The Socio-Environmental Arena, set up at the Modern Art Museum (MAM), will open on Saturday June 16 with the first Global Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development Meeting. The debate, which will start at 11:00 am, will be attended by the Agricultural Development Minister, Pepe Vargas, the Environment Minister, Izabella Teixeira, and the Minister of Social Development and Hunger Combat, Tereza Campello.

The Global Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development Meeting will only be the first in a series of debates that will take place until the June 22 at the Global Meetings Arena (Arena Encontros Globais), a space for dialogue between the Brazilian Government and society during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). 

In the opening, topics such as the advances and challenges in overcoming poverty in Brazil, and its direct relationship to sustainable development will be discussed. There will be 2 debates a day, from 2:30 am to 4:30 pm and from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, until the end of Rio+20.

All the debates will be broadcast live by the Arena’s official blog (portuguese) Internet users can participate by sending questions and comments via Twitter, with the hashtag #ArenaRio20, or on the Facebook’s Fan Page.

Service
Global Meetings Arena Opening
Saturday at 11:00 am
Modern Art Museum (Museu de Arte Moderna) - Av. Infante Dom Henrique 85
Parque do Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro

Get to know the Socio-Environmental Arena

Global Meetings Arena (Arena Encontros Globais)
Daily debates will take place at the Arena, with live and interactive broadcast via internet, in which important governmental officials and civil society representatives will tackle sustainable development’s challenges, live and via web conference. The Arena holds 350 people. Simultaneous Portuguese-English translation and sign language will be available. 

Brazil’s Sound Stage (Palco Sonoro Brasil)
A stage with daily cultural activities, from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, during the break between the Arena’s Global Meetings. With a vibrating program, it will promote Brazilian elementary sound origins with re-readings and trials impregnated with ‘Brazilianity’.

Portinari+Brasileir@s Exhibition
Based on the concept “Brazil is a country that grows, includes and protects”, the exhibition presents the advancement of social inclusion in the country, leveraged by public social policies, and its economic and environmental repercussion. Open to the public from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Socio-Biodiversity Square (Praça da Sociobiodiversidade)
It is a place for the exhibition and commercialization of products based on the sustainable use of Brazil’s biodiversity. It includes family farmers and some of the country’s traditional people and communities. Open to the public from 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Café+20
It will be a place to get together where organic food and family farming and socio-biodiversity products will be sold. Open from 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm.  

The program for each one of the places mentioned above is available at the Socio-Environmental Arena’s website (portuguese).