EDITORIAL No.1                                           

Tijuana, Baja California, January 24th, 2005

Dear Friends of the Encuentro:

      We are getting very excited as the 5th. Meeting on the Border Environment, or Encuentro, gets closer every day. The four past Encuentros have helped us meet and get closer to one another from different parts of the U.S.-Mexico border; we believe we have learned and shared our experiences together and that it has enabled us to identify similarities and differences in our concerns. Overall, it has enriched our work.

      Yet, during that time, so many circumstances all around us have changed, and this complex situation is requiring us to make changes as well. For starters, we feel that this Encuentro must be different from the previous meetings. The profound deterioration in the institutional, financial, social and political landscape we are experiencing in our border region, as well as the growing conflicts, complexity, diversity and urgency of our environmental problems, are demanding that we renew the way we think about and carry out our missions .

      We’d like this renewal process to begin with a new structure for the Encuentro—a structure that will allow us to take some time out to set our priorities straight, to take stock of the impacts we are having with our environmental projects and to have a straightforward conversation about our concerns and commitments, based upon what we know really works. This time we will ask you to join in an interactive discussion process, beyond the passive sharing of information. This interaction will be the core of this Encuentro during its two and a half days of participative learning workshops.

      In short, this Encuentro is calling upon us to recognize and celebrate our accomplishments, reassure ourselves with others and with our own environment, discover the collective component within our individual experiences and aspirations, and translate our passion into proposals that best help align our actions with those of other stakeholders in the border community.

      We need you to be a part of this process of constructive interaction that goes beyond the passive exchange of information, in which collaboration will be the center piece of these two days of participatory learning.

      We welcome you to come and contribute to the strengthening of the network of transborder collective efforts in an attempt to increase the impact of environmental action along our shared border. We want more! Join in and register at www.encuentrofronterizo.org!