one earth, two worlds

8/7/2019 One Earth, Two Worlds

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One Earth,two worldsEveryone agrees that the environment isimportant, is under threat, and must besaved. There is less consensus abou t how tosave the environment, about what thethreats are, and about how to balance savingthe environment against other importantobjectives. It is not even clear what peoplemean when they say the word en vironme nt.

People in this country an d o ther relativelyrich, industrialised countries (what manypeople call the North) think of the en-vironment in connection with problems likeair pollution, global warming, acid rain,holes in the ozone layer, and the loss of wild-life habitats to develop men t, especially road -building . If people in the North ever think ofthe environment in the South (the poorcountries of the world, also known as theThird World) they probably think of thedestruction of the rainforests and theconsequences for the indigenous people andwild creatures living in those forests.

Trag ic as the fate of the rainforest dwellersis, they are only one group of people facingmajor environmental problems or threats inthe South. Th ere are many more:- people living in shanty-towns without anyof the services we take for granted, andwithout even legal rights to live the re; people in rural areas without land tofarm; people who live by herding animals,pushed by their more powerful neigh-bours on to land w ithout sufficient grazing; people whose homes and farmland arethreatened with destruction as a result of

massive projects like dams; people farming on exhausted soils whichare vulnerable to erosion as a result ofover-cropping and deforestation; people whose fishing gro und s no longerprovide them with a living; people living in low-lying coastal areaswho face disaster if the sea-level risesbecause of global warm ing.This book is about those people, andmany others. They are poor. And they arestruggling to defend themselves and theirenvironment.

ContentsPart One: Poverty and environment

in the SouthUnder pressureBorrowing from our childrenHands and mouthsGlobal problems, local solutionsPart Two: People as planet managersA sea of troublesWater and rightsSeeds of hopeFreeing tradeNurturing enterpriseWhere credit's dueLiving with disasterActing locally, thinking globallyPart Three: The role of the NorthOne Earth, two worldsNorthern blightsWe make the rulesIt is better to light single candle than to

curse the darkness

Above: Map of theworld showingcountries in whichOxfam works (darkgrey) and the broaddivision betweenThe North an d TheSouth.

This edition Oxfam (UK and Ireland) 1995. The central colour section firstappeared in the revised and extended edition of The Gaia Alias of Planet Management.published by Gaia Books Ltd in 1993. All rights reserved including the right ofreproduction in whole or in part in any form.Published by Oxfam (UK and Ire land), 274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZ.Oxfam is a registered charity no. 202918.Cover photogra phy by Jame s Hawkins/Oxfam (left) and |eremy llartley/Oxfam (right)

This book converted to digital file in 2010


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Under pressurePoor people have every reason to protecttheir own environment. They depend uponit more directly than the rich, and are moreimmediately affected by its destruction ordeterioration. But environments in theSouth rural and urban, forests and watercourses and seas are under pressure, veryoften from the poorest people, because theyin turn are under pressure.Th at pressure takes many forms.Many people are under the pressure ofhaving no alternative. A farmer may wellknow, from long experience and carefulmonitoring of her crops, that to grow one

more crop on exhausted soils may be to losethe soil itself with th e n ext heavy rainfall. B utif her alternative is no cro p at all, what is she todo? Millions of farmers and herders arepushed on to marginal land because the bestland has been taken by the rich and powerful,often to grow cash crops for export. Millionsare landless labourers, and must carry outwhatever farming practices their employersdecide: using fertilisers and pesticides whichdamage the environment, and sometimestheir own health, for instance. Th ere are twobillion landless people in the South.

Refugees and displaced people often b earvery heavily on the environm ent aro und thecamps to which they have fled often incountries as poor as those they have left.Some camps, such as those in Tanzania andZaire to which Rwandan refugees fled in1994, have populations in the hundreds ofthousands suddenly located in what werepreviously sparsely-populated areas. Thepeople need wood for building, andfirewood for cooking and warmth. Soonther e are n o trees left.Others are trying to defend themselvesand their local environments against pres-sures from outside. Th e imm ediate pressuremay come from local elites. Pressures takemany forms: logging rainforest, mining,fishing, industrial development that pollutesthe surrounding area, or hydro-electricschemes that flood valleys and displace theirinhabitants.The motive may be profit for the elite, ora misguided notion of 'development', or amixture of the two. Often the local powersare acting under pressure, in turn, from theNorth. There is a pull and a push. TheNorth imports and consumes the products timber, beef, iron ore, shrimp s... And theNorth exports money to finance bigschemes, and also exports a concept ofdevelopment which justifies those schemes:a concept which includes limitless economicgrowth, free markets, and top-down,'expert' decision-making.Powerful institutions in the North likegovernments and transnational companies,and powerful international institutions like


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the European Union, United Nations,World Bank, and International MonetaryFund, which are dominated by Northerngovernments, are behind much of thepressure that directly or indirectly affects theenvironments of the South and the peoplewho live ther e.Often the role of the No rth is much moredirect. Industrial processes which are toopolluting by Northern standards are trans-ferred to Southern countries with fewerrestrictions. Products such as pesticides,banned in the North, are sold in the South.Th e crud est examp le of all is No rthe rn toxicwaste, which has been ex porte d to the South.Poor people are forced into damagingtheir own environment, or are unable todefend it against damage caused by outsidepressures, because to be poor is to bepowerless.

Spraying pesticide, Nicaragua Mike Goldwatcr/Oxfam

The dam that killedthe peach treesGeorge Raku oane lost his orch ard when a road was built overit to service the new Katse Dam in Lesotho. The project,backed by aid from the World Bank, the European Union,and the British government, employs over 2,500 people, andhopes to bring prosperity and opportunities as well aselectricity to many thousands more. George was given threesaplings for each of his 15 peach trees, and about 5 00 for thethre e years while the trees ma ture d. B ut he had n o land left toplant the saplings on, so they died."Maybe my grandc hildre n will see the rew ards, but for theold like me, the project has brought only suffering. Theproject doesn't know how to work with the community. If wehad been consulted, things could have been better." Big damprojects all over the South create many problems, especiallydisplacement of people, and Oxfam often works with thevictims to get proper compensation.


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Borrowing fromour childrenAre poor people caught between the deviland the dee p blue sea? Do they only have twooptions: to remain p oor, or to be 'developed'in ways that damage their environment andin some cases make them destitute?There is a third alternative: sustainabledevelopment. It has been defined as "devel-opment that meets the needs of the presentwithout compromising the ability of futuregenerations to meet their own needs" ormore simply "we do not inherit the worldfrom our parents, we borrow it from ourchildren".Fine words; but how to put them intopractice? For a start, by recognising thattraditional ways of life are usually sustain-able. Development will be sustainable if poor

people are involved in decision-making.They know their own environmen t best, andwill not knowingly damage it. They knowtheir own problems and needs, and will notaccept a developm ent plan that doe sn't solvetheir problems and meet their needs. Theyknow what they are capable of, and whatextra skills and resources they will need tomake a better life for themselves and theirchildren.

Helping people to look after theirenvironment really means helping them toescape from their poverty. No-one can beexpected to think abou t next year or the nextgeneration if there is no food on the tabletoday. At the grass-roots level, tacklingpoverty and protecting the environment gotogether because both depe nd on empower-ing poor people. That means helping themto claim their rights, make their voicesheard, and make their own decisionsinvolving everyone in the community.Top /^//.Training session for farmers.Top right:Using the levelling device to plotcontours.Bottom left: Planting tree seedlings behind thediguettes.Bottom right:An increased harvest, after all the

hard work.


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Diguettes for victoryIf a farming family lose their soil, theybecome destitute. That was what thousandsof families faced in the Sahel area ofBurkina Faso. This area is very dry but,ironically, most of the soil is lost when asudden downpour washes soil away.

It wasn't always like that. BoureimaSawadogo, 92 years old, remembers when"the seasons were good and the harvest wasabundant".As so often with en vironme ntal problems,the causes were many: population growth,changing patterns of land tenure, defores-tation, and long periods of dro ugh t that weredisastrous even by the standards of the Sahel.Tried and tested ways of surviving justweren't working and the future looked bleak.The solution is wonderfully simple.Building barriers across the direction of flowof the rainwater slows it down. The waterseeps into the soil rather than washing itaway. Trees and crops grown behind thebarriers p rosp er. Th er e is water in the wells.The cycle of environmental decline is notjust halted it is reversed.Building the barriers lines of stonesknown as diguettes is not as simple as itmight sound. The land is nearly flat, so it ishard to place the diguettes exactly along thecontour lines. If the diguettes aren't quite inline, water flows round the end of them, sothey don 't work properly.

Will Ciitcliley/Oxlam

Enter Oxfam's Projet Agro-Forestier (PAF).As its nam e suggests, PAF started by trying toencourage tree planting. The farmers weremore interested in increasing cereal yields.As Halidou Compoare explains: "It's notthat we don 't appr eciate the value of trees ...but if I die from hu ng er, who is going to lookafter the trees I have planted?" Or assomeone else put it: "We have two thorns:one in the foot and the othe r in the backside.Help us remove the on e in our backside first.Then we can sit down to remove the oneunder our foot ourselves."

Whether you grow crops, trees, or both,you have to get the diguettes lined upproperly. The breakthrough was a simplelevelling device based on planks and a see-through plastic tube filled with water, thatcould be made and used by farmers after atwo-day training course.And the diguettes work! In the words offarmer M ahama G uiro: "The land which wasonce ba re is now full of life."


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Hands and m outhsMany people in the North, and some in theSouth, see the major environmentalproblem facing the South as the size andgrowth of the population. The argument isthat since people and their activities causeenvironmental damage, more people causemo re dam age. So the best way to protect theenvironment is to halt the rate of popula tiongrowth.Population growth, poverty, andenvironmental problems are interlinked, butthe relationship is complex. A child born in arich country will do far more damage to theenviron men t dur ing his or her lifetime than achild born in a poor co untry, because peoplein rich countries use up far more of theworld's natural resources.Similarly, a child born into a communitywhich has benefited from sustainabledevelopment will do less harm to theenvironment than a child born into a poorand powerless family.This is not to say that p opulation growth isnot a problem for the environment, andfor women. It is a problem for women whohave more children than they would like, orhave their children too close together. Oxfambelieves that it is the right of individuals,particularly of women, to be able to choosethe number of children they want, when tohave them, and when to stop having them.The best way for people to get a safe birth

Working children in Bangladesh (above) and Cambodia (below).


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os

Peace, Emmanuel, and Oxfam-trained volunteer midwife Pauline, Bufuka, Uganda. Pauline advised Peace on nutrition duringher pregnancy, and made sure Emmanuel got his vaccinations.

plan ning service with dignity is throu gh basichealth programmes grounded on anunderstanding of people's needs.Oxfam is particularly concerned that theuptake of birth planning services be volun-tary; experience has shown that coercivebirth-control programmes, as well as beingmorally unacceptab le, are often unsuccessful.Poverty is related to population growth inseveral ways. Many people see children notjust as extra mouths, but as extra hands tohelp the family earn enough to survive.Children who survive into adult-hood areoften the only security in old age. In thislight, high child-mortality rates can be seenas a reason to have more children. Becauseof these links, targeting contraceptive use isonly effective if it is part of a poverty-reduction programme of sustainable devel-opment including the empowerment ofwomen. The Indian state of Kerala has abirth rate one third lower than the nationalaverage throu gh just such a strategy.

W hat are we waiting for?We have known for many years that three simple andaffordable mea sures would help wom en to plan their families: make contrace ption available to those who want it; educate girls, because experience shows that better-educated women are more likely to have smaller and morewidely-spaced families and healthier children; keep children healthy, because the strongest argum ent forfamily p lann ing is a healthy to ddler .These simple things basic rights are beyond the wildestdrea ms of millions. An estimated 100 million women in the developing worldwould use contraceptives if they could get them. A

consequence of the unmet need is the huge number ofillegal abortions estimated at 50-70 million per year andmostly in developing countries. Of the 300 million children in the South no t in school, two-thirds are girls. Every year thirteen million babies do not survive their firstyear; two-thirds of these death s could be prev ented by basichealth care.


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Global problem sEvery year an area of land equivalent tothe size of Ireland is turned into desert.If destruction continues at currentlevels, almost a fifth of the Earth's cropland will have disappeared by the year2000.Every year an area of tropical forest thesize of England and Scotland is cleared.Every year 24 billion tonnes of topsoil islost by erosion .Thirty per cent of all existing plant andanimal species are threatened withextinction o ver the n ext 40 years.Throughout the world, health is serious-ly threatened by water polluted withhuman and industrial waste. Onequarter of the world's population has noclean drink ing w ater.If present levels of carbon dioxideemissions continue, global temperaturescould rise 1C by 2025, a rate greaterthan at any time in the last 10,000 years.In Bangladesh and Egypt alone, 50million people could be made homelessby flooding caused by rising sea levels.Twelve to fourteen million peop le in theSouth have already had to abandontheir homes because of environmentaldegradation.Eighteen million people are refugees,and a further 24 million are displacedwithin their own countries.

... local solutionsSeeing the environmental problems ofthe South in the context of poverty mean sthat sustainable development projectstake many forms, depending on theproblem, and the solution local peoplehave come up with. In the followingcolour section th ere are case studies from

14 out of more than 70 coun tries in whichOxfam works. That's 14 projects out ofmore than 3,000 Oxfam supports everyyear. They give a flavour of the widerange of Oxfam's work, from themountains of Peru to the plains ofBangladesh, from the desert ofMau ritania to the coast of the Philippines.The common thread is that with a littlehelp, peop le can find solutions, can tackletheir poverty, can make a living in asustainable way, and can protect theirenvironment.

:JM:k


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Written and illustrated byOxfam, which works withpoor people in theirstruggle against hung er,disease, exploitation, andpoverty. Th e people andcommunities in thefollowing p ages are just afew of those around theworld that Oxfam hassupported as they haveorganized to improve theirlives in the face ofenvironmental change.

Five hundred families live onAroma, the main rubbishdu mp for Manila, capital ofthe Philippines. They try toearn a living as scavengers,collecting plastic, glass, andmetal which they sell to scrapdealers for recycling.

People asPLANET MANAGERS

XfAM

"Must we starve our children to pay our debts?"asked President Nyerere of Tanzania 20 yearsago. For two decades the industrialized nations -the North - have effectively answered "yes" as theysucked interest payments on debt out of Africathat have totalled $10 billion in this period.

The President might also have asked whetherAfrica (and th e rest of the developing world - theSouth) must destroy its environment for the samereason. This is just one part of the price the Southpays for a world organized by the North, for theNorth. The massive, unpayable Southern debt isonly the most recent result of this imbalance ofpower. Colonialism, slavery, poverty, famine, andconflict could also be added to the list.Today's global environment crisis is evidence

that the massive wealth and overconsumption ofthe North cannot be sustained. The irony is thatthe North claims to be the Planet's guardian, ask-ing the South to stop plundering its forests, riversand seas - while also dem anding debt repa yme nts.Economic policies devised in the North have beenpressed on Southern nations calling for, amongother measures, increased exp orts of raw m aterialsand cuts in state spending on social programmes.In O xfam's exp erience, the very people who couldbe the planet's best stewards - the poor - arefooting the bill for this economic "medicine".

Small-scale farmers, pastoralists, fisherpeople, andrubber-tappers have evolved ways of managingtheir resources over generations to allow theirchildren to utilize the same land, trees, and seas.Now they have to abandon these practises over-night to pay their - and their country's - bills.Unequal land distribution, slow progress in landreform, and the promotion of large-scale cash-crop agriculture are also pushing the poor beyondthe limits of environmental sustainability.Increasingly, as the global village shrinks,national economic decisions are made not bylocal people and their governments but bypowerful international bodies such as the WorldBank, International Monetary Fund, and trans-national companies . These organizations are

largely accountable only to their shareholders orto their wealthier members. The power is nolonger with the people who matter: those whohave a vested interest in passing on a viable Earthto the next generation.If a solution to the planet's environmental crisisis to be found before it is too late, Oxfam believesthat the answer will involve putting people first,and poor people first of all. They are in the frontline of planet management: while the poorare denied th e means and the right to a sustainablelivelihood, the planet's future is bleak indeed.


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sea of troubles

for more than 11,000

Now things are different. A flood-control

ting effects. Fish stocks have declineds urgent action is taken the enure lake - and

nce for anyone to make a living - will beAcross the Philippines there are similar stories

s once rich in marine life, and rankedth in world fish production. The effects of

ive environmental destruc-

d they offer some hope. But all too

As factory ships overuse traditional fishing

In spite of the odds, there are fishing groups

ties have even built "artificial reefs"


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liigun a Lake in the Philippinesis dying: its link w ilh the seahas been severed and industrialdevelopment has haddevaslating effects. As fishstorks decline, the fishingcommun ities along the shoreare threatened.

|

Fisherpeo ple in Southern IndiaThelisliern ieiiof Manakudy village inSouthern India belong to the KanyakumariFishermen's Federation. It was established tohelp small fishing communities com pete withthe owners of mechanized boats that trawlthe coastal waters for anchovy. T heFederation au ctions the Fishermen's catch onthe beach and m akes sure they are paid thesame dav. T his removes the delay involved indealing with merchants, who pay for fish ininstalments and prolong th e fishermen's debts.

t


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and rightsus business. Drought has always been an

lihoods rely on the infrequent andWhen at last it does rain, downpours can cause

digtieltes - lowh walls - along the contours of thethe soil so that crops can grow - a

diguelles do not guarantee

In 1983, Oxfam began to work with poor peopledtguettes and

develop other water-harvesting schemes It

their produce locally. Their main worry

ly inflated prices in times of scarcity.To Oxfam. the Affole's main problem at first

to l>e an environmental one - lack ofared to be a technical problem uncovered far

I heir families from the profiteering of the


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A Restoring water supplies: Sri LankaSome of the 500,000 people displaced intocamps by Sri Lanka's civil war are retu rnin gto their villages. Where they can, they arerebuilding their houses and renovatingagricultural systems that were neglected foryears. This includes work on the "tanks"-800-year-old irrigation reservoirs. Localgroups supported by Oxfam organize thework. Care is taken to ensure that thepoorest families are the ones who benefit. Anable-bodied mail from each family works onthe project; if there is none, the woman headof household works, and child-mindinggroups are organized. Women and men arepaid the same rates for their work.

rIn the Aff'ole region ofMauritania farmers must makeihe most of the sparse rainfall.Here, on the fringe of theSahara, farmers build smalldams of earth to trap walerand enable crops to thrive.


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Koos Neefjes

SeedsofhopeMore than 60 percent of Nicaragua's populationis going hungry. After years of civil war, manypoor people have either no land or no means tofarm the little they possess. Meanwhile, for thosepeasant farmers who can grow crops, prices arelow, ferti l izers are too expensive, and theproductivity of their land is declining.

Some government officials blame the peasantsfor being unproductive. Environmentalists blamethem for damaging the land through deforestationand "slash and burn" farming. But a new move-ment is springing up in Central America to givealternatives, rather than blame, to ordinary fanners.Campes ino a Campes ino or "Peasant toPeasant" encourages farmers to improve theirland and crops through small-scale experiments,diversification, and regula r ex chang e visits. Afew technical professionals are involved, but theemphasis is on how working farmers can helpeach other. "Techincal people from the city justshow up at a farm, tell the farmer what to do, hopin their jee p, and they are gone," says mem ber Jua nEnamarado. "When we go to help someonein Campesino a Campesino, we spend th e wholeday working alongside them in the field."When th e farmers meet, they have much to talkabout. Which crops are best to rotate to preservethe soil? What's the best recipe for home-madeorganic insecticide? What can you learn about thesoil from its taste, feel, an d smell? They can seeeach other's ideas in action, and learn more abouthow to make the best of the land.The Campesino a Campesino programme isgrowing because it meets farmers' needs. It givesthem not only information and ideas, but alsogreater economic strength - and thus a greaterability to survive. The most recent regional ex-change brought together more than 200 peasantfarmers from ten Central American and Caribbeancountries. Meeting in Nicaragua, they travelled in

cattle lorries, pick-up trucks, and horseback to takea practical look at local farms, discuss methods andexperiments, and exchange tips.What's happening in Nicaragua can be seen inmany poor communit ies across the g lobe.Whether forced by economic circumstances, ordrawn by new opportunities to make their futuremore secure, increasing numbers of poor farmersare making sure they play their par t insafeguarding the land.

Campesino a Campesino is anew movement in CentralAmerica which enables poorfarmers to help themselves.Exchange visits are organizedso that farmers can sh are ideasand experiences, encouragingcrop diversification andfarming experiments.


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, mPark management: South AfricaPetrus Slander (above) is a stock farmer inthe Richtersveld, South Africa-an areawith a uniquelyrichand varied ecology.When the Richtersveld was designated aNational Park, Petrus' community was indanger of losing the grazing lands they reliedon for a living. After winning a reprievein court, they took two years to convince theauthorities that the Park's success dependedon local people having a stake in its future.Finally, the community won itsright ograzing land, though with fewer animals,and to the plants they traditionally use formedicine. Most importantly, Petrus' peoplenow help to manage the Park and receivesome of its income.

V


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Freeing tradeLike thousands of small farmers, Jose RiveraCampoverde has little choice about what hegrows. His three-hectare plot of land high in thePeruvian Andes is very fertile, and Jose is a skilledfarmer. But there are only two crops whichcan earn him the small amount of cash he needs tosurvive - coffee and coca (the raw material for cocaine).

There's big money to be made from coffee, butnot for people like Jose. Most of the profit goes todealers, middlemen, and salesmen - the peoplewho control the market. They all rely on payingthe minimum to the original producers.Coffee is grown in more than 40 countries inthe South, including some of the poorest nationsin the world. For many, it is the main foreign

currency earner, and the country's economy de-pends on it. But, like the individual farmers, theproducer countries are vulnerable. The buyers callthe shots, setting tariffs and taxes to discourageSouthern producers from processing the coffeethemselves - the area where most of the profit lies.Jose is working hard to get a better deal forhimself and other poor farmers like him. His co-operative already helps its memb ers to share costs,skills, and equipment, and to press for a higherprice for their crops. But now selling to anAlternative Trading Organisation (ATO) offers

even more benefits.Cafedirect is an ATO which brings togetherfour groups, including Oxfam Trading, to putfair trade into action. Buying from co-operativeslike Jose 's, it gives more of the profit back to theproducers than mainstream traders do, and, wherenecessary, pays in advance to help farmers survivethe critical period between harvest and sale. It'smade a real difference to Jose 's life. "Before, m ostof us could not afford medical treatment," heremembers. "The higher price we get now meansthat our co-operative can afford to pay a doctorto give us treatment. For me, I can afford morefood for my family, and send my children toschool with pe ns and notebooks for the first time."This sor t of fa i r t rade is good for theenvironment, too. The farmers in Jose's groupdepend on their land for their future. To makesure it will last for generations to come, they usefewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides, andwherever possible use traditional, environment-friendly techniques to improve land and yields.

Raw coffee berries, fresh fromthe bush a vital foreigncurrency earner for manySouthern nations, but lowworld prices and high importtariffs have reduc ed incomes.


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Goin g bananas in the CaribbeanTh e small islands of the Eastern Caribbeandep end on bananas for half their income. In1992, they gained a reprieve from e conomiccatast rophe when the new Single Euro peanMarket continued to allow tax-free bana naimports to Europe. The island's bananas aregrown on small family-owned plots. Withoutprotection, they would not be able tocompete with Latin American bananaplantations, where mass production a nd lowwages mean c heap er fruit. EC tariffs onLatin American ba nanas keep the W indwardIslanders from being bankrupted. Manyislanders are concerned abo ut the future andwon der if they should grow a different crop.Yet without markets and suppo rt fordiversification, this would be a risky venture.


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Nurturing enterpriseHaiti is the poorest country in the WesternHemisphere. Some 85 percent of the populationlive in absolute poverty; the average life span isjust 54 years.A series of military-backed governments haskept Haitians from having a say in the affairs oftheir country. Efforts by poor people to organizeinto self-help groups bring the risk of retributionfrom paramilitary thugs. Despite these graveobstacles, community organizations are active -and successful. One such group is FONHADES(Ha i t i an F und fo r Econo mic and Soc ia lDevelopment) which trains craft-workers andar t isans l iv ing in poor neighbourhoods ofPort-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.

FONHADES has five trainers who teach book-keeping and management skills to groups of self-employed workers, including tailors, seamstresses,cobblers, and pot makers. Once groups of workershave organized themselves, they can apply forsmall loans to purchase tools and supplies. Theyorganize credit circles among themselves whichcan become self-financing."We do not determine the needs or priorities;the groups do that," said Mehu Garqon, one of thet r a i n e r s . " W o r k i n g t o g e t h e r r a t h e r t h a nindividually, they can increase their production, if

they have viable management. This can improvetheir lives and help their families."Throughout the poor countries of the world,more people are turning to this kind of small-scale production, or "micro-enterprise", to make al iv ing . Economis ts debate whether micro-enterprises can provide an escape from poverty,but for many people working in them there is noother option. They must make a success of it.Most Haitians cook on charcoal stoves. With aloan from the credit circle, metal-workers buyscrap cars and, using tools bought through the

project, they make simple stoves from the old carsto sell in the market. Through the credit circles,the craft-workers learn how to make businessdecisions and improve their production methods.In the community, the credit circles formnetworks of people with com mon interests; a slowprocess because craft-workers often regard eacho th e r as com pe t i to r s . I n the long t e rm ,FONHADES aims to organize a national asso-ciation of these "micro-enterprises", offeringanother vital voice for Haiti's poor.

Julio Etchart

T Chile's sea coalersChile is a Latin American economic successstory, but th e benefits of its boom have yet totrickle down to its poo rer citizens. On thebeach at Pueblo Hun dido, sea coalers dred gefor the thin black dust discharged into theocean by a nearby mine. Some of the coaldust is bagged and sold; the rest is burned athome. Drowning and pneu monia areoccupational hazards. A women's groupsupp orted by Oxfam is helping sea coalersand o thers to find less dangerous ,alternative ways of making a living.

From cars to cooking stoves car pane ls are recycled inHaiti, one of the many m icro-enterprises tha t may offer th epoor a way out of poverty.


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re credit's duethe capital of Ethiopia, is

from decades of war; it is alsowith the effects of World Bank policies

to reform the country's economy. Toloans from the Bank, the government

economy. Among otherthis has meant reducing fowl subsidies,

beyond the pockets of the poor.One of the city's poorest quarters is Kebele 29 (a

is an administrative unit). It was settledmigrants from the

for work or a chance towomen lost their husbands in Ethiopia's

the family breadwinners.injera, thetheir only hope of survival. Some

make handicrafts out of recycled glassinjera, or brew beer.

Like any business, the schemes need capital. Butdo not know how to deal with such small

for them, risky enterprises. "They are used toOxfam Project Officer, Zenash

difficult to understand thethe women live in." And banks demandfor loans, which the women do not have.

To help them get credit, Oxfam and the locala revolving loan fund run by

130 members of the scheme arehalf a day's earnings to the fund

month, on which they are paid 6 percentinterest, are

through a local committee. Despiteup to date withcalls in any bad

"The best collateral of all," according toZenash gives advice on marketing and has

basic business practices, such asit's difficult for them to see

w this can help," she explains. "They have sowork, and most

say to me 'Well, we're still alive,we must have made a profit'."

The national bank is now convinced that poorwhen Oxfam withdraws in the near future.

f-iv- I. I


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A savings and loan scheme runby the community in one of thepoorest p arts of Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, has enabled people topull down their old houses andbuild better homes.

SWti

/I I

Inner-city training: SenegalLike many Southe rn cities, Dakar in Senegalhas seen a huge n um ber of peop le arrive insearch of work ov er the last few yea rs.Pushed from the countryside by conflict andenvironmental breakdown, and pulled by thepromise of obs, most of t he migra nts haveonly adde d to the growing population ofurban u nem ploye d. At the AssociationSenegalaised'Aide a [.'Insertion de sNeccessiteux, a technical training cen tre,Oxfam supp orts a project that aims to equipyoung people with skills that will improvetheirjob prospects. Graduates of the schemehave already set up their own ca rpentry ,electrical, and secretarial businesses.

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Living with d isasterhe one that lashed the densely populated south-he worst cyclone to hit the country for more than decade, floods left more than 150,000 peopleead and 4 million homeless.

Hatiya Island in the Bay of Bengal is littlemore than a sand bar, but it is home to 300,000people. 1 he cyclone destroyed 90 percent of theirhomes, and flooded vast areas of crops with saltwater. But the islanders were better equippedthan most to recover from the catastrophe.

For the Hatiya islanders, as for most poorBangladeshis, the big issue is land. If they haveland, they have a lasting possession, a source ofincome, and the chance to build more securehousing. Once a cyclone has passed and the floodsreceded, whatever else they have lost, the land atleast will still be ther e. The local grou p calledDwip Unnayan Sagstha (DUS) knows this wellbefore, during, and after cyclones.

Working with the landless majority, DUSdvises on claiming land and encourages people

to build embankments and plant trees. The groupalso offers loans to small traders, promotessavings schemes, and gives training as an integralpart of their cyclone protection work. All thisbrings self-reliance and security, and helps forgestronger communities which are better able torecover when the inevitable disaster happens.

The benefits of land ownership to poor peopleare similar the world over, but in Bangladesh aunique phenomenon presents particular problems and (xcasional opportunities - to the poorest

communities. Most poor Bangladeshis live in thefertile but precarious Hood plains of the Gangesand Brahmaputra rivers. Here the waterwaysweave their paths across the low-lying land,washing away soil from one spot, only to depositit elsewhere in the delta. Each year thousands ofpeople lose their homes through river erosion. Th eother side of the coin, however, is that new land isconstantly being created from the shifting silt. Bylaw, this "khas" land is set aside for the landless,but in practice it is often ap pro pri ate d bylandlords. Again, DUS helps the communities.Equipped with knowledge of their rights and howto make land claims, the poorest frequently winthe land that is due to them.

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Self-help in exile : El Salvador(hie million |>eple were upinotrd during KlSalvador's i ivil war I hev nu ived i< >


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The people featured in the previous pages are doing their utmost toimprove their lives in the face of environmental decline. Oxfam's roleis to support communities as they identify problems and find practicalsolutions to overcome them.

Of the 3000 groups that Oxfam supports worldwide, the 14described here show what can be achieved by offering help rangingfrom direct funding to advice and training. They demonstrate theresourcefulness and initiative of ordinary people once they organizethemselves. They show the reality of sustainable development: howcommunities may be helped to meet their present needs while at thesame time safeguarding the environment for future generations.

The 14 accounts are also sobering. They remind us that there arelimits to what people can achieve before they come up againstbarriers to further development in the shape of local politics, lack ofrights, national policies, and international economics. There are alsofactors, such as war and civil conflict, that conspire to destroy people'sefforts. Half of Oxfam's grants help communities that are insome way victims of conflict. In Africa this figure is 70 percent.

Acting locally,thinking globally

I

Community self-organizationand action to tackle localissues, such as the environment,are crucial both to identifyproblems and to find solutionsacceptable to all.

The efforts of the individual groups featured in these pages clearlyhave a local impact and are life-enhancing. But even taken as awhole, and if their experiences are shared across the South (somethingthat Oxfam is actively encouraging), mass grassroots action forchange is only a partial answer to our current global crisis.

Acting locally and thinking globally, as the saying goes, willdeliver a better future only if local groups are also supportedby larger institutions. This m eans more than just Oxfam andthe non-governmental organizat ions that are spr inging upacross the South: it means genuinely accountable bodies, rang-ing in size from the village council to the UN Security Council.At the same time, basic rights to clean water, housing, education,health care, and protection from abuse must be accorded to all.

The concept of planet management is a broad and challengingone. It needs great time and great effort to implement. Timeis not on ou r side; but the efforts of the poor - the mass ofplanet managers - give some hope for a sustainable future.


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Whose planetis it anyway?The stories in the previous pages are encouraging andinspiring. But despite their courage, ingenuity, and hardwork, many poor people in the South are getting poorer,and their environments are under increasing threat. Theforces working against them are very powerful. The nextfew pages look at the role of the North in damaging theglobal environment and in harming Southern environ-ments both directly and indirectly. As a background tothis, let's see jus t how big are the disparities in w ealth,power, and consumption between the South and theNorth.

North(North America, Europe, Jap an,and Australasia) 25 per cent of world population 80 per cent consumption of energy 86 per cent of world industry five countries con trol 60 per cent of world in dustry water use 350-1,000 litres per perso n pe r day 40 per cent water used for industry 500 million earn mo re than $20,000 a year consumes 70 per cent fossil fuels, 85 per centchemical produc tion, 85 per cent military sp ending,90 per cent automobiles for every 100 teachers 97 soldiers military spen ding 1991 $762 billion rich nations pay 4 pe r cent interest on foreign debt

New York uses more petrol in a weekthan Africa uses in a year. Carbonemissions per person per year are5.13 tonnes for the USA,0.19 tonnes for India.

South(Latin America a nd Car ibbean, Africa, Asia,and Middle East) 75 per cent of world population 20 per cent consumption of energy 14 per cen t of world industry water use 20-40 litres per person per day 93 per cent water used for food production 3 billion earn under $500 a year 800 million illiterate pe ople 14 million children die of ma lnutrition every year 100 million affected by famine 1990 military spend ing $ 123 billion poor nations pay 17 per cent interest on debt

Shocking as these statistics are, theyunderstate the problem in two ways.Aggregate figures like these don'tshow the inequalities in power,wealth, and income between men andwomen, and between rich and poor,within the countries of the South andthe North.


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N orth ern blightsIf everyone o n the p lanet were to achieve theconsumption level of people in the UnitedKingdom two additional planet Earthswould be need ed. But since we only have theone Earth, whose carrying capacity isalready under strain, then either the Southmust remain poor for ever, or the Northmust consu me less.The Earth's carrying capacity is made upof resources and sinks. Resources includeland used for agriculture, forests, andgrazing; clean water, in rivers, lakes, andunderground; fishing grounds in seas andrivers; ores and minerals; and energysources, especially the fossil fuels, coal, oil,and natur al gas. Sinks are the ways in whichthe Earth absorbs pollution created byhuman activity; for instance, tropicalrainforests absorb carbon dioxide formedwhen fossil fuels are bu rne d.The life-styles of Northern countries relyon resources and sinks far beyond theboundaries of the countries themselves.Northern lifestyles are fundamentallyunsustainable. The area of land needed tosupport a particular country's life-style hasbeen called its 'ecological footprint'. This isclearly apparent when we look at thecountries of origin of products onsupermarket shelves. Most peop le know thatour manufacturing industries rely on rawmaterials from all over the world, bu t it is less

widely realised that our farmers importlarge q uantities of fertilisers, fish-meal, andoil-seeds produced in other countries. Lessobvious still is the impact, well outside ourbor der s, of pollutants flushed into rivers andseas, and emissions from o ur cars and p owerstations.Many impacts of Northern lifestyles, suchas the destruction of the ozone layer byCFCs, and global warming, are on a worldscale. The major cause of the continueddeterioration of the world's environment isthe unsustainable pattern of consumptionand production in industrialised countriesof the North, and the increasing industrial-isation of countries like China and India inthe South. If, as is widely predicted, globalwarming causes a rise in the sea-level, low-lying countries will suffer. But those in theNorth, like the Netherlands, will be able toafford to protect themselves better thanthose, like Bangladesh, in the South.

One country's ecological footprint is at theexpense of all others. Land in the Southdevoted to growing cash-crops such as coffeefor export to the North can not also grow foodcrops for local consumption. More seriously,land lost to mining, or clear-felled forest, isgone forever, den ied no t just to the c urren tgeneration but to all future generations.Economically powerful countries can imposetheir footprints in this way.

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Nepalese tea pickersin Darjeeling, India


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A footprint in JamaicaIn the hills of Jamaica there are bauxite m ines.Bauxite is the ore from which aluminium is made.The ore goes by train to Ocho Rios on the no rth coast.Then bulk carrier ships transport it to NorthAmerica, where it becomes the raw material ofaeroplanes, kitchen foil, andfizzydrink cans.Th e Jamaican governm ent gave a 99-year lease tothe US firm Kaiser Bauxite in the 1940s. When theyacquired the land, they had to give the people who

lived there compensation. Most families took themoney and moved. But a few people didn't want toleave their houses. Today they are surrounded bybaux ite mines. Before th e mines came, this was goodarable land. Although the company claims to restorethe land, it is only good for rough grazing. Th e minesalso pollute people's drinking water.The bauxite mining area, so big it can be seenfrom space, is a pa rt of the ecological footprint of thegiant industrialised economies to the north ofJamaica.


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We make the rulesIt's not just our cars and supermarkets, andour farms and factories, that put pressureon the South's environment. Our politi-cians and civil servants, acting in ourname, add to the pressure by what they doand what they don't do.

UNCEDUNCED the United Nations Conferenceon Environment and Development tookplace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992.It was billed as "the last chance to save theworld". If it was the last chance, then theworld is doomed. Southern governments,and development and environmentalorganisations from North and South, urgedthat Northern governments take radicaldecisions, and above all commit substantialnew resources, to help the South. Insteadthere were a few good ideas, a lot of emptyrhetoric, and some of the major pressures onpoor people and their environment werenot even discussed.

UnhelpfulNorthern governments don't give enoughaid, and the aid they do give isn't of the rightsort. Over 20 years ago the United Nations seta target for the rich countries of the North to give 0.7 per cent of their Gross NationalProduct as official aid to the poor countries ofthe South. Only four countries are meetingthat target at present, and the UnitedKingdom has never met it. Not only is this aidinadequate, but much of it is inappropriate.Not enough of it goes to really poor countries,and to help poor people. Some aid is tied toexports from the donor country, and somegoes to projects which damage dieenvironment. The Pergau Dam inMalaysia is a prominent recentexample.

UnpayableThe countries of the South owe$1,500 billion to the banks andgovernments of the North and tointernational financial institutions,the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and World Bank (WB), whosedecision-making is dominated bypowerful Northern countries. For manySouthern countries their debt is simply


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unpayable. Servicing the debt payinginterest, and any repayments that are due takes up to 100 per cent or m ore of the m oneythey earn from their exports. And what hashappened to all the money that wasborrowed? Some was spent on worthwhileprojects, but some was stolen, some spent onweapons with which to oppress their ownpeople or menace equally poor neighbours,and some on environmentally-disastrousschemes like big dams.UnfairCountries of the South pay their debts, andbuy everything else they need, with moneyearned from their exports. But they don'tearn much from expo rts of comm odities likecoffee or copper, and if they try to exportmanufactured products like textiles thenNorthern countries put tariff barriers up toprotect their own industries. The rules ofworld trade are made in the GeneralAgreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),soon to be replaced by the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) both of themdominated by the interests of powerfulnations of the North. One of the rules theyhave made is that trade takes precedenceover environmen tal concerns.

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"It is better to light a single candlethan to curse the darkness"Oxfam works in many ways, both in the North and the South, w ith and for poor people.You probably do your bit for the environment by using unleaded petrol or recyclingpaper and glass, for instance. It may be harder to think of ways in w hich you can use yourpower as a consumer and a citizen to help to protect the environment in the South, butthrough O xfam, you can.

O x f a m supports some 3,000 developmentprojects in over 70 countries every year.Some of them tackle environmentalproblem s d irectly, as we have seen. All ofthem tackle poverty. In making decisionsabout which projects to support, Oxfamstaff look at the environmental factors aswell as many other considerations. In1993-94 Oxfam spent 73.7m on itsoverseas p rogramm e.

You can help Oxfam's emergency, devel-opment, research, and advocacy work bymaking a donation. There are schemeswhich enable supporters to follow thework of specific development projects.To find out m ore, ring 01865 313131.

Fair Trade products in an Oxfam shop.

O x f a m wants to see Fair Trade: small-scaleproducers in the South getting a decentprice for their products. Oxfam's Bridgeprogramme buys crafts and foods fromSouthern producers on Fair-Trade terms.Crafts produce rs are given high priority, asthey often have no o ther source of income.Bridge staff here and overseas provideadvice and training on design, marketing,and other practical matters, including theenvironmental impact of production.Bridge sales in 1993-94 were 11.6m.Oxfam also works to persuade morepeople to buy Fair Trade products, bothin Oxfam shops and in sup ermark ets.

You can buy Bridge goods in 625 Oxfamshops and through the mail-order cata-logue. Look out, also, for products carry-ing the Fairtrade Mark, which helpsshoppers to identify products which give abetter deal to producers in the South.They're in Oxfam shops, and in manysupermarkets.


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Ox fam 's W ast esa ver pl an t in Hu dd er sf ie ld . Robert Davis/Oxfam

O x f a m ' s chain of 850 shops bringsrecycling to the High Street by givinguseful things a second life. Clothes, books,toys - even furniture and electrical goods -are donated by the public and sold at pricesaffordable by people on low incomes, toraise money for Oxfam's work. Clotheswhich are n ot sold are n't wasted. They goto the Wastesaver recycling plant inHuddersfield, where they are sorted.Some are sent to peop le in need , usually inemergency situations. The remainder aresorted into different g rades and sold to thetextile industry. Oxfam also recyclesstamps and coins, so there is very little thatthe shops can't accept. Oxfam shops arerun by volunteers 30,000 in total.

You can recycle your un wa nted possessionsby taking them into your local Oxfamshop. While there, you might want tooffer some of their other goods a secondlife! And if you have any time to sp are , youcould volunteer to help in the shop.

O x f a m staff research the causes andconsequences of poverty, including envir-onm ental issues. Th eir conclusions, basedon Oxfam's w ork with po or pe ople, lead torecomm endations about the policies of ourgovernment and the international organi-sations - European Union, UnitedNations, IMF, and W orld Bank - in whichour government is influential. We alsowork with our Southern partners toinfluence the policy of Southern govern-ments.Oxfam's recommendations include:-The UK government should set atimetable for reaching the UN aid targetof0 .7percentofGNP.The UK government should immediat-ely cancel between 80 per cent and 100per cent of the debts owed to it by thepoorest countries, and press othercreditor governm ents to do the same.The IMF should sell gold stocks tofinance the w rite-off of debts owed to it bythe poorest countries.The new World Trade Organisationshould have open, democratic, andaccountable decision-making processes,and should ensure that environmentalconcerns are not subordinated to tradeconsiderations.The EU and UK should fulfil thecommitments made at Rio, and inparticular help to provide the necessaryresources for sustainable developm ent inthe South.

You can support Oxfam's advocacy work byjoining the Oxfam Campaigning Network.We keep you informed about the issuesthat affect the world's poo r peo ple, and tellyou about effective actions you could taketo support Oxfam's advocacy work, bothon the wider issues and in support ofspecific communities like the Indians ofthe Amazon rainforest. If you'd like toknow m ore, phone 01865 312603.

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John Major beingpresented with a copyof No Time To Waste atthe Earth Summitin Rio

Further readingBooks from Oxfam onenvironmental issues:Gaia Atlas of Planet Management (ed Myers N)Gaia Books Ltd, 1994.No Time to Waste: Poverty and the GlobalEnvironment, Davidson J an d Myers D withChakraborty M, Oxfam, 1992.Women and the Environment (ed. Reard on G),Focus on Gender Series, Oxfam, 1993.Available from Oxfam Publishing, 274Banbury R oad, Oxford OX2 7DZ.Free leaflets:Our Environment, Our FutureOxfam, Poverty and the EnvironmentFair Trade: The Bridge ProgrammeRecyclingPeople and the Environment (describes someOxfam-supported projects)Available from Oxfam Su pp orte r Services atthe address given above.

For information about campaigning activitiesin your area, write to or telephone theRegional Campaigns Manager at any of theOxfam offices listed below:5th Floor, Fleming House134 Renfrew StreetGLASGOW G3 6STTel. 0141331272 410 M orningto n VillasBRADFORD BD8 7HBTel. 01274 491858231 High StreetErdingtonBIRMINGHAM B23 6SSTel. 0121 384 238463 Cotham HillBRISTOL BS6 6JRTel. 0117 970 670358 St Joh n's HillClaphamLOND ON SW11 1VJTel. 0171585 022046-48 Station RoadLlanishenCARDIFF CF4 5LUTel. 01222 757067

one earth, two worlds

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