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 1^st

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:

http://local-development.blogspot.com/

www.apreis.org/

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):

Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

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[1] http://collectif-france.rio20.net/se-mobiliser-dans-rio20-etendu/

International Newsletter of Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #89
June 1st 2012

Summary
Instill new political ambition in the change we want from Rio+20!

Message from the Editorial Team

We are dedicating this issue of our Newsletter to the preparation of the international Conference of Rio + 20. It is the last issue before the Conference takes place, from the 20th -22nd of June 2012. For a whole week, Rio de Janeiro will provide the public space for exchange and confrontation of different points of view, interests and cultures. This innovative process of democratic mobilisation will see the coexistence of an international Conference that brings together leaders from across the planet, which will take place in the outskirts of the city, whereas the Peoples’ Summit will take place from the 15th-23rd of June 2012 in the town centre, and will bring together social movements and civil society. There will be some « small bridges » between the two events to enable dialogue to occur. Local Authorities will be meeting for a Global Town Hall. The world’s media will all be present.

The influence of multinational corporations and company lobbies can be increasingly felt within the UN, just as in the countries themselves. States are reduced to implementing short-term policies, in their fear of shifts in existing economic hegemonies, and are demonstrating little desire to regulate the economy in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. Agreements that have already been signed, such as that on water, are being questioned. There is every reason to fear that there may even be regression on certain fundamental subjects. Coalitions are built to counter positions rather than to work towards solutions, and succeed in formalising them as commitments! Civil society organisations everywhere in the world are mobilising to make this global meeting a point of departure for the transition to a world of greater justice, well-being for humankind, and renewed trust in the institutions … and an exit from the crises.

We would like to draw your attention to the European Call by civil society of the French RIO+20 Collective. We share the aims of this call, which are to « to raise issues of general interest to the level of all humankind ». The priority of our editorial team is to communicate initiatives of inhabitants and communities, who take on the responsibility for finding solutions to the problems facing them in their daily lives and their future. Therefore we support the statement that « new paths of development can only be built if citizens’ society uses its hands-on experience to include it in devising strategies and if conflicts of interest are recognised in a fully transparent manner ».

We join Martine, as representative of the European P’Actes in the Collective, in inviting you to discover the key aspects of the Call.
Site of the official UN Conference: www.uncsd2012.org/rio20
Site of the People’s Summit: www.cupuladospovos.net
Site for the Global Town Hall: http://local2012.iclei.org

Our next Newsletter will be published on July 20th. The main subject will be Rio+20

Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Instill new political ambition in the change we want from Rio+20!

Introductory note written by Martine Théveniaut

The French RIO+20 Collective has brought over forty civil society organisations together since 2010. It includes NGOs involved in international solidarity, environment, trade unions, etc. The members have been working together on a voluntary basis on two dimensions: expertise and mobilisation. The expertise group decided to create an open space for discussion and achieve consensus to argue and strengthen their work on innovative proposals to States, the European Union and international organisations of international civil society. The mobilisation group has been working on trying to bring together all those who want to see a decisive movement for change that reaches beyond 2012, in order to achieve collective, responsible governance of our planet and clearly laid out commitments with a time-line. In April, they launched a European Call aiming to gather as many signatures as possible by organisations and networks.

Excerpt from the Call on European civil societies:

(English translation by the RIO+20 Collective)

Guarantee the right to food, water and development: The green economy concept put forward in Rio would be inadmissible if the investment is recommended subject to a unique approach by the market. Access to services and essential goods asserts the primacy of the citizen on the economic and the need for financial, economic and legal regulation.

Recognize the existence of a plurality of development patterns: stop the social marginalization and increase investment in basic services people need. The use of renewable energy, agro¬forestry practices, simple techniques for collecting, storing and distributing water, are all relevant approaches for 1.8 billion small farmers.

Reaffirm the existence of the commons, whether natural environments, immaterial technological or cultural goods; recognize users’ expertise and encourage local management; protect them, limit their financialization; redefine the relationship between humanity and nature; stop speculating on the conditions necessary to good life.

Open new paths for ecological and social transition of all our societies: put the public interest first; take into account the constraint on consumption of resources in the search for a new model of social organization. From this perspective, strong social and territorial integration is necessary to find other ways of satisfaction than overconsumption.

Build a universal common core of social protection: recognize the value of working, accompany the training time, and secure career paths open to quality jobs across the planet. Social dumping must stop. A fair transition can only be opened if the players face their responsibility.
Recognize civil society: give it its rightful place in the negotiation and decision-making process on public policies and their local implementation. New paths of development can be built only if the civic society, with its expertise in use, is included in upstream strategies and if conflicts of interest are recognized in full transparency.

To sign the Call (FR)
http://collectif-france.rio20.net/signez-lappel-europeen/

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:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter of Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #88
May 1st 2012

Summary

Local languages: a genuine tool to support sustainable agricultural practice

Message from the Editorial Team

Globalisation is a fact of life, whether we like it or not. It brings the positive dimension of cross-cultural exchange, sharing of knowledge between peoples of our planet, and new forms of solidarity. Awareness is rising that we are all part of humanity and that we have only one planet with finite resources. But economic globalisation has no respect for anything. What we call neo-liberalism is responsible for the various crises: financial, economic, political, environmental and social. The cumulative negative impacts have now been clearly identified.

One of the negative impacts of globalisation is the result of the wars in which colonialists conquered and dominated the world in recent centuries. They imposed their languages, their cultural references, and all too often, their own religions, destroying much of the world’s language and cultural diversity. Every year, more languages are lost forever! The new forms of « conquest » are those of the mainstream mass cultural media, aimed at « profitability ». They rewrite history, disfigure reality, format people to a mass culture from early childhood. Just one example to illustrate this point: What connection can be made been Walt Disney’s Pocahontas and the reality of the culture shock imposed on Native Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries?

Yet resistance and organised solutions are increasing, often through local endogenous development. At this point local populations throughout the world are re-appropriating their own cultures, and doing so with pride. Language and culture are living entities and as such, they develop, and reproduce, as much as any other form of life on our planet. Values, myths as well as traditional cultural and agricultural techniques that are appropriate for local resources are a relevant means of re-appropriation. Also many languages and cultures are becoming vectors for their own development. Local languages that were so decried by the colonisers can become genuinely powerful tools of sustainable local development.

In this issue, Judith illustrates this through the example of the African Institute for Food and Sustainable Development (IAD, l’Institut Africain de l’Alimentation et du Développement durable) in Mali, and tells how they help women Bambara-speaking farmers to enrich their language and learn the scientific aspects in their own language rather than use that of the colonisers (in this case, French). Local cultures testify to the vitality of these women, and what they can do when they make up their minds to do it. They are yet another proof of the fact that diversity is the true foundation of the universality of humankind.

We can stop mass culture! We have reached the end of an era of five centuries of domination. Holistic development of communities is rebuilding local social capital to enable life to continue. This renewal, should it succeed in linking pride in our different inherited cultures with open-mindedness (rather than the walls we so often see that are built to keep the neighbours out of our back yards), will help rebuild solidarity based on natural and cultural biodiversity in an interdependent world.

Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Local languages: a genuine tool to support sustainable agricultural practice

By Judith Hitchman

One aspect of colonialism that is often overlooked is the way in which indigenous languages were marginalised and supplanted by the three languages that dominate most of the planet, even today, English, French and Spanish. In some cases, such as in Ireland, there was a period of history when people caught speaking the native language were condemned to capital punishment!

This article is essentially about the way in which local languages in Africa can also become a powerful tool of empowerment, and how the dedicated work of organisations can help to build the linguistic tools of sustainable local development in communities that have often been neglected, in this case in Bambara in Mali, and with women farmers, many of them illiterate.

Bambara is one of the main languages spoken in Mali, along with Peul and Mandingue. But the official language used in formal education is still French. This means that as in many other African countries, unless a person has attended secondary school, that their command of the dominant language (English, French or Portuguese, depending on which power had colonised the land) can often be quite limited. It is also one of the reasons for having introduced the “blanket” language of Kiswahili in several States in East Africa, as it enables better communication between peoples, although education is still in English in East Africa. In many African countries, including Mali, women have traditionally been particularly penalised, and young girls are often pulled out of education earlier than boys at the end of primary school if not before, to take up the traditional tasks of farming, fetching water from the well, cooking and other household tasks.
One aspect in today’s technological world is that science and so-called scientific truth is used to foist many unacceptable choices such as land-grabbing and GMO seeds on small-scale illiterate farmers. But this story is about how a group of women farmers in Mali have been so empowered that they are able to speak to scientists, development NGOs and politicians alike, and more than hold their own in any discussion. It is a story of how the missing link of local language development can contribute to enabling traditional knowledge to be more valued and recognised by scientists.

Assetou Samaké founded the Institut Africain de l’Alimentation et du Developpement Durable, IAD in 2009. There are five members of staff, two of whom are educational scientists, specialised in developing curricula in Bambara, one specialist in environmental education and children’s recreational activities, one botanist, whose specialisation is the genetics of plants, as well as a technician who specialises in rice growing. The Institute has developed a number of strategic partnerships, including with N’ko, an association for the defence of local languages and promotion of culture, the Association of Professional Peasant farmers’ Organisations (AOPP, the Association des Organisations Professionnelles Paysannes), the coalition for the protection of African genetic heritage, and the University of Bamako, in order to develop national languages as a tool and support for learning. This work in turn helps to build understanding and share knowledge between different people working in a given field (such as agriculture). The overall objective is to build scientific communication in local languages.

The missing link.

IAD developed a pedagogical method of an active university-based pedagogy applied to the rural farming communities. It involves both university lecturers/researchers and farmers getting together on specific subjects and sharing their knowledge, learning from one another, as well as building solutions that are acceptable to both. It is this approach that has enabled them to measure the huge gap that exists between university lecturers and research scientists in Mali, who speak both Bambara and French, and rural communities where Bambara is the only language spoken. Although both communities have genuine knowledge and know-how, it was impossible to bring them together or to create synergy.

The key difficulty was the lack of scientific vocabulary.

The team’s experience in active university pedagogy in rural communities led to “inventing” scientific terms in Bambara that would facilitate exchange between communities. They began by words related to botany, because the prime focus of IAD is agriculture, and farming communities have traditional deep agricultural knowledge. Women are often those who know most, and are responsible for transmitting this knowledge to future generations.

IAD is continuing to work with village communities. Their end objective is to build a glossary of all botanical terms in Bambara. It is essential that the farmers be able to understand and have access to scientific research, particularly in botany and agriculture, as their traditional life-styles and cultural knowledge are threatened by the work that is being done by the international scientific community on seeds and biotechnology in the field of agriculture.

By working closely with the women farmers in the field (literally and figuratively), Assétou and her team have helped build a complete new scientific vocabulary in Bambara. They have created expressions that match the language used by scientists, and progressively enriched the language with expressions that are not “imported” loan words, as is generally the case, but rather created new expressions in a language that is largely based on images and gestures that already exist (Bambara is a very figurative language, so this is a complex process).

Several years down the road, the effects are quite remarkable. Combined with the support provided by their partners, the women have become highly organised in their own cooperative structures, and have built an effective network and chain that enables them to produce, store and market their produce in ways that ensure added value and better prices. They can discuss with scientists, and coherently justify why their traditional breeding practice and agricultural methods are more effective than hybrid or GMO seeds or chemical inputs, and what support they would really need.

Alimata Traore, woman farmer from the Sikasso region of Mali takes the floor during the satellite link up with DFID & Members of the British Parliament in Accra, January 2012. Photo, Michel Pimbert

I had the privilege of being part of an interpretation team that supported a High Level Policy Dialogue between these women and members of AGRA (the Green Revolution lobby in Africa), as well as with Members of the House of Parliament and Decentralised Cooperation in the UK. The meeting was organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development policy (IIED) in Accra in Ghana in January. These women, who in spite of being for the most part illiterate, were among the most articulate and powerful I have met in many years. Their strength and their courage is remarkable.

Above all, the power of the support provided by Assetou Samaké and her team could provide a model for other countries and other languages. Sadly many native/local languages have already been lost, mainly in America, where the whole indigenous community concept of relationships between humans and nature is a uniquely important model. More are being lost every year. And expressing yourself in the language of your people is a birthright, but sadly not one that is truly universal. It is also one of the key tenets of Babels, the global network of volunteer interpreters, an emanation of the World Social Forum, to enable everyone to speak in the language of their choice. But to be able to do that, the missing link in terms of sustainable development is indeed the work carried out by the IAD: that of “inventing” the appropriate equivalent terms to allow a full and equal exchange to take place, empower communities, and highlight the traditional knowledge that could otherwise be lost.

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:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter of Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #87
April 1st 2012
Summary
New directions and connections for the solidarity economy and people-centred development. Kochi, Kerala (India), 2nd – 4th March 2012

Message from the Editorial Team

Yvon took part in the COMMACT network conference in India, as a representative of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET). He had also taken part in the COMMACT meeting in Liverpool in September 2004. Martine took part as delegate for the Euronetz network, joint organisers of the meeting; Judith was present as an interpreter. Yvon also participated in the following meeting that was held in Brisbane (Australia) in October 2008.

These meetings, as well as the Asian Solidarity Economy Forum in Manila in October 2007, Tokyo in 2009 and Kuala Lumpur in November 2011, helped build and strengthen sustainable relationships and networks with Asia in particular. We, in Europe and North America are often less aware of what is happening in civil society movements in Asia. In the last two of these meetings, Yvon and Martine worked together very closely on the European activities of the Pactes Locaux, both of them aiming to promote a democratic territorial approach to the organisation of solidarity. Judith has opened up new relationships with the aspect of food sovereignty and international networks that are more implanted in the English-speaking world.

Those of you who subscribe to our newsletter are probably aware that the guiding light of our editorial committee has always been to focus on the way people and communities find sustainable ways of solving their problems and meeting their needs. That is why we are committed to informal networking in social and solidarity economy, inasmuch as these organisations and practitioners do not approach the development issues from the thematic or sectorial angle, but are interested in a more holistic approach and the overall dimension of local to global issues in communities and local authorities. The key question is how to organise locally at the different level in order to achieve a democratic contract and rebuild territorial development to confront globalisation? This is the recurrent theme from one issue to the next, and one that we try to illustrate and inform our readers through examples.

The meeting in Kochi also enabled Yvon to visit ASSEFA again, for the first time since 2002. This association now brings together 10,150 villages, and is as inspiring as ever in its practice. We described the work carried out by ASSEFA in number 60 of this Newsletter. We shall write more in the near future.

Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

New directions and connections for the solidarity economy and people-centred development. Kochi, Kerala (India), 2nd – 4th March 2012

By Yvon Poirier

It was under the theme of New directions and connections for solidarity economy people-centred development that about sixty participants came together in India. There were 30 from India, 18 from Malaysia, 4 from Australia, 3 from the UK and the author of this article represented Canada.
The meeting was organised by the COMMACT network – the Common Wealth network for People-Centred Development. This network was originally created for organisations in the British Commonwealth, and first met in GOA in India in 1988. Since the network no longer has ties with the British Commonwealth, it now calls itself a network for the «Common Wealth». The network meets every 2-4 years. COMMACT is legally domiciled in Australia, with David Thompson of Jobs Australia as president. David is also a member of the Board of RIPESS, the International Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy.

As most of the COMMACT members are based in Asia, the organisation is also a member of the Asian Solidarity Economy Coalition (ASEC), the continental member of RIPESS. There is a strong determination to work together in the Asian context. Denison Jayasooria, Asian member of the RIPESS Board was present at the Kochi meeting.

Seated : Noël d'Silva (India), David Thompson (Australia), Bhanwar Singh (India), Devasmitha Sridhar (India), Jenny Mercer (Australia) et Ganesh Purohit (India). Standing: other participants from India

L. Kumar, David Thompson, S. Loganathan, Yvon Poirier

The conference provided an opportunity to listen to speakers with a long-standing experience in community development based on communities’ needs. Four speeches were particularly interesting:
• S. Loganathan of the Sarva Seva Farms Association (ASSEFA) spoke of his 40 years dedicated to local village populations. There are now over 10,000 villages and 5 million people in this network involved in self-help holistic development, inspired by Gandhi.
• Professor Datuk Yusof Kassim, president of COMMACT Malaysia explained the role of people-centred policies in the government’s development plans; he proposed concrete methods for a more inclusive approach for disadvantaged populations, particularly in the regions that are distant from Kuala Lumpur.
• Paul Sinnapan, of the Binary University (Malaysia) presented his long experience with disadvantaged communities in rural areas, and especially the approach whereby the co-operatives use savings and loans as a key instrument in their communities. There are over 500 organisations of this kind, some of them not yet legally constituted, and that have been created by the grassroots communities themselves.
• Jagananda, a long-standing activist in civil society organisations, is now the Commissioner for Information in the State of Orissa in India. To help communities to become empowered, it is important that public services meet the citizen’s requests for the right to information. He told us how in the case of PPPs (public-private partnerships), the private companies had refused to share information in a transparent manner, as it was part of the private sector. He ordered them to do so, as 49% of their funds are provided by the public sector. The Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of his request!

There were many other speeches during the plenary sessions and the workshops; they enabled participants to gain a deeper understanding of other subjects, such as social and solidarity economy and the challenges of networking. The participants clearly expressed their desire to continue their mutual support through networking activities and to exchange information.
COMMACT Website
http://commact.com/

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 Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for the Japanese translation.
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter of Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #86
1st March 2012

Summary
The launch of the People’s Summit: “Transition Now!” Porto Alegre, (Brazil) 24th-29th January 2012.

Message from the editorial team

In our previous issue we mentioned the importance of RIO+20 for the future of our planet and humanity.
Martine took part in a preparatory meeting in Brazil last January, in her capacity of member of the RIO+20 Collective delegation.

What is the connection with sustainable local development? On first sight one could be forgiven for thinking that these global issues are far removed from our everyday concerns wherever we happen to live. But as we all know, the impacts of current development trends are felt throughout the world, including on our own lives. It’s an inescapable fact of life.
This is why we hope that the second “Earth Summit” - the first took place in Rio in 1992 - will finally lead to concrete commitments to protecting our planet for generations to come. And in like manner, in our own communities we need to constantly reconsider our ways of life and consumer habits to ensure that they are compatible with saving the biosphere.

Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

The launch of the People’s Summit: « Transition now! »
Porto Alegre (Brazil) 24th to 29th January 2012.

by Martine Théveniaut

The obstacle is clearly identified: the fragmented responses linked to the lack of any clear expectations that can unify the live forces around shared perspectives. Every State speaks for their country alone. The major groups defend the interests of their sector. And the sum total does not add up to make a global whole. RIO+20 is an invitation to global civil society to come together...in Brazil! Brazil, the home of organised social resistance movements, vitality and long-lasting relationships with Europe!

« Reinventing the world »

The “People’s Summit of RIO+20 for social and environmental justice” aims to be a founding moment, and run parallel to the official Earth Summit. It aims to demonstrate the political strength of organised movements and their ability to confront the major issues of the planet, as these issues are theirs! The networks preparing for the Summit came together in an open space. Between 300 and 400 organisations took part, and were represented by a facilitation committee made up of the key Brazilian networks: indigenous peoples, women, black communities, trade unions...the Brazilian Solidarity economy Forum, represented by Andrea Mendes was one of them.

Networks from neighbouring countries were also present. Bolivia played a prominent role, with Pablo Solon, negotiator for his country in Cancun playing an important part. He has resigned from his position as governmental advisor. Indian communities from 8 different countries of the Amazon Basin are strongly resisting the non-consultative decisions, agendas and methods being forced upon them. They have built a collective project based on their cosmovisions. The international dimension of the meeting included networks from South Africa, the Maghreb and Palestine.

The event will take place in the Flamengo Park in Rio de Janeiro from June 17th – 23rd 2012, to run parallel to and independently from the official conference. There will be self-managed discussion groups around a Permanent People’s Assembly that will operate with “outside/inside” relations to the official forum, putting forward proposals to the institutional negotiators.
The facilitation Committee for the preparation of the People’s Summit has an executive committee that includes the CUT, a powerful trade union in Brazil, the Via Campesina and the Landless People’s Movement, the Reflection and Support Group of the World Social Forum (1), the Brazilian Forum of Social Movements and the People’s Summit: an intertwined dynamic.

Initially the Thematic Social Forum was planned for 2-3000 people, and aimed to prepare for the People’s Summit through systemic thematic work groups, operating over a several-month period.
The work covers four thematic axes:
a) Ethical and philosophical foundations: subjectivity, domination and emancipation;
b) Human rights, Peoples, territories and defence of Mother Earth;
c) Access to wealth, common goods and transition economy;
d) Political subjects, the architecture of power and democracy.
Sharing the results should “support the connection of experience with political contributions in an international process; the agenda for change, electronic fora, and different languages of participants (2). The French delegation of the RIO+20 committee was founded in order to contribute on the basis of their own work and to determine how best to contribute to a collective strategy (3).

Interference between the different objectives of the meeting did not allow the thematic groups to make the most of the meetings, and the organisation was mainly voluntary. The ideological inheritance of “democratic centralism" clashed with overwhelming self-management processes and emotional clashes of leadership. Accepting the idea that work has already been accomplished also implies accepting rules and building trust through transparent processes. In reality, the event was far greater in scale. It mobilised many Brazilians in the current municipal pre-electoral period as well as people from the neighbouring Latin American countries, and centred on the geopolitical context of the continent. There were between 20,000 and 30,000 participants, and almost 1,000 self-organised activities! Very few Africans or Asians took part. Many people discovered the intertwined nature of the thematic Social Forum and the People’s Summit for the first time.
The meeting did however chart the resources and weakness of civil society that is attempting to seize the helm on the basis of what is the current state of play. This probably represents an indispensable and useful stage in an uncharted process of affirmation.

The current position of the official process.

The 0 Draft of the United Nations published in January “The future we want” is poor. The declarations by the G77 put nothing on the table. The
institutional mechanics are blocked, although taken individually, the countries are critical. In the chapter on governance, the key issue is that everyone speaks on behalf of their own country. There is no crosscutting vision and no legitimacy to defend common goods, no United Nations organisation to carry this issue forward. Certain States are more committed than others, like Brazil, China, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), several Latin American countries, and, to some extent, India. African countries are more receptive, given the fact that a United Nations Agency has its headquarters in Nairobi. Canada, is closed to all these issues, and is capable of causing the whole conference to fail.

The United Nations has certain expectations from the not-for-profit third sector. This is an indicator of economic progress, as well as access to rights, services, and increased interest in all oceans. There is greater maturity on some themes than others in terms of what progress is possible: water, food sovereignty and the genuine representation of civil society as a third pillar. Given the strength of certain lobbies at the UN, would it not be possible to institutionalise a formal consultative process, similar to that of the Economic and Social Committees in Europe? Or like the Civil Society Mechanism of the Committee for Food Security of the FAO? Or an official body for State commitments, with international follow-up?

The political entrance of the Occupy movement.

The Occupy movement played a strategic role in the meeting. Their camp is outside the legislative assembly of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. They were invited to participate by the organisers of the Thematic Social Forum on three consecutive days, between midday and 2 p.m., and they testified and discussed non-stop between the official sessions. On the third day, they moderated a plenary session. They were surrounded, called upon, and urged to join in the dynamics of what was happening, and although not all of them were members of the WSF, they support this struggle and are aware that “existing organisations fail to respond to the current issues”. The Indignados (members of Occupy!) from Greece, Spain (Catalonia), Britain, the USA and students from Chile have understood that “the political parties do not have the answers”. The believe that “they need to take responsibility for changing things and finding the means of strengthening democracy and the way that power is exercised”.

One year after the beginning of the popular uprisings, the Occupy movement in various countries of the Arab world find it easier to “identify their friends and their enemies among the extremists: the Islamic supporters are better organised and have won the first round and the elections; the Western countries let the dictators that they have got rid of get on with things, before supporting them for reasons linked to their own interests. The far left is divided and has lost their energy for changing the world”.
Esther Vivas, a Catalonian attendee said, “according to her European experience, it has become clear that capitalism is incompatible with democracy. The Occupy movements’ response is both radical and direct. It is not a cosmetic social democratic reform, but the desire to see genuine democracy that is also economic and self-managed. This is now being achieved through daily experience and through non-violent solutions. Caring for those who have become marginalised and who have no access to medical care, stopping the increasing number of evictions of those who can no longer pay their rent. So far the government hasn’t dared to take them on using police force, as the majority of the population supports them. They are facing many challenges: combining forms of resistance and struggles that are still scattered and a genuine collective dynamic of resistance that is local, national and international; maintaining popular support; strengthening the analyses and including sustainable development that has not until now been considered as a priority, but that is part of the anticapitalist struggle (land, water...). We need to prepare for increased governmental resistance, as this is the beginning of a social revolution”.
The alterglobalisation movement continues to question its own future.

Some old hands stated during the Thematic Social Forum of Porto Alegre: “We are still convinced that our ideas are right, but we are not able to move forward to draw in new people... Our problem is to recruit new members”, said Chico Whitaker, the 80-year old founder member of the Forum. The WSF now only involves a small fraction of the live forces involved in today’s major popular mobilisations fro democracy. This Thematic Social Forum is part of the attempts of an on-going reform to try to build a new dynamic. Of course the CUT and the Via Campesina remain forces that are able to mobilise many people. But their members are divided on the subject of the “green economy”, caught on the horns of a dilemma, because the industrialisation of our country also creates jobs, as president Dilma says! Activists from the sustainable development lobby were also present in the opening march on the 24th of January, with a different position. There appears to have been some lively discussion. The Thematic Social Forum concluded with a declaration by the Assembly of Social Movements and the launch of the People’s Summit at the Porto Alegre Gasometer, on Saturday the 28th January in the evening, introduced by the Forum’s executive committee members. “United in our diversity” was the general trend set by Carmen Foro, secretary for the environment at CUT: the interest of alliances won out over division! This was the best news of the whole meeting...

As a member of the French Collective RIO+20 and of RIPESS Europe, the Thematic Social Forum was a very instructive step in a year-long preparation process. Solid documents, fundamental lines, identified differences...resulting in direct interest and mobilisation. Civil society is confronting its decision-making responsibility: to unite and collectively build constructive coalitions and change the agenda in order to put concrete experience-based proposals on the table that can be “success-stories as of 2012”. Brazil has built bridges between the official Earth Summit conference and the People’s Summit to enable the 4-day period to be more productive than Copenhagen! The strategy has yet to be defined. With the support of Luiz Fernanco Pezao, the vice-governor or Rio de Janeiro, and coordinator of the State infrastructure, the city of Rio hopes to advocate for improved consideration of public infraregional governance. Brazil would like to see a permanent secretariat created to improve the connection between the economic dimension and the MDGs on poverty. Sustainable development will be part of the outcomes that are universal, aspirational and aim for 2030. The balanced importance attached to economic, social and environmental goals will depend on the messages and the strength of the coalitions.

(1) http://www.grap.org.br/forum-social-tematico/
(2) http://dialogos2012.org/category/noticias/?lang=fr (portugais, anglais, français espagnol)
(3) An open discussion space created by the French RIO+20 collective that brings together over 40 organisations preparing for the Conference.
http://collectif-france.rio20.net/2012/02/15/rio20-une-transition
(4) Available in 4 languages on the website http://rio20.net/fr/documentos

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 Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for the Japanese translation.

Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development

Newsletter #85
February 1st 2012

Summary

Masters of their own destiny E

Editorial message


What can we wish our readers, given the heavy threats facing our planet and future generations?

The Rio + 20 Conference, scheduled to take place between the 20th and the 22nd of next June is very much at the fore of the civil society calendar. It will be a key event for steering in the right direction and regaining control of the helm: global warming, “Market” control, and the excessive control of oligarchies that reign heedless of democracy. What can we expect of the different States? Tetanised by their internal crises, they constantly put off the preparation here and now of a viable future sine die. The governing majorities are volatile in their behaviour, subjected as they are to the power of finance.

Our dearest wish for 2012 would be the success of the “People’s Summit of RIO + 20 for social and environmental justice”, scheduled to take place from the 18th - 23rd of June. A Brazilian group platform has created a facilitating committee to bring people together . It uses the diversity and the preparation aimed at concentrating gains to structure proposals and improve the balance of power so that the voice of international civil society can be taken into consideration in an independent space of democratic discussion. The event will run parallel to the official summit. We hope that the powers and proposals that are united at this event will manage to impact the path that is being steered, and establish the groundwork for a new international agenda that will steer us out of the current irresponsible course of events.

We are first and foremost field workers. We are realistic. The future is a long hard road to build and it involves taking new avenues into account in the dominant, monolithic mindset. We should not expect that all the work be done by institutions: they are defective and no longer appropriate for efficiently managing today’s issues. The testimonies that we have been publishing for over eight years enable us to clearly show that communities all over our world are continually succeeding in building economic, social and cultural conditions that place human needs and those of our planet at the centre of their concern. This is what inspires us to continue our publishing and analysing what we see, so that governance from local to international level may be built on reality and genuine potential rather than doing things back-to-front! The finality is for human activity to become organised around the concept of meeting people’s needs rather than short-term profitability.

Yvon’s article, based on his own experience is a forceful example of how little it often takes to renew the practice of solidarity in community life. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Generations past, including the Rochdale Pioneers and Raiffeisen banks in Germany in the 20th century all show us what is possible. We merely need to adapt these solutions, and extend them to wider regions or countries. This isn’t always easy to do, as we well know, but we are also aware that the capitalist system can no longer meet the needs of humanity. We need to prepare for the future!

In terms of citizens’ news, 2012 has been declared the International Year of Cooperatives by the UN. Our second wish is that this year may see the inclusion of all the positive ideas of past generations by those following in our footsteps, who are motivated and indignant, to help them become the change-agents in their own environment. Cooperation is a lesser means of asserting oneself in today’s power-based system, a system where we all stand to lose! It is up to us all to take responsibility for joining and spreading the huge potential of a people and community-based economy; thanks to Yvon for this testimony that links the past to the present in this season of greetings!

Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Masters of their own destiny
By Yvon Poirier

In this article, the expression “Masters of their own destiny” refers to the title of a book published in 1939, as well as to the history of the community in which the author of this article was born and grew up.

This book (1) was written by William Coady of the Department of Adult Education of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish in Nova Scotia, an Eastern province of Canada. He explains how the “mass education” process enabled fishing and farming communities to use cooperatives as an economic tool to gain control of their own destiny, and become collective owners of the means of commercialising their fish, through credit unions and cooperative shops. Via study groups, some of which were women’s groups, people became aware that they could manage their own economic affairs, rather than allowing them to be controlled by capitalist interests that claimed to be the only ones capable of running companies. The book further served as a tool in study groups in the 1940s and ‘50s to found cooperatives in the three Maritime provinces of Eastern Canada – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This community-based approach of taking control of their economic activities is still known as the “Antigonish Movement”. The success of this educational approach is internationally recognised via the Coady International Institute that has trained over 5000 people from developing countries since 1959: www.coady.stfx.ca/ The author of this article has met several people during his travels, essentially in Asia, who spent a year studying at this Institute. “Masters of their own destiny” describes well how a small French-speaking community in the province of Prince Edward Island spontaneously adopted the cooperative formula, without any previous knowledge of it, as of 1862.

It is also worth mentioning that these three provinces were a French colony since 1604 known as Acadia. After having fallen to the British crown, most Acadians were deported to Europe and the British territories further south by boat between 1755 and 1763, separating the men from the women and children. Some were destined for Louisiana which was a French colony at the time. This was before the American War of Independence. French-speaking Acadians are therefore the survivors of this “ethnic cleansing”, either because they escaped deportation or because they later returned. In the province of Prince Edward Island they account for a mere 4% of the population and can be found mostly in the “Evangeline Region”, where they form the majority of the population. They have their own institutions, including a French-speaking primary and secondary public-funded school.

The spirit of mutual help and solidarity that was built over centuries, enabling them to survive in a minority environment led quite naturally to their founding the first cooperative in 1862 (2). It was called a seed bank and was used to “ create reserves that would allow the majority to deposit a certain quantity of seeds to meet the needs of the poorest, when it was time to sow...” Other similar banks were founded in the region. It was only in 1946 that the first of them closed. Towards the end of the 19th and the early 20th century, many cooperatives were founded; some lasted only a few years, others stayed in business for longer. A cheese cooperative operated from 1896 until 1952, when it merged with other cheese coops in the province. There were potato coops, egg coops, coops for animal reproduction, a mill for the various cereal crops, etc.

After the Second World War, a new generation of cooperatives was born, inspired by William Coady’s writing. They can be explained by the drop in agriculture and the important development of the fishing industry especially lobster fishing. This led to the founding in 1954 of the Fishermen’s Coop, the result of the merging of two smaller coops. This cooperative is this working. It includes a processing plant, and is not only the biggest seasonal employer, but also one of the most important “private sector” employers in the whole province. During this entire period, the members of the community, frequently the same people created food coop stores, a credit union for savings and loans, to name but a few. Most members of the community were members of several cooperatives.

At the occasion of the blessing of the fishing boat's – August 31, 2008

Nowadays, in 2012, most economic activity in the Evangeline region is still cooperative, in spite of the globalisation of the hypermarkets and presence of major chain stores. As well as the fishing, food and financial sectors, a funeral cooperative was also opened. A new cooperative was recently created to support the integration of French-speaking immigrants in the region, including a family of refugees from Rwanda. The most important achievement in recent years has been the building of a home for the elderly, called «La Coopérative le Chez Nous»; it includes about 30 rooms.

The history of this region is close to the author’s heart, as it is where his roots are. After completing his university studies, he moved to Quebec City, over 900 kilometres away. Nevertheless he has always stayed in touch with his family, and frequently visits them. His childhood memories of going with his father to the various coops in the 1950s are still crystal clear. Following his father’s death in 1987, he found William Coady’s book, including his father’s notes, taken at a study group in 1946. And as chance would have it, his burial was organised by the founders of a new funeral coop, of which he was a member. Just as it is quite natural for his mother, now aged 95, to be living in the «Le Chez Nous » home for the elderly.

Even if he no longer lives in the region, his family and community upbringing encouraged and shaped his predisposition to continue on the path of solidarity to make the world a better place through committing to solidarity economy and a more just society for one and all.

1. Masters of their own destiny, M.M. Coady, Harper @ Brothers Publishers, United States of America, 1939, 170 p. This book, published only in English is available on request.
2. Historical information in this article is based on «Le mouvement coopératif chez les Acadiens de la région Évangeline (1862-1982) », Cécile Gallant, 283 pages

Online links:
Evangeline Region (Fr and En):
http://regionevangeline.com/index.cfm/
http://museeacadien.org/

Acadians (Wikipedia) http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadiens (FR) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadians (EN) http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadiano (ES)

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 Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for the Japanese translation.

Our Newsletters are available on the WEB: http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/ To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe): Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #84
December 1st 2011

Summary
Cloughjordan: An Irish Eco-village

Message from the Editorial Team

In this newsletter Judith describes the only Eco-village in Ireland. It is situated in Cloughjordan, a little over an hour’s drive from the capital, Dublin.

The interest of this project is that it reaches beyond the strict framework of organic agriculture or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

The holistic approach of a local community is typical of the types of initiatives that we have written about in previous issues, and strengthens our conviction that a better world is not only possible, but is being built on a daily basis in many parts of our planet.

Our next Newsletter will be published on February 1st 2012.

Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Cloughjordan: an Irish Eco-Village

By Judith Hitchman

Cloughjordan is Ireland’s first and so far only Eco-Village. It is situated in North-West Tipperary, just over an hour’s drive from Dublin, but a good 3 hours from my family home in County Waterford. Fergal Anderson, who has just left his job in Brussels with the Via Campesina to start working his own farm in Galway and I were warmly welcomed by Davie Philips, Chair of the Cloughjordan Community Farm. We also met other members of the Board, and visited the lower farm. The weather and time constraints conspired to stop us from visiting the upper farm.

Origins

Born in 1999 - the initial members were involved in the Dublin Food Coop, and met there – the project is an overall concept that was designed as a model for sustainable living. The site was chosen for a number of reasons: it is easy to access Ireland’s capital, Dublin; there is a train station, the existing community is one of religious diversity, so tolerance is higher… The village includes 50 families, essentially neo-rural rather than of rural origin. 80 of the 130 potential sites have been sold. It also includes a 32-bed hostel, which is used not only for visitors, but for the many training courses run in the village (Agro-ecology, bio-dynamic agriculture, permaculture, community resilience, leadership etc…). There are plans to develop part of the site to include a green social enterprise community. As the overall principles of both the village and the farm are based on co-ownership and community development in the best sense of the term, the added value of such a project would be enormous. A traditional wood-fired bakery is about to open on the site. The baker is already famous in Dublin for his bread.

Much has already been written about the Eco-Village per se. It is situated on a site some 67 acres of land. What makes it very unique is that unlike many other such projects, it is actually right in an existing small old village, and rather than create friction and making locals flee, it has revitalised the existing community, who, although initially wary, have moved on from wariness to genuine acceptance of many of the “strange” things that are all a work in progress. This includes Ireland’s only community solar panel array and renewable energy district heating system providing hot water and heat to all the houses, genuine participatory community decision-making and self-built housing of various kinds (cob, hemp and lime…). Sadly the Local Authorities declined to give a discharge licence for a reed bed system for purifying sewerage, although this method has been accepted elsewhere in Ireland, where all Local Authorities are independent decision-making bodies…

Activities

The main aim of this article is to describe the somewhat unique Community Supported Agriculture project that is part of the Eco-Village. It is a separate project from the Eco-Village, but is nevertheless part of the same overall approach, with 60% of the CSA’s members coming from the Eco-Village. While Grow-it-Yourself and Allotments and even Community gardens have become very popular in Ireland, Cloughjordan is Ireland’s first genuinely structured CSA farm. There are now an increasing number of box schemes and other CSA projects being operated in Ireland. The farm is not certified organic. There is just no need to go through any costly process as the consumers are also the owners of the produce and the farm is therefore not selling anything; it is very much a trust-based community project. The farm does however use organic and biodynamic principles. There are two parts to the farm (upper and lower). The land is leased, with 12 acres on the lower site, 28 on the upper. The farm also organises many educational projects: cookery classes, picking sessions, activities for schools and children of all ages.

The unique nature of the farm is that it is contiguous to the village. It is right behind the houses. This means that for the most part, the 57 families involved are far more involved and aware than is usually the case. Although there is a very reasonable weekly contribution based on family size and income, when I visited, the fresh vegetables were being put in the open, unlocked collection shed three times a week, and members are free to help themselves to what they want and need. There have been no problems with this either. In other seasons, the veggies are dropped off only twice a week. A few members of the scheme come from neighbouring towns like Nenagh, situated 10 km away. This means that there is also a need to have a box scheme that operates once or twice a week..

The farm also provides raw milk from Kerry cows to its members. This is possible, in spite of the constraints of EU regulations that now forbid the sale of raw milk, as it is not sold: the members are actually considered owners through their membership of the collective scheme. It includes eggs and grains as well as the vegetables. A number of heritage and heirloom varieties are grown as part of the scheme. There are plans to develop “edible gardens” throughout the village. For those members that are not vegetarian, there is a meat-share scheme, whereby for an additional sum members can share a pig or lamb. I counted about 15 different varieties of vegetables growing in the fields, which is a good range for the area’s climatic possibilities. Wwoofers (an international network of volunteers in organic farming) from all over the world also visit and help with the work. There have been several different people in charge of the farm in the past, but this has now stabilised. One of the most amusing features is how the crops are stocked: an old container truck was bought for a mere 200 euros. The inside has been converted into a storage shed, with compartments for all the different vegetables. It is well aired, and out of reach to the wild animals that might otherwise help themselves.
Local farmers who were originally wary of the innovations involved on the farm were initially sceptical. The fact that it works, that the quality of the vegetables is so high, has gradually gained acceptance for the approach that is used.

The decision-making method used on both the farm and indeed in the village is an adapted form of VSM (Viable Systems Model). The adaptation enables those involved to have a maximum autonomy; it also facilitates engagement and organisation amongst the members. The result is genuine participatory democracy that has a coherent organisational structure. The level of genuine involvement in the various different projects has led to truly sustainable community-driven thriving and sustainable local development.

The farm is planning to hold an all-Ireland CSA conference next February. The idea is to create an Irish network, and to map what exists in various forms. Cloughjordan farm is now a member of Urgenci, and has invited Urgenci to participate. We are already looking forward to that!

http://www.cloughjordancommunityfarm.ie/
http://thevillage.ie/
http://www.cloughjordan.ie/mainpage/index.htm
http://www.wwoof.org/

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 Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for the Japanese translation.

Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca