Smallholder farmers have released a declaration in advance of UN biodiversity conference COP16 with a rejection of discussions that aim to commodify nature.
At the end of August, rural worker representatives gathered at Fusagasuga city in Colombia for a summit organised by the Colombian government.
A declaration following the summit was published on Thursday by international farmer organisation Via Campesina with statements including demands for agricultural reform, a rejection of militarism, and recognition of smallholder environmental roles.
“We reject the conceptual, political, environmental, and economic framework underpinning biodiversity conservation discussions that view nature as a commodity,” said the declaration, which was aimed at the Colombian government, the Colombian people, and the global community.
In April, a think tank said Indigenous Peoples should explicitly reject proposals for the biodiversity credit market as they would promote offsetting.
The declaration also called for:
- An end to human rights violations in farmer territories
- A rejection of militarism in the name of conservation, like on the Colombian island of Gorgona
- Agrarian reform for environmental protection of strategic ecosystems
- Recognising farmers’ environmental rights, ensuring their presence in areas of special environmental interest
- Protecting smallholder farmers communities, work practices, autonomy, and culture
- Addressing the negative impacts of large-scale landholdings and monoculture on Colombia’s biodiversity
- Prioritising food sovereignty through sustainable farming
“Without integral and popular agrarian reform, there can be no care for the environment or for strategic ecosystems,” the declaration said.
“Land and water restitution and democratisation, the restoration of water bodies and soil health, as well as fishing and agromining, are all essential components of actions towards integral and popular agrarian reform and environmental protection.”
Agromining entails harvesting metals from the leaves of certain plants grown on metal-rich soils.
AMERICAS WORKERS
On Sep. 5 a separate meeting took place, in Cali, Colombia, with 180 worker union representatives from across the Americas for the Summit of Workers’ Unions in Peace with Nature.
Union leaders from the US, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru met to discuss the link between the struggle for labour rights with biodiversity preservation, Public Services International reported.
Representatives identified four key challenges for the transition to a just economy:
- Impact of the environmental crises on informal workers
- Public path of just transition to decent jobs
- Need to consolidate labour rights
- Shift from an extractive model to one that protects biodiversity
“At the global level, agreements come out that remain on paper, but we are the ones who make these policies a reality,” said Oscar Sanchez, director of the National Union of Workers of the National Environmental System.
“Many times we are subjected to situations that prevent the good performance of our work.”
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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