tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25159808028121741982024-03-05T15:04:04.474+02:00La Via Campesina AfricaLA VIA CAMPESINA AFRICA 1
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L'actualité des organisations paysannes membres de Via Campesina en Afrique australe, Afrique orientale et une partie de l'Afrique centrale, le Mouvement International des PaysansVia Campesina Africahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09282901115772698850noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-40371103824458341662012-10-31T13:13:00.001+02:002012-10-31T13:13:23.584+02:00Déclaration de la société civile africaine : appel pour une interdiction des OGM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Please distribute and sign at www.acbio.org.za/activist)<br />
<br />
<b>Introduction</b><br />
Nous
soussignées, organisations de la société civile de l’ensemble du
continent africain, appelons par la présente à une interdiction
immédiate et totale de la culture, de l’importation et de l’exportation
d’organismes génétiquement modifiés (OGM) sur le continent africain.<br />
<br />
Nous
exhortons les gouvernements d’Afrique à prendre les mesures nécessaires
à la protection de la santé de leurs populations, en soutenant le
présent appel et en s’engageant à mener à bien, sur le long terme, des
études indépendantes et faisant autorité en matière de sécurité
alimentaire.<br />
<br />
Nous appelons également les gouvernements d’Afrique à
bien vouloir prendre note de nos objections supplémentaires concernant
les OGM. Celles-ci concernent le brevetage du vivant et la privatisation
de l’agriculture, qui a plongé les paysans, les communautés rurales et
les peuples autochtones dans la dépendance vis-à-vis du monopole des
entreprises semencières privées. Nous sommes par ailleurs extrêmement
préoccupés par les impacts négatifs sur la biodiversité et les
changements climatiques de l’agriculture industrielle basée sur la
technique transgénique.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Nous ne
pouvons ignorer l’épidémie de suicides qui a frappé les paysans indiens,
résultat direct de la dépendance de ces derniers vis-à-vis du coton
génétiquement modifié et des coûts croissants qui en résultent, sans
parler de la dette ingérable qu’ils ont ainsi contractée.<br />
<br />
<b>Incertitude scientifique concernant la sécurité alimentaire</b><br />
En
septembre 2012, le Professeur Gilles-Eric Séralini et son équipe de
recherche à l’Université de Caen, en France, ont publié les résultats
d’une étude toxicologique de deux ans, lors de laquelle des rats nourris
avec du maïs transgénique tolérant à l’herbicide de Monsanto, le NK603,
et des résidus de glyphosate, ont développé des tumeurs et présenté des
signes de lésions du foie et des reins. L’étude, révisée par des pairs,
publiée dans une revue scientifique hautement respectée, a été la cible
d’attaques violentes et nourries de la part de l’industrie des
biotechnologies. <br />
Cependant, un consensus scientifique a surgi de
la controverse, selon lequel les méthodes actuelles utilisées par
Monsanto et les autres entreprises du secteur pour tester la sécurité
des aliments GM sont dangereusement inappropriées et que des études de
long terme, indépendantes et publiques, sur la sécurité alimentaire de
ces produits, doivent être menées à bien de manière urgente. Nous notons
également avec une préoccupation certaine l’absence de protocole
internationalement reconnu en ce qui concerne les tests d’OGM à long
terme. <br />
<br />
<b>Le principe de précaution</b> <br />
Notre
appel à une interdiction s’appuie sur le principe de précaution, qui
stipule que face à une menace de préjudices sérieux ou irréversibles,
l’absence de certitudes scientifiques totales ne peut justifier
l’ajournement des mesures pour éviter ces préjudices. Ce principe est la
pierre angulaire du Protocole de Carthagène sur la Biosécurité des
Nations Unies, le seul accord à portée internationale sur les OGM. Même
l’accord sur l’application des mesures sanitaires et phytosanitaires
(accord SPS) de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) soutient un
tel moratoire dans ces circonstances d’incertitude scientifique.[1]
<#_ftn1> <br />
<br />
<b>Le maïs est un aliment de base en Afrique</b> <br />
Nous
insistons sur le fait que le continent africain est particulièrement
vulnérable aux risques liés à la sécurité alimentaire, si l’on tient
compte du fait que le maïs constitue l’un de nos aliments de base
importants. Des millions d’Africaines et d’Africains consomment du maïs
quotidiennement, sous forme semi transformée. Bien que l’Afrique du Sud
soit le seul pays du continent à cultiver du maïs transgénique à
l’échelle commerciale, des milliers de tonnes de maïs transgénique sont
exportées vers divers pays africains depuis l’Afrique du Sud, tandis que
les rayons des supermarchés du continent tout entier regorgent de
produits à base d’OGM. De plus, des tonnes d’aliments transgéniques
provenant des Etats-Unis et d’autres pays producteurs d’OGM sont
distribuées aux Africains sous forme d’aide alimentaire. <br />
<br />
<b>Interdisons les OGM en Afrique</b><br />
Reconnaissant
que des millions d’Africaines et d’Africains ont consommé et consomment
du maïs transgénique et d’autres produits GM à leur insu ou sans leur
consentement ; <br />
Et considérant le nouveau consensus concernant la
nécessité de mener de manière urgente des études indépendantes, sur le
long terme, portant sur la sécurité alimentaire de ces produits ;<br />
Nous
encourageons fortement les gouvernements d’Afrique du Sud (en sa
qualité de producteur unique d’aliments GM sur le continent), ainsi que
tous les autres gouvernements africains important des OGM ou des
produits GM, à répondre de manière urgente à notre appel en faveur d’une
interdiction.<br />
Nous encourageons les décideurs politiques à suivre
les recommandations de l’IAASTD (Evaluation internationale des sciences
et technologies agricoles pour le développement, de l’anglais
International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for
Development). L’IAASTD recommande que les décideurs politiques
abandonnent l’agriculture industrielle et les OGM, et se tournent vers
les systèmes de production alimentaire appropriés aux millions de
paysans et petits producteurs de par le monde, qui sont à l’origine de
la plupart des aliments produits pour la population mondiale.<br />
<br />
1]
<#_ftnref> « Art 5.7—Dans les cas où les preuves scientifiques
seront insuffisantes, un Membre pourra provisoirement adopter des
mesures sanitaires ou phytosanitaires sur la base des renseignements
pertinents disponibles, y compris ceux émanant des organisations
internationales compétentes ainsi que ceux qui découlent des mesures
sanitaires ou phytosanitaires appliquées par d’autres Membres. Dans de
telles circonstances, les Membres s’efforceront d’obtenir les
renseignements additionnels nécessaires pour procéder à une évaluation
plus objective du risque et examineront en conséquence la mesure
sanitaire ou phytosanitaire, dans un délai raisonnable. »</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-33169726771858474012012-10-24T15:14:00.001+02:002012-10-24T15:14:08.118+02:00UNAC statement on the ProSavana Programme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We, peasants of the Provincial
Nucleus of Peasants in Nampula, the Provincial Nucleus of Peasants in Zambezia,
the Provincial Peasants Union of Niassa and the Provincial Union of Peasants of
Cabo Delgado, and who are all members of the National Peasants' Union (UNAC),
met on the 11<sup>th</sup> of October 2012, in the town of Nampula with the aim
of discussing and analyzing the ProSavana Programme.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The ProSavana Programme is a
triangular project between the Republic of Mozambique, the Federal Republic of
Brazil and Japan, for the development of large-scale agriculture in the Nacala
Development Corridor, affecting 14 districts in the provinces of Niassa, Nampula
and Zambezia, covering an area of approximately 14 million hectares. The project
was inspired by an earlier agricultural development project implemented by the
Brazilian and Japanese governments in the Brazilian Cerrado (savannah), where
large-scale industrial farming of monocrops (mainly soybeans) is now practiced.
This Brazilian project led to a degradation of the environment and the near
extinction of indigenous communities living in the affected areas. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<a name='more'></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Nacala
Corridor was chosen because its savannah has similar characteristics to the
Brazilian Cerrado, in terms of its climate and agroecology, and because of the
ease with which products can be exported.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ever since hearing about the
ProSavana Programme, we have noticed a lack of information and transparency from
the main stakeholders involved (the governments of Mozambique, Brazil and
Japan), and this is why we held the aforementioned meeting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We, peasant farmers, condemn the way
in which the ProSavana programme was drafted and the way it is intended to be
implemented in Mozambique, which has been characterised by reduced transparency
and the exclusion of civil society organisations throughout the process,
especially peasant organisations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Following a comprehensive analysis of
ProSavana, we peasant farmers have concluded that:</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ProSavana is a result of a top-down
policy, which does not take into consideration the demands,
dreams and basic concerns of peasants, particularly those within the Nacala
Corridor;</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We vehemently condemn any initiative
which aims to resettle communities and expropriate the land of peasants to give
way to mega farming projects for monocrop production (soybeans, sugar cane,
cotton, etc.);</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We condemn the arrival of masses of
Brazilian farmers seeking to establish agribusinesses that will transform
Mozambican peasant farmers into their employees and rural labourers.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We are extremely concerned that
Prosavana requires millions of hectares of land along the Nacala Corridor, when
the local reality shows that such vast areas of land are not available and are
currently used by peasants practicing shifting cultivation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Considering the way in which the
ProSavana programme was drafted and the process for implementing it, we peasant
farmers warn of the following expected impacts:</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The appearance of landless
communities in Mozambique, as a result of land expropriation and
resettlement;</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Frequent social upheaval along the
Nacala Corridor, and beyond;</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The impoverishment of rural
communities and a reduction in the number of alternatives for
survival;</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">An increase in corruption and
conflicts of interest;</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The pollution of water resources as a
result of the excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, as well soil
degradation;</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ecological imbalances due to vast
deforestation for agribusiness projects.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If there is to be investment in the
Nacala Corridor, or in Mozambique in general, we recommend and demand that these
investments be made in developing peasant farming and the peasant economy, as a
priority, which we, members of UNAC and members of Via Campesina, know is the
only kind of farming capable of creating dignified and lasting livelihoods, of
stemming rural exodus, and of producing high-quality foods in sufficient
quantities for the entire Mozambican Nation, all of which will lead us towards
the realization of Food Sovereignty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We remain firmly committed to peasant
farming and the agroecological production model-- the foundations of Food
Sovereignty-- as alternatives to the development of the agricultural sector in
Mozambique which consider all aspects of sustainability and are, in practice,
friends of nature.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Peasant farming is the pillar of the
local economy and contributes to maintaining and increasing rural employment, as
well as allowing towns and villages to survive. It allows collectives to
strengthen their own culture and identity. The development policies in this
alternative model must be socially and environmentally sustainable and must be
adapted to the real challenges and demands of the people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Peasants are the guardians of life,
nature and the planet. As a peasants’ movement in the family sector, UNAC
pursues production models based on the foundations of peasant farming (respect
and conservation of the soil, use of adapted and appropriate technologies, and a
rural extension that is participative and interactive).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At a time when the United Nations,
through the FAO, informs us that one out of eight people in the world are
hungry, with hunger especially severe in developing countries, as is the case of
Mozambique, we demand that the Government of Mozambique give priority to the
production of food by the family farming sector for domestic consumption, aiming
to develop local potential and involving different segments of
society.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">UNAC, 25 years of peasant farming
struggles for Food Sovereignty</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Fighting to give peasant farmers a
greater role in building a fairer, more prosperous society, based on
solidarity.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Nampula, October 11<sup>th</sup>
2012</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-61560759032028284282012-10-05T10:16:00.002+02:002012-10-05T10:16:30.698+02:00La Via Campesina International: Interview with Elizabeth Mpofu, Via Campesina Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Yh4pDT8Fuqo" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-86370741966693742682012-10-05T10:11:00.001+02:002012-10-05T10:11:31.132+02:00La Via Campesina International: Interview with Food Sovereignty Campaign,South Africa <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F7fwkNprxus" width="560"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-46659439408252601272012-09-04T12:24:00.001+02:002012-09-04T15:47:34.285+02:00Via Campesina debate racismo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Neste vídeo de 21 minutos, a Via Campesina discute a questão do racismo, um fenómeno segregacionista inventado pelo homem branco (ocidental), segundo o qual, pessoas com características físicas externas diferentes das suas (tom de pele, cabelos, etc) eram inferiores a ele. A palestrante do video mostra que muitas pessoas manifestam, nos dias actuais, tendências racistas, mesmo que de forma inconsciente. O vídeo foi gravado durante o Acampamento Nacional pela reforma agrária, no Brasil, em 2009.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pslCXgGzQKQ?fs=1" width="459"></iframe><br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-12275643916670081742012-08-20T08:37:00.001+02:002012-08-20T08:37:09.201+02:00Land Grab compromises Food Sovereignty in Southern Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The ongoing rush to African land by national and transnational
investors was a dominant theme at the People’s Dialogue and Summit being
held at Mumemo in Maputo.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
From Mozambique to Swaziland, passing through
Angola, South Africa, Malawi, Namibia and Lesotho, the voices and
experiences of the people have expressed mounting concerns about the
increasing enclosure of land to promote large-scale investments that
seriously affect the fundamental rights of the local population and
compromise efforts to achieve food sovereignty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Everyone knows the problem of the land. It is a
complete invasion’, says Renaldo Chingore, a leader of the National
farmers Union in Mozambique, UNAC.</div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal">
Three special commissions were organized aimed at a
deeper understanding of the impacts of land grabbing, sharing personal
experiences, discussing alternatives and recommending a common strategy
to defend land and water as fundamentals of life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By listening to the people, the land problem, which
had already been presented as an extremely serious matter in the
speeches made during the plenary sessions was characterised as a
phenomenon with potential to rapidly expand all over the continent, and
to impact negatively on the present and future of Africa.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
In particular, common concerns were expressed about the role of the
governments in utilizing laws and the smokescreen of legality to enclose
thousands of hectares of land and water resources, evict entire
communities, and deprive traditional property rights of any effective
recognition. This was possible because governments are taking advantage
of the scarce knowledge of the law by the people, who are not informed
about their rights and prevented from expressing their consent, in open
violation of national and international obligations contracted by the
SADC members.<br />
<br />
Many participants reported that there were efforts from investors to
obtain the consent of local leaders by making promises and ‘putting
sugar in their mouths’, but there were also other several cases of
direct action by government Ministers, who are ‘treating the land as
their own property’.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘We only know what is happening to our land when
there is a conflict’, says Herbert Murombo ‘as this means that means it
will be too late for us to intervene’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In some circumstances, as stressed by Alice Kachere
who said, ‘Fisher folk realize that they cannot access the sea or the
rivers when they are faced with newly built fences’, which seriously
affects the self-sustaining capacity of communities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The delegates demanded an immediate moratorium on
all large-scale agricultural investments such as the Pro-Savana project
in Mozambique. This must be accompanied by precise political responses,
such as the intensification and facilitation of the process of
recognition of common land titles in favour of the communities; the
dissemination of information on land related laws and of people’s rights
in local languages; the respect of the right to free, prior and
informed consent of affected communities; the direct involvement of
peasants in the definition of agricultural policies based on
sustainability, food sovereignty and agroecology; the realization of a
seeds’ bank to preserve biodiversity; a regional ban on GMOs and the
assumption of the duty to inform consumers about their presence in the
food by clear labelling, and the improved access to local infrastructure
capable of stocking water and cereals for the needs of peasants and
populations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>By Tomaso Ferrando</i></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-64331119243229736982012-08-20T08:35:00.001+02:002012-08-20T08:35:40.301+02:00 Farmers Organizations and other Civil Societies: Strengthening Social Movements and Building resistance in SADC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The People’s Dialogue brought together rural
activists, mining activists, women’s movements and small-scale farmers
from around the region on the 13 and 14 August to analyse the
multi-dimensional global crisis and the response by our governments. It
is evident that the governments’ of the region are continuously
favouring corporate and investors’ interest over the people and the
environment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Key areas discussed at the meeting were on food
sovereignty, the extractive industry, energy and mega projects, land and
water grabs, ecological justice and alternative religionalism. But more
importantly participants deliberated on alternatives to the dominant
capitalist model that keeps this region locked into natural resource
exploitation dependency for export led economic growth. The analysis,
problems, demands and actions were fed into the Southern African
People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN), which took place on the 15 and 16
August in Momemo Centre, Maracuence District, Maputo under theme
“Reclaiming SADC for People’s Development – A People’s SADC Myth or
Reality? Social Movements activists, civil society organisations came
from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, DRC and
Mozambique.</div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal">
From the analysis, the deepening global crisis and
increasing power of corporations over governments and community leaders
as well as our leaders operating in cahoots with multinational
corporations (TNCs), international governments and multi-lateral
institutions arose as major concerns.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
At this SADC Heads of State summit Regional
Infrastructure Development Master plan will be consider- the main
elements of the plan is based on unfolding mega-projects linked to key
sectors- energy (electricity); transport including maritime corridors;
water, infrastructure; information communication technologies; tourism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some these of the projects in the pipeline include:
Kazungula Bridge linking Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, power
transmission (ZiZaBoNa) Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, the
Benguela railway line through Angola and Zambia and more big dam
projects. The SADC’s mega projects master plan will be driven by the
SADC Ministers for Finance and Investment with the intention to
establish a SADC Development Fund. Presenters questioned the
priorities of SADC and condemned the huge investment in these projects
while the majority of people do not have access to land, water,
education and proper health services in the region. These projects are
anything but for the people and will benefit expansion of trade and
services of corporations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
João Pereira, Civil Society Support Mechanism of
Mozambique questioned why movements have not put pressure on governments
to prioritise the social needs of people. He pointed out that
movements are weak and a major hurdle to create alternatives is the
politicisation amongst people that are affected. He proposed the need
to confront our leaders, develop a plan to politicise people everywhere
in rural areas, churches, the work place so that critical mass built to
steer alternatives and policies that meet the needs of people not
profits.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ismael Ossemane, a founder member of UNAC also
stressed that the oppressed need new strategies to confront the change
of terrain of capitalist power and we should not repeat strategies of
trying to get attention of government. He emphasised we are entrenched
in this capitalist system which most people think is part of human
nature and that a consumer society is normal. As activist, movements and
drivers of change we at ‘’each time we need to see at what stage we are
in our struggle and what challenges we face”. He underscored although
colonisers are no longer in our countries but Southern Africa it is more
exploited than ever before. Land grabs are prominent; our resources
are plundered by northern and southern elites. Multi-nationals from the
South are making the their mark in the region, operating in the same
exploitative manner as their northern counterparts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was stressed that these issues can’t just be
addressed at local or national level. If we are beginning to concentrate
alternative regionalism of a power of alternatives, it is not about how
government but about how we respond to recover our power.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Therefore an alternative regionalism must be about
uniting people and overcoming the current state of globalisation,
building stronger resistance, confronting our leaders and holding them
accountable.<span lang="EN-GB"> </span></div>
By Michelle Pressend</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-3612837896018544192012-07-17T14:40:00.003+02:002012-07-17T16:30:45.307+02:00South Africa: forestry communities in the Western Cape adress demands to the government<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">MEMORANDUM OF DEMANDS OF EIGHT FORESTRY
COMMUNITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">To: the President and government of South
Africa</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">From: Seven forestry communities in the
Western Cape</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Date: 12 July 2012</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3KL7EERrkyusHQcZYAvkf3YJf7JdEVpdJH6K35odRBciUSWPeC9hb7NbpNqv5IaKrvLcxI4OxKxfzpNS-ghk2Ih1xLstDwuIXJ98xjc9asSUcegodNOCe8kus4Df7IHCkh362pxm0iBw/s1600/campaign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3KL7EERrkyusHQcZYAvkf3YJf7JdEVpdJH6K35odRBciUSWPeC9hb7NbpNqv5IaKrvLcxI4OxKxfzpNS-ghk2Ih1xLstDwuIXJ98xjc9asSUcegodNOCe8kus4Df7IHCkh362pxm0iBw/s320/campaign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-ZA">We are members and representatives of the
following forestry communities: Nuweberg, Meerlust, La Motte, Wemmershoek,
Waterval, Hawequa, Lebanon and Jonkershoek. Seventeen similar communities have
declared their solidarity but cannot be here today. We are desperate; we have
travelled a long way to be here and at great cost. We did not come here to
claim special favours. We are here for what we believe is rightfully ours. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">The purpose of this memorandum is to give a
brief overview of our problems and demands. We do not think this is news to
government, as we have been communicating these things to government
departments and officials for sixteen years.
</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">All this time government officials have
been playing hide and seek with us. They always refer us to someone else and no
one wants to take responsibility for this baby. We want to say today: President
Jacob Zuma, this is your baby! Please take care of it like you are caring for
your other babies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">We include as part of the memorandum all
the different submissions of the different communities, because although the
issues are the same, the focus of different communities is not always exactly
the same. In general our issues are as follows:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">We want to know who are the parents of
this baby.</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">For sixteen years we wrote letters, had
meetings and even protested to get some clear answers from government. But it
seems no one wants to take responsibility for the forestry communities. We are
sent from pillar to post between the departments of land affairs, human
settlements, public works, environmental affairs and the different
municipalities. This must come to an end. Someone in government must take
responsibility to negotiate with us and that person or institute must
coordinate with all the other departments and levels of government. This person
must ultimately be the president of South Africa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">Stop and reverse the policy of
privatisation</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">We are the victims of privatisation.
Working class communities all over the country are the victims of this policy
that only benefits the rich. Reverse privatisation and let us be public sector
workers again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">We want decent housing with secure
tenure</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Our houses are falling apart. Government is
no longer maintaining them and neither can we because they do not belong to us.
They need to be upgraded and maintained. We also need new housing in our
communities to keep pace with population growth. We want secure tenure and
ownership. No evictions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">We want land to farm and agricultural
support</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">There is hunger in our communities. Yet we
can avoid this if we could farm on the land with the necessary resources. We
can actually become prosperous in this way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">We are desperate for jobs!</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Unemployment is destroying our communities.
It is up to 95 %, especially among the young. We want decent jobs. We want the
necessary support and resources to reopen the closed factories in our
communities. We can also use the beauty of the places where we live to build
tourism business if we had the necessary support.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">We want social services.</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Many communities are protesting because the
services they are offered are not good. In our case nobody is even trying, no
municipality or government department is taking responsibility for housing,
water, electricity and refuse removal in our communities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">Conclusion</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-ZA">This is a long road for us, but we will
travel it. Whatever it takes! Stop playing. President Zuma, this is your baby.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">We demand an initial respond time: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2 weeks</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Transfer of Land by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">26
December 2012</b></span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-62235540794321872552012-07-13T12:56:00.003+02:002012-07-13T12:59:43.773+02:00Join the Forestry Communities in the Western Cape and Food Sovereignty Campaign for a month of Action<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>A CALL TO ACTION</b><br />
<b>3 July 2012</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Starting with a March to Parliament and Occupation.</b><br />
<br />
<b>We forestry communities can no longer tolerate silence and continued discrimination. Now we are taking action.</b><br />
<br />
We
the households and residents of isolated forestry towns in the mountain
areas of the Western Cape (such as Hawequa, Nuweberg, Meerlust,
Wemmershoek, Lamotte, Limietberg Lebanon amongst others) continue to be
rejected and oppressed by our own government. We live under the yoke of
oppression despite our well intentioned constitution, policies and laws
that are supposed to improve the living conditions of all South
Africans, including ours – the poor, landless, destitute and homeless.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjDIDFDIMQu8uhQ51W9WGchLAyimpgPK3O7nBDeXhmzwKOcDVLOofacH92ndfMbCwRsXWtMF0knyO8Z-jgMJjh0hudYS9ERRfy2KQ4qJJ2fdor1l4p5uVhvUkK463xYo_ADiIxoaDG_s/s1600/food+sov+campaingn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjDIDFDIMQu8uhQ51W9WGchLAyimpgPK3O7nBDeXhmzwKOcDVLOofacH92ndfMbCwRsXWtMF0knyO8Z-jgMJjh0hudYS9ERRfy2KQ4qJJ2fdor1l4p5uVhvUkK463xYo_ADiIxoaDG_s/s320/food+sov+campaingn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We
simply cannot afford to give up our precious time by leaving our places
of work and families to go to Cape Town to remind the government of its
constitutional responsibilities. We have no other choice but to
mobilise and march, because we are experiencing continous
discrimination. We are tired of phoning, writing, faxing, emailing,
reminding and begging the government to listen to us. We are tired of
lies and empty promises. We are angry and inflamed.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>We are
getting poorer by the day – the food and fuel prices are rising
uncontrolable. We are retrenched forestry workers and many of us are
unemployed, without any income. We do not have land to produce our own
food, we are dependent on cash and shops; we are suffering from hunger;
we are occupiers and homeless because we do not have our own land and
houses; the houses we live in are dilapidated and collapsing on us,
because we remain renters. Our communities are deteriorating because of
unemployment, violence, alcohol and drug abuse. Our local government
avoid us like a pest, because they say service delivery is not feasible.
Are we written off, are we forgoten? Is it because someone is not doing
his or her work or is it just because we are poor and keep quiet?<br />
<br />
We
live in unspoiled environments with natural beauty. Here the air is
still fresh and clean. We still feel safe, because we still sleep with
open doors and open windows. Our children are still safe. Now we are
threatened with evictions. Our residential areas are targeted for
tourism, recreation and conservation for the pleasure and games of the
rich and powerful.<br />
<br />
We are sick and tired of the
government’s feet dragging and game of hide and seek. We are tired of
empty promises of land reform and poverty alleviation. Privatisation is
depriving us of our land and livelihoods. What happened to community
forestry, participatory forestry management and all the policies and
laws, promises, processes, money and time spend on all of this? Who has
deprived us of all these opportunities and rights? Who is benefiting the
most and who are the fat cats getting fatter from forestry profits at
the cost of our existence. We have worked ourselves into the grave – our
hands to the bone, slaved and contributed to the economy of this
country. Why are we now rejected and wished away? Has slavery and
apartheid not long ago been declared inhumane and a crime against
humanity? Must we still stand cap in hand? Have we the legitimate
inhabitants of this country, become an embarresment in our our country?
We acknowldge then: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it,
united in our diversity.<br />
<br />
We do not have a choice but to
stand up and mobilise against our continued oppression, poverty,
discrimination, hunger, landlessnes and homelessness. We demand a
dignified existence, because it is our right. We will mobilise until the
government listen to us. Action we will get.<br />
<br />
<b> We shall overcome</b><br />
<br />
<b>Issued by the Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign and Forestry Communities in the Western Cape </b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-32706161368964273342012-07-13T12:48:00.001+02:002012-07-13T12:48:24.138+02:00Mozambique : Carbon Trading and REDD+: farmers ‘grow’ carbon for the benefit of polluters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1296:mozambique--carbon-trading-and-redd-farmers-grow-carbon-for-the-benefit-of-polluters&catid=48:-climate-change-and-agrofuels&Itemid=75"><i><b>(To read the full article with pictures here)</b></i></a><br />
<br />
Maputo, 18 June 2012 (Via Campesina Africa News) – Food production and
people's sovereignty in Africa could be seriously compromised by carbon
capture projects and the so-called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) mechanism. They can exacerbate food
insecurity on the continent and could result in the loss of control
over land and forest resources for African farmers.<br />
<br />
This scenario could become a reality in the near future in
Mozambique, as the country has offered its land to serve as a “model”
for carbon capture projects and REDD+.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLeTYBMppvHTqDGwGHhFaOcrcgQaP0MQu6wNAfLbLix_7oINgcfwHYodHxA1EaDQRa233FOR0O8xjtMcU0p40gC5SyMdcCmvwDsZkQUcVujf6DbH73mMPVm1g6lN-1kejmBUKvJUnp9a4/s1600/foto.nhambita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLeTYBMppvHTqDGwGHhFaOcrcgQaP0MQu6wNAfLbLix_7oINgcfwHYodHxA1EaDQRa233FOR0O8xjtMcU0p40gC5SyMdcCmvwDsZkQUcVujf6DbH73mMPVm1g6lN-1kejmBUKvJUnp9a4/s320/foto.nhambita.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>As evening falls, Albertina Francisco*, a farmer from the Nhambita
community in Sofala province, Mozambique, returns home. She is tired
after another day of work at her machamba (a term used in Mozambique to
refer to a patch of farmland). In addition to looking after the maize,
mapira (a type of sorghum) and cassava which she grows, another task has
been added to Albertina’s workload: looking after the trees she planted
a few years ago to ensure she is not penalized by Envirotrade at the
end of the year, the company with which she has a carbon supply
contract. Albertina is required to ensure the survival and good growth
of the plants and to ensure that at least 85% of the plants received
survive.
<br />
<br />
“In addition to the maize and mapira I also have to look after the
trees now, to make sure they don’t die. I planted a lot of trees and
it’s not easy checking on them all”, said Albertina, who visits her land
twice a day.<br />
Just like Albertina, another 1400 farmers in Nhambita and other
villages in the Púngue administrative region in Sofala have been
contracted to plant and care for trees on their land.<br />
“When they came they said that the project is good because by
planting trees we’d receive money to fight poverty and we’d be in charge
(of the trees) even after the conclusion of the project”, one Nhambita
farmer tells us.<br />
<br />
The project is called the “Nhambita Community Carbon Project”<sup>1</sup>.
The aim of the company that runs it, Envirotrade, is to capture carbon
through agro-forestry, and sell carbon credits on the voluntary markets,
which at this stage comprise Europe and the United States. By buying
carbon credits, companies in industrialised countries can “sell” a
positive image to their clients, clean their conscience and allow
pollution of the planet. With the implementation of REDD+ and the
purchase of carbon credits, it is expected that rich countries will
continue to emit greenhouse gases, as they will be financing carbon
capture projects in other locations, generally in countries in the
South.<br />
<br />
In addition to using their land to plant trees (gliricidia,
faidherbia, cashew trees, mango trees, and timber-yielding varieties),
communities are also expected to protect and patrol a defined area of
just over 10 000 hectares, from which Envirotrade also sells carbon
credits through the REDD+ mechanism.<br />
<br />
Planting, preserving and protecting the forests are all services
regulated by a contract between Envirotrade and the farmers. The
contract is for a fixed term of only seven years. Yet, as stipulated by
the clauses in the contract, the producer (farmer) is under the
obligation to plant and care for trees, and will receive an annual
payment, which varies according to the system chosen and the size of the
area of land used. After seven years payments cease, but farmers still
have a duty of care.<br />
“It is the farmer’s obligation to continue to care for the plants
which they own, even after the seven year period covered by this
contract”♦, one of the articles in the clause on obligations of
producers stipulates.<br />
<br />
According to Envirotrade trees capture carbon for a period of 50 to
100 years. The farmers’ duty to care for the plants and forests thus
automatically spans several generations.<br />
“If a farmer passes away during the contract period, the contract,
all the rights contained therein but also all the obligations, are
transferred to their legitimate/legal heirs (children)”, António Serra,
National Director for Envirotrade clarifies.<br />
It should be noted that the contracts regulating these activities do not include a section on farmers’ rights.<br />
<br />
Nhambita is a community in Gorongosa district, in the administrative
region of Púngue at the centre of Mozambique. It is extremely
biologically diverse and boasts a wealth of vegetation and forests to be
envied.<br />
<br />
The European Commission contributed about 1.5 million Euros of
financing to Envirotrade between the start of the project in 2003 and
2008, for research and testing in Nhambita. However the European
Commission cut its funding, one of the reasons being irregularities
observed in the proposed method for measuring carbon.<br />
<br />
<b>What’s in it for the farmers…</b><br />
<br />
According to Envirotrade their projects aim to alleviate poverty (in
communities), and contribute to sustainable development and biodiversity
conservation. “It is a new way of doing business”, the company, which
believes it is offering a new way of life for individuals and
communities, states on its website <sup>(2)</sup><br />
<br />
The services set out in a farmer’s contract which we gained access to
were to be provided through planting trees in an area totalling 0.22
hectares (22 by 22 metres) in the farmer’s yard; and the farmer will
receive a total of 3,215 Meticais (128 USD) over the seven years of the
contract period. In order to earn enough money to actually alleviate
poverty, this farmer would need access to a much greater land area,
diversified systems, and would have to plant many more trees – which
proves virtually impossible.<br />
<br />
The most highly paid system run by Envirotrade is termed “forest
plantation” and can earn the producer about 17.500 Meticais (670 USD)
over seven years.<br />
<br />
These amounts refer to one hectare, which means the amount may be
lower or higher depending on the area of land in question. Nhambita’s
farmers have an average of one hectare of land per family.<br />
António Serra, National Director for Envirotrade in Mozambique,
explains: “A farmer who has one hectare can sign a seven year contract
one year using the bordadura system (border strips), the following year
sign a seven year contract for consociação (mixed crops) covering the
same area, and the third year sign a seven year contract under the
quintal (yard) system. In this way the producer is involved in the
project over a long period of time.”<br />
<br />
However, do not let anyone be under any illusion that they will
become rich through REDD+ and planting trees: “Carbon trading is not
there to make anyone rich (farmers). The market itself shows that there
are many costs involved. This is not going to make communities wealthy.
Individuals need to have other sources of income”, Envirotrade’s Carbon
manager said in an interview.<br />
Envirotrade stopped issuing new contracts three years ago, because of financial difficulties.<br />
<br />
<b>Food sovereignty in danger</b><br />
It is important to stress that commitment to this type of service
could aggravate food insecurity for the community or for families, if
the timescales and size of land areas needed to plant enough trees to
ensure higher earnings are taken into account. This will lead to farmers
“growing carbon” instead of growing food crops.<br />
<br />
On the other hand “the current focus on the economic value of the
forest [as promoted by Envirotrade] should not make the biological,
spiritual and cultural values less important, as they [the communities]
have been providing effective<br />
conservation for generations”, a study <sup>(3)</sup> by Jovanka Spiric, who has researched the socioeconomic impact of the REDD programme in Nhambita, states.<br />
<br />
A considerable number of farmers have abandoned farming and dedicate
all their time to maintaining firebreaks and patrolling forests in the
REDD+ area.<br />
Gabriel Langa*, a father of four with two wives, is the head of the
group which manages firebreaks and patrols Bloc 2, one of the
“protected” REDD+ areas in the Bué Maria area of Púngue. Before, he used
to farm to feed his family.<br />
<br />
“Now our main activity is firebreaks. I don’t have time to go to the machamba”, Langa says.<br />
Langa will earn 8845 Meticais (340 USD) during the firebreak phase
for the “conservation” area, which he will divide between the group of
four that he manages.<br />
<br />
<b>Forests were never at risk of disappearing…</b><br />
<br />
According to Envirotrade, the buffer zone of the Gorongosa national park <sup>(4)</sup>,
where Nhambita community is situated, was at risk of disappearing due
to intensive logging (for coal) and unchecked land clearing by fire.<br />
<br />
Community leaders together with the Committee for Natural Resources
management for Púngue, operating out of Nhambita in Gorongosa and set up
before the arrival of Envirotrade on the scene, dismiss this hypothesis
and claim that the committee has always known how to care for and
preserve the forests and land in the area.<br />
<br />
“The community had no problem with this and always knew how to manage
resources. With the creation of the Management committee in 2011 this
capacity was strengthened because we were trained to do it”, said
Francisco Samajo, president of the committee. “This is probably what
brought Envirotrade here”, he added.<br />
<br />
Reacting to this, Aristides Muhate, Carbon Manager for Envirotrade
says: “Sometimes people want first and foremost to assert their merit.
Everyone knows that this area would be a hotbed of illegal logging
today. He (the head of the resource management committee) wouldn’t even
have the resources (money) to carry out the patrolling that he does”.<br />
<br />
Envirotrade finances the Natural resources management committee,
which in turn pays inspectors to patrol the forests and “protect them”
from members of the same community.<br />
Although the farmers admit to having benefited in some ways from the
Envirotrade project (in terms of fruit trees, some annual income, health
centres, transport in case of illness) consensus does not seem to
prevail regarding the assertion that the communities were very poor and
that their forests and lands were poorly managed.<br />
Another Nhambita farmer, Raimundo Eduardo, stated that he had never
considered himself to be poor, as in his own words “I have a machamba
and I always worked”.<br />
<br />
<b>Giving up tree planting: Not everyone is finding the activity fun</b><br />
<br />
Juvenal Francisco, 31, a farmer from Nhambita, gave up tree planting in 2010 as he felt the services did not bring him income.<br />
“It seemed as if I was only working for them and I wasn’t seeing any
benefits for me”, Franciso tells us. He took the initiative of
contacting Envirotrade himself to make clear his desire to give up the
activities.<br />
<br />
What motivated Francisco to terminate the contract was the fact that
as of year four he had not been paid the annual amount set out in his
contract, allegedly because he had been unable to care for the plants in
the way required by Envirotrade. Juvenal Francisco is of the opinion
that Envirotrade failed to comply with one of the conditions it
committed itself to, namely that of paying him for a seven-year period.<br />
“As of year four they stopped paying me and they never explained why”, he said.<br />
Juvenal says he planted over 900 timber- and fruit-yielding plants
starting in 2007. Now, he dedicates his time to growing maize, sweet
potato, mapira and cassava.<br />
This has been a great source of conflict between Envirotrade and many
farmers. A high number of “contracted” farmers find their earnings
reduced for not achieving the 85% survival rates set out in the
contract. Our reporting team also learnt that over the past three years,
there have been delays to payments for environmental services, due to
financial difficulties.<br />
<br />
<b>Farmers don’t know what they are involved with</b><br />
The Nhambita communities are not familiar with the REDD+ concept; and
despite the fact that some farmers know that they are planting trees
and preserving forests “to sell carbon”, they show a lack of deeper
understanding of the concept and its mechanisms.<br />
Envirotrade's National Carbon Manager, forest engineer Aristides
Muhate, justifies this fact. “Information exists on different levels.
There’s no reason why we should waste time explaining complicated
concepts to the farmers, ” he says, pointing to the low levels of
schooling among most of the population of Nhambita and the surrounding
areas. This could be considered in breach of the right to advance
information and free consent before operations started on their lands.<br />
“We know that our income from planting trees comes from carbon. I
don’t know anything more about it”, Elias Manesa from the Mutabamba
community confessed, showing that he didn’t understand what carbon is.<br />
<br />
The lack of comprehensive information surrounding Envirotrade’s
carbon business involving community resources calls into question the
transparency of the process. The poor or complete lack of understanding
among farmers of the concepts linked to REDD+ and the carbon markets
means that they are managing their resources and getting involved in the
business without awareness of its full implications: allowing Northern
polluters to continue to release carbon into the atmosphere. This poses
risks to these very farmers’ well-being if we take into account the fact
that these emissions will have a negative impact on Mozambique, for
instance through droughts and flooding.<br />
Another woman, who does not have a personal contract with Envirotrade
but who has planted and cares for trees because her partner decided for
both of them to get involved, was also unaware of the ultimate
objectives of this activity.<br />
<br />
“All I know is that my husband receives money (annually) because of
the trees we’ve planted. I don’t know any more details”, she said. In
fact, over half of the farmers who have signed contracts with
Envirotrade are male. Few women own land in Mozambique, even though they
constitute the group which devotes the greatest effort to food
production and other land-linked labour.<br />
<br />
<b>Emerging social conflict</b><br />
<br />
Signs of social conflict linked to payments for environmental
services (PES) between Nhambita community members are beginning to show.
This situation could become more serious in the future.<br />
Farmers who do not benefit from PES are displaying resentment for not receiving any money from Envirotrade.<br />
In other REDD projects in countries like Indonesia, payments for
environmental services are creating inequalities due to income
disparities, and this tends to create divisions in the community and
jeopardize organisational, social and cultural cohesion.<br />
As an example, the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique <sup>(5)</sup> recently published a story on the case of farmers being displaced because of implementing the REDD programme in Mexico.<br />
Jossias Jairosse* arrived in Nhambita recently and works in the
community carpentry workshop in his village. Envirotrade had stopped
issuing contracts when he settled in the community. He feels resentful
and inferior to his neighbours, as they have annual income levels which
he has no hope of reaching.<br />
<br />
<b>Mozambican land in demand with others for REDD+ projects </b><br />
<br />
A company backed by British capital is eyeing up about 15 million hectares (19% of Mozambican territory) for REDD+<sup> (6)</sup>
activities. Cases of land grabbing linked to Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation could make this figure even higher,
if agrofuel production and the growing of different monocultures are
included here. These practices can also be included under REDD+ as the
system includes carbon credits from cultivation and land use and not
just from forestry. According to the 2008 national forest inventory,
about 70% of the country (54.8 million hectares) is currently covered by
forest and other wooded areas. These areas are at risk of being
exploited for carbon capturing.<br />
<br />
Mozambique finds itself in a privileged position, among the most
“coveted” countries in Africa when it comes to the implementation of
so-called development projects benefitting from foreign investment. The
World Bank for instance considers Mozambique an appropriate location for
REDD projects, the Clean Development Mechanism <sup>(7)</sup> and industrial agriculture.<br />
Companies in the North have been acquiring land in Mozambique for
export-oriented production, agrofuels and now for REDD+. Currently even
the so-called emerging economies, namely India and Brazil, are acquiring
land for use in agro-business and for mining.<br />
<br />
In most of these cases local communities, and particularly farmers
and indigenous populations, are heavily affected and often their rights
are violated. In the case of the REDD+ programmes there is a significant
risk that farmers will find themselves serving as employees of
companies who use forest resources and local land to take advantage of
the carbon credits system internationally, thus maximising their profits
but not necessarily contributing to eliminating poverty in the
communities.<br />
In Uganda 22 000 farmers were displaced from their lands by a forestry carbon offsetting project in 2011.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1296:mozambique--carbon-trading-and-redd-farmers-grow-carbon-for-the-benefit-of-polluters&catid=48:-climate-change-and-agrofuels&Itemid=75"><i><b>To read the full article with pictures here</b></i></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-86500048982964132492012-04-19T16:18:00.000+02:002012-04-19T16:18:14.764+02:0017 April: More than 250 actions around the world for the International Day of Peasant's Struggle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Jakarta, 16 April 2012) Small scale farmers and their allies are
celebrating the International Day ofPeasant's Struggle tomorrow, 17th of
April 2012, organising more than 250 actions and manifestations allover
the globe.
<br />
This event commemorates the massacre of 19 landless farmers demanding access to land and justice in1996 in Brazil (1). <a href="http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1237:list-of-activities-for-17th-april-2012-around-the-world&catid=26:17-april-day-of-peasants-struggle&Itemid=33">A full list of actions</a>, ranging from university lectures to land occupations is available onthe website www.viacampesina.org<br />
<br />
The international farmers movement La Via Campesina is mobilising
this year to oppose the currentoffensive by some states and large
corporations at international level to grab land from the farmers, women
and men, who have been cultivating it for centuries. Small farmers'
demand is simple: they need access toland to grow food for their
communities. When land is grabbed by transnational companies,
hugemonoculture plantations for export are developed. This only leads to
increased hunger, social unrest andenvironmental devastation, including
the current climate chaos.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Tomorrow, Farmers organisations and their allies will reclaim land
all over Brazil and organise mass mobilisations against landgrabbing in
Tete, Mozambique and in front of the Constitutional Court in Jakarta,
Indonesia. In Brussels, they will launch a parody of the EU Commission's
website marking the 50th anniversary of the Common Agriculture Policy.<br />
<br />
This action day will take place a few days before the World Bank
Conference on Land and Poverty inWashington DC, April 23-26, 2012. The
Via Campesina mobilisations will voice small farmers' strongopposition
to the World Bank initiative of Responsible Agricultural Investment
(RAI) that is supposed toprevent land grab abuses but in fact
legitimizes farmland grabbing by corporate and state investors.<br />
“In the run up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, farmers and supporters of
the food sovereignty andagroecology movement are now actively opposing
the “greening of capitalism” that is now promoted atinternational level.
We believe that land, water, seeds and all natural resources should be
used by smallfarmers to protect them and feed to world, and not by
transnational corporations to make profit”, said HenrySaragih, general
coordinator of la Via Campesina.<br />
<i><b><br />For interviews and more information</b></i><br />
Henry Saragih (in English): +62 811655668 (Indonesia)<br />
Itelvina Masioli (in Spanish): + 55 11 63 59 00 44. (Brazil)<br />
Josie Riffaud (in French) + 33(0) 6 13 10 52 91 (France)<br />
Ibrahim Coulibaly (in French) + +22366761126 (Mali)<br />
<b>More information </b>on www.viacampesina.org<br />
e-mail: viacampesin@viacampesina.org<br />
(1) On April 17 1996, in the Amazonian state of Pará, at Eldorado dos
Carajás, the state military policemassacred peasants organized in the
Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), killing 19 individuals.That
day, 1500 women and men organized in the MST occupied and blocked the
BR-150 highway in Eldo-ado dos Carajás, with the intention to pressure
the state and federal governments for agrarian reform. Atabout 4pm, 155
state military police from two brigades surrounded the MST on the
highway, firing tear-gas,live ammunition and machine guns. In addition
to the 19 MST killed during the massacre, three more diedlater from
injuries, and 69 people were wounded. State authorities, the police, the
army and powerful locallandowners were involved in planning and
executing of the massacre. Fifteen years later, none of thoseresponsible
for the massacre at Eldorado dos Carajás has been imprisoned or
punished.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-52711224324437547412012-04-19T16:14:00.000+02:002012-04-19T16:14:09.989+02:0017th of April Celebration, 2012 - Actions around the world - Célébration de 17 avril dans le monde, 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
See the<b> <a href="http://www.viacampesina.org/map/17april/map.html">map of actions </a></b><br />
<br />
<strong>Send us your event</strong> to viacampesina@viacampesina.org<br />
<br />
See the <b><a href="http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1237:list-of-activities-for-17th-april-2012-around-the-world&catid=26:17-april-day-of-peasants-struggle&Itemid=33">list of all actions</a> </b>here<br />
<br />
Regardez la <b><a href="http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=681:liste-mondiale-des-activites-pour-le-17-avril-2012&catid=26:17-avril-journde-la-lutte-paysanne&Itemid=33">liste des actions</a></b> ici. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-70333566498788097472012-03-09T12:12:00.001+02:002012-03-09T12:18:58.285+02:00Call for April 17: International Day of Peasant Struggle<b>Stop Land Grabbing – land to the tillers!</b>
<i> </i><br />
<br />
<i>Use the poster attached!</i><br />
<br />
(Jakarta, 2 March 2012) April 17 is the International Day of Peasant Struggle, commemorating the massacre of 19 peasants struggling for land and justice in Brazil in 1996. Every year on that day actions take place around the world in defence of peasants and small-scale farmers struggling for their rights.<br />
In recent years, we have suffered from the implementation of new policies and of a new development model based on land expansion and land expropriation, commonly known as land grabbing. Land grabbing is a global phenomenon led by local, national and transnational elites and investors, with the participation of governments and local authorities, in order to control the world's most precious resources.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://viacampesina.org/en/cache/multithumb_images/b.800.600.0.0...images.stories.17april.2012-03-02-Poster17-1012.en.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://viacampesina.org/en/cache/multithumb_images/b.800.600.0.0...images.stories.17april.2012-03-02-Poster17-1012.en.png" width="226" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Land grabbing has resulted in the concentration of the ownership of land and natural resources in the hands of large-scale investors, plantation owners, logging, hydro-power and mining companies, tourism and real estates developers, port and infrastructures authorities, and so forth. This has led to the eviction and displacement of the local populations - usually farmers -, the violation of human rights and women rights, increased poverty, social fracture and environmental pollution.<br />
<br />
Land grabbing goes beyond traditional North-South imperialist structures: the involved transnational corporations are based in the United States, Europe, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea, among others.
Financial institutions such as private banks, pension and other investment funds have become powerful actors in land grabbing, while wars continue to be waged to seize control of natural wealth. The World Bank and regional development banks are facilitating land and water grabs by promoting corporate-friendly policies and laws, providing capital and guarantees for corporate investors, and fostering an extractive, destructive economic development model. Meanwhile the World Bank and some other institutions have proposed seven principles of Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) that are supposed to prevent abuses but in fact legitimize farmland grabbing by corporate and state investors.<br />
<br />
La Via Campesina and key allies have protested against this initiative for the past two years.
Land grabbing is a global phenomenon based on the corporate domination of agriculture through control over land, water, seeds and other resources. It is justified by many governments and policy think tanks through claims that agribusiness will modernize backward agricultural practices and guarantee food security for all. However widespread those claims may be, they have been shown to be entirely false in the real world.
The key players behind land grabbing prioritize profit over people’s well-being: they produce agrofuels if this is more profitable than food production, and they export their food production if this is more lucrative than selling it at home. In this race to profit, the corporate sector is increasing its control over food production systems, monopolizing resources, and dominating decision making processes. Business lobbies have strong political influence that often overrides democratic institutions; in addition, they act with the complicity of local and national elites (traders, politicians and community leaders) who fail to protect their own people from predation.<br />
<br />
Land grabbing has been dispossessing peasants, small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples, especially women and the youth, from their sources of livelihoods. It is also ruining the environment. Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities are being expelled from their territories by armed forces, increasing their vulnerability and in some cases even leading to slavery. Market-based, false solutions to climate change such as the fashionable concept of "Green Economy" are forever finding new ways to alienate local communities from their lands and natural resources.<br />
<br />
Therefore La Via Campesina calls on all of its members and allies, fisher-folk movements, agricultural workers organizations, students and environmental groups, women organizations and social justice movements to organize actions around the world on April 17 in order to display massive popular resistance to land grabbing and highlight the struggle against corporate control over land and natural resources.<br />
<br />
Let’s unite and fight:<br />
<br />
- To stop land grabbing and reclaim grabbed land – the land should be in the hands of tillers.<br />
- To implement genuine agrarian reform in order to bring about social justice in rural areas.<br />
- To end the control over billions of people’s lives exercised by a few investors and transnational companies.<br />
- To oppose the principles of “responsible agricultural investment” (RAI) proposed by the World Bank as it can never be “responsible” for investors and corporations to grab farmers' land.<br />
- To strengthen the agriculture production model based on family farming and food sovereignty.<br />
<br />
On April 17, groups and people are invited to organize a direct action, a film screening, a farmers market, a land occupation, a debate, a protest, an art exhibition, or any other event highlighting the same goal.<br />
<br />
Inform us about your plans by sending an email to viacampesina@viacampesina.org<br />
Subscribe to our special mailing list by sending a blank email to via.17april-subscribe@viacampesina.net<br />
Send us reports, pictures and videos of your action! We will publish the map of actions around the world on www.viacampesina.org<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/262282300519236/">Join our facebook event</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-55181443802845244162012-03-09T12:05:00.001+02:002012-03-09T12:09:13.792+02:00La Via Campesina and the International Women’s DayMarch 8th International Women’s Day, is the day upon which we honour
the memory of the many women workers, both rural and urban, who
sacrificed their lives in the struggle for their rights, for justice and
to put an end to all discrimination and the social, economic and
political inequities that have given sustenance to global capitalist
development. It is also a day for celebration because of the important
progress that has been achieved in women’s struggles for emancipation.<br />
<br />
March 8th is a day of mobilisation and reaffirmation of the
relentless commitment to not rest in the struggle to end the patriarchal
capitalist system that is more oppressive to women, regardless of their
place in society all over the world. . This hugely important struggle
continues to drive reflections on the part of of both men and women in
La Via Campesina on how best to progress with the urgent struggle to for
social change toward the kind of system we want. We must design the
type of society that we wish to build, with a new balance of power in
social relationships between men and women and where men and women shall
have equal opportunities, rights and duties.<br />
<a name='more'></a>
<br />
<b>The Via Campesina message</b><br />
<br />
We salute this International Day of Action and Struggle held on this
day by the Women of La Via Campesina on a global level. The purpose of
this day of action is to denounce the encroachment of capitalism in
agriculture due to the dominance of transnational agribusiness, and the
implementation of a destructive model of large scale industrial
agriculture. The negative impacts of this model, that is threatening not
only peoples’ food sovereignty, but also the environment, fall
disproportionately on women. The actions taken on this day shall serve
to unmask and denounce the conditions faced by rural women created by
this system, including all forms of violence against women, and
tohighlight the indispensable role of women in agriculture and in the
broader struggle for food sovereignty<br />
<br />
La Via Campesina holds that it is essential to raise the level of
awareness of all men and women, emphasizing the important role and the
historical and current value of women’s contributions to small-scale
family/peasant farming. Women play an essential role in preserving
ancestral knowledge and in slection and preservation of peasant seeds
thatguarantee biodiversity and peoples food sovereignty.Rural women who
account for 80% of food production sadly only own 2% of the land; such
inequality makes food sovereignty impossible.<br />
<br />
As La Via Campesina, women and men will struggle together to decry
male chauvinism at the political, economic, and social levels in the
capitalist, patriarchal society that dominates today’s world; we do this
by mobilising against capitalism, in the hopes of building a society
based on equality and justice.<br />
<br />
We share the challenges of integrated agrarian reform, ending
land-grabbing and guaranteeing social justice that will serve as a means
of consolidating food and environmental sovereignty, and ending
violence against women. We struggle to achieve a peasant –based model of
agriculture based on agro-ecology, defending land, water and seeds and
against the commodification of life.<br />
<br />
<b><i>La Via Campesina says Stop Violence Against Women!</i></b><br />
<b><i>Women’s struggles against agribusiness, agrotoxins and for food sovereignty, health and women’s sovereignty!</i></b><br />
<b><i>Globalise the struggle! Globalise hope!</i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-36859937912272298172012-02-17T12:30:00.002+02:002012-03-09T12:03:59.043+02:00Mozambique: Manifestation de rejet et d’indignation face aux actions violentes de VALE contre la communauté de Cateme<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a343a; font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">Le 10 janvier 2012, la population de la province de Tete (Mozambique), district de Moatize, quartier de Cateme, constituée par différents groupe d’âges de paysans et paysannes déplacés de leurs terres d’origine, a empêché l’acheminement du charbon de Moatize par voie ferroviaire, comme manière de manifester son indignation face au non respect des nombreuses promesses faites par la compagnie VALE pendant les consultations communautaires. Cet acte se produit après d’infructueuses tentatives de dialogue avec la compagnie minière brésilienne VALE (qui exploite le charbon minéral à Tete), ainsi qu’avec la représentation locale du gouvernement et du parti Frelimo. A la suite de cette manifestation, il a été fait un usage brutal et aveugle de la violence par les agents de la police contre la population innocente et sans défense, avec pour résultat des blessures et des arrestations pour une partie de cette dernière.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a343a; font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a name='more'></a>L’Union nationale des paysans (UNAC, acronyme en portugais), mouvement national des paysannes et paysans du secteur familial au Mozambique, vient par le biais de ce document, exprimer son rejet et son indignation face aux actions violentes de VALE, en qualité d’agent usurpateur des terres communautaires, et de la Police contre la communauté de Cateme et appeler à un mouvement de solidarité nationale et internationale en faveur des victimes de Cateme.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a343a; font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">À notre sens, cette situation est le résultat d’une croyance croissante en un modèle de développement économique intrinsèquement lié à la violation manifeste et croissante de divers droits des communautés locales, parmi lesquels nous pouvons énumérer le droit à la vie, basé sur l’accès à leurs ressources naturelles comme la terre, l’eau, les rivières, les lacs, les semences, et d’autres opportunités et conditions déterminantes pour leur bien-être socio-économique.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a343a; font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
Les habitants de Cateme sont victimes du phénomène croissant d’usurpation de leurs terres, qui a mené et mène au déplacement de communautés entières sur l’ensemble du pays, principalement dans les régions de Tete, Niassa, Nampula et Manica, où abondent les ressources minérales et forestières, pour donner place à de grandes exploitations qui exproprient des zones entières destinées à l’agriculture de subsistance pour la population locale, empêchant les paysannes et paysans d’accéder à la souveraineté alimentaire.</div>
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Dans ce contexte, nous appelons à la considération immédiate des droits exigés par la communauté de Cateme, à la réparation des tous les préjudices subis par les victimes des actions violentes de la police, la responsabilisation des acteurs des violences et la libération des personnes détenues pour avoir exercé leur droit à l’indignation et à la manifestation.</div>
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Nous entendons que les solutions aux problèmes de la pauvreté de notre pays doivent passer également par la gestion adaptée et transparente des richesses du sous-sol de façon à en faire profiter, principalement, les communautés locales, de façon équilibrée, afin que ces ressources servent de tremplin à la création et au renforcement d’activités génératrice de revenus et par conséquence contribuent à une amélioration de la qualité de vie et du bien-être de tous les Mozambicains. Cela doit aussi passer par un véritable investissement dans l’agriculture familiale, via une adéquation entre la planification et mise en œuvre, et par l’introduction de mesures encourageant la pratique l’agriculture par les paysannes et paysans du secteur familial, de façon à rendre cette activité une véritable source de revenus pour les familles mozambicaines et fierté de la souveraineté nationale, avec un impact sur la réduction de la pauvreté et de l’exode rural, notamment des jeunes.</div>
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Tout particulièrement, nous appelons le gouvernement brésilien à une plus grande responsabilisation de ses entreprises multinationales, comme lVALE, pour que dans le contexte de ladite coopération Sud-Sud, soit pris en compte, par-dessus tout, le respect des droits humains des communautés locales des pays où elles opèrent, afin qu’une telle coopération puisse entraîner de véritables actions tournées vers le développement des peuples.</div>
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Non à la violence ! Non à la répression !</div>
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Tous pour la Souveraineté Alimentaire!</div>
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Paysans Unis, Toujours Victorieux !</div>
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Maputo, le 27 de Janvier 2012</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-89807279473897124652011-11-23T11:01:00.001+02:002012-02-17T12:31:40.514+02:00Via Campesina at COP17 in Durban: Industrial Agriculture heats up the planet. Farmers are cooling it down!<b>MEDIA ADVISORY</b><br />
<br />
(Maputo, 21st November, 2011) - The International Peasant's Movement
La Via Campesina will be at the 17th Conference of Parties, the UN
summit on Climate Change, that will take place in Durban, South Africa,
from the 28th of November to the 9th of December 2011. More than two
hundred peasants, women and men, from Africa, Europe, Latin America and
Caribe will represent millions of small-scale producers from around the
world, practicing agroecology to cool down the Earth.<br />
<br />
In Durban, members of La Via Campesina will denounce the industrial
agriculture model as one of the main drivers of climate change. We will
also expose agribussiness' aggressive land grabbing tactics globally,
causing mass displacement of people for monoculture production.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Peasants globally oppose false solutions to climate change, such as
monoculture plantations, REDD mechanisms, soil carbon markets, and the
so called “Climate Smart Agriculture”, which instead of solving the
climate crisis, are heating up the planet.<br />
<br />
In Durban, LVC will participate on the Global Day of Action on the
3rd of December, to demand social and climate justice. On the 5th of
December, all African peasants movements will celebrate the Agroecology
and Food Sovereignty day to Cool Down the Earth, a symbolic
manifestation to demand respect for the cause of peasants globally.<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><b>Meeting with the press</b></span><br />
<b></b><br />
<b>3rd December</b><br />
Global Day of Action, during demonstrations, at starting point of the main march<br />
<br />
<b>05th December, 09h30</b><br />
Inside Press Conference – at ICC (International Convention Center) in Durban, at press room<br />
<br />
<b>06th December, 15h</b><br />
Outside Press conference with Via Campesinas´ Allies (Place to be confirmed)<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Contacts for media</b></span><br />
Boaventura Monjane, boa.monjane@viacampesina.org<br />
Local number: 0027 - (0)736509229 (from the 28th of November)<br />
<br />
Cassia Bechara cassia@mst.org.brUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-86193464632226248902011-11-21T08:42:00.001+02:002011-11-23T11:02:47.402+02:00Lancement d'une alliance internationale contre les accaparements de terres<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Communiqué
de Presse La Via Campesina - CNOP</b></span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sélingué,
Mali, 19 Novembre 2011 -- Plus de 250 paysannes et paysans, venus de
30 pays du monde ont créé aujourd´hui une alliance internationale
contre les accaparements de terres. Cette alliance sera dirigée par
les paysans et paysannes, en collaboration avec de nombreux
mouvements sociaux et organisations. L'annonce a été faite lors de
la clôture de la "Conférénce internationale: Stop aux
accaparements de terres" organisée par la Confédération
nationale des organisations paysannes du Mali (CNOP) et La Via
Campesina, mouvement paysan international.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">L'accaparement
des terres est un phénomène mondial dont l'ampleur et la vitesse
sont inégalées. Au Mali, au cours des dernières années, plus 800
000 hectares de terres arables ont été cédés par le gouvernement
aux investisseurs par le biais de baux de 30 ans, renouvelables. De
même, il est estimé qu'en Afrique plus 30 millions d'hectares ont
été vendus ou loués. Au niveau mondial, cela atteindrait de 60 à
80 millions d'hectares, mais du fait du caractère secret voire
illégal des contrats, il ne s'agit que de la partie visible de
l'iceberg. Ces terres sont déjà transférées aux élites
nationales, aux multinationales et aux fonds financiers qui cherchent
à faire des bénéfices ou à spéculer au moyen de projets
d'agricuture industrielle, d'exploitation minière, de production
d'agrocarburants, de marchés du carbone, de tourisme, de grands
barrages, etc.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">D'aucuns
les présentent comme des "investissements" alors que ces
accaparements de terre ne sont autre que du vol. Il s'agit également
d'une véritable violation des droits des paysans et des paysannes.
Ces accaparements spolient les petits producteurs, les éleveurs, les
peuples indigènes, entre autres, de leur patrimoine et de leurs
moyens de subistance. Quand les paysans se défendent pour défendre
leurs intérêts vitaux, ils sont battus, emprisonnés voire
assassinés. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Devant
la gravité de la situation, les organisations paysannes réunies au
Mali ont créé aujourd'hui une alliance qui permettra de renforcer
et de soutenir les communautés paysannes dans leurs luttes contre
cette offensive. Un plan d'action a été adopté, comprenant
notamment un observatoire permettant de collecter et d'échanger les
données concrètes concernant les accarements de terres. Les
participants et participantes à cette conférence se sont engagés à
travailler ensemble, de toute urgence, pour mettre fin aux
accaparements de terres. Ainsi, il sera possible de mettre en oeuvre
de vraies réformes agraires et des politiques foncières au service
des exploitations agricoles familiales et de remplacer le modèle
agro-industriel par l'agriculture paysanne, seule garante de la
souverainté alimentaire.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Pour
plus d'informations</b></span><span style="font-size: small;">:
+ 223 60351445</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Voir
aussi la délcaration, des articles et des photos de la conférence
sur <a href="http://www.viacampesina.org/" target="_blank">www.viacampesina.org</a></i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-17095974173284515582011-11-15T18:33:00.001+02:002011-11-21T08:43:52.744+02:00Acto Público para apresentação da Posição sobre a Conferência Mundial sobre as Mudanças Climáticas (COP17) e lançamento da Caravana Trans-africana da Esperança rumo a Durban<style>
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font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">um</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Acto</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Público</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> a divulgação </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">da</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Posição</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Camponeses</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">da</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Sociedade</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Civil</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">moçambicana</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">perante</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Conferência</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Mundial</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">sobre</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">as</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Mudanças</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Climáticas</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">(COP17)</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">na</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">cidade</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">sul-africana</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Durban</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">-</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">África</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">do</span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Sul</span></b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> a decorrer </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">entre</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">os</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">próximos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dias</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">28</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Novembro</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">9</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Dezembro</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">2011.</span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">“</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">A</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">usurpação</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">terras</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">aráveis</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">das</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">culturas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">alimentares</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">camponeses,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">produção</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">agrocombustíveis</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">monoculturas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">árvores</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">exportação,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">contínua</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">apropriação</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">recursos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Moçambicanos,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">incluindo</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">terra,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">água</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">outros</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">recursos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">naturais,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">o</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">licenciamento</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">poluidores</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">que</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">continuem</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">poluir</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">ao</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">abrigo</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">da</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">REDD</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">outros</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">mecanismos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">similares</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">compensação,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">servem</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">apenas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">empurrar</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Moçambique</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">África</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">posições</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">mais</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">precárias</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">devem</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">ser</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">rejeitadas,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">pois</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">estas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">corroem</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">justiça</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">política,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">social,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">económica</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">ambiental</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Moçambique</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">todo</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">o</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Continente</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Africano</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">”</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">refere</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">parte</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">do</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">documento</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">ser</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">apresentado.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Na</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> ocasião, far-se-á
igualmente a apresentação e o lançamento oficial da Caravana Trans-africana da
Esperança, uma iniciativa continental que levará centenas de pessoas de
diversos países de África a percorrerem milhares de quilómetros de estrada rumo
a Durban, para juntar-se a outras milhares de pessoas que em Durban irão exigir
justiça social e climática.</span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">A</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">COP</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">é</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">um</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">encontro</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">mundial</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">negociações</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">com</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">vista</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">chegar</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">acordos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; 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font-family: "Arial Narrow";">nas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">últimas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">duas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">reuniões</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">desta</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">natureza,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">em</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Copenhaga</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">2009</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">em</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Cancun</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">2010,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">provam</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">o</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">não</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">comprometimento</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Governos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">chegar</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">soluções</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">confiáveis</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">sustentáveis</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">a</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">mitigação</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">das</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">mudanças</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">climáticas</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">e</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">redução</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">drástica</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">das</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">emissões</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">por</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">parte</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">países</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">desenvolvidos.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Local:</span></b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Associação</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">dos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Músicos</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Moçambicanos,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Avenida</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Maguiguana,</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">No</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">910</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Hora:</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">das</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">09h30</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">às</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">12h30</span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">No</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">final</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">do</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">acto</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">público</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">haverá</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">uma</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">conferencia</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">de</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">imprensa.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Contactos</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">para</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">imprensa</span></u></b></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Jeremias</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Vunjanhe</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">84 4427780 - </span><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "Arial Narrow";"><a href="mailto:21496668/media@ja.org.mz">21496668/media@ja.org.mz</a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">UNAC/Via</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Campesina</span></b></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Boaventura</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Monjane</span><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">82 2605010</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";">-</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="PT" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span></b><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "Arial Narrow";"><a href="mailto:boa.monjane@viacampesina.org">boa.monjane@viacampesina.org</a></span><span lang="PT"></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-38429992881724973392011-11-04T12:04:00.000+02:002011-11-21T08:44:20.234+02:005 December: International Food Sovereignty Day to Cool Down the Earth (Durban)<h2 style="color: #38761d;">
<span style="font-size: small;">CALL TO MASS ACTION AND MOBILIZATION</span></h2>
<b></b><b>5th December 2011, Durban, South Africa</b><br />
<br />
We call on all farmers’ movements and organizations, rural workers,
landless people and all the food sovereignty movement to join us for an
international day of mass action on the 5th of December 2011, during the
COP 17 civil society mobilization in Durban, South Africa.<br />
<br />
Humanity is confronted with a food, economic and ecological crisis
that is rooted in the neoliberal capitalist system of production,
distribution and consumption. These multiple crises highlight the limits
of neoliberal capitalist production. Today transnational corporations
and governments are presenting false solutions to climate change,
hijacking the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP17) also referred
to as the Conference of Polluters, to be held in Durban South Africa.<br />
<a name='more'></a>These corporate elites, western governments and the neo liberal
capitalist system that is responsible for generating the crisis are
presenting us with false solutions. The countries of the South and
Africa in particular will be hard hit by climate change. Scientists
indicate that the African continent is expected to be drier and would
become warmer more quickly than other regions of the planet, despite the
fact that Africa has contributed the least to global warming. This will
hugely impact on agriculture, which is an important livelihood source
across Africa. There will be yield losses of the major staple foods of
the continent like maize, sorghum, millet, cassava etc. due to
temperature rises.<br />
<br />
Industrial agriculture and production is responsible for global
warming, hunger, land dispossession, massive displacements of farmers,
rural workers and indigenous communities across the continent.<br />
In South Africa the host country after 17 years of democracy,
millions of farm workers and dwellers have been evicted from commercial
farms, only 5% of agricultural land has been transferred to black
people, millions in rural and urban areas suffer from food and
nutritional insecurity. Today this country is the most unequal society
in the world. Particularly women in South Africa have felt the impact of
these unequal relations and exclusion more severely.<br />
<br />
The solutions put forward by these corporations and governments are
already leading towards a re-colonization of Africa and the countries of
the global south with massive land grabs and the imposition of a new
green revolution.<br />
<br />
Instead of finding real solutions to climate and ecological crisis
faced by humanity, the Durban COP17 meeting is a platform for
corporations through their governments to accelerate the complete
commodification of nature. These criminal schemes presented as solutions
include amongst other things the promotion of Genetically Modified
Seeds, Agro-fuels, carbon trading, climate smart agriculture, Reduced
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).<br />
<br />
<b>Why an Agro-ecology and Food Sovereignty Day</b><br />
<br />
As farmers, farm workers, landless women and men we should mobilize
through direct action against these false solutions to expose its
criminal intent and catastrophic consequences for the continent and the
global south. At the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the
Right of Mother Earth (April 2010) held in Bolivia resulted in the
People’s Agreement of Cochabamba real solutions to climate change were
offered which was totally ignored by governments. Food Sovereignty and
agro-ecology are the real solutions of farmers and workers to climate
change.<br />
<br />
We call on all farmers, workers and the landless and all social
movements to join us in Durban and everywhere in the world on the 5th of
December 2011 to demand a change of the entire capitalist system. The
fight against climate change is a fight against neoliberal capitalism,
landlessness, dispossession, hunger, poverty and inequality. The crisis
of the planet requires that we take direct action. During the
agro-ecology and food sovereignty day we will have public protest
marches to the conference of the polluters, actions against
multinational corporations like Monsanto undermining our seed
sovereignty, which will cuminate in a massive Assembly of the Oppressed
to discuss ways of ending this unjust system. This will be a day of
continued actions where farmers and workers from the entire African
continent with social movements from the whole world will demand:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Genuine agrarian reform for food sovereignty</li>
<li>Agro ecological revolution as the solution to climate change</li>
<li>Restructuring of the entire food system</li>
<li>Full and equal participation of women in the new food system and in the society as a whole</li>
<li>Building of a food system based on human needs</li>
<li>End to multinational control of our genetic resources</li>
<li>Seed sovereignty where seed can adapt and mitigate climate change</li>
</ul>
We call on all the movements of farmers and workers to mobilize and
have local direct action in every locality in the world on the
Agro-ecological and Food Sovereignty Day.<br />
<br />
Reclaim Climate Justice!<br />
Our Planet is not for sale!<br />
No to the Conference of Polluters!<br />
Defend Mother Earth!<br />
Africa is not for sale!<br />
No to the re-colonization of Africa!<br />
This call is convened and supported by:<br />
LA VIA CAMPESINA<br />
AGRARIAN REFORM FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY CAMPAIGN, SOUTH AFRICA<br />
SURPLUS PEOPLE PROJECT (SPP), SOUTH AFRICA<br />
TRUST FOR COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND EDUCATION (TCOE), SOUTH AFRICA<br />
WOMEN ON FARM PROJECT (SOUTH AFRICA)<br />
EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA SMALL SCALE FARMERS’ FORUM (ESAFF)<br />
ESAFF ZIMBABWE<br />
ESAFF UGANDA<br />
ROPPA (Network of Farmers and Agricultural Producers’ Organisations of West Africa)<br />
<br />
If you want to join us in Durban for December 5th, organize an
activity in your community/locality/country and share it with us on that
day, sign and support the call, or any other inquiry about that
specific action, please write to: <b>lvcatcop17@gmail.com</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-77992629659490803052011-10-28T15:26:00.001+02:002011-11-21T08:46:21.919+02:00La Via Campesina at the CFS: "We can no longer wait"<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Contribution
by Ibrahim Coulibaly on the volatility of agricultural prices,
CFS,
19 October 2011</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Around 40 years
ago,
when I was young, we did not speak of volatility. I still
remember
how our government gave our parents ploughs, plough oxen, and
fertilizer on credit. At the time, there was a public service,
the
OPAM, that bought food products from farming families at
prices that
were known beforehand.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Around 30 years
ago,
I was in secondary school and we were told that it was better
to
produce for external markets. We began hearing the phrase
“deterioration of the terms of exchange” in the discourse of
our
male politicians.
</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
This was a true lament at the time, but it
found no
echo anywhere. What did it refer to? The prices of export
agricultural products were collapsing on the international
market.
The governments of the time had made the fatal error of
encouraging
family farmers to produce more export products. When things
went
wrong, these farmers alone paid the heavy price.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The collapse of
our
economies and the growth of the public debt in the 1980’s led
the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to subject our
countries to structural adjustment.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We were told
that
the state was inefficient and that we needed to make more room
for
the private sector. At the same time, our states were forced
to go
even deeper into debt to restore macro-economic balances. We
were
told to cut all support to sustainable family farming, which
was
termed unsuccessful. Then the World Bank and its allies
launched a
true demolition campaign against this type of agriculture.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We were told to
produce even more cash crops for export, such as cotton,
coffee and
peanuts, at very low prices that were set abroad. With these
slogans
we were told to buy rice from Asia, or flour and dried milk
from
Europe, all of which are now so volatile. The descent into
hell had
begun for farming families and for our over-indebted states
that were
incapable of paying.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then we were
told to
become competitive according to the criteria of international
financial institutions, and also that our states were no
longer
authorized to protect us. Our customs tariffs were dismantled
and our
markets, liberalized. Food products from elsewhere were
unloaded onto
our markets, making us even more vulnerable to price
volatility.
Eating habits changed in our cities; the food produced by
farming
families no longer sold. In West Africa this phenomenon was
aggravated by the advent of the West African Economic and
Monetary
Union (WAEMU) and its Common External Tariff, known as the
lowest
customs tariff in the world.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And yet none of
these “solutions” imposed on us pulled us out of poverty. On
the
contrary, we became even more vulnerable. This is the context
in
which family farming is asked to be successful.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today, we are
subjected to new challenges that are falling from the skies.
Climate
change, financial speculation, unpredictable international
markets,
new policies by developed countries that grab our land to
produce
fuels. We no longer hear anything about all of these issues,
even
though they lie at the heart of the volatility that is
currently
being discussed.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Instead of
addressing the causes of our poverty and of the volatility, we
have
seen complete catalogues of projects and programmes financed
in the
name of the rural sector. Billions of dollars are mobilized
every
year but the reality is that more than half of the farming
families
in most of our countries cannot find 1,000 dollars to pay for
a
plough, a couple of oxen, a cart or a donkey (see the study by
the
FAO on agricultural mechanization in Mali).</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The high panel
of
experts should be commissioned to study the efficiency of what
is
mobilized in the name of the poor. When several hundreds of
millions
of dollars are mobilized, how much makes it to the fields of
the poor
and of the women, who are so often mentioned? You would be
surprised
by the results of such a study. Or maybe not. Considering how
long
they have been mobilizing all these millions in our name, we
clearly
should have all been rich by now.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In spite of all
of
this, and without any aid, any protection whatsoever, and with
all
the powerful of the world against it, sustainable family
farming has
not disappeared.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately
we had
to suffer the current crisis for our governments to become
once again
aware of the necessity for food security based on food
production at
the national level. However, sustainable solutions are not yet
in
sight.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To solve the
problem
of price volatility, we the sustainable family farmers, with
the
support of other actors in civil society, believe that it is
necessary:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
← <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To give
priority
to our local markets and regional integration, rather than let
our
prices be dictated by remote and unpredictable international
markets.
This is the only solution that will enable us, family farmers,
to
feed ourselves, our communities and our cities.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
← <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To halt all
forms of competition between farmers and production modes with
a very
large disparity in productivity (the hoe against the tractor
plus the
subsidy is a tall order). One does not have the right to tell
us that
we will eat when we have become competitive.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
← <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To stop the
policies which are destabilizing our systems of sustainable
family
farming. In times of overproduction we suffer from dumping, in
times
of shortage we suffer from restrictions on the export of food
we have
been told to no longer produce.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
← <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our
governments
must aspire to policies that will pull us out of poverty and
destitution, protect our systems of sustainable family farming
from
volatile markets, and support us so that we can invest to feed
our
populations.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
← <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We know what
needs doing. Instruments exist to stabilize prices:
appropriate
customs tariffs, strategic stocks at different levels, the
management
of offer and demand, and regulations against speculators. In
the name
of whom is the World Trade Organization forbidding us from
doing
this?</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
← <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sustainable
family farmers, women and vulnerable groups in rural areas
must be
granted real access to the funds mobilized in their name so
they can
buy agricultural equipment, fertilizers</span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">and
seeds, and create value with their products so they can
finally begin
to live with dignity from their work.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.19in; margin-top: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To finish, I
want to
encourage each of you when we sit in front our plates of food
this
lunchtime, to meditate and recall that human beings are dying
of
hunger and malnutrition at this very moment because costly
meetings
are organized around their fate but without the actions that
could
save them being carried out. We can no longer wait.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-13878803768766865022011-10-28T15:20:00.002+02:002011-10-28T15:22:27.491+02:00Communiqué du CNCR à propos des événements à FanayeDakar, le 27 octobre 2011<br />
<br />
Au nom de ses membres et de tous les ruraux du Sénégal, le Conseil National de Concertation et de Coopération des Ruraux (CNCR) exprime sa profonde tristesse suite aux événements survenus à Fanaye le 26 octobre 2011. Dans cette tragique épreuve, nous présentons nos sincères condoléances aux familles touchées par les décès et témoignons aux blessés dans les affrontements ainsi qu’à leurs proches toute notre compassion et notre solidarité.<br />
<br />
Le CNCR est conscient de la sensibilité de la question foncière au Sénégal et demeure convaincu que les problèmes qu’elle pose ne sauraient se régler par la multiplication des affrontements au sein même de nos communautés locales.
C’est pourquoi, nous appelons l’État et les collectivités locales qui ont la charge de la gestion du foncier à éviter les décisions non concertées pouvant entrainer la discorde au sein des populations rurales.
<br />
<a name='more'></a>A ces dernières, nous demandons de recourir à la loi pour contester toute décision jugée inéquitable et infondée. Dans cette démarche qui bannit la violence, le CNCR sera toujours à leurs côtés pour la défense des intérêts des exploitations agricoles familiales et de toutes les populations rurales.
Le CNCR rappelle, que c’est à son initiative et par la mobilisation des forces vives du monde rural que le volet foncier extrêmement litigieux proposé en 2003 a finalement été retiré de la Loi d’orientation agro-sylvo-pastorale (LOASP promulguée en 2004.<br />
<br />
L’Etat s’était alors engagé à poursuivre et à faire aboutir une réforme foncière consensuelle dans un délai de 2 ans.
En dépit de cette volonté pacifique de traiter équitablement la question foncière, un nouveau projet de texte qui visait à créer de vastes zones d’investissements intensifs en immatriculant les terres au nom de l’Etat a été, en 2008, introduit par le Gouvernement du Sénégal. Le projet de texte stipulait que ces terres devaient être cédées à titre de bail, droit de superficie ou titre foncier, uniquement à des investisseurs capables de les mettre en valeur suivant un modèle d’entreprenariat agricole ou d’agrobusiness. Ce qui excluait forcément les exploitations agricoles familiales.
Cette vision du foncier nous a paru en divergence profonde avec la conception du développement agricole et rural telle que proposée dans la loi d’orientation agro-sylvo-pastorale (LOASP).<br />
<br />
C’est pour toutes ces raisons que le CNCR a vivement manifesté aux autorités son opposition à ce projet de texte.
Enfin, le CNCR souligne qu’il travaille actuellement à l’actualisation des propositions des exploitations agricoles familiales sur la question foncière en prenant soin d’y associer les élus locaux, les parlementaires, les services techniques de l’Etat et les universitaires.
Persuadé que seuls le dialogue et la concertation peuvent régler les divergences sur le foncier, le CNCR appelle l’État sénégalais à la plus grande vigilance et le prie de se mettre à l’écoute de la population rurale et des organisations qui représentent les exploitations agricoles familiales.<br />
<br />
Nous demandons à l’Etat du Sénégal, garant de la sécurité, de la justice et de l’équité, de prendre toutes les dispositions nécessaires pour qu’un autre Fanaye ne se reproduise et d’engager immédiatement un processus inclusif de réflexion sur la réforme foncière afin de mieux sécuriser et protéger les droits des populations locales.<br />
<br />
Les administrateurs du CNCRUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-83105931275763316902011-10-24T12:11:00.000+02:002011-10-28T15:27:49.621+02:00La Via Campesina au CSA: "Nous ne pouvons plus attendre"<a href="http://viacampesinaafrica.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"></a><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Contribution de Ibrahim Coulibaly sur la Volatilité des Prix Agricoles- CSA - 19 octobre 2011</span></h3>
Il y a près de quarante ans quand j’étais tout petit on ne parlait pas de volatilité. Je me rappelle encore que notre gouvernement donnait des charrues, des bœufs de labour, de l’engrais à crédit à nos parents. A l’époque il y avait un service public l’OPAM qui achetait les produits alimentaires aux familles paysannes à des prix connus d’avance.<br />
<br />
Il y a environ trente ans j’étais au collège on nous a dit que c’était mieux de produire pour les marchés extérieurs et nous avons commencé à entendre dans le discours de nos hommes politiques un terme « DETERIORATION DES TERMES DE L’ECHANGE » une véritable complainte à l’époque mais qui n’a eu d’écho nulle part. De quoi s’agissait-il ? En vérité les prix des produits agricoles d’exportation s’effondraient sur le marché international. Les gouvernements d’alors avaient certes commis l’erreur fatale de pousser les paysans à produire plus de produits d’exportation mais quand cela a mal tourné seuls les paysans ont payé le lourd tribu.<br />
<a name='more'></a>L’effondrement de nos économies et l’endettement public dans les années 1980 a amené la BM et le FMI à mettre nos pays sous ajustement structurel.<br />
On nous a dit alors que l’Etat était inefficace et que nous devions donner plus de place au privé. En même temps nos Etats étaient obligés de s’endetter encore plus pour rétablir les équilibres macro économiques. On nous a dit qu’il fallait couper tout soutien à l’agriculture paysanne qualifiée de non-performante, une véritable campagne de démolition contre cette agriculture a alors été engagée par la BM et ses alliés.<br />
<br />
On nous a dit de produire encore plus de produits de rentes pour l’exportation, comme le coton, café, arachides à des prix très bas fixés à l’extérieur. Avec ces devises on nous a dit d’acheter du riz d’Asie ou de la farine et du lait en poudre d’Europe, qui aujourd’hui sont devenus si volatiles. La descente aux enfers avait commencé pour les familles paysannes et pour nos Etats surendettés et incapables de payer.<br />
<br />
Puis on nous a dit de devenir compétitifs selon les critères des institutions financières internationales, et que nos Etats n'étaient plus autorisés de nous protéger. Tous nos tarifs douaniers ont été démantelés et nos marchés ont été libéralisés, des produits alimentaires venus d’ailleurs ont commencé à se déverser à bas prix sur nos marchés nous rendant encore plus vulnérables à la volatilité des prix. Les habitudes alimentaires ont changé dans les villes; les productions vivrières des familles paysannes ne pouvaient plus se vendre. Ce phénomène a été aggravé en Afrique de l’Ouest par l’avènement de l’UEMOA (Union économique et monétaire de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) et son Tarif Extérieur Commun connu pour être le tarif douanier le plus faible dans le monde.<br />
<br />
Mais aucune de ces « solutions » qui nous ont été imposées ne nous ont sortis de la pauvreté. Pire encore, on est devenus encore plus vulnérables. C’est dans un tel contexte que l’on demande à l’agriculture familiale d’être performante.<br />
<br />
Aujourd’hui on doit subir de nouveaux enjeux qui nous tombent du ciel. Le changement climatique, la spéculation financière, les marchés internationaux imprévisibles, de nouvelles politiques de pays développés qui nous accaparent nos terres pour faire des carburants.<br />
Mais par rapport a cela on ne nous dit plus rien. Pourtant ceci est au cœur de la volatilité dont on parle maintenant.<br />
<br />
Plutôt que de répondre aux causes de notre pauvreté et de la volatilité on a vu de véritables catalogues de projets et programmes financés au nom du secteur rural. Des milliards de dollars sont mobilisés chaque année mais la réalité est que plus de la moitié des familles paysannes dans la plupart de nos pays ne peuvent pas accéder à 1000 dollars pour se payer une charrue, une paire de bœufs, une charrette, un âne ( étude de la FAO sur la mécanisation agricole au Mali).<br />
<br />
Le haut panel d’experts devrait être mandaté pour faire une étude sur l’efficacité de qui est mobilisé au nom des pauvres (quand plusieurs centaines de millions de dollars sont mobilisés, combien arrivent dans les champs des pauvres, aux femmes dont on parle tant ?<br />
<br />
Vous serez étonnés des résultats d’une telle étude. Ou peut être pas du tout, parce que depuis le temps qu’on mobilise tous ces millions en notre nom, nous serions tous riches déjà.<br />
Malgré tout cela, sans aides d’aucune forme, sans aucune protection et avec tous les puissants du monde contre elle, l’agriculture paysanne n’a pas disparu.<br />
<br />
Malheureusement il a fallu la crise actuelle pour que nos gouvernements reprennent conscience de la nécessité de la sécurité alimentaire sur base de la production alimentaire au niveau national. Cependant les solutions durables se font attendre.<br />
<br />
Pour solutionner ce problème de volatilité de prix nous paysans, avec l’appui des autres acteurs de la société civile, pensons qu’il est nécessaire de ;<br />
<br />
← Donner la priorité à nos marchés locaux, à l intégration régionale, plutôt que de laisser nos prix se faire dicter par ces marchés internationaux lointains et imprévisibles. C’est la seule solution pour que nous, paysans, puissions nous nourrir ainsi que nos communautés et nos villes.<br />
← Il faut arrêter toutes les formes de compétition entre des agricultures et des modes de productions ayant de très grands écart de productivité (la houe contre le tracteur plus la subvention cela passe difficilement). On n’a pas de droit de nous dire qu’on mangera quand on sera compétitif.<br />
← Il faut arrêter ces politiques qui viennent déstabiliser nos agricultures paysannes. Quand il y a surproduction nous subissons le dumping, quand il y a pénurie nous subissons les restrictions des exportations pour l’alimentation qu’on nous a dit de ne plus produire.<br />
← Il faut que nos gouvernements aient l’ambition de politiques qui nous sortent de la pauvrette et de la misère, qu’ils protègent nos agricultures paysannes des marchés volatiles et nous soutiennent pour qu’on puisse investir pour nourrir nos populations.<br />
← On sait comment il faut faire, des instruments existent pour stabiliser les prix : des tarifs douaniers adaptés, des stocks stratégiques à différents niveaux, gérer l’offre et la demande, réguler contre les spéculateurs, … au nom de quel droit l’OMC nous interdit-il de le faire ?<br />
← Permettre aux paysans, aux femmes, aux groupes vulnérables en milieu rural d’accéder réellement aux fonds mobilisés en leur nom pour acheter du matériel agricole, des fertilisants, des semences, de créer de la valeur sur leurs produits afin qu’ils puissent commencer à vivre dignement de leur travail.<br />
<br />
Pour finir je voudrai inciter chacun d’entre nous de méditer quand nous allons nous asseoir devant nos plats de victuailles ce midi, de penser que des humains sont en train de mourir en ce moment même de faim ou de malnutrition parce que des réunions coûteuses sont organisés autour de leur sort sans que les actes qui pourraient les sauver ne soient posés. Nous ne pouvons plus attendre.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-53850577955979525022011-10-12T10:15:00.002+02:002011-10-12T16:19:35.729+02:00LPM announces direct actions to reclaim land and social justice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpx3N0nB6s9SvxW-VYUrouXOvEmi7s-JL1drOFwhUr6nAE01-7h3UZlUM954YvIUkMVZR0uRogZFtqjzUyq-sQ0IumWzNXe9VBLlGgtemTAzqwX_uQnIb1Y9Z15uV7DuK8kDFTlxNKLNE/s1600/P1010052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpx3N0nB6s9SvxW-VYUrouXOvEmi7s-JL1drOFwhUr6nAE01-7h3UZlUM954YvIUkMVZR0uRogZFtqjzUyq-sQ0IumWzNXe9VBLlGgtemTAzqwX_uQnIb1Y9Z15uV7DuK8kDFTlxNKLNE/s320/P1010052.JPG" border="0" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:medium;"><b><i><span class="il">Media</span> <span class="il">release</span></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">(Johannesburg, 16<sup>th</sup> September 2011) - TheLandless People´s Movement of South Africa, a social movement of rural people and peopleliving in shack settlements in cities, announces the revival of the massstruggle for land and agrarian reform, after a moment of apparent silence.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Themovement announced this intention in a press conference held in Johannesburg onthe 16<sup>th</sup> September.<br /><a name='more'></a>As the situation of rural and urban poor and the state ofland and agrarian reform is not showing significant changes in South Africa,LPM decides to carry out direct and concrete actions in order to reclaim landand social justice.</div><div class="MsoNormal">According to Africa Mthombeni, LPM chairperson, in the lastyears the movement has seen massive poverty both in rural and urban areas, asthe redistribution of wealth and public resource has been made unfairly,benefiting few people in South Africa.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“We will not remain <span lang="EN">peaceful,silent and</span><span lang="EN"> hoping that things will fall from the sky. We will have to act. One of the things wewill do, is considering to encourage land occupation”, announces Edwin MohlahloLPM Secretary General, who added “</span>we can not have new apartheid in SouthAfrica. The land distribution has been characterized by corruption and nepotism.So, the land occupation program might be the answer”.<span lang="EN"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“In my province rural people applied to get land in 2006 butthere is nothing coming from the Government, up to now. They (the Government)just call us to the meetings but we never get support”, said Tandiwe MakinaneLPM member in Easter Cape. <span lang="EN"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Green paper on LandReform is insignificant </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">LPM says that the 2011 green paper on Land Reform does notmake a fundamental break with market-based land reform. It represents abackward step for the landless people in South Africa as it even legitimizesdispossession.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">For example, it talks about Food Sovereignty, withoutdefining it. One of the pillars of Food Sovereignty is that the landless,small-scale farmers are the most important actors in the production and havethe right to definetheir own food, agriculture and livestock systems in opposition to Industrial Agriculture,which is the priority of the South African Government. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even if it is a good step, the Green Paper intends tointegrate land reform on the Industrial Agriculture system, just to accommodateagribusiness interests.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">LPMcalls all landless, small scale farmers, rural and urban poor for mobilizationon a mass scale to force changes in order to achieve genuine agrarian reform,agro-ecology production and a food system based on the needs of the people. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Climate Change andCOP 17</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The LandlessPeoples Movement and La Via Campesina are mobilizing for the 17th Conference ofthe Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (UNFCCC) that will take place in Durban, South Africa, from 28 Novemberto 9 December 2011.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Aspeasants, small holders and family farmers, who today produce the vast majorityof food consumed on this planet, members of the LPM as well as small scalefarmers of the world are being placed in danger, as temperatures rise, plantingdates become unpredictable and there are ever more severe droughts, hurricanesand monsoons. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yetlandless and peasants also offer the most important, clear andscientifically-proven solutions to climate change through localizedagroecological production of food by small holder farmers under the FoodSovereignty paradigm.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">LPM is a member of the International Movement of Peasant andrural people, La Via Campesina (LVC). The goal of LVC is to bring change in thecountryside, that improves livelihoods enhances local production for localconsumption. It also opens up democratic spaces that empower the people of theland with a great role, position and stake in decision-making on issues thathave an impact on their lives.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-35109826284951999972011-10-12T10:10:00.004+02:002011-10-12T16:21:04.914+02:00October: a month of international mobilisation!<div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="Courier New"; font-family:";font-size:14pt;" lang="FR" ></span></i></b>Global days of action mark the month of October, when social movements around the world take to the streets to protest against a system based on the oppression of peoples, and particularly of women and the environment. <span lang="EN-US"></span> </div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">This journey of struggle against capitalism, was agreed upon at the Social Assembly Movements during the 2011 World Social Forum held in Dakar, Senegal (read the Assembly declaration below). <a href="http://viacampesinaafrica.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-month-of-international.html#more"><b><span style="color:orange;"></span></b></a></span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">The choice of October 12th was a symbolic one. This is the date that marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas (in 1492) and one of the dates marking the beginning of the “Modern Age”, of the rise of capitalist “civilization”. In the Americas, it is the day of indigenous resistance, in defense of the rights of nature, on which the cry of the excluded – across the continent – has been celebrated since the 1990s.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Besides that, this day is right in the middle of a whole series of key action dates for social movements around the world (for women, trade unions, farmers, indigenous peoples, against debt, etc.), running from October 7th to 17th, including:</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US">7th October:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> World Day for Decent Work</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US">8th – 16th October:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Week of Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions (IFIs)</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US">12th October</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Day of action against capitalism / Global day in defense of Mother Earth / Cry of the Excluded (Latin America)</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US">15th October</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: International Day of Rural Women / Anniversary of Thomas Sankara’s murder, symbol of the African anticolonial struggle / International actions for real democracy now!</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US">16th October:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> World Food Sovereignty Day</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US">17th October</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">On this journey, the different movements are invited to link their existing actions, relating to their own situations and priorities in national level, to a common framework, in order to make this international anti-establishment struggle more concrete and visible.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Let's take advantage of these moments to organize and join in the actions, combining debate and action! We know that many organizations are already planning to take part in or organizing activities and demonstrations within the month of October.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Please send us your calls to action, news and images to this email: </span><a href="mailto:asamblea.assembly@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;">asamblea.assembly@gmail.com</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> so we can make them visible at the blog:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/anticapitalistjourney" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;">https://sites.google.com/site/<wbr>anticapitalistjourney</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">In solidarity and struggle !</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">CADTM Internacional</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">CADTM Network Africa</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES">Cebrapaz</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES">COMPA - Convergencia de movimientos de los pueblos de América</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">CUT – Central Única de Trabajadores / Brasil</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">GGJ – Grassroots Global Justice</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">HSA – Hemispheric Social Alliance</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Jubilee South/Americas</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Via Campesina</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">WMW - World March of Women<br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /> <br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">Declaration of the Social Movements Assembly - WSF 2011, February 10th, Dakar (Senegal) </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">■ ■ ■</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">As the Social Movements Assembly of the World Social Forum of Dakar, 2011, we are gathered here to affirm the fundamental contribution of Africa and its peoples in the construction of human civilisation. Together, the peoples of all the continents are struggling mightily to oppose the domination of capital, hidden behind illusory promises of economic progress and political stability. Complete decolonization for oppressed peoples remains for us, the social movements of the world, a challenge of the greatest importance.<br /> <br /> We affirm our support for and our active solidarity with the people of Tunisia, Egypt and the Arab world who have risen up to demand a true democracy and build the people´s power. Their struggles are lighting the path to another world, free from oppression and exploitation.<br /> <br /> We strongly affirm our support for the Ivory Coast, African and world peoples in their struggles for sovereign and participatory democracy. We defend the right to self-determination for all peoples and people’s collective rights.<br /> Through the WSF process, the Social Movements Assembly is the place where we come together through our diversity, in order to forge common struggles and a collective agenda to fight against capitalism, patriarchy, racism and all forms of discrimination.<br /> <br /> We are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Social Forum, which was first held in Porto Alegre in 2001. Since that time, we have built a common history of work which led to some progress, particularly in Latin America, where we have been able to intervene in neoliberal alliances and to create several alternatives for just development that truly honor nature.<br /> <br /> In these ten years, we have also witnessed the eruption of a systemic crisis that has expanded into a food crisis, an environmental crisis, and financial and economic crises, and has led to an increase in migrations and forced displacement, exploitation, debt levels and social inequities.<br /> <br /> We denounce the part played by the main actors in the system (banks, transnational companies, the mass media, international institutions, …) who, in their constant quest for maximum profits, continue with their interventionist politics of war, military occupation, so-called humanitarian missions, new military bases, plundering natural resources, exploitation of entire peoples, and ideological manipulation. We also denounce their attempts to co-opt our movements through their funding of social sectors that serve their interests, and we reject their methods of assistance which generate dependence.<br /> <br /> Capitalism´s destructive force impacts every aspect of life itself, for all the peoples of the world. Yet each day we see new movements rise, struggling to reverse the ravages of colonialism and to achieve well-being and dignity for all. We declare that we, the people, will no longer bear the costs of their crisis and that, within capitalism, there is no escape from this crisis. This only reaffirms the need for us, as social movements, to come together to forge a common strategy to guide our struggles against capitalism.<br /> <br /> *<b>We fight against transnational corporations </b>because they support the capitalist system, privatize life, public services and common goods such as water, air, land, seeds and mineral resources. Transnational corporations promote wars through their contracts with private corporations and mercenaries ; their extractionist practices endanger life and nature, expropriating our land and developing genetically modified seeds and food, taking away the peoples’ right to food and destroying biodiversity.<br /> <br /> We demand that all people should enjoy full soverignty in choosing their way of life. We demand the implementation of policies to protect local production, to give dignity to agricultural work and to protect the ancestral values of life. We denounce neoliberal free-trade treaties and demand freedom of movement for all the human beings.<br /> <br /> We will continue to mobilize to ask for the unconditional abolition of public debt in all the countries in the South. We also denounce, in the countries of the North, the use of public debt to impose to unfair policies that degrade the social welfare state.<br /> <br /> When the G8 and G20 hold their meetings, let us mobilize across the world to tell them, No ! We are not commodities! We will not be traded !<br /> <br /> <b>*We fight for climate justice and food sovereignty. </b>Global climate change is a product of the capitalist system of production, distribution and consumption. Transnational corporations, international financial institutions and governments serving them do not want to reduce greenhouse gases. We denounce ¨green capitalism ¨ and refuse false solutions to the climate crisis such as biofuels, genetically modified organisms and mechanisms of the carbon market like REDD, which ensnare impoverished peoples with false promises of progress while privatizing and commodifying the forests and territories where these peoples have been living for thousands of years.<br /> <br /> We defend the food sovereignty and the agreement reached during the Peoples’ Summit against Climate Change, held in Cochabamba, where true alternatives to face the climate crisis were built with the social movements and organisations from worldwide.<br /> <br /> Let’s mobilize, all of us, especially on the African continent, during the COP 17 in Durban in South Africa and in « Rio +20 » in 2012, to reassert the peoples’ and nature’s rights and block the illegitimate Cancun Agreement.<br /> We support sustainable peasant agriculture ; it is the true solution to the food and climate crises and includes access to land for all who work on it. Because of this, we call for a mass mobilisation to stop the landgrab and support local peasants struggles.<br /> <br /> <b>*We fight against violence against women, </b>often conducted in militarily occupied territories, but also violence affecting women who are criminalized for taking part in social struggles. We fight against domestic and sexual violence perpetrated on women because they are considered objects or goods, because the sovereignty of their bodies and minds is not acknowledged. We fight against the trade in women, girls and boys. We call on everyone to mobilize together, everywhere in the world, against violence against women. We defend sexual diversity, the right to gender self-determination and we oppose all homophobia and sexist violence.<br /> <br /> <b>*We fight for peace and against war, colonialism, occupations and the militarization of our lands. </b><br /> The imperialist powers use military bases to trigger conflicts, control and plunder natural resources, and support anti-democratic initiatives, as they did with the coup in Honduras and the military occupation of Haiti. They promote wars and conflicts as in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many others.<br /> <br /> We must intensify the fight against repression and the criminalisation of the people’s struggles and strengthen the solidarity and initiatives between peoples, such as the Global Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel. Our struggle also aims at NATO and to ban all nuclear weapons.<br /> <br /> Each of these struggles implies a battle of ideas in which we cannot progress without democraticizing communication. We affirm that it is possible to build another kind of globalization, made from and by the people, and with the essential participation of the youth, the women, the peasants and indigenous peoples.<br /> <br /> <b>The Assembly of the Social Movements calls the forces and popular actors from all countries to develop two major mobilisations, coordinated on the international level, to participate in the emancipation and selfdetermination of the people and strengthen the struggle against capitalism. </b><br /> <br /> Inspired by the struggles of the peoples of Tunisia and Egypt, we call for <b>March 20th</b> to be made a day of international solidarity with the uprisings of the Arab and African people, whose every advance supports the struggles of all peoples: the resistance of the Palestinian and Saharian peoples; European, Asian and African mobilisations against debt and structural adjusment plans ; and all the processes of change underway in Latin America.<br /> <br /> We also call for a Global Day of Action Against Capitalism on <b>October 12th</b>, when we express in myriad ways our rejection of a system that is destroying everything in its path.<br /> <br /> Social movements of the world, let us advance towards a global unity to shatter the capitalist system!<br /> <br /> </span>We shall prevail!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>--<br /><b><i><span style="color:green;">La Via Campesina</span></i></b><span style="color:green;"><br /> </span>Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.<b><i><br /></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515980802812174198.post-59651875621788188152011-10-12T09:47:00.000+02:002011-10-24T15:24:25.162+02:00La Via Campesina: Call to Durban<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;"><i><b>Peasant and indigenous people have thousands of solutions to confront climate change!</b></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;"><i><b> </b><b>La Via Campesina calls on social movements and all people to mobilize around the world </b></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The international peasant's movement La Via Campesina and its South African member the Landless Peoples Movement are mobilizing for the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will take place in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 9 December 2011.<a href="http://viacampesinaafrica.blogspot.com/2011/10/la-via-campesina-call-to-durban.html#more"><b style="color: orange;"></b></a><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Caravans of African farmers from Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and other countries will reach Durban to join other farmers and social movements from all parts of the world to demand climate justice.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">African women farmers, members of La Via Campesina, will participate in the 2<sup>nd</sup> Southern Africa <b>Rural Women Assembly,</b> from November 30 to December 2, in Durban (co-organized by la Via Campesina Africa 1, TCOE, Women on Farms Project, Lamosa, ESAFF, UNAC, Namibian National Farmers Union, among others).</div><br />La Via Campesina will also take part in the <b>Global Day of Action on December 3,</b> with thousands of other activists to demand climate justice.<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>La Via Campesina and other African food and farmers groups in Africa are also inviting all movements, allies and activists to a special Mobilization Day for Agroecology and Food sovereignty on December 5 in Durban and around the world. (co-organised by </b><b><span lang="ES">ESAFF regional, ESAFF Uganda, ESAFF Zimbabwe, ROPPA, TCOE, Surplus People Project, etc.)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Climate negotiations are turned into a market place.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">At COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico, most of the world’s governments, with the notable exception of Bolivia, met not to seriously address climate, but rather do business with transnational corporations that traffic in false solutions to climate change like REDD and other carbon market mechanisms, agrofuels and GMOs. They have turned the climate negotiations into a huge market place. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Our governments accepted a “business as usual” framework that condemns Africa and South Asia to virtual incineration, in which the very first victims are the farmers of these two continents, as rising temperatures create an even more hostile environment for crops, livestock and human beings. Most governments ignored the Cochabamba Principles, which provide a clear framework for seriously addressing global warming and protecting the Earth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Under the UNFCCC, Developed Countries and polluting corporations, historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, are allowed all possible tricks to avoid reducing their own emissions. For example, the carbon market and carbon offset mechanisms allow countries and companies to continue polluting and consuming as usual, while paying small amounts of money to help poor people in developing countries reduce their emissions. What actually occurs is that companies profit doubly: by continuing to contaminate and by selling false solutions. Meanwhile, under REDD, poor people are stripped of many of their multiple rights to use communal forest lands, even as new land-grabbers emerge to consolidate large tracts by evicting farmers in order to traffic in carbon credits.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">We know that the keys sources of climate-altering emissions are the globalized corporate food system based on industrial agriculture for export and for agrofuels, a transportation system based on private automobiles instead of public transport, and the polluting industries of transnational corporations. Without real and enforceable commitments to transform this, , there is no hope to prevent the virtual incineration of our farm lands and ability to feed the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">We are peasants, small holders and family farmers, who today produce the vast majority of food consumed on this planet. We, and the food we produce, are being placed in danger, as temperatures rise, planting dates become unpredictable and there are ever more severe droughts, hurricanes and monsoons. Yet we also offer the most important, clear and scientifically-proven solutions to climate change through localized agroecological production of food by small holder farmers under the Food Sovereignty paradigm.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The global food system currently generates at least 44% of all greenhouse gas emissions, through long-distance transport of food that could easily have been grown locally, by excessive use of petroleum and petroleum-based agrochemical inputs, by monoculture, and by forest clearing for the industrial plantations we call “green deserts.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">We can drastically reduce or even eliminate these emissions by transforming the food system based on food sovereignty, i.e. producing locally for local consumption, a diverse production based on peasant families and communities, with sustainable practices</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Agroecology is Not for Sale!</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">We reject any attempt to extend the carbon market and offset mechanisms of REDD to soil carbon, even when this comes dressed up by the World Bank as support for small farmer agroecology or “Climate Smart Agriculture,” because:</div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Just as in the case of REDD for forests, the carbon in our soil will essentially become the property of polluting corporations in the North. This amounts to the sale and privatization of our carbon. “Our Carbon in Not for Sale”!</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">The voluntary soil carbon market will be just another space for financial speculation, and while farmers receive pennies, speculators will make any real profits.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">This is just another way for polluting industries and countries to evade real reductions in emissions.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">It is also a way to divert attention from the massive carbon emissions produced by industrial farming and agribusiness, especially in the North, and place the burden of reducing emissions on peasants in the South, while nothing is done about carbon emissions from industrial agriculture.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">If we as farmers sign a soil carbon agreement we lose autonomy and control over our farming systems. Some bureaucrat on the other side of the world, who knows nothing about our soil, rainfall, slope, local food systems, family economy, etc., will decide what practices we should use or not use. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Agroecology provides a wealth of benefits to the environment and farmer livelihoods, but by reducing the value of agroecology practices to the value of the carbon sequestered, not only are these other benefits devalued, but it can create perverse incentives to alter the agroecological practices (and opens the door to technologies like GMOs) to only maximize carbon rather than provide all the other benefits of agroecology.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;"> It is inseparable from the neoliberal trend to convert absolutely everything (land, air, biodiversity, culture, genes, carbon, etc.) into <i>capital</i>, which in turn can be placed in some kind of speculative market.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">If the currently low value of soil carbon were to rise on the speculative market, this could generate new land grabbing to charge soil carbon credits, as land consolidation is a prerequisite for making soil carbon credits profitable.</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>How peasant's agriculture <i>Should</i> be Supported by Public Policy</b></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Support farmer-to-farmer training programs administered by farmer organizations</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Support the agroecology training schools of farmer organizations</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">End all open and hidden subsidies to industrial farming</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Ban GMOs and dangerous farm chemicals</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Offer production credit to small farmers who produce agroecologically</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Direct government food procurement for hospitals, schools, etc., toward buying ecological food at fair prices from peasant farmers</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Support ecological farmer’s markets for direct sale to consumers</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Transform agronomy curricula to emphasize agroecology and farmer-to-farmer methodology</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Create fair price incentives for locally produced ecological food</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">Etc.</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Commitments of La Via Campesina</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">While we make many legitimate and urgent demands on our governments to seriously address climate change, we pledge to continue to build agroecology and Food Sovereignty from below. We pledge to take the following practical steps:</div><ol style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">We continue to strengthen the movement of agroecology in the grassroots level to adapt to changing climate patterns. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">We will work to “keep carbon in the ground and in trees” in the areas under our control, by promoting agroforestry, tree planting, agroecology, energy conservation, and by fighting land grabs for mining and industrial plantations.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">We will engage and pressure governments at all levels to adopt food sovereignty as the solution to the climate change.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">We will fight the inclusion of peasant agriculture in carbon financing mechanisms. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">We will continue our struggle for agrarian reform to distribute land to family farmers and to oppose all forms of land grabbing. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0cm; text-align: justify;">We will build a powerful smallholder farmer and peasant voice to be present with other sectors of civil society at COP-17 in Durban, and at Rio +20 in Brazil, with the message that we oppose false solutions to climate change and demand the adoption of the Cochabamba Principles. We will insist on Small Holder Sustainable Agriculture and Food Sovereignty as the most important true solutions to climate change.</li></ol><div class="MsoNormal"><b>No to Climate Land Grabbing!</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Our Carbon is Not for Sale!</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Peasant agriculture is Not for Sale!</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Agroecological Production by Small Farmers Cools the Planet!</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Globalize the Struggle! Globalize Hope!</b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com