Tag Archives: Rio+20

Heifer Brazil Director Reflects on Rio+20

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In June, Fernando Larrea, director of Heifer Brazil, attended events related to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. The official conference, also known as Rio+20, was held from June 20-22, but many official and parallel side events were also held around the same time. The following comments are Fernando’s impressions of the events.

What kind of progress was made at the Rio +20 Conference?

No specific commitments or substantial progress were made. At the People’s Summit for Social and Environmental Justice, the parallel event to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20, held by civil society organizations in Rio de Janeiro, an organization of garbage collectors placed a huge canvas painted with a message saying: “The scavengers of recyclable materials of our planet do more for the environment than all Rio + 20.” It is perhaps the irony and truth present in this message that best expresses the meager results of the Rio + 20 Conference and the contents of the final document, “The Future We Want.” The outcome is especially disappointing for those who expected a significant advance in the agreements between the governments of the 193 participating countries to address environmental and social crisis affecting the planet, 20 years after the Rio Conference in 1992 (or the Earth Summit) and the adoption of Agenda 21.

Banner from a group of recyclable material scavengers at the People's Summit

What led to this lack of progress?

The document was agreed upon by the negotiators of government delegations prior to the signing by the heads of state and senior officials. It reflects the lowest common denominator acceptable to governments, while recognizing that there was also a retreat from the principles adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio 92. Likewise, there are questions about the lack of concrete commitments by governments and the lack of concrete goals and deadlines on key issues such as climate, biodiversity and energy. Nor were new resources or specific means of implementation to achieve sustainable development goals assigned or pledged.

Brazilian diplomacy was able to overcome the difficulties in reaching a consensus document to prevent the total failure of the conference at the cost of emptying the contents of the draft document, avoiding controversial issues and keeping the text general.

Added to this is the extensive power exercised by large multinational corporations on governments to prevent them from taking actions that might affect their interests, as highlighted from a critical perspective by researchers and activists like Vandana Shiva, Miguel Altieri and Pat Mooney. This is unlike the situation during the Earth Summit in 1992, where governments had more room for autonomy in decision making.

But, there are also some positive aspects of the document. Among them are the ratification of commitments made in relation to the human right to adequate food and water, as well as the recognition of the role of local communities and indigenous peoples in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Participation of an indigenous leader in a plenary session at the People's Summit.

How was civil society involved in the event?

The Rio + 20 Conference attracted active involvement and participation from a wide range of civil society organizations, including international networks and coalitions organized as part of the programming of the official conference. Additionally, organizations and social movements participated in a parallel People’s Summit for Social Justice and the Environment from June 15-22 as a space that sought to establish a critical counterpoint in the deliberations of the conference and mobilize social forces for deeper changes.

It is estimated that more than 4,000 parallel events took place during that period including those linked to the official program. These events involved the participation of more than 50,000 people in the discussions and activities.

As part of the activities of the People’s Summit, organizations and movements organized a march in the center of Rio de Janeiro, appealing widely to a varied and colorful group of more than 50,000 people (80,000 according to organizer movements) as a space for expression in response to the environmental and social problems affecting the planet.

Participation of international delegations from MST, Via Campesina in the march in Rio.

Climate Change and the Hungry

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In the last few years we’ve seen how the changing climate has affected vulnerable people and places. Famine was declared in Somalia last year after the annual rains failed. Millions more are on the brink of famine in the Sahel right now for similar reasons. Food prices jumped at the beginning of 2012 after an extremely cold winter in Europe drove up the price wheat and extreme heat in Southern Africa did the same for maize and other crops.

If these trends continue, it’s possible that the number of hungry will rise by 20% according to the World Health Organization. The numbers were announced at last week’s Rio+20 summit in Brazil. 

From the article: The WHO analysis shows that of the 495 million women and children under age 5 who are undernourished, 150 million live in Africa, 315 million in Asia and 30 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. It expects about 465 million more will live in developing countries by 2020, boosting food demand.

While it is important that those who need emergency aid receive it, news like this requires planning for the long term. Heifer International focuses on exactly that: long-term solutions that enable small farmers to be better prepared when crises hit.

Read our other posts on the Rio+20 Summit and why it is important to Heifer here.

 

 

Rio+20: Empty Promises Won’t Fill Empty Bellies

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“The Future We Want” is not the future Heifer International believes we will see following last week’s Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Lots of issues were raised, lots of solutions proposed, but in the end, malaise and more of the same won out, leaving smallholder farmers—still—to fend for themselves.

The document that came out of Rio+20 will do little, if nothing, to improve the lives of those like Ltengerwa Lochokwe of Kenya. Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Despite the bold title and the sheer size of the gathering—nearly 50,000 participants, including more than 100 heads of state or government—no enforceable commitments on climate change or any of the other global challenges—empowerment of women, access to water, sustainable development, health issues—came out of the summit.

There was unilateral recognition that progress needs to be made toward greener development, but no big-ticket items got more than lip service. Still, progress was made, but it was made via unofficial channels—the places where most progress gets made today.

For example, Microsoft said it would roll out an internal carbon fee on its work in more than 100 countries, part of a plan to go carbon-neutral by 2030. A Latin American soft-drink bottler pledged to obtain 85 percent of its energy needs in Mexico from renewable sources, and a group of development banks announced a $175 billion initiative to promote public transportation and bicycle lanes in the world’s largest cities.

Important progress to be sure, but not where it can do the most good, the official channels of governments and leaders—powerhouses of influence who have the resources to create revolutionary change, not the evolutionary change we have, unfortunately, become accustomed to.

Heifer believes these one-off solutions don’t go far enough. The solutions—pledges really—proposed at the Rio+20 summit do little for the millions of smallholder farmers who daily struggle to eke out a living for themselves and their families.

Heifer is not alone is its disappointment in the outcome of the potential-ridden summit. Organizations such as Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Amnesty International and World Vision all have issued statements on how short the summit fell from providing true solutions, or even commitments to decisively act in the future.

So much need yet so little resolve, and so much potential, energy and entrepreneurship just waiting for a hand up such as provided by Heifer. Men and women like Laban Kipkemboi Talam, a dairy farmer in Kenya, and Dolores Delgado, of Peru.

Absent the help of organizations such as Heifer International, Talam and Delgado would still be scraping by, hungry and poor, with little hope or opportunity for a better life. Today, though, Talam has seen his milk output grow through better management of his cows. He has received training and help that will allow him to continue to improve his farm and his life. Delgado, who was given guinea pigs and today practices agroecological production—environmentally beneficial farming—is looking to expand her business, and it is a business—small, but productive and growing.

What answers do the outcomes of the Rio+20 provide to them and others like them? What assurances or protections do struggling farmers in Haiti have as the climate warms and they move deeper into another hurricane season? What about the pastoralists who are suffering from disastrous drought in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa?

Empty promises do nothing to quell empty bellies.

These types of conferences promise social justice (which includes environmental justice) to small-scale farmers who lack more than resources—they lack a voice, too. Yet Rio+20, like so many other conferences of its kind, ended with no clear solutions. The official documents, the official records speak to solutions, but commit to nothing.

At Heifer, we are committed to working with smallholder farmers, giving them a voice, giving them dominion over their future, giving them tools they will use, with their own energy and ingenuity, to bring an end to hunger and poverty and to cool the planet.

What Future Do You Want?

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Photograph from Heifer Ecuador, courtesy of Heifer International

This week, Brazil is hosting a conference on Sustainable Development called Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro. My colleague, Oscar Castañeda, recently wrote about the conference in his post, Let’s Talk… Rio+20. You might have also seen on the blog, How to Follow Along with #RioPlus20 as well as Water Issues at Rio+20 and in Morante, Peru.

Why is Rio+20 important?

According to the UN’s website, Rio+20 is bringing together:

“world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups… to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity.”

That is huge! So many willing parties wanting to make a difference. You’ve heard me say before that everyone (anyone!) needs to DO SOMETHING! The first step is to recognize that there needs to be change and that we can’t continue as we have been. Too many people are suffering, too many people are dying, from causes within our power to eradicate.

The poorest of the poor suffer most from environmental degradation and natural disasters. Look at the Bhopal disaster or Hurricane Katrina; it was those living in poverty, on marginal land, who suffered the brunt of these tragedies. This is not ok. We can’t sit by and just accept that this is the way life is – it’s not.

But you can’t just care for the environment and say you’ve done your part (although it is a start). You have to understand that the environment is just one component of social justice. They go hand and hand. And through social justice we can END (not just alleviate) hunger and poverty.

Heifer teaches that there are different components involved in ending hunger and poverty. In a blog I wrote, The Role of Social Capital in Heifer’s Work, I mention Heifer’s Theory of Change, which says that to improve sustainable livelihoods we need to increase income and assets of the impoverished, assure their food security and nutrition and ensure care for the environment. In addition we need to focus on and elevate women’s empowerment as well as the community’s social capital. These impacts will help us achieve our mission.

To restate, the poorest of the poor suffer more than the rest of us from environmental degradation. So how does Heifer respond? Let me share an example.

Nearly all of Heifer’s projects in the Americas are designed with an intentional environmental focus. In fact, well more than 90% of the active projects in the Americas focus on agroecology, which Heifer defines as “socially, economically and ecologically sustainable agricultural production achieved through the management of natural resources to provide food and other products to restore and regenerate environmental functions and ecosystem integrity that protect the biosphere.” Many of the Americas projects also specifically reference climate change.

In Ecuador, we have a project called Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem of Ecuador Recover the Territories Where They Live and Produce. This project has been implemented in five provinces on Ecuador’s coast, where 70% of the mangrove ecosystem, which provides the livelihood of small fishing and gathering peoples, has been illegally destroyed to farm tropical shrimp. This practice has displaced people from their ancestral territory and caused the loss of their incomes. The project supports capacity building to sustainably reforest the mangrove. The project also advocates on behalf of communities so they can exercise their constitutional rights in the territories illegally occupied. The project has also introduced alternatives for income generation like community tourism microenterprises. Work has also been done using agroecological and mangrove ecosystem fairs to educate local producers and improve their production, as well as to inform local consumers about what the mangrove ecosystem has to offer. Increased awareness through these fairs and marketing is promoting local engagement in mangrove conservation efforts.

As you can see, caring for the environment is a lot of work and part of a larger system. And this is only one of the MANY examples we have.  We are successful because we have staff and projects participants that are committed to leading the way to change. Oscar mentioned in his post:

“Additionally, we want everyone to know that the answers to many of these complicated issues are present at local levels. Farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, campesinos—these individuals and their organizations have the solutions and they are themselves part of the solution. Their voices just need to be heard, and at Heifer, we want to do our part to make sure those voices are heard.”

 

Photograph by Christain DeVries, courtesy of Heifer International

This week, Heifer has had a presence through our Brazil country program staff at the People’s Summit, which runs parallel to the Rio+20 activities. It’s important for us to be present at the conference and commit to sustainable development (it’s what we do!), alongside many of our partner organizations. Our colleagues have promised to update us (and you!) through the blog after the conference.

In the meantime, the conference negotiations have come to a conclusion, and text has been developed to define the Future We Want.

I’ve mentioned this before (and I’m always happy to say it again), but I know the future I want. It is one that sees an END to hunger and poverty, and that day will come!

 

How to Follow Along with #RioPlus20

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Rio+20 is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development starting today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the conference, world leaders and participants from governments, NGOs and the private sector are coming together to discuss how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection for our planet. This year’s conference will focus on a green economy for sustainable development and the institutional framework for sustainable development.

So just what is sustainable development? Well, the UN defines sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs.”  How do you learn more and keep up with Rio+20? It’s easy.

  1. Read more about the Rio+20 conference here.
  2. Follow the Twitter hastag #RioPlus20 to stay updated minute by minute
  3. Check out the Rio+20 Pinterest board where NGOs have been updating the board with important information
  4. Like the Rio+20 Facebook page
  5. Check out the UN’s YouTube channel with interviews from world leaders regarding the conference

What methods do you think we need to create a sustainable world?

Check out this infographic from the World Bank that shows how green growth is the pathway to sustainable development.

Water Issues at Rio+20 and in Morante, Peru

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Today, as a part of the Rio+20 Conference, the United Nations is hosting Water Day, which seeks to illustrate and address the critical challenges related to water management while connecting those issues to the work of Rio+20.

Water is also one of the seven critical issues the UN defined for the conference, and the UN Water website describes why:

Water is at the foundation of sustainable development as it is the common denominator of all global challenges: energy, food, health, peace and security and poverty eradication.

Unfortunately, water demand is rising globally while water supplies are certainly not. According to the UN, 800 million people around the world don’t have access to safe drinking water. Another 2.5 billion don’t have access to sanitation.

Heifer’s project participants are often a part of that 800 million and/or 2.5 billion, and for them, securing access to a safe, reliable water supply is a daily challenge.

A family in Morante poses with their water barrels.

The video below is an example of one community’s struggle to find water. Morante is a part of the dry forest landscape in northern Peru, and water is scarce. The nearest water source is a well that was drilled by an oil company but found only water, not oil. That well is a six-hour round trip away from Morante.

Heifer Peru has worked with Morante and nearby communities through multiple projects since 2004 and has provided donkeys and tools for more efficient water collection, like water barrels and carts, in addition to small livestock like goats and training. The community is currently attempting to dig their own through the support of Heifer and the local government.

Morante is just one community that is struggling to survive because of a lack of water. People all over the world are dealing with the same issue at this very moment. Heifer is working with many communities to make sure they have access to water, but this problem will persist unless governments and organizations worldwide unite to find solutions. Hopefully, world leaders will come together this week to do their part to address important water issues at Rio+20.

Note: The video above is a part of an hour-long documentary produced by Heifer Peru.

Let’s Talk… Rio +20

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From June 20 to 22, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be hosting the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development. The event is also known as Rio+20 because it was 20 years ago that the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or Earth Summit, took place in the same city.

In 1992, of course, the world was a different place. Just before the Earth Summit, I had been living in West Germany. In those days, we had seen a man to walk on the moon but still could not imagine the Berlin Wall falling. But something considered impossible happened in 1989, and I watched the distinction between the First World and the Second World crumble with the wall.

In the wake of such a historic and inspiring event, the Earth Summit was brimming with optimism. The event was unprecedented in its size and potential for impact and was meant to aid governments in rethinking economic development and also to come up with ways to prevent the depletion of natural resources and production of pollutants.

One of the products of the meeting was Agenda 21, a comprehensive blueprint for sustainable development that combined environmental, social and economic elements. Previously, development was one dimensional, and the elements were considered separately.

Unfortunately, not all of the Earth Summit was inspiring, as many major players, including the United States, refused to sign key environmental agreements.

At this year’s Rio+20 Conference, according to the event’s website, “world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want.”

The conference will “focus on two themes: 1) a green economy in the context of sustainable development poverty eradication; and 2) the institutional framework for sustainable development.”

Today’s backdrop isn’t post-Cold War optimism. Rio+20 comes in the wake of massive public protests: the Occupy movement and outrage at the corporate bailouts in the United States, the Arab Spring demonstrations, the indignados movement in Spain and others around the world. Potential food crises and rebellion threaten many countries globally. The participants in this year’s U.N. summit must be bold enough to confront the root causes of the public outcry and seek sustainable solutions, and all the key players must be on board for lasting changes to take place.

Heifer International is chiming into the discussion on sustainable development via our Heifer Brazil staff, who will be attending the People’s Summit, a major meeting that is parallel to Rio+20 and organized by networks of NGOs and social movements.

Together with Heifer partner organizations, staff members will engage in advocacy in the areas of sustainable agriculture, livestock, food security and food sovereignty while also accompanying the farmers’ social movement Via Campesina in its actions to advance agroecology and social justice. As an organization, we will specifically push for the following:

-A transformation of agriculture and food systems to ensure food and nutrition security, protect natural resources and support equitable development for all.

-Integrated crop/tree and livestock agriculture and rotational grazing of livestock to improve/restore grasslands and curb land loss and soil degradation.

-Sustainable livestock production systems including global support for strong animal health and welfare guidelines and practices.

-Strengthening linkages between urban and rural areas for food and nutrition security.

In terms of sustainable development, the three pillars defined in 1992 (environment, social,

Heifer Brazil project participant

economic) are incredibly important. But I think the social element should be defined to include culture. When I say culture, I don’t mean folklore, but rather the unique elements that indigenous peoples bring to a geographic area. They often bring an unparalleled knowledge of the local natural environment as well as a healthy respect for the nature that sustains them.

Additionally, we want everyone to know that the answers to many of these complicated issues are present at local levels. Farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, campesinos—these individuals and their organizations have the solutions and they are themselves part of the solution. Their voices just need to be heard, and at Heifer, we want to do our part to make sure those voices are heard.

In the coming weeks, we will make sure to keep you updated on Heifer Brazil staff members as they participate in Rio and support small holder farmers who are speaking out. Stay tuned!