Radical Ecological Democracy

Escaping the

Globalised ‘Development’ Trap

‘Development’• Development = opening up of

opportunities: intellectual, cultural, material, social

vs• ‘Development’ = material

growth (through industrial and financial expansion)– measured in % economic

growth, per capita income, etc

• ‘Development’ model currently dominant only 50-60 years old

Today’s vision of

‘development’

Violence against nature, people, and cultures

Destruction of India’s environment

– 50% forest disappeared in last 200 years– 70% waterbodies polluted or drained out– 40% mangroves destroyed– Some of the world’s most polluted cities and

coasts– Nearly 10% wildlife threatened withextinction

Smitu Kothari

The social context • Ecosystem-dependent people (60-70% of

India’s population): food, medicine, livelihoods, fuel, shelter, clothing, culture

• Environmental destruction = livelihood, cultural, and physical displacement…for tens of millions of people

‘Globalisation’• Global flow of ideas, cultures, materials is millennia old

• Globalisation in latest avatar is dominated by:

–unrestricted financial and economic flows–imposition of one model of ‘development’ across the world

1991-onwards…• Trade (export-import) liberalisation• Foreign direct investment• Delicensing / single window clearances• Privatisation

Economic ‘reforms’?

‘Liberalisation’: relaxing standards and procedures for

industry • 30 dilutions in Env. Protection Act

notifications (Coastal Regulation, Env. Impact Assessment), at behest of industry, and agencies like World Bank

• Special Economic Zones (SEZ)...or Special Exploitation Zones?!

• Increasing diversion of natural ecosystems like forests (mining, dams), coasts (aquaculture, ports) … 2 lakh ha. forests in last 5 years

• Over-exploitation of resources for export (commercial fisheries, minerals…quantum jump) … Indian Ocean signs of depletion

Results….

Impacts: India’s ecological deficit (mirroring world trend)

• World’s third largest ecological footprint

• Using twice what can be sustained by our natural resources

• Decline in capacity of nature to sustain us, by almost half

(Global Ecological Footprint and CII, 2008)

Impacts: India’s ‘development’ refugees

• Over 60 million displaced in last 50 years• 40% of displaced are adivasis, resettlement

abysmal (Planning Commission)• Many millions more dispossessed of land,

water, natural resources, livelihoods • Displacement of traditional livelihoods (e.g.

handlooms)• Pauperisation of marginal/small farmers:

200,000 suicides (many in Punjab!)

Impacts: growing inequality, leaving half our population behind

• Myth of growing employment: ‘jobless growth’ in organised sector:– 26.7 million in 1991– 27 million in 2006!

• Wealth inequities: – top 10% own 53% wealth– bottom 10% own 0.2%

• % below poverty line: 38 to 55%• World’s largest number of

malnourished and undernourished women/children

Water…the contested resource• Several hundred million people without safe

drinking water

• Globally, 3 times more expenditure on bottled water ($100 billion), than needed to provide clean drinking water and sanitation to every person on earth

• Indian bottled water market growing 20-40% annually (global: 4.5%): from 2 mill. (1990) to 150 mill. cases (2010)!

• Coca Cola mines groundwater away from villages that were using it (“if you can’t get water, drink Coke”!)

• Enormous waste problem

Smitu Kothari

India the new Coloniser (joining China, Japan…)

Karaturi Global: 350,000 ha. in Ethiopia for floriculture, sugarcane, palm oil, etc

Eurovistaa: 10,000 ha. in Tanzania for cotton, 55,200 ha in Indonesia for palm oil

More coming up in L. America and Africa

Direct/indirect support by government

India (& China, etc) on the path of ‘globalised development’?

Gandhi:

‘if India is to take Britain’s path of ‘development’, it will strip the

world bare like locusts’

Something fundamentally wrong with development model?

Towards alternatives

Two imperatives….

• Ecological security (ecosystems, species, populations, ecological functions…)

• Livelihood security (esp. of those most directly dependent on ecosystems and natural resources)

Towards tribal self-rule, with conservation: Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)

Informed decisions through monitoring, and regular study circles (abhyas gat)

All decisions in gram sabha (village assembly); no activity even by government officials without sabha consent

Conservation of 1800 ha forests, now with full rights under Forest Rights Act

Vivek Gour-Broome

Earnings from sustainable NTPF use (over Rs. 1 crore in 2011-12), and use of govt schemes towards:

• Full employment

• Biogas for 80% households

• Computer training centre

• Training as barefoot engineers

www.kalpavriksh.org

Gaddis

Changpas

Pipens

Heronries

Traditional tanks

Yuksam

Bishnois

Sacred mangroves

Sacred groves

Tragopan , and Golden langurprotection

Turtle conservation

Turtle conservation

Community Forestry

Van Panchayats

Grassland management JFM

GLIMPSES OF COMMUNITY CONSERVED AREAS IN INDIA

(from: Draft Directory of CCAs , Kalpavriksh )

ArvariSansad

Sacred groves

Peoples Protected Areas

Note: list and related publications available with Kalpavriksh

Community forests in Orissa

Dangejheri…all women’s forest protection committee

180 villages have joined in a Federation of forest protection committees

Nagaland: indiscriminate hunting to strong conservation

About 600 villages have declared forest and wildlife reserves

Luzaphuhu WL reserve

Forest reserve of Chizami and 5 villages

Khonoma Village Tragopan Sanctuary

Sendenyu WL reserve, with its own “Wild Life Protection Act”

Van Panchayats and self-initiated community forests, Uttarakhand

12,000 VPs (12-13% of state forests), other community

forests (e.g. Chipko)

Baiga chak (Madhya Pradesh): ‘modern’ conservation by ‘primitive’ tribe

Stopping commercial logging, claiming community forest

rights

Community Forest Rights (FRA)

Assertion of CFRs against industrial projects (e.g. POSCO), mining (e.g. Vedanta), logging (e.g. Baigachak), plantations (Odisha)

Several hundred claims accepted in Maharashtra (>7 lakh acres), Odisha (>70,000 acres) & Andhra

126,998 acres in Baiga & other areas, MP

Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Sanctuary & (illegal) Tiger Reserve, Karnataka

Community Forest Resource titles to Soliga, over half of sanctuary; community-

based wildlife/tiger conservation plan process initiated

Food security: sustainable agriculture

• Reviving traditional diversity, promoting cultivated and wild foods• Creating community grain banks • Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights• Creating consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad org. food restaurant) • Linking to Public Distribution System

Deccan Development Society (AP): integrating conservation, equity, &

livelihoods through sustainable agriculture

Beej Bachao Andolan, Garhwal, Uttarakhand

Vijay Jardhari

An individual revolutionary…

Natwar Sarangi

Narishu vill, Cuttack dist, Odisha

GenX: Jubraj Swain

Growing 360 varieties of rice

Seed albums and banks

Water security: decentralised harvesting & distribution

Arvari Sansad (Parliament), Rajasthan: water and food security through landscape governance

Livelihoods and jobs

Economic democracy…

Livelihood security through community-led cooperatives, self-help groups, producer companies: Dharani, Andhra Pradesh; Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sanghatan / Kasab, Gujarat; Nowgong APCL, Madhya Pradesh; Nyoli, Uttarakhand; Swach, Pune; Aharam Traditional Crop Producer Co.,Tamil Nadu)

Jharcraft (Jharkhand) Employment for 2.5 lakh families…

reviving crafts, reducing outmigration

Economic democracy…

Markets and trade: Predominantly local, at least for basic needs (village free trade zone, Kuthambakkam, Tamil Nadu; proposed Green Economic Zone, Tejgadh, Gujarat; Amar Bazar eliminating middlemen, Assam)

Indicators of human well-being replacing GDP

Local currencies and barter, to reduce stranglehold of money in our lives!

The Village and the City …

Gram swaraj: outmigration is not inevitable

Ralegan Siddhi and Hivare Bazaar (Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN)

Towards sustainable cities Bhuj (Kachchh): •reviving watersheds, decentralized water storage and management •solid waste management and sanitation •livelihoods for poor women •dignified housing for poor •Information-based empowerment under 74th Amendment

(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, ACT, Setu)

Dignified livelihoods for urban poor

Kagaj Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat

&

Swach

(Pune)

Other alternativesEducation: traditional and modern, oral and written, local and global •Pachashala, AP•Jeevanshala, Narmada•Adivasi Academy, Guj•Beeja Vidyapeeth, Uttarakhand•Bhoomi College, Karnataka

Other alternatives…Technologies to reduce ecological impact, reach the poor (malkha cotton weaving, AP; Hunnarshala housing, Kachchh)

Energy: decentralised, renewable (Ladakh solar; Bihar integrated)

Radical ecological democracy (RED)

• achieving environmentally sustainable human welfare, through governance mechanisms that: – empower all citizens to participate in

decision-making– ensure equity in socio-economic status – respect the limits of the earth and the rights

of nature

Radical Ecological Democracy: A NEW POLITICS

Decentralised decision-making

Political/financial/administrative powers with gram sabhas and urban area sabhas …. Extending 73/74th Amendments to Constitution

Localisation: clusters of settlements organised to be self-reliant in meeting basic needs

Embedded within larger circles of exchange and decision-making

ecoregional governance

participatory institutions at landscape (and seascape) level (e.g. Chilika, Arvari Parliament … proposed W. Ghats authority)

cutting across current political boundaries (e.g. river basin authorities)…eventually aligning political boundaries with ecological ones (bioregionalism/ecoregionalism)?

state and national governance Land/water use plans: identifying areas permanently conserved for biodiversity, food security, water, off-limits to damaging industrial/mining/infrastructure activities

Reforming govt agencies: As facilitators, guarantors of rights of poor; environment and livelihoods at core of all ministries/depts; accountability and transparency through citizens’ charters, public audits, etc

Proposed National Environment & Development Commission, constitutional body

Global governance

United Peoples (to replace United Nations)?

Peoples’ Sustainability Treaties

What else?

Radical Ecological Democracy: A NEW ECONOMICS Located within ecological limits (freshwater, climate, biochemical cycles): unending growth is impossible

Equity as core principle and outcome

Indicators of human well-being: food/water/energy security, dignified livelihoods, happiness/ satisfaction, social relations, health and learning …

Facilitation of local currencies and non-monetised exchanges

Fundamental values & principles of RED

• Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies, polities, cultures…)

• Self-reliance for basics• Cooperation, collectivity, and ‘commons’ • Rights with responsibilities/duties• Dignity of labour• Respect to subsistence • Qualitative pursuit of happiness• Equity• Simplicity• Decision-making access to all• Respect for all life forms • Biophysical sustainability

How do we get to RED?

Creating space, buying time…

• People’s resistance (Vedanta/POSCO, Orissa; anti-SEZ; farmers against landgrab; 000s of others)

• NGO and community networking, joint actions

The government responds…

• New laws: – Right to Information Act– National Employment Guarantee

Act– Scheduled Tribes and Other

Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006

• New programmes: – Organic farming policies /

programmes in 16 states (Sikkim, Kerala, Bihar…)

– Kerala decentralised planning / Nagaland communitisation / Jharkhand’s Jharcraft

But beware of false or superficial solutions…. REDD/REDD+, CDM, geoengineering, carbon trade, etc

Another word of caution…

Not a call for blind revival of traditions (often socially oppressive, fatalist)

Not fundamentalist environmentalism (green-saffron alliance; tiger vs. tribal…)

Some issues to resolve….

Will big industry be needed? Under whose control?

Will profits remain an incentive, will private sector have a role?

What is the role of the ‘middle classes’?

What ‘political’ forces will lead the way?

Consumerism: how to bell the cat?

Personal actions: choices in use of materials, energy, transportation, etc

Social actions: policies providing incentives for responsible consumption, disincentives for wasteful consumption

An end to globalisation?

• Global flow of ideas, cultures, materials will continue, but on principles of Radical Ecological Democracy

– Primacy to local self-reliance in basics– Ecological sustainability – Social, economic equity– Citizens’ decision-making

NO IMPOSITION OF ONE MODEL ACROSS WORLD!

Scenarios for 2060…Business as usual: widespread ecological collapse, worse social inequities, water/resource wars, xenophobia, fortress mentality

Managerial responses (tech/market fixes, better laws/policies): collapse is slowed down, not averted; inequities persist

Radical ecological democracy: full-scale collapse averted, seeds sown for dramatic paradigm shifts, bioregionalism and localisation gain over nationalism

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India is in a unique position to evolve alternative models of human

well-being with environmental sustainability

• www.kalpavriksh.org

For more information….

• ashishkothari@vsnl.com