International Newsletter of Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #90
July 20th 2012
Summary
Rio+20: Progress or procrastination?
« RIO+20 extended » : On June 20th 2012, three hours of
dialogue between members of civil society showcased the users expertise of
practicians.
Message from the Editorial Team
As announced, this issue is fully
dedicated to reports on Rio+20. Judith was present at the Rio meetings in
Brazil, and writes of the progress she observed since the Earth Summit of 1992,
particularly that of the last ten years, in terms of the progress of a social
movement that is the only path forward to building more ecologically viable
ways of living and influencing national decisions from local to global levels,
as well as involving regional and national actors.
Martine, on the other hand, who is a
member of the French Rio+20 Collective reports on 6 local meetings in France
that were held with video link-up to Rio de Janeiro during the RIO+20
Conference. These meetings testify to the importance of local appropriation of
the global stakes to act on daily life.
In a nutshell, we could say that the
organisation of international relations has been stagnating or even moving
backward since 1992. The current model suffers from a lack of governance of our
planet and of capitalism is aggravating the impacts on the biosphere.
Nevertheless many steps forward have been accomplished in the last 20 years,
both in terms of building alternatives (clean energies, sustainable local
production and consumption, solidarity of various kinds) and linking alliances
and coalitions to reach a level that will allow a change of paradigm to be
forcefully imposed.
There is one question that needs to
be answered if we are to take that step: how can we connect all the progress
made in major internatonal meetings where we stand up and are counted, and
measure the progress of alternative paradigms with the progress of
practitioners and communities, so that they can formalise their progress on the
basis of the results that they have achieved and scale up more general
solutions, that serve as a general reference.
Next issue: September 1st
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut
Rio+20: Progress or procrastination
By Judith Hitchman
Innate optimism and hope are a
fundamental part of the activist mindset, even when you are aware that the
situation is heavily weighted against success.
And having spent the 6 weeks prior to Rio+20 translating Pierre
Radanne’s excellent analysis of the process and potential outcomes, I like most
others was sceptical as to what could be achieved through the official channels
of the UN Summit. The ground rule of achieving consensus has long meant that
any truly enlightened forward-thinking policy has failed abysmally to be
adopted, and the proposals on the table were progressively voided of all
potential to address the climate change issues as the negotiations progressed
in the run-up to the event.
But after two long weeks in Rio, I
have come away with a feeling of some optimism. Let me explain why.
As most readers probably know, there
were two parallel meetings in Rio: the official Rio+20 UN Conference that was
held in the outskirts of Rio, and the People’s Summit that took place in the
centre of town, in Flamengo Park. There was also an interface between the two,
through the civil society “major groups” and lobbies.
Since the first Rio Conference on
climate change in 1992, the UN institutions have failed to make much if any
progress on this crucial issue. And indeed this conference has produced an
agreement that not only fails to show much progress, but is even a
regression.
But these same twenty years have seen
the progressive rise and empowerment of civil society, operating in an
increasingly complex organised matrix of sectoral and territorial levels, from
local to global. This movement includes the World Social Forum and its thematic
axes as well as the more recent Occupy movement. It also includes an
increasingly strong element of inter-related and organised social movements.
The issues of the current global
crisis of our civilisation and that of climate change came together in the
People’s Summit in a new and meaningful way, with the real solutions being put
forward in a more coherent whole than ever before. My early concerns during the
week were how and whether the trend that has emerged through the Social Fora of
Converging Assemblies would succeed in providing an overall credible unity of
action to continue: there are so many specific cases and causes involved… But
as the days progressed, and the atmosphere in Rio Centro, where the official
forum was taking place became ever more depressed and depressing, the
atmosphere in Flamengo was electric and high in energy of a kind that I have
not experienced for many years… Yes, there is a desire to overcome internal
differences and take our destiny in our own hands to act….
The obvious paths that have emerged
are those of the local rights-based inter-connected actions to impact our
societies where we live, and transition to more sustainable societies at all
levels. These are no longer isolated projects, but a more aware global
movement. It includes all the key sectors: agriculture, through agro-ecology
small-scale family farming and Community Supported Agriculture coupled with the
defence of traditional seeds and plants against patents and biopiracy, land
reform and the massive defence of the Commons, alternative economic solutions
carried forward by the different dimensions of solidarity economy (largely
thanks to the Brazilian Forum for Solidarity Economy), no longer a solution to
“fix what is broken” but to provide people-centred genuine alternatives… The
Via Campesina and Brazilian Landless People’s Movement (MST) were amazingly
present, as were the World March of Women, the Trade Unions and many smaller
organisations that defend the Commons and people’s social rights.
In passing, it is worth mentioning
that the RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social
Solidarity Economy) Board with whom I was participating in Rio had an excellent
and fruitful meeting with the new French Minister for Solidarity Economy. He
clearly stated that his ministry is part of Bercy (the site of the Ministry for
Economy), and not just an add-on. He perceives the sector as having shown the
best resistance to the current crisis, and therefore worthy of greater
investment and support. An alliance with those other countries that have
ministries for Solidarity Economy, like Ecuador and Brazil is in the air…
The culmination of the People’s
Summit was an 80,000 person-strong loud but peaceful march through the streets
of Rio… I believe it was the biggest demonstration in which I have ever taken
part. And the many excellent declarations carried forward to the UN Secretary
General and the world at large.
Yes, the greed of neo-liberal
interests is influencing countries such as the United States, Canada and
Australia to veto all binding progressive agreements that could oblige society
to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and growth-oriented production. Yes, the
developing BRIC countries (Brazil, India and China) are arguing forcibly in
favour of their right to develop along similar lines to those countries that
have done so in the past. But I feel that we must not underestimate the
combined power and determination of civil society as organised in social
movements to take things matters into their own hands and act at joined-up
local level, and to bring bottom-up pressure to bear on governments, as well as
to lobby top-down through the relevant institutions to take the required measures
to change our society before it is too late. These changes will need to address
all dimensions of society: not only the energy issue, but also modes of
production and consumption, social issues and human rights. We need to learn to
change our collective approach to how we live in society. And the values of the
various social movements present at the People’s Summit carry a very clear and
determined message. Never has such a coherent message been delivered
collectively by civil society to the governments of the world and UN
institutions.
RIPESS Declaration (EN-FR-SP)
www.ripess.org
Analysis of Rio+20 by Pierre Radanne (FR + EN)
http://www.association4d.org/article.php3?id_article=697
Peoples Sustainability Treaties (EN)
http://sustainabilitytreaties.org/process/
Peoples Summit (EN-FR-ES-PT)
http://rio20.net/RIPESS Declaration
(EN-FR-SP)
« RIO+20
extended » : On June 20th 2012, three hours of dialogue between members of
civil society showcased the users expertise of practicians.
by Martine Theveniaut
The Objective of the Meeting
The
project of Rio+20 extended is to build relationships between “here and “there”:
“Here refers to the territories where we
live in France, and indeed in Europe - a community of shared destiny and of
political citizenship; there are the long-distance relationships that translate
our global citizenship into the future” [1].
The
European P’Actes, who are members of the Rio+20 Collective organised a meeting
in France on June 20th, called “Acts and
projects for territorial anchoring and democratic participation in sustainable
development”, using communication technology and freeware. Five territories
in five different regions of France took part, with horizontal exchange between
peers. A sixth region, Brittany, connected to the Rio State Pavillion in the
Athletes Park and hosted a delegation of youth from the Ligue de
l’Enseignement.
Why
focus on user’s expertise? Because practitioners’ opinions are rarely heard,
and in the multitude of voices, the Local is fundamentally observed from on
high. And if the Local and the global are indeed interdependant, it is at local
level that things are happening : they are both highly complex... and very
concrete! The event planned to demonstrate how citizen-actors (inhabitants,
associations, elected representatives, entrepreneurs, trade unionists and
researchers) are all collectively involved on a daily basis in various field
actions that have generated concrete results, trust, and users’ expertise. This
intellectual capital can be multipled and shared; by learning to cooperate they
are the prefiguration of paths towards a democratic transition at social,
economic and ecological levels.
Organisation
In
all of the places connected via on-line link-up,, the promoters brought their
partners together as well as hosting guests and mobilised the press. The
meetings were held in three sequences:
·
The
levers of local management of resources
·
How
to structure an open territorial economy (market economy, public services,
third sector, voluntary support)
·
How
democratic answers are organised
The
presentations illustrated the approach and results, without hiding the
challenges, so that lessons could be learned for the future. Issues of
transition were included via renewable energies, land, food, employment and networking
methods.
Two
cross-cutting questions structured the discussions:
·
What
participation in the territorial management of daily issues?
·
What
governance at multiple levels?
The
objective was to help solutions to be disseminated at a more general level in
France, Europe and in the post-Rio period.
Main
conclusions
The global dimensions:
·
There
are a considerable number of problems, the number of unemployed is huge. This
is a subject of great debate, as everyone is singing from their own song-sheet,
and trying to develop their own growth potential. Reconciling democracy and
environment means confronting serious risks.
·
Recognition
of territorial space is one of the keys to the solution to get things to change
in the world. For neither States not the multnationals by themselves are in a
position to define balanced relationships, much less implement them.
Bottom-up solutions:
·
Solidarity
means refusing what is unacceptable – both here and there – looking one another
straight in the eye. It implies organising resources.
·
It’s
not so much the volume as the networking that produces results and helps us to
grow.
·
An
economy that includes different models and local development are the vectors of
change: radical experiments, territory-to-territory cooperation that allows
people to learn by doing and make suggestions that are based on examples that
have proven effective.
·
The
time has come to link actions together, and expand... with the aim of
developing our solutions, to dare implement bigger projects to change the
course of events...and build Europe.
The method:
The
horizontal organisation of distance communication is relevant to allow citizens
who are engaged in actions to share a joint international agenda.
·
The
approach stmulates the awareness of interdependence.
·
It
underlines the fact that success is singular and based on context, resources
and the will to get along with other actors and to jointly look for solutions.
·
It
can be used to establish a structured dialogue around objectives, as well as
make contact with many different partners working on projects in the same
place, and thus reconstitute an intersectoral response in a non-hierarchical
manner.
About the Newsletter
This Newsletter is published in
French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, It has been produced on a totally
voluntary basis since the first issue in 2003.
The Editorial team wishes to thank
the following volunteers for their support in translation and revision:
Michel Colin (Brazil)
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland)
Évéline Poirier (Canada)
Brunilda Rafael (France)
We also wish to thank the Civil
Policy Research Institute (CPRI) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for the Japanese
translation.
Our Newsletters are available on the
WEB:
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www.apreis.org/
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Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
