[La Vía Campesina] International campaign to define Forests by their true meaning!
by La Vía Campesina
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO DEFINE FORESTS BY THEIR TRUE MEANING! [1]
(26 March, 2014) La Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth International,
Focus on the Global South, World Rainforest Movement and more than 120
organizations from around the world sent a letter to the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, in Rome, on the
occasion of March 21st, the UN International Day of Forest. The letter
demands that the FAO change its present definition of forests. During
the coming three months, groups will also present the demand to national
and regional FAO offices.
Isaac Rojas, coordinator for forests and biodiversity of Friends of the
Earth International notes that "FAO's forest definition needs to reflect
the cultural wealth that forests represent. The present definition only
helps to hide this diversity, rather strengthening a set of false
solutions and privatization trends, as well as activities that create
negative impacts in the communities that depend on forests".
For these people who depend on forests, non-timber forest products like
fruits, seeds and medicinal plants have a huge importance, as well as
fishing, hunting and also agriculture. "Peasants in forest areas
traditionally practice agriculture based on knowledge transmitted over
many generations, conserving, not destroying forests. Forests are
fundamental for peasants to guarantee their food sovereignty. We oppose
the increasing commodification of natural resources like forests, pushed
by TNCs and mechanisms like REDD. Forests are crucial to maintain the
ecosystem and therefore the farmers' livelihoods", explains Henry
Saragih from the largest global peasant organization La Via Campesina.
One of the most perverse aspects of the present FAO forest definition is
the fact that it includes industrial tree monocultures. According to
Teresa Perez of the World Rainforest Movement, "these large-scale
industrial tree plantations have expanded four times in the past 20
years in the global South and now account for tens of millions of
hectares. The result has been deforestation and many other negative
impacts for indigenous, other traditional and peasant populations like
loss of territory, water and biodiversity".
Shalmali Guttal from Focus on the Global South adds that "the present
FAO definition benefits first and foremost corporate interests,
especially the tree plantation and timber industries. These companies -
national and transnational--exacerbate and often drive land and resource
grabbing over territories of communities across the global South". It is
shameful that the FAO and other international institutions associated
with forest conservation continue to perpetuate this charade.
The letter concludes with the appeal to FAO to reflect in its definition
what makes a forest a forest for the communities who depend on them: "In
contrast to the existing process within FAO, a process of elaborating a
new and more appropriate definition of forests must effectively engage
those women and men who directly depend on forests. An appropriate
forest definition must support their modes of living, their networks and
organizations. On the International Day of Forests we commit to continue
the campaign to move the FAO and all concerned institutions to initiate
a process led by forest communities to formulate a new definition of
forest."
CONTACTS:
*
Isaac Rojas - Friends of the Earth International - tel. +59899621591 -
email: isaac(a)coecoceiba.org (Spanish-English)
*
Shalmali Guttal - Focus on the Global South - tel. +66-2 - 218 7363/4/5
- email: s.guttal(a)focusweb.org (English)
*
Perla Alvarez Britez - La Via Campesina - tel +595 981146575
perlaalvarezbritez(a)gmail.com
(Spanish)
*
Henry Saragih - La Via Campesina - +505 78228041 (English)
henry.saragih(a)viacampesina.org
*
Teresa Perez - World Rainforest Movement - tel.: +598 2413 2989 - email:
teresap(a)wrm.org.uy (English- Spanish)
Link to the Open Letter [2].
Links:
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[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/biodiversity...
[2]
http://wrm.org.uy/all-campaigns/open-letter-to-fao-on-the-occasion-of-the...
10 years, 9 months
[La Vía Campesina]April 17th : International Day of Farmers’ Struggles in defence of Peasants’ and Farmers’ Seeds
by La Vía Campesina
The men and women peasant farmers who make up La Vía Campesina call out
for a day of action on this 17th of April.
IT WILL BE A GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AND MOBILIZATION IN DEFENSE OF PEASANT
STRUGGLES WITH AN EMPHASIS ON PEASANT SEEDS.
Seeds have a special place in the struggle for food sovereignty as well
as peoples' sovereignty.
Please download and share our international call: April 17th :
International Day of Farmers' Struggles in defence of Peasants' and
Farmers' Seeds [1]
On this occasion we have designed this poster to convey our unity and
internationalism. Also, we call out to our friends, allies, activists
and movements in urban areas to join together and give visibility to the
global mobilization.
Also, please refer to the following links:
- Watch the video Call for Action made by the International Coordination
Committee of La Via Campesina in preparation for April 17 [2]
- Also watch the selected videos on the seeds issue on Via Campesina TV
[3].
- Send us reports, pictures and videos of your action by sending an
email to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org. If you create short videos calling for
the seed mobilization or if you make video of your April 17th action,
please send them to us. We will publish them on via campesina TV. [4]
- Subscribe to our special mailing list by sending a blank email to
via.17april-subscribe(a)viacampesina.net
- You can also participate in our facebook event [5]
Contacts for media (From March 30 onwards) :
Guy Kastler (interview en français) : + 33 6 03 94 57 21
Elizabeth Mopfu (interview en anglais) + 263 772 443 716
Eberto Diaz (interview en espagnol) : + 57 31 03 01 75 34
Links:
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[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/17-ap...
[2] http://tv.viacampesina.org/Jornada-Mundial-de-las-Luchas?lang=en
[3] http://tv.viacampesina.org/April-17th-International-Day-of?lang=en
[4] http://tv.viacampesina.org/
[5] https://www.facebook.com/events/1450497111850070/?ref=5
10 years, 9 months
[La Vía Campesina] Declaration of Agadir
by La Vía Campesina
DECLARATION OF AGADIR [1]
See some more photos of this meeting and field visit on ViaCampesina TV
[2].
(Agadir, March 15, 2014) We, union organisations, peasant movements and
social movements:
-The National Federation for the Agricultural Sector: Morocco
(FNSA)/Moroccan Workers' Union (UMT)
- National Union of Inshore and Deep Sea Fishermen: Morocco (SNMPCM)
- The French Peasants Confederation
- Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)
- The Senegalese National Council for Rural Cooperation and Coordination
(CNCR)
- ATTAC/CADTM Morocco
- The Association of Rural Women and the Fight for Land Association:
Tunisia
Met as part of the international peasant movement VIA CAMPESINA at
Agadir on the 13th, 14th and 15th March 2014, under the slogan : "For
the land and the sovereignty of our peoples! In solidarity and in
struggle!"
AFTER HAVING DISCUSSED THE LOCAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT,
marked by:
Firstly, the escalation of the multidimensional capitalist crisis (food,
environmental, energy, financial, economic, institutional, debt and
migration crisis) and the governments' attempts to make the male and
female workers of the land and sea (poor peasants, agricultural workers,
impoverished fishermen) and all working class groups bear the burden of
this crisis. The austerity policies introduced encourage unemployment,
poverty, instability and the persecution of immigrants. This at a time
when spending on weapons has increased, as have imperialist wars based
on rivalry over the division of spheres of influence and the stockpiling
of wealth, under the pretext of international legitimacy.
Secondly, the rise in popular resistance and strikes held by the workers
of the land and sea in many countries against the repercussions of this
crisis, and the beginning of the revolutionary process in Arab and North
African regions as a result of decades of impoverishment, tyranny,
imperialistic domination and anti-Semitic aggression.
AFTER HAVING FOCUSSED, IN PARTICULAR, ON THE FOOD CRISIS linked to
global capitalist speculation on agricultural products, and support of
the agrofuel industry under pressure from large agribusinesses, leading
a race for the acquisition of agricultural land, notably in the Southern
countries.
This food crisis has had a direct effect on the people of the dependent
Southern countries because of policies imposed by global economic
institutions and the weight of their debts. This is shown in the popular
uprisings and movements against the rise in food prices which exploded
in 2007 and have continued to rise.
AFTER HAVING STUDIED THE CONSEQUENCES OF FREE EXCHANGE AGREEMENTS, which
contribute to the destruction of peasant agricultural production all
over the world and particularly in the Southern countries, by flooding
the market with subsidised agricultural products, and by imposing a
model of agricultural exportation which exhausts resources and pollutes
nature.
WE DECLARE THAT WE WILL CONTINUE TO WORK TOGETHER TO STAND UP TO:
- The neo-liberal choices, imposed by international economic
institutions and the governments of imperialist countries, which aim to
guarantee the interests of multinationals, and to make the working
classes and workers of the land and sea bear the burden of the global
capitalist crisis.
- The new neo-colonial strategies and imperialist wars which prevent
peace in the world, and which flout the peoples' rights to political,
economic, social and cultural self-determination.
- The patriarchal, capitalist system which incites discrimination and
violence towards women.
- The capitalist looting of the natural resources of the earth and sea,
which worsens the famines which strike many of the planet's poor
regions.
- The model of industrial agriculture and exportation which worsens the
climatic crisis, destroys peasant agriculture and the links of
solidarity within the rural world, and exhausts water supplies, damages
the earth and pollutes nature.
- The multinational and local representative companies' policy of
monopolising agricultural land and expulsing peasants from their land,
the destruction of local seeds, of plant and animal biodiversity and of
the genetic, ancestral heritage;
WE PRONOUNCE THE REINFORCEMENT OF LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY:
- For integral agrarian reform based on the equal distribution of water
and land, and agricultural policies which ensure all methods of
production and guarantee food sovereignty and respect for the
environment.
- With the poor peasants' struggle for the protection of their lands and
their waters against multinationals, with male and female agricultural
workers' struggle for equal pay, with the right to workers' unions, to
collective negotiations and to the improvement of working conditions,
and with the fishermen's struggle against the dominanation of large
capitalist companies.
- With the women's resistance against capitalist oppression and
patriarchal domination. To guarantee their dignity, and their right to
full and effective equality.
- With peoples' struggle for their sovereignty and against colonial
plans, notably in Africa.
- With the Palestinian peoples' resistance against Zionist occupation.
The organisations who have signed this declaration support the struggles
of the male and female workers of the Land and the Sea in Morocco. They
hereby demand that the Moroccan state respect Human Rights, the freedom
of political prisoners; the ratification of international conventions
and agreements guaranteeing individual and collective rights and
freedoms.
They also call for the establishment of collective negotiations with
union organisations, an end to constraints on unionism, and the
guarantee of the rights of Sub-Saharan migrants, ending racism towards
them.
The participants express their support for the peoples' struggle for
liberation, freedom, dignity, social justice and equality. And for a
world in which solidarity amongst peoples will reign, and where the
exploitation of Man by Man will be eradicated.
The Arabic version of this declaration is available here [3]
Links:
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[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/agrarian-ref...
[2] http://tv.viacampesina.org/Reunion-D-Agadir?lang=en
[3]
http://viacampesina.org/downloads/pdf/LVC%20d%C3%A9claration%20Agadir%20f...
10 years, 9 months