close. let me give thanks for my life, my family, and call us to fight

hate and terror everywhere." and it leads us into deeper solidarity with all who experience terror and violence not just once but every day and , every night. that was really very deep inside me that i felt, for me, at this this moment, i was terribly scared, i panicked, i was doing things just out of instinct. i was terrified. but i thought, there are people who experience this every day and every night. i don't know whether you have had a chance to listen to the audio on the "new york times," ," a few days ago from aleppo. if you hear this every day and every night, how can we be more solidarity with people who experience this every day, and not just ones like it was in my case? and also as we were hiding and then being guided out of the airport into even more chaos outside, i met people who opened

my eyes, how especially muslims are mostly victimized by this terrorist violence. sat to a young woman who had a head scarf or was covered. i would not have spoken to her, but she cried so much. she spoke some english and she told me, "you know, i am from istanbul. i was here only to see off a friend at the airport, but then the bomb went off and i started running, and now i'm at the wrong side because they would not let people out without showing a passport. they wanted to catch any remaining terrorists, so it took hours and hours to leave the airport." so she was there on the wrong side because she started running and now she had no passport. she did not know what was going to happen in the midst of this chaos. i was with a young man who was sitting next to me. we started talking and i met his whole family. he was from egypt. he had just -- his family had

were onhim and they their way back. he had finished his tourism studies in italy. a muslim family from egypt, scared, and all of us wanted to see our families again. all of us wanted to live and wanted to survive. i felt an incredible connectedness with all of these people. as we moved out, we had to go through baggage claim, and then really through the area where the area where the bombing had happened. we moved out and we passed the conveyor belts where people had left their luggage because they were not able to claim it. it is probably difficult to see it, but this is a flight from brussels. i could not believe it, there was these non-claimed suitcases , this non-claimed baggage from brussels, where the last attack happened. we actually had two of our directors from the board of global ministries from africa, they had made the connection

that day in brussels and were stuck for a week. so again, there was this connection to people who had gone through an experience like this. right there when i saw the flight from brussels and the unclaimed baggage. outside, we were all put onto into buses. it was extremely well-organized. it was extremely chaotic, but if you think what had just happened, with so many people injured, so many deaths, the chaos in the airport, the turkish authorities worked really hard to allow us to get to hotels. so this was the bus i was traveling with and the two ladies in front of me, which you can see there, we were together together withck their family and we started talking together about our shared experience. and you won't believe it, they were from holland, as they lived as refugees in holland, were on their way to mogadishu in

somalia. and the son was sitting next to me, who spoke good english, he said what the heck? , he could not believe it how this could happen to a somali in istanbul. because that is what they were used to in mogadishu. he said, this is happening everywhere. these terrorists are attacking us everywhere. he came from a somali sitting there with me on the bus and we were traveling together to the hotel. and then, as i had said, this post led to a first interview on that night with anderson cooper on his "360" show on cnn. it was so interesting that i believe through this message we were trying to say that we needed to come together as people of faith and non-faith, if we really want to make a difference and overcome violence and terror and hate in this world. i got so many invitations to speak and to share this experience.

and they opened up also to share this from a perspective of faith and from a call to share a shared responsibility as leaders of faith. that night, and the next 24 hours, there were interviews with cnn, al jazeera, msnbc, bbc, even vatican radio. for me, it was an opportunity to cope with the situation because i can talk about it, i could digest it. it opened really for me a window to say we as people of faith , have to stand together. we really have to share in our humanity and our shared humanity to work for difference. i got back to the lounge two days later, and when we look

into what have i learned and what we want to do is an organization in the future, i came back to the lounge two days later because my flight to japan was gone, the meeting had ended, i was going home. there was still traces of the attack, the shattered glass, they had done an incredible job , started to repair and do everything, but you can still see the traces. i went back to the lounge and what was surprising to me, i did not feel secure. although everything looked like normal. people were working on their laptops, having breakfast, they were talking to each other, reading the newspaper, but i wanted to cry and say to them, don't you know what happened here two nights ago? , and iere for hours feared for my life and that night i connected to so many people who were there. now, it is like if nothing had happened. i felt more lonely at that moment in the apparent security of that moment, because i was

not able to connect at that moment. and that led me to this a lot which i want to share with you. there are really two parts to safety, i feel. one is a path through connection, and the other is a path through separation. and, i lived for many years in brazil. i was myself a missionary there. we have this story out now, did he lie? everybody could imagine that something like this could happen in brazil. violence is a daily experience for people there. this is a picture from brazil. gated communities, higher walls. i was there in the 1970's and it already started in the 1980's. every time i go back to brazil, the walls are higher, the security systems are more sophisticated, but it does not stop the violence. the separation is not able to transform the society into a safer place.

brazil is an example of this. during our time of the ebola crisis, there was an incident a few of you have read about. the liberian government in monrovia sealed off a whole slum area. from one second to the other, out of fear of ebola. then an extremely violent clash broke out which created even more cases because people fought each other. it only changed when the approach of the government changed from separation to, of course separating the ill and the diseased, but in a way to keep them connected to society and in a way they can treat the complications. so safety through separation in this case can lead to more and not less violence.

so, this experience in istanbul. we are walking out of the airport, this was right after the attack as we are waiting for the buses, thousands and thousands of people, this feeling of being connected with so many different cultures and faiths and no faiths at all. it led to this quote which i found by brene brown, where she vulnerability is the birthplace of connection in the path to the feeling of worthiness, if it doesn't feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructed." vulnerability is the birthplace

of connection. could this be, for us, a path to safety? could this be a path to overcome hatred and violence if we are ready to share our vulnerability? if we are ready to share a vulnerability in order to connect across different faiths, across different cultures and countries? during the ebola crisis, one i already quoted it, one very interesting experience was a joint task force of religious leaders. the chair was the bishop of united methodist church in sierra leone, who was also vice president of our board. we were very intensely connected with this whole effort. the religious leaders in sierra leone at that time came together because there was a need for technical responses. you needed a safe suit as a medical professional to be able to treat people. you needed to build hospitals from the ground quickly with military help in order to treat

patients but it was equally , important to work for behavioral change. , for changing the burial rights. death and funerals are extremely important, and to touch the dead and to wash them and prepare them for burial was something that was done for generations with the blessing of the imams and the pastors. so to tell them not to do it without the blessing of the leaders, without the theological accompaniment of them, would not have been possible. leaders doing this together, preaching this together, was essential for combating ebola at that time. and, of course, you can see this in the picture. you didn't touch each other when you met in the street, which is a revolution in africa. any time you meet an african in greet, you touch, you you hug. and you develop the whole

culture of bowing and greeting people in a new way. and the religious leader led movement, and it really reduced the infection rate during these months and time of ebola. another example i wanted to give is where we really found a good cooperation with a london-based muslim disaster relief and aid organization, muslim aid. we have worked in many parts. i sure do the picture from bangladesh. where ifrom sri lanka, think the example and the model of two-faith organizations from different faiths working together in a country that has a longas gone through time of civil war between the north and the hindu base, and buddhist, bengalis, is an example which helps people to connect, and create an

alignment in safety and reconciliation in a country like this. and lastly, as a german, allow me to mention an example that came to me since istanbul in a very strong way. i would never have imagined in my lifetime that we would have a united germany. that is something until 1989, i would not have believed. it was so clear that these were two systems and there was a wall that separated the systems, and everyone was working on keeping us separate and their never would have been unification. but one cornerstone of unification, our chancellor who also won the nobel prize -- the east politic, and he had a famous slogan, change through approximation. he make concessions. he made gestures of asking for

forgiveness when he kneeled in warsaw. he worked so there would be family exchange and travel, and the wall became a little bit more easier to cross. this created an atmosphere which was an important stone of this building of trust that later broke down the wall and the iron curtain. he called it change through approximation. but i felt it really was in this idea that we can create safety through connection, even in the larger political context. the church also struggles. it would be, on the one hand, naïve, and also not very honest, if i didn't say that the united methodist church struggles with the question of separation and connection. the church in general struggles with the question of separation and connection.

in many ways, in theological issues, and normally when i get on a plane, i grab some newspapers or magazines i have .ot had time to read this is the methodist recorder, the oldest methodist newspaper, and they call themselves the world's leading methodist newspaper. it is published in london since, i don't know, many many years. they had this title a week ago "the need for vigilance." , "the need for vigilance." i thought, isn't that interesting coming here to the press club? it is in response to the killing. and the statement here which they quote is from the british methodist church, saying, we are reminding all of our churches of basic security measures, and of the need to be vigilant. however, our churches will continue to seek to offer a warm

welcome to all. you feel the tension. and then the british government had just started two weeks ago a program for eight weeks where places of worship can apply for government grants to make places of worship more secure. you can get the from the u.k., places of worship. ironic as i was talking about it. vigilant and our desire to keep the church open, to build relationships. he lost his two sisters in an islamic base.xo

, over 500ngoing people have been killed. the most violent regions in the world. thousands of women have been ped, many have been killed but this superintendent, to rebuild some of the churches and the work that is being done in the aftermath and then last week he loses it. what do i tell him? you connect? his impulse is probably to separate. it is a challenge to make a connection in a situation where it is a matter of death and life, where you have experienced a terrorist attack. and still we believe, and i

believe strongly, that we need to work towards connection. i still believe that, in the end, if you want to overcome hatred and violence, we have to open ourselves up to risk, being vigilant, being cautious, but at the same time, taking the risk to connect, and taking the risk to build bridges and create the shared humanity with people who are different from us. the founder, one of the founders of the methodist movement, is charles wesley, and there are many followers who we thank around the world today. many other english-speaking christians and others believe in an advent as well. it starts like this, "come the long expected jesus born to set my people free, from our fears and our sins, release us. let us find our rest in thee. it is an expression and it is 300 years old.

it is an expression of 300 years, we as methodist and others leaving. believing in this hope that christ relieves us from our fears so we are open to take risks and open to build bridges, and that we create this community of people of faith and non-faith. to create a world where connection is key, not separation. from our fears and sins, release us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for the impassioned response. we're opening it up to questions for anyone here. anything he presented or issues.

s. yes. >> thank you. yourself.y >> i'm a member of the press club. i'm curious as the trees through this and think about the --aration of connectedness if you translate that work into the global ministry. is that causing you to think about the program activity and where we direct resources at how he did this where.

is how weon was him think about it in terms of the cultural, imperialistic. does this give you a sense of the mission of global ministry the methodistr t church? >> thank you. it is something -- i gave you some examples already trying to the corrective. we cannot go it alone. we want to fight malaria, especially with children but we need the global fund. we have to join. opennessn attitude of for all of our programs. we are introducing a stronger emphasis on bylaws and on

training and our training of our we lose some long perceptions because we have so opportunities of exchange. wenk what is happening is are not creating a new program give -- thee emphasis on a roundtable approach, people sitting around the table and joining the something wehat is computer and has grown over the last few years. since 2007, we're doing that. muchve not appreciated as

so there is something we're doing but we will intensify. >> anyone else? >> i will ask -- several of us for the western seminary community but what about theological education? decisions of higher learning are -- what kindsit of curriculum or program activity do we need to have with an the ranks of theological education to prepare for the world that you would li to change?

>> 5000, 6000 response will about the need for theological education for future. communication was . that was a key element from all around the world and we live in this world and we have to add the skill be on her own experience and cultures.

and i wonder if you would comment the connection between the two with specific examples. the young boy pictured on the image ippo, a powerful imagine a lot of response to that kind of image. i imagine you are getting a lot but what you do the next day and the next year come of the next five years?

the principle has been done necessary to be everywhere on the ground, that is very important. in the middle east, very helpful that we have worked for many so you know partner. almost him when he has entry anymore than we can work with them and this will not change. policy to say it should not be us anywhere, but

we that are partners and build because they are already underground. that for bread anywhere.

they look different, different even and try to create small gestures of provocation to my think that will stop. questions? . ok. >> i want to say thank you for the opportunity. amazing, and as i said, i

that iate the analysts had a chance to be interviewed. condensation and challenge to we all create it. more of an atmosphere of trust building and that. i want to say thank you to the journalists who do their jobs well. thank you. >> that reps up this newsmakers. thank you for your presentation.

>> three years after the supreme court ruling, courts across the country and a number of state laws saying they discriminate against specific groups of voters. looks at voting rights and the impact on the 2016 election. 20will feature part of the 13 argument. a congress look at whether to restore the voting rights act and it is question of whether the act is necessary. here is what the presidential candidates have to say. id -- what voter does that mean? you keep walking in and voting? >> what is happening? a power to disenfranchise people

and youngr people people. >> wasit tonight at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> at washington post.com, some of the headlines this week -- donald trump staff shakeup who has lost his way in the general election. also, as donald trump hit bottom and today the campaign chairman paul manafort resigns from the chief political correspondent who is joining us right now. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> just one week. >> it is pretty remarkable.

>> use the word regret why? >> why is he leaving -- one is earlier in the week, mr. trump to beed kellyanne conway campaign manager which has been vacant since corey lewandowski lost. also, brought in as chief executive of the campaign, stephen bannon which seemed to manafort role in the campaign. i think the other contributor is there has been intense scrutiny met the work metaphor has done.

in ukraine and behalf of controlled russian forces. that was a distraction. slowingot seem to be down, in fact, it was intensifying because of new revelations about payments. i think it was the combination of factors that brought this to a head and resulted in paul manafort leaving. >> based on your reporting, how did this all unfold in the past 12 to 24 hours? >> we are still trying to piece that together but it sounds as manafort';s role was reduced and there was the new york times story on sunday about the payments in

ukraine and we had another very strong story about more aspects of what powell asked paul manafort did. i thing it came to a head in the last 24 hours. i spoke to somebody that was in contact with him in the middle of the week and at that point it sounded as if he believed he was going to stay in the campaign. i hesitate to say exactly what happened because we are still trying to report it. it sounded as though there was some action in the last 36 hours that brought this to a finality. >> paul manafort was a longtime political operative. yourrote about this on 2012 campaign with mitt romney and barack obama how candidates essentially build on their base and expand the electorate.

that seemed to be one of the goals. safe to say the trump campaign is taking a very different approach? >> that is the speculation. i think it remains to be seen exactly what they are going to do. the indications are because we know some of the history of stephen bannon that he is a fighter and a populist and he wants to stir things up and antiestablishment. in a sense, the ability of those two views come little of those people to coexist is questionable. kellyanne conway is somebody who has helped republicans figure out how to be more appealing to female voters. it was always a deposition many republican candidates and a

weakness of donald trump. we have to see exactly how it plays out. paul manafort's efforts were aimed at one way or another at tempering donald trump's style he wasmade it clear that not happy with that idea. was ae did last night departure from what we have seen in the past. he has been totally resistant to expressing any regret about fast statements or actions. night, whichlast was written in a written speech which you read on a teleprompter, suggests at least he was prepared to say that but i spoke to somebody today who said that was last night but this has to happen over eight amount of days and weeks before people will be certain this reflects a true change in the

style of his campaign. it is possible this will continue to be a campaign aimed primarily at negative attacks on hillary clinton. -- youme go back earlier said the unraveling of donald trump's candidacy continues if he would deliver the trying to avoid winning the election, he could hardly be doing a better job. >> that was written last weekend and i think all the of the objective evidence points in that direction. if you talk to people in the operation now, they would say this has been one of their better weeks. take that with a grain of salt. lead to some turmoil inside the operation which is never good for a campaign but their view is released their argument is that he gave a good

, onch on foreign policy tuesday with law in the water, a speech on thursday where he expressed regret for what he said in the past. toay, he went to louisiana look of the impact of the flood victims. have a clinton has not done that and president obama has an on vacation has not done. they would suggest they are on just greatest ability on the part of the whole operation. onlinerk is available and tomorrow morning. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> the president of costa rica released prisoner which will take part in the conversation regarding his country. monday at there live

3:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> you can watch our public affairs and political programming any time at your convenience from modesto, laptop or mobile device. click on the video library search bar. you can type in the name of the speaker, author or any of it topic. click on the program you would like to watch or refine your search with eight search tool. if you are looking for current programs, our homepage is ready for your immediate viewing. c-span not work as a public service for your cable or satellite provider. if you are a c-span watch her, watch it. >> marking the 100th anniversary of the migratory bird treaty

come conservationists talked about the current science of the north american bird migration in washington. this is about one hour and a half. >> welcome. we have a very interesting program, an interesting collaboration on many levels. the wilson center is a presidential memorial created by congress, and a special memorial in that it is a nod toward wilson's career as a scholar. it was created and continues in efforts to create public policy, to analyze big issues, and to have actionable recommendations on those. it is a preeminent think tank in the world. it has many institutions under

is, two of which are most important to us today. one is the canada institute, which is run by lord dawson, and the other is the mexico institute, and he is here. there he is. two very dynamic institutes and they give the wilson center something quite unique for north america studies, because it is the only place where you have two institutes of such that are focusing on the issues of the other countries in north america out of the united states. they are the co-host with the nature conservancy for this program today. my name is jim. i am very fortunate to be here. i worked for the state department, but this year working for the wilson center where i get to focus on the

north america region. i served at the u.s. embassy in mexico for five years earlier in my career and left last year after three years serving as the consul general in canada. i have been able to experience the opportunity that the three countries working together provide all of us. the three leaders of north america met in ottawa active north american leaders summit in june, and they had a long list of actionable items and areas in which they plan to work and have their three bureaucracies, governments work. they recognize this particular initiative of the migratory for treaty as a model and something to work on. at that conference, they also announced that there would be a stakeholders dialogue created to accompany the now north american

leaders summit process as it goes forward. they asked the wilson center to host that, and we will be hosting that in the fall. it will be an important step to bring in outside interests, including those like the nature conservancy that can get involved in the discussion leaders take up every year. i will not go into a lot about the treaty except, because we will get into it a bit, but it is a delight for the wilson institute be involved in a program is based on a treaty that was signed by president

woodrow wilson. and it was also signed at that time by the king of england representing canada at the time, and in a few decades later by the president of mexico, lazaro cardenas, and was the first of such an agreement. thank you all for coming. thanks to the panelists for being here. i will turn it over to your moderator from the nature conservancy, david mehlman, and i will not go deeply into his file because we have a lot of information here. he is director of the nature conservancy's migratory bird program, and he has been with the organization more than 25 years, which means he started as an intern, and will be moderating the panel, and i will ask him to introduce the panelists and take it away. thank you. [applause] mr. mehlman: thanks, jim. my name is david mehlman. i work for the nature conservancy, based in arlington, but i working out of albuquerque. before i introduce my colleagues, you may or may not

realize that this evening is the beginning of one of the largest if not largest conference of ornithologists in north america, maybe in the entire western hemisphere, but this is the start of the sixth north american ornithological conference, and we have crazy bird people from all over the u.s., canada, mexico, many countries in the hemisphere, and some outside who are gathering at the washington hilton to talk about nothing but birds and bird conservation for the next couple days. it is great fun to be here. as jim said, for those of us in the bird conversation field, it is a wonderful coincidence to be here at wilson center as we celebrate today, the 100th anniversary of the signing of this first migratory bird treaty. i have been in the conservation field a long time, and it is one of the almost, not the first,

but one of the very first pieces of conservation legislation enacted here in the united states, and it is sometimes hard to imagine with all the things that are going on now that 100 years ago there was enough foresight to join for two different countries to join in forces for international resource. what jim did not mention is over time, in addition, mexico joined the treaty, the u.s. has also signed treaties with japan and russia, so it is truly a multinational thing. i will introduce our speakers today. to my immediate left is dr. charles francis, the manager of bird population monitoring with the canadian wildlife service, a part of the environment and climate change canada. next is deb hahn, the

international relations director at association of fish and wildlife agencies, and we will hear from humberto berlanga, from the national biodiversity commission, conabio. charles, i believe you are up first. dr. francis: i will talk to you about this project that we had started on north american birds. this is the project that brought together experts from three countries. it is the first for us to try a joint report. there are copies of the report outside the door, and it is "the state of north american birds." this is the first time to try to bring it together and the first time to do a comprehensive report looking at all species. we are working with the initiative which is a

20-year-old initiative that brings together some of the top bird experts and federal government between the three countries to work on this. [indiscernible] dr. francis: one of the motivations for doing this report is it is the centennial today the signing of that treaty, but also the 80th anniversary this year of the signing of the treaty between mexico and the united states, so it is not technically the same treaty, but there are treaties that unite and give us among other things federal

jurisdiction for working on these species. there is the report cover. next. so essentially what this report involves was scientific experts and some of us at this table were participating on that. i was managing everybody to make sure everything was getting put together across the three countries, but for 1154 species, they look at population trends, ovulation science, breeding and winter ranges, and those were aggregated to create scores that gave the value of the conservation concern for that species. this was done for all of 1100 species and broken down for brought habitat species, boreal forest, temperate forest, tropical forest, oceans, and coasts. i will give you all of the details. the rest of the details are in

the report, but i will summarize the most important findings, and my colleagues will talk about what we do with this report, how are we going to use this to help birds. next. the bottom line, or top line, as we laid out the report, is that 37% of the species, nearly 40% of the species has serious conservation concerns. that could be major population declines. it could be threats that imply there is ongoing decline. it happens to be high on several different factors to get on the watch list. not only do they have large declines, but they have restricted ranges and threats as well. these are species we need to be concerned about some of the species are already listed as endangered. this is so we do not have to take what we have the e.r.

response which is what the endangered species act is. a lot of work for trying to recover species, and for 430 species could be a challenge. how did that break down? you can get the details from the report. it will highlight the key groups, and the top two groups, oceans and tropical and subtropical forests were more than half of the species of concern. if we look at the next ones, coast, arid lands, granted, not a lot of species are on the list, but some are showing some decline. to highlight what we have done in this report is not just where are the problems, but what are some of the key solutions we need to work on. not all of these solutions are easy. if they were easy, we might have done them already. section one, going on best things that are working that we

can continue, and a section that challenges -- that is ok. for example, seabirds, these are birds that spend much of their life at sea, but nest on the water. many of the seabirds nest on islands. one of the challenges on islands are invasive species. somebody has introduced something to an island somewhere and make these seabirds vulnerable. in a number of areas where seabirds are nesting there have been successful eradication programs to get rid of the rats. we know they can work. they are not cheap. this is an area we can continue to develop. marine protected areas -- sorry. no. marine protected areas are something we have been starting to work on. one of the things you will see is most of our actions -- and not just birds, but the environment and ultimately the benefit people. areas will affect the food base for these seabirds from ocean pollution, plastics, there are gazillions of tons of plastic floating around the oceans, and many fish, including seabirds, turtles, eat those, mistaking them for food, and they can -- it's a simple fishers, two components from the bird perspective, fisheries that do not catch birds. a lot of albatrosses drown. this practices are getting them used widely, not only in our waters, but internationally, and it will benefit the birds for food supply, and benefit all of us. next. we talk about tropical forests.

because they have most of the that is an issue for mexico because they have most of the tropical forest. what this map shows is mexican birds are also our birds because that the magnolia warbler is where those areas are migrated to, many of them are coming from canada across the boreal forests, but that relationship reads from one province to the other, end of canada to the other, winters in that little area in the yucatan peninsula. we have several million birds there in the winter. they are just as -- we care about those tropical forest birds because many of them are also canadian boreal forest birds. next. i do not think -- i am not sure

this is going to show well. i will talk about it as it goes. there is some glowing down there. this is an interesting matchup. we need to work on the graphic colors. this will slowly expand north and see these grays spreading out here. this is now may, this is late may. we are working into june, and you see where all these birds are breeding, red and white. what is interesting is this map was generated by birdwatchers. since people who go surveying, they write down what they see every day, they get to a giant

bird database and with several billion hours of computer processing time, they have taken hundreds of thousands of observations and been able to generate this list and choose how that species migrate up through and back again. there is a series of these at our website. they are rather fun to look at. i was not sure whether to see -- it highlights the power of what we call citizen science. all those birders collecting the data are the ones who will help us with conservation. working the tropics is one of the challenges, and the key thing is working with people. the pressure on these forests is the land use and the development, and if the people have healthy, happy livelihoods and one that benefit from it,

take advantage of these natural forests, then they will protect the forest for themselves and in the process protect the forests for the birds. the key to this conversation is making it relevant to people's lives. we have protected areas. it is about 20%, but we need to look after those protected areas. we do not want to have 20% of the landscape good for birds would we want working landscapes where people work and live and eat and feed and work can support the diversity of birds through sustainable forestry, timber harvesting, development. a lot of people like to go and watch birds. that can help protect their habitats. the other area i want to focus on, there are several others of concern, grasslands. grasslands are important for my

transnational perspective because this map just where many of the breeding birds in canada winter in mexico. there are 20% of grassland birds that are found only in north america. these grasslands are threatened in all parts of the range. if we look in the chihuahuan desert, central mexico, we look at birds that will go only to the chihuahua, and the challenge is a lack of wintering habitat which means they do not survive. it is important have breeding habitats where birds can raise their young, but if they do not come back again, we will have a population challenge. the challenge with grasslands -- next slide -- is working with people. what the real solutions are is

getting people to understand the consequences of their action. if you take a pastureland that we use for rearing cattle, convert it to soybeans, it has no value for birds, and in these dry desert areas, it will not have value for birds across because they need to irrigate. it is bad in long-term. it is bad for the society, bad for birds in the long-term, and we need to work on policies that support what we call sustainable farming. many of these grassland birds grew up in an area where there are hundreds of millions of bison. they can work in a landscape of cattle and bison. it helps to support. a final slide but -- basically the bottom line we come out with is if it is good for people in

terms of the long-term healthy land and water, these are sustainable things for birds and for people. thank you. mr. mehlman: we will save questions for the end until we can ask the panel together. i think, deb, you are next. >> it is still installing. it may be ready before she is done. ms. hahn: thank you.

good afternoon. i am deb hahn. i work with the association of wildlife agencies, which serves as a force for territorial fish and wildlife agencies. the 50 u.s. wildlife agencies are members of our associations as well as the canadian provinces. there are also agencies that work on conservation, canadian wildlife service is also members, also with ngo's, including some in the room. charles got into some of the science, and i was asked to start to move the science towards what does it mean in the three countries, what does it mean from business practice standpoint, from a policy standpoint. we have had 100 years of implementation of the migratory bird treaty act. we had amazing success. but from a conservation community standpoint, we are

saying, what do we have to do differently in the next hundred years so we can ensure that people, biodiversity, which for us is birds, are an important part of that, and that business thrives? how do we make that happen for the next hundred years? this is all connected, and you do not need to talk only about birds. even talk about healthy land, air, water, and i would argue that long-term economic growth businesses are not counter to having the land, air, water. and the birds are indicators of the health of these areas. so what we need are the policies in the business practices that embrace this in order to make that a reality. next. so i will touch base on a few policy opportunities that are

somewhat u.s.-centric but include conservation in canada and mexico. very important to us and coming out of this report is an act that it's administrated by the u.s. fish and wildlife service. it is critical funding serve for the neotropical migrants threat in the western hemisphere. we have about $3.5 million to about $5.5 million appropriated by the u.s. congress each year, and a large amount of data that have gone to the program, and we had a number of projects in canada, mexico, and the u.s. uniting three countries. another one that is north american focus is the wetlands conservation act, another successful act has put billions on the ground in canada, mexico, and the u.s.

also important funding here in the u.s. with our congress. next. this is a u.s.-only program, but charles brought up grasslands, and there are policies within canada and mexico that i am not an expert on, but i know are very important to the conservation of grassland birds, and something for all of you to think about. in the u.s., it is our u.s. farm bill conservation programs. these programs provide cost-sharing, can serve environmentally sensitive land, and work to conserve not agricultural land, but wetlands and grasslands that are components of that. next. in north america we have migratory bird joint ventures, created in 1986. they have been extremely successful partnerships for the conservation of birds, but they are the regional impact on air,

water, and healthy land. on some of these boards have businesses, ngo's, state and federal agencies, and support for these programs is critical for us. next. i will mention one last thing, the state fish and wildlife agencies have a funding source that goes to state wildlife action plans. the reason i want to mention this is although i am talking about the policies separately, they are really all connected. a good example is a gold winged warbler, and in pennsylvania, they have put $200,000 into habitat protection for this species through this grant program, and i have leveraged about $1.5 million to do that with other partners. at the same time the farm bill conservation programs i mentioned have developed a conservation program for the species and are putting habitats on the ground, and at the same

time, the neotropical migratory bird conservation act is putting habitat on the ground in central america, nicaragua, and other countries on their nonbreeding habitat. this message that as our three countries and for birds, we need to work together to be successful in their conservation. next. if you could just go one more, i will skim over this one. we have a blue-ribbon panel in the u.s. that is looking to increase the level of wildlife funding. we had 26 conservation and wildlife and business leaders in the u.s. come together. what we are doing right now is asking the u.s. congress to put $1.3 billion of current energy and mineral royalties into the conservation of wildlife in the u.s. next, another thing i will mention is we have some state fish and wildlife agency

investment, which is in some ways to help match the investment made by our federal partners. we have projects in the yucatan peninsula that connect to the state of missouri and the state of tennessee. we have projects in the chihuahuan desert grasslands are there is an initiative that has over 100 sites throughout the hemisphere, and within north america, there are very important sites for shorebirds that we are working to engage additional stakeholders, whether businesses, local communities, you name it. these are all partners that to conserve shorebirds throughout the hemisphere and throughout

the continent, we need to work together on. next. in the final thing i will mention in this part is that business strategies we looking at developing. you have seen the signs from "the state of the birds" report. how do we take that science and say, where exactly can we have the most bang for our buck from a conservation perspective? this concept came out of the national fish and wildlife federation, and therefore is very business centric, and they said we want to understand the risk or make business perspectives on where we are going to put our money at conservation success, and that is what we're trying to do to these strategies. this is for the atlantic flyway for the atlantic hosts of the continent. i will quickly mention some of the ideas of partnerships that we have throughout the hemisphere. a lot of these can translate the north america also. charles touched on a few, one

being coffee. shade-grown coffee, good for wildlife, good for forest. they are good for what percent protection, good for climate change mitigation, and also good for local livelihood. tim hortons in canada has a strong partnership with farmers in central america on shade-grown coffee. next. cattle ranching. i know national audubon and some other partners are looking at how do you move this grass-fed beef market that is very popular in north america right now to also be bird friendly or wildlife friendly? this example is from the southern cone of south america, and it is an initiative that has developed a $1 million market for sustainable grass-fed bird-friendly beef, in the ranches participating were the leaders. that is a great example of the way to go, to the people on the

land, the businesses, the local communities being the leaders. next. rice and other great examples, whether you're working with partners in south carolina, california, in south america, using certain techniques to make rice more friendly to wildlife, more friendly to birds, and creating a new business market. next. fisheries. as charles mentioned, we have had a lot of decline in our seabirds, so working with industry to help maintain fisheries, but also install new technologies and have cooperative agreements about timing of fisheries is really important options for us to work together with the industry. next. this is my last slide, and i wanted to leave you with a few thoughts that many folks in the

room, not just myself, been talking about, the fact that birds are ambassadors. the unite has, bring us together. they are something we share as a continent. we have a lot of science in the bird community. we will do use that science to be strategic in our resource allocation to enjoy the best return on our conservation investment. we think birds can be used as a galvanized or to address continental challenges and engaged a diverse stakeholder -- a group of stakeholders and partners. we believe we can use them as indicators and develop approaches that meet social and economic needs. i will leave you with that. thank you. mr. mehlman: next, humberto, care to share with us?

mr. berlanga: good afternoon. i am humberto berlanga. i work on the national commission of national biodiversity in mexico. it was created 25 years ago, and has become a leading institution in terms of compiling, administrating, and applying biodiversity information. my institution serves 11 different ministries in the country as well as in the civil society, to the minister of energy, giving out information about biodiversity.

there were very good things said at the end, how we can work together, and you have seen good examples. i have the spanish version of the document you have there, transposed in three languages, french, spanish, and english, for the people in our three countries, and that is a demonstration of how we are joining our efforts to try to work together, but i would like to share with you my personal experience on how we evolved to come up to be able to produce this type of document. it is not easy at all. now everybody today, everybody speaks, but there were 20 years ago things were very different. where we in mexico were obligated to focus on biodiversity because we did not have enough people to specialize in addressing all the different groups of wildlife, flora,

species compared to what you have any u.s. or developments in candidate, it was very unbalanced. so our focus was from the 25 years ago, beginning of the 1990's, the focus on biodiversity to protect an ecosystem government that is covering now 18% in mexico, major islands, and other major ecosystems in the country, and now we're thinking about other things such as corridors that allow species to migrate and thrive. i want to give you examples of the difficulties we've gone through in the history of collaboration in our three countries. when we started 20 years ago, there was not a map that we

could use as a common ground for geographically understanding or plan what we wanted to do together. vegetation types, there are many. what is a good one that we can use to really understand -- using our only scientific development, and why they should be our concern. so we started to work in using an interesting approach. >> it is a map that we share. we all lead that. it is a practical tool that we