1.Comment from Patrick Mulvany of Practical Action
2.Our voice needs to be heard at Copenhagen
3.Farmers address the head of state: "Our farms are not for sale on the climate market"
EXTRACT: Under the concept of mitigation currently in negotiation at the UNFCCC agrofuels are encouraged and "responsibly" certified GM soya is a suitable recipient of "clean development mechanism" support. As a result, unsustainable, intensive production is rewarded along with systems which result in direct environmental pollution. Meanwhile the positive contribution of sustainable farming to the climate, the environment and employment is overlooked by the Climate talks. (item 3)
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1.Comment from Patrick Mulvany of Practical Action
Progressio climate change letter in the Guardian [item 2, below] - and devastating banana "deal" agreed in Geneva on Copenhagen's Agriculture Day
Time is running out...
"It is the rural farmers, indigenous, and the poor people of the world that can teach us how to sustain life on the planet through learning from and living in harmony with nature."
In Copenhagen, leaders should agree the radical changes, 'in harmony with nature' and people, necessary to stem climate change but are unlikely to do so, I fear...
...the devastating international banana deal agreed yesterday in Geneva illustrates how global powerholders will prevail in global agreements over the interests of small-scale farmers and more sustainable and climate friendly production - see http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/12/20091215192750571273.html and the commentary by Renwick Rose of WINFA www.bananalink.org.uk/images/stories/documents/2009/a%20done%20deal.pdf
In Copenhagen on Agriculture Day yesterday small-scale farmers said: "Farmers are not begging for carbon credits or other trade based solutions, they are offering a solution to the current crisis; a diverse food system that supports local markets and promotes food sovereignty." See media release [La Via Campesina - item 3 below]
Patrick
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2.Our voice needs to be heard at Copenhagen
The Guardian, 16 December 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/16/copenhagen-climate-change-global-south
Our voice needs to be heard at Copenhagen
As representatives of people from the developing world who are most affected by climate change, we are still fighting to ensure our voices are heard in Copenhagen. We are alarmed about the potential failure of the talks (Report, 15 December).
People in many of our countries in the global south are already experiencing the destructive effects of climate change. It is these people, who have not contaminated the planet, who hold the solutions in their hands. It is the rural farmers, indigenous, and the poor people of the world that can teach us how to sustain life on the planet through learning from and living in harmony with nature.
We urgently hope that in the few days left Copenhagen changes the status quo which continues to damage the natural world. We hope that the global north recognises its ecological debt to the world's impoverished peoples; that it begins to repair our villages and ecosystems and reaches substantial agreements to ensure greenhouse gas emissions are curbed. Enough funds should be provided to southern countries to support this socio-environmental restoration: the climate debt to the world's poor must be settled.
If Copenhagen achieves nothing, the resulting delay to securing these vital agreements will be a terrible sentence for all human beings and the planet. The earth is a unique global ecosystem in which everything is interrelated. Today, misery afflicts many peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Tomorrow other countries will face extinction too.
Innocent Hodzongi, Programmes director, Environment Africa, Zimbabwe
Lloyd Simwaka, Progressio country director, Malawi
José Ramon Avila, Director of the National Association of NGOs, Honduras
António Pacheco, Director, Social and Economic Development Association of Santa Marta, El Salvador
MarÃa Elena Salas Dias, Director, Cajamarca Ideas Centre, Peru
Dinorah Granadeiro, Executive director, NGO Forum, Timor-Leste
Victor Ochoa, President, Campamento Environmental Movement, Honduras
Dr Angel Ibarra, Director, Salvadorian Ecological Union, El Salvador
Ego Lemos Founding, director, Permaculture Timor-Leste, East Timor
MarÃa Elena Mendez, Director, Centre for Women's Studies, Honduras
Anna Zucchetti Director, GEA Group, Peru
Kevin Ndemera Progressio Country Director, Zimbabwe
Antonio Gaybor Executive secretary, National Water Resources Forum, Ecuador
Manuel Ernesto Cruz Director, Youth Development Foundation, El Salvador
Deometrio do Amaral, Executive director, Haburas Foundation, Timor-Leste
Carmen Medina, Progressio country director, El Salvador
Larry Jose Madrigal Rajo, General co-ordinator, Bartolome de las Casas Centre, El Salvador
Dulce Marlen Contreras, Co-ordinator of Rural Women's Association of La Paz, Honduras
LuÃs Camacho, Progressio country director, Ecuador
Lidia Castillo, Director, Centre for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights, El Salvador
Roque Rivera, Executive director, Popol Nah Tun, Honduras
Jesus Garza, Co-ordinator of the Honduran Coalition for People's Action, Honduras
Marianela Gibaja, Progressio country director, Peru
Dr Juan Almendares Bonilla, Founding director, Mother Earth Movement, Honduras
Xiomara Ventura, Progressio Country Director, Honduras
Maximus Tahu, Researcher, La'o Hamutuk, Timor-Leste
Juvinal Dias, Researcher, La'o Hamutuk, Timor-Leste
Jesus Garza, Coordinator, The Honduran Coalition for People's Action, Honduras
Tibor van Staveren, Progressio country director, Timor-Leste
Dr Jeannette Alvarado, Director, Maquilishuat Foundation, El Salvador
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3.Farmers address the heads of state: "Our farms are not for sale on the climate market"
Press release La Via Campesina - Copenhagen 15 December 2009
The international peasants movement La Via Campesina representing millions of small farmers, landless people, rural men and women from around the world demand that the heads of state coming to Copenhagen for the Climate conference do not trade on the future of agriculture.
Small farmers are severely affected by the current climate crisis; suffering from floods, droughts, changes in weather patterns and increased pests and disease. The current climate chaos, as well as the combined food and financial crises are the direct results of the capitalist mode of production and consumption over recent decades. Industrial agriculture, represented by large monocultures, plantations and intensive livestock production is responsible for around half of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. However, the mechanisms currently discussed within the UNFCCC serve only to further support for industrial agriculture and exclude small producers.
Under the concept of mitigation currently in negotiation at the UNFCCC agrofuels are encouraged and "responsibly" certified GM soya is a suitable recipient of "clean development mechanism" support. As a result, unsustainable, intensive production is rewarded along with systems which result in direct environmental pollution. Meanwhile the positive contribution of sustainable farming to the climate, the environment and employment is overlooked by the Climate talks.
More than 150 Via Campesina farmers have come to Copenhagen to claim that a radical change in the food system has the potential to achieve reductions of between 50-75 per-cent of current global emissions. This would include returning organic matter to the soil, developing local markets and reversing intensive livestock production. Farmers are not begging for carbon credits or other trade based solutions, they are offering a solution to the current crisis; a diverse food system that supports local markets and promotes food sovereignty.
In order to save the climate we must change the current production and consumption models.
Information and Interviews with farmers' leaders from around the world:
Boaventura Monjane and Isabelle Delforge: + 45 50598325
Fergal Anderson: + 45 50598429
More on www.viacampesina.org