Zero Carbon Britian discussions (online)

Zero Carbon Britain discussion papers

The ZCB project has been encouraging contributors to write discussion papers to probe, ponder, reflect and imagine what a zero carbon Britain might be like.
We asked for their help to raise awareness of a more carbon responsible society, by looking at a diverse range of impacts of a zero carbon Britain. From faith groups to farmers, from restaurants to rugby teams, the aim is to get people talking about what it would be like to live in a world where we rise to our 21st century challenges.

Social learning for sustainability special issue (#journal)

Special issue: Social learning towards sustainability: problematic, perspectives and promise

 Six articles linked by the common thread that sustainability is not a destiny to reach, but a continuous learning path towards transformation that is profound (e.g. affecting moral standards and value systems), transversal (e.g. requiring the involvement of individuals, groups and collectives) and counter-hegemonic (e.g. requiring the exposure and questioning of stubborn routines). The aim of the special issue is to assess the added-value of a social learning perspective from at least three different ‘disciplinary’ perspectives: systems innovation, natural resource management, and environmental education.

UN Special Rapporteur advocates agroecology (report)

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter 

Final report: The transformative potential of the right to food

(From The Guardian online). In his final report (pdf), Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, offers a detailed critique of industrial agriculture that has boosted food production over the past 50 years, yet leaves 842 million – 12% of the world's population – hungry. As an alternative, he champions agroecology; both more environmentally friendly and contributing to improved nutrition. Other measures to improve the system would be to abandon mandates for biofuels and cut down food waste in rich countries and post-harvest losses in poor countries.

Scaling up agroecolgy (report)

Scaling-up agroecological approaches: what, why and how? 

The objectives of this paper are:

•To contribute to ongoing debates on agroecological approaches and their centrality for more sustainable agricultural and food systems;

•To provide key evidence and arguments for supporting advocacy work calling for the scaling-up of agroecological approaches.

The paper includes four main parts:

Part I explains what agroecology is, situating it in light of peasant and industrialized agricultures and introducing its three interconnected dimensions as a science, an agricultural approach and a movement. Part II clarifies how scaling-up an agroecological transition can contribute to achieving sustainable agricultural and food systems. Part III identifies the main challenges to be met for scaling-up at a higher stage agroecological approaches.The conclusion formulates recommendations that help in addressing major challenges involved in scaling up agroecological approaches

Sustainable intensifcation of smallholder cropping (online)

Save and Grow: A policymaker’s guide to the sustainable intensification of smallholder crop production

A straightforward guide from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to the need for a change in direction in food production away from intensive mono-cropping and towards smallholder productivity with an ecological focus. 7 articles consider the challenges, farming systems, soil health, crops and varieties, water management,  plant protection and policies and institutions. Aimed at policy makers, this report makes a great introduction to a topic close to the heart of permaculture; who will grow our food in the years to come and how will they grow it. Permaculture practitioners may not agree with all the solutions put forward, but will recognise the need for a paradigm shift in how humanity grows its food.

A critique of eco-cities (#journal)

Eco-urbanism and the Eco-city, or, Denying the Right to the City?

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco-cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new-build eco-city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco-cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco-city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco-cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on workers geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.

Transition towns in the majority world (journal)

Jobs versus livelihoods: Sustainable settlements within the transition paradigm

How can the “transition paradigm” be implemented in poor communities in South Africa where most people are dependent on income from government grants? Here, the aim cannot be to have a transition to a lower consumption society; these societies are actually under-consuming. Rather, it is necessary to create settlements which are sustainable in almost every way: in terms of livelihoods, natural resources, energy and water usage, health and education, transport, and waste disposal. In this model, sustainable communities use the skills, assets and resources of their members to generate livelihoods. This paper observes three existing communities in South Africa with the objective of analysing how such models are integrated (or not) into the local economy. Thereafter aspects of a model that envisages ways that poor communities can create sustainable livelihoods, using local skills and resources, are presented. This model requires strategies for creating localised systems, including micro finance, local markets, com-munity exchange networks, cooperative construction, production and distribution systems; and infrastructure and technology systems.

Drivers of environmental change (report)

World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability

In this report, the German Advisory council on Global Change explains the reasons for the desperate need for a post-fossil economic strategy, yet it also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the imperative restructuring. If the transformation really is to succeed, we have to enter into a social contract for innovation, in the form of a new kind of discourse between governments and citizens, both within and beyond the boundaries of the nation state. Factsheet 5 includes detailed descriptions of 'Drivers of Transformation', such as permaculture activists and transition towners. 

SWOT analysis of rice-duck farming (#journal)

Theory and reality of integrated rice–duck farming in Asian developing countries: A systematic review and SWOT analysis

Integrated rice–duck farming, in which ducks feed on insects and weeds in paddies and fertilise rice plants, has been a flagship of Asian sustainable-agriculture movements. Nevertheless, IRDF is not spreading rapidly enough to become a successful alternative agriculture. This paper undertakes a systematic review of experimental IRDF studies to identify the strengths and weaknesses of, opportunities for and threats to IRDF. The most recognisable empirical strength of IRDF is the synergy of rice and ducks. It was found that the establishment of organic food certification systems provides an opportunity for IRDF to grow. On the other hand, labour-intensiveness was found the greatest weakness of IRDF. In order to make IRDF economically more feasible, the non-market ecological benefits of IRDF should be internalised through appropriate policy instruments.

 

Education through production (#journal)

Teaching the Youth and Adults through Education with Production: The Case Study of Tiger Kloof Educational Institution

Education plays a pivotal role in teaching people in society so that they can bring about changes in their own lives and that of their communities. The founders of Tiger Kloof Educational Institution over 100 years ago applied the principle of education with production in teaching their learners. When the school was re-opened in 1995 after its closure for over 25 years, academic and a few vocational subjects have been introduced as well as practical productive activities such as plumbing, carpentry, brick laying as well as the raising of vegetable gardens and rearing of cattle. The school is involved in a lot of practical and productive activities in generating funds and producing some of the food that is used to feed the students in the boarding house. The study found the practice viable and recommends if for adoption in other educational institutions across Africa.

Sustainability discourse in Cuba (#journal)

Peasant, Patriot, Environmentalist: Sustainable Development Discourse in Havana

Private urban agricultural ventures, initially a spontaneous response to food shortages during the Special Period, soon became a state-sponsored project, related to global notions of sustainability. This article explores the role sustainability in the reformulation of the Revolution. Urban gardeners engage with international discourses of sustainability and interact with the Cuban state's articulation of these discourses. While this process forces urban gardeners to adapt to the changing meanings of growing food, it also provides a different language through which gardeners define themselves, especially in the context of a changing relationship with the state.

Future direction for the permaculture concept (#journal)

Towards Sustainable Agricultural Stewardship: Evolution and Future Directions of the Permaculture Concept

This paper traces the origins of the concept of permaculture and discusses the sustainability of permaculture itself as a form of alternative agriculture. It is argued that future permaculture movements should focus on revitalising the communitarian spirit of traditional farming villages instead of building intentional communal communities. The paper also calls for more aggressive environmental-policy measures that support permaculture and internalise the non-market value of reduced fossil-fuel energy consumption and waste recycling.

Transition thinking and food systems change (#journal)

Transitions to sustainability: a change in thinking about food systems change?

'Transition' has recently gained prominence as a way to discuss and address sustainability challenges and changes. The author explores connections to food systems change, by highlighting two broad approaches in the sustainability transitions research field. First is a multi-level perspective that examines sustainability innovation pathways and second is a social practices approach that illuminates the possibilities for shifts in normal everyday routines. Taken together, these offer useful ways to think about the dynamics and significance of innovations in food and agriculture, and the part they play in transitions to sustainability.

Permaculture homesteads in South Africa (#journal)

Ethnographic insights on rural sustainability; homestead design and permaculture of Eastern Cape settlements in South Africa

This article considers the prevalence of sustained agricultural practices (particularly homestead gardens) and questions current public debate that permaculture is foreign to South Africa. The article makes comparisons to some of the founding principles of permaculture theory and practice to suggest that current agricultural practices and homestead (umzi, plural imizi) settlement patterns follow closely to "permaculture ideals" in theory and practice. The paper critiques ideas that believe rural areas to be "de-agrarianised", or solely supported by the welfare state. A further critique is raised because of the idealised manner in which foreign ideas on development are esteemed as better than regional adaptations. The paper displays scepticism for Eastern Cape development models or those perceptions that do not account for local land use practices.

Via Campesina rethinks agrarian reform (#journal)

Grassroots Voices: Re-thinking agrarian reform, land and territory in La Via Campesina

This special issue discusses major changes in strategies for agrarian reform, land and territory that have taken place over the last two decades in La Via Campesina, focusing on debates at a workshop in Indonesia in July 2012.

Twenty years on from Rio 1992 (book)

Only One Earth: TheLong Road via Rio to Sustainable Development 

This book will enable a broad readership to understand what has been achieved since the 1992 Rio Summit and what hasn’t. It reminds us of the planetary boundaries we must all live within and and what needs to be addressed for democracy, equity and fairness to survive.