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
