well being, biodiversity, post-2015 agenda, by ashish kothari

Well-being, Biodiversity, and the Post-2015 Agenda

Ashish Kothari

Kalpavriksh and ICCA Consortium

Today’s vision of ‘development’

Violence against nature, people, and cultures

Are there alternatives?

Resistance …

… is part of the alternative

Transformative frameworks of well-being(small sample …)

Buen vivir / sumak kawsay (“living well”, South America)

Swaraj (“self-rule”) / Radical ecological democracy (South Asia)

Happiness (Bhutan)

Ubuntu (“compassion/humanism”) (S. Africa)

Degrowth / Solidarity economies (Europe / N. America)

Recipe for transformational alternatives:

Ingredient 1. A NEW POLITICS

Swaraj“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi, we are the government in our village”

Ingredient 2.

A NEW ECONOMICS OF PERMANENCE*

Earthshastra: Economics as if the earth mattered

* JC Kumarappa

Ingredient 3. A JUST SOCIETY

When people go hungry, it is not food but justicethat is in short

supply

Ingredient 4. WAYS OF KNOWING

Diverse knowledges, diverse cultures

Hey, don’t forget the spices!

Values & principles….

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

• Self-reliance for basics

• Cooperation, solidarity, the ‘commons’

• Rights with responsibilities

• Dignity of labour & respect of subsistence

• Qualitative pursuit of happiness

• Equity & social justice

• Simplicity, ‘enoughness’ (aparigraha)

• Respect for all life forms

(add your own spices…)

Well-being in the Post-2015 Agenda

Some elements of sustainability, equity, justice, state responsibilities … but

Continued faith in economic growth & linear notions of progress

Soft approach to private corporations

No radical rethinking on political power structures (local to global)

Indigenous / community worldviews missing

Reform vs. transformation: co-option of well-being notions into ‘sustainable development’ (e.g. UNEP publication on L. American development strategies & green economy)

Can the CBD help push the envelope?

May be too late, but what could still help …

Strong message on integrating full vision of CBD / Strategic Plan

Precedence of participatory processes

Some national policy changes based on CBD

Peoples’ movements of resistance and reconstruction are the biggest hope … when the ‘followers’ lead, the

‘leaders’ follow…

for more information:

http://radicalecologicaldemocracy.wordpress.com

www.alternativesindia.org

www.kalpavriksh.org

chikikothari@gmail.com