Many organisations are bringing their agendas to the negotiation tables. In this section we present a short review of some of the documents that are already being discussed.
Call to action
La Via campesina
In this short but powerful paper, La Via Campesina argues that the root cause of the current global crises is the predominance of “capitalistic ways of thinking”. It argues that nothing has been done since the Earth Summit in 1992 to tackle the problems that the world faces, and the measures implemented so far have merely served as tools to institutionalise the capitalisation of natural systems. The concept of a “green economy” presented in the preparations for the Rio+20 conference is based on the same logic. Therefore they roundly reject the “green economy” ideas and call for a re-definition of the global economic system on the basis of ideas such as local food systems, food sovereignty and agro-ecological food production.
Rio+20: What are the options when “business as usual” is not an option?
Time to Act
This document, signed by more than 30 civil society organisations from all over the world (including AS-PTA and ILEIA) calls for a major paradigm shift in the global economic system. It proposes putting agriculture at the core of the Rio conference negotiations, arguing that this can be the main solution to the crises that we face today. The manifesto advocates a transformation of agriculture so that it is based on an agro-ecological approach and is rooted in the ideas of food sovereignty. The document offers a number of policy
Introducing the big picture
The green economy coalition
The Green Economy Coalition has prepared an on-line presentation explaining its position regarding the concept of a “green economy”. The first part of the presentation analyses the current global crisis. The main symptoms of the crisis are the decline of the world’s ecosystems and persistent global inequalities. These result from the prevalence of markets that do not account for externalities, and from “short term thinking” about the environment. The second part of the presentation offers a vision of the economic system needed for a better future. The core issues within it include: recognising the value of all natural resources and allocating these in an equitable manner.
A just and fair green economy
Greenpeace
The position paper prepared by Greenpeace was submitted to the UNCSD committee as an input for the Zero Draft of the outcome document of the Rio+20 Conference. In the opening sentences, Greenpeace expresses its discontent with the slow progress in the implementation of the sustainable development agenda agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and puts the blame on governments. It calls for ending unsustainable practices, such as the use of nuclear energy and energy from oil and coal, and argues for a sustainable development agenda: reducing consumption, addressing corporate power and setting new Sustainable Development Goals. The report endorses the recommendations of the IIAASTD report and recommends implementing them.
Nourish our people, nurture our planet
Nourish our people, nurture our planet documentSwiss Agency for Development and cooperation, Millenium institute, Biovision, Stiftung Mercator Schweiz
This Declaration was prepared for the High Level Roundtable on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture. It outlines the main problems with industrial agriculture, and proposes scaling-up resilient farming systems as an alternative. It concludes with policy recommendations, which include: establishing a Committee on World Food Security (to strategically lead the required changes in agriculture), providing economic incentives for scaling up alternative production systems, internalising the costs of conventional agriculture, the evaluation of the dominant production systems and the rigorous definition of indicators for sustainable agriculture.
The scaling up of agroecology: spreading the hope for food sovereignty and resiliency
Sociedad Científica Latinoamericana de Agroecología (SOCLA)
This paper makes the case for agroecology as the way forward for sustainable agriculture. Its first part discusses the numerous, interconnected problems related to industrial agriculture, while the next paragraphs focus on agro-ecology as “the basis for the new XXI century agriculture”. Its authors explain the concept of an agro-ecological system as an agricultural production system where external inputs are replaced by natural processes, presenting the main principles for the design and management of such systems. They also present numerous examples of studies that very positively assess the performance of agro-ecological projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Such projects result in increased food security, farm diversity, farmer’s health and resiliency to climatic extremes. In response to the question of how can agro-ecology “be multiplied and scaled up” the authors underline the need for reforms in policies, institutions, and research and development agendas. However, they emphasize that scaling up local agro-ecological innovations cannot be left only to the political will of governments: everybody has a role to play.
Link: http://agroeco.org/socla
Agricultural Transition: a different logic
The More and Better network
This refreshing paper looks at what transition to a different and more sustainable agriculture is about. It is all about changing mindsets, not just those of other people and institutions, but first of all our own. The authors argue that the perpetuated idea of the poor small-scale farmer is wrong, and say that the biggest confusion has been to imagine that peasants function with the same logic as business entrepreneurs. They explore how fear and a constructed emergency (“we are in a hurry because we have to feed nine billion people in 2050”) are in the way of seeing the real answers. And the answers are there… but we have to learn to see them. Instead of searching for new solutions, we should look at viable forms of farming that already exist in different parts of the world. The paper proposes the creation of a pro-peasant platform and a twelve step approach to trigger change in the perception of small-scale farmers resulting in transition to better food production systems.
Link: http://www.moreandbetter.org/en
People’s sustainability treaties
Various authors
Drawing inspiration from the NGO Alternative Treaties, drawn at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, a group of NGOs initiated the People’s Sustainability Treaties (PST) project. PSTs are a series of independent collective agreements produced in parallel to the official 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and are intended to serve as collection of proposals for governments negotiating for official outcomes. The project management and secretariat is hosted by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED). With the contribution of many civil society actors, several treaties have been drafted including the Treaty on Equity, Treaty on Consumption and Production, Treaty on Sustainable Economies, Treaty on Radical Ecological Democracy, Treaty on Sustainable Development Governance, Treaty on Rights of Mother Earth, and the Treaty on Sustainable Development Goals.
Link: http://sustainabilitytreaties.org/draft-treaties
