From the Institute of Development Studies
‘Green’ market initiatives are increasing poverty; local ecosystem stewardship must be nurtured instead
‘Green grabbing’ – the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and resources in the name of ‘green ‘ biofuels, carbon offsetting schemes, conservation efforts and eco-tourism initiatives – is forcing people from their homelands and increasing poverty, new research has found.
Ecosystems being ‘asset-stripped’ for profit is likely to cause dispossession and further poverty amongst already-poor land and resource users, according to a set of 17 new research case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, published in a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.
“Green grabs are the dark side of the green economy,” said Professor Melissa Leach, director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. “If market-based mechanisms are to contribute to sustainable development and the building of economies that are not only green but also fair, then fostering an agenda focused on distribution, equity and justice in green market arrangements is vital.”
This means including meaningful local engagement and consultation based on transparency, accountability and free, prior informed consent. Yet green markets cannot do it all. In the rush to repair a damaged nature through trading and offset schemes, the political-economic structures that caused the damage in the first place must not be neglected.
Responsibility for tackling unsustainable practices in wealthy industrialised settings should not be offloaded by financialising ecosystems in other parts of the world. And if sustainable development is genuinely to be pursued at Rio+20 and beyond, we need to recapture nature from the market’s grasp, nurturing and legitimising more interconnected human-ecological relationships and understandings, along with tried-and-tested forms of local ecosystem stewardship based on them.
Examples of green grabs include: in Guatemala, conservation agencies, ecotourism companies and the military are ‘protecting’ the Guatemalan Maya Biosphere Reserve as a ‘Maya-themed vacationland’, violently excluding local people. In Eastern and Southern Africa, businesses are revaluing soil systems and farming practices for ‘biochar’, dispossessing farmers and pastoralists from land and resources important for their livelihoods. Meanwhile evidence is mounting that some Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD and REDD+) schemes are dispossessing local forest users of vital resource access.
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Those green fists instantly reminded me of one thing: HULK SMASH!!!!
which is what the greens do to anything they touch, of course.
When the suffering gets worse they’ll blame it on global warming instead of themselves.
The ‘Green Grab’ has been done before as any Scot will tell you – the Highland Clearances were just the same as is going on in Africa and other countries now. Tenant farmers and villages being burned to the ground and the population thrown off the land to be replaced by sheep. If you go to Caithness and Sutherland you can still see the foundations and dry stone walls of burned out villages in the glens around the lakes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances
Then it was the lairds and the feudal land owners, now the same type of clearances are sanctioned by an alliance of Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, big business and the UN. Are there people proud to be ‘Green’?
Robin says:
June 15, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Gail-someone who knows me who lives in California heard Rosa speak. She described her as doing for Agenda 21 what I was doing on education. She brought ICLEI to my attention…..
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The “Green Grab” is all encompassing and certainly includes education too. Actually gaining control of education was the first step. The London School of Economics turns out many of the worlds politicians, bankers and corporate leaders.
Harold Laski, a disciple of the Webbs who founded the London School of Economics and the British Fabien Society, founded the ACLU along with his American Fabian influenced associates Felix Frankfurter, Norman Thomas and John Dewey. Dewey was a charter member of the American Fabian Society link
One can see the evolution of Shaw’s ideas along with those of John Dewey in the college textbook written by Obama’s Science Czar, with his co-author’s the Ehrlichs. The same threesome who wrote a later book including “de-develop of the United States”
From chapter 8 page 235 of the ‘Human Ecology’ (1973)
What is also very interesting is US universities in Africa ‘land grab’ It seems institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt are using hedge funds to buy land in deals that force farmers out. Harvard is declining to comment
So the detour into education is not a detour at all but the closing of the circle. Then again anyone reading WUWT for any length of time knows universities have been front and center in this whole mess from the beginning. It is just interesting to follow the string back in time.
I forgot to add to the above George Bernard Shaw along the Webbs founded the Fabian Society as well as the London School of Economics.
No it’s not a detour. And there never was actually a dispute over how to teach reading. Just a desire to avoid the inevitable effects on a mind that can read phonetically.
You might find this link interesting: http://www.climateprosperityinc.org/media/TowardsANewProsperity_2011.pdf on these regional partnerships and how the businesses are addicted to the public money.
Don’t you just love it these days when someone suggests the whole distinction between public and private needs to be eliminated?
What in favor of the politically connected and how they want to use our money?
John Dewey is an excellent example of how you can remain famous for over a century if your ideas are bad. And unbeknownst to most people tied to notorious ideas that have had their tragic implementation. Back way in. Same likely result.
Didn’t we go through this before? EVERYONE wants control; it is an urge to be fought individually, to allow others around you (including ‘the one you love’) to be FREE and make their own choices …
As mentioned before, one sees it in exhibited in children in the family (notably older siblings in their assertion of ‘authority’ over younger); it is not a new phenom. It would seem that would be where your efforts should be directed (in the form of an educational effort) as opposed to fighting ‘select’ c o n_spiracy t h_eories involving such as Dewey (cited above) and others.
My US $.02 in any case.
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There’s “Green Grab” right here in the good ol’ US of A. Aided and abetted by Obama and his henchmen and henchwomen, chief among them is a certain EPA executive. Just slightly different tactics is all, and aimed at excluding valuable resources from development.
Ian W says:
June 15, 2012 at 1:39 pm
The ‘Green Grab’ has been done before as any Scot will tell you – the Highland Clearances were just the same as is going on in Africa and other countries now…..
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DARN RIGHT and some of the same families involved in the Highland Clearances (Rothschild) are going to make $$$$ this time round too. The problem is there is no “New World” for those tossed off their land to move to and it is ALL the land that is the target this time.
There are two halves to the land grab. The “Green Grab” in third world countries and the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture for all countries. New Ag regulations, removal of tarriffs and farm subsidies, monospony, sale of GMOs, bankruptcies, fines, bribes to bureaucrats and outright theft of the land. Every possible weapon is being used to acquire the world’s farmland short of overt war.
I have seen it coming for years. But everyone looks down on farmers and calls them ignorant “Hay Seeds” and “Red Necks” an idea that was also promoted by propaganda in the mass media
“The Socialist Revolution in the US cannot take place because there are too many small independent farmers there. Those people are the stability factor. We here in Russia must hurry while our government is stupid enough to not encourage and support the independent farmership.’ V. Lenin, the founder of the Russian revolution”
Quote provided by Anna Fisher
(Earth Day, April 23, is is the birthday of Valdimir Illych Lenin)
1932 to 1937 “The Collective Farm Policy was a terrible struggle, Ten million died. It was fearful. Four years it lasted. It was absolutely necessary.” Joseph Stalin http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/quotes.html
1934, “[Our] future is becoming visible in Russia.” Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell http://www.archive.org/stream/rednetworkwhoswh00dillrich/rednetworkwhoswh00dillrich_djvu.txt
September 1995, Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, stated “Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.” UN’s 4th World Conference on Women: Beijing, China. http://ngin.tripod.com/280702c.htm
This is a better link to the study.
http://www.ids.ac.uk/news/appropriating-nature-green-grabbing
Jim- I started looking at Dewey because one of the primary architects of most of what has gone on in education over the last 20 years that has worked so poorly said that with Common Core “we would finally realize Dewey’s dream for education.” So I decided to see what his dream was. I had been trying to reconcile the language of the regs and the PR campaign because they were about 180 degrees apart.
I do agree it is fundamentally about power. Unfortunately with education the people wanting power or just doing what someone wants get to live off our property taxes for starters. And they know if they can make education largely about emotional responses through middle school, the adult will be limited for life. It’s a reflex.
And there are entire conferences devoted to finally fulfilling Dewey’s dream for education. Hard to get the list of attendees though as it was higher ed. And the indebted students would probably be upset if they saw that program.
If they actually declare for the record what they are up to, let’s call it a coordinated cabal so no one claims we are just theorizing.
Article make Hulk sad.
Australian PM Gillard is attending the RIO+20 fraud and is giving a 90 min speach on how she will destroy Australia in the name of saving us from ourselves, please keep a eye on her speach and you will see what we Austranians have for a PM
_Jim says: @ur momisugly June 15, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Didn’t we go through this before? EVERYONE wants control; it is an urge to be fought individually, to allow others around you (including ‘the one you love’) to be FREE and make their own choices …
…… It would seem that would be where your efforts should be directed (in the form of an educational effort) as opposed to fighting ‘select’ c o n_spiracy t h_eories involving such as Dewey (cited above) and others.
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Good Grief of course it is a typical human trait. Heck most of human history is a history of slavery, serfdom and war. The other important human drive is to produce a genetic legacy. Genghis Khan is the classic case. It has been hypothesized that about 16 million people have some of his genetic make up. – Kill the men and rape the women….
Combine these two traits and you have Monarchies, Aristocracies and various versions of feudalism. A republic or constitutional monarchy, where most people are “free” is a relatively modern creation and directly hinges on cheap energy and the mechanical devices that allow leisure and a decent live style without a serf/slave class.
The interesting twist in recent centuries is the long term goal and cooperation between certain families to accomplish what Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and Napoleon could not. World domination. They are smart enough to work behind the scenes so they are never directly linked to anything. “Democracies” where politicians can be bought is therefore a very useful tool.
The goal of course is a stable world government where “They” (Their families) are solidly in control and do not have to “waste” time and energy on politics and propaganda. They are not “Capitalists” or “Marxists” or “Socialists” or “Fabians” or “Keynesians” I doubt they give a hoot about any of that garbage they dream up and feed to the “Great Unwashed” The different philosophies/economic models are just a replacement for religion which was used for mind control during previous centuries. I am not crazy and I did not dream this up on my own. You can blame President Clinton’s Mentor, Carroll Quigley http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1199quigley.htm
Fabianism, Communism, Socialism and now the newest modification the “Third Way” or Communitarianism all have one thing in common, the removal of individual rights and the return of those rights to the state. Communitarianism seems to be an unholy mix of Marxism and “Capitalism” Except of course Capitalism STARTS with the individuals right to own property so it is actually Neo-Corporatism. More important it seems to be the basis for Agenda 21 and Global Governance. link That is why I bring up the Fabians and LSE who originated and promote the mess and train world leaders. It does no good to chop off a few tentacles, we need to see who and where the ideas actually come from.
UK Politics: What is the Third Way? ~ Tony Blair has committed his government to treading the Third Way. Both US President Bill Clinton and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder espouse the same doctrine.
USA “Third Way” http://www.thirdway.org/about_us
Description of “Third Way” http://fiveboxes.com/more.php/2010/10/30/communitarianism-the-third-way-the-key-to-understanding-obama-world-events-and-whats-coming-next/
@Gail Combs says:
Excellent and infromative posts.
REDD is a huge land grab with names like Strong and Clinton heavily promoting the concept. The war on terror has been used as an excuse to strip away the personal rights of law abiding individuals. Yet more people are die every day of stress working to pay their taxes than have ever been killed by terrorists.
Under the current disastrous minority regime of the Gillard Government here in Australia Big Green is enjoying a free hand to trash our economy under the guise of “saving the environment”. The latest act of vandalism sees huge areas of our coastal waters being locked away in marine parks destroying the livelihood of many people dependent on what have operated for decades as a well manged and regulated fisheries.
But not to worry, this inept government will supply compensation to those impacted. And where will the money come from, why these inept fools will simply put more on the already maxed-out national credit card. This mob has been borrowing $100 million every single day since the GFC and still they continue with their profligacy. The election really can’t come too soon.
Hummm, it is not surprising what the green economy pulled forth with so much in the way of subsidies and very little regulation or true oversight of the huge investments made. It is surprising, however, that it has failed so miserably. Trying to micromanage climate is not for the faint of heart in the long run either…..time tells all truths in the end.
Funny how most green products are very much dependent upon Fossil fuels to be created, no ??
I work in one of the poorest areas on Earth in remote Indonesia, conducting mineral exploration and developing mining projects, and almost every week we have to deal with some or other green group who wants to stop every exploration and mining project they can, wherever it is, however it is, and whether the locals want it or not, and keeping the people and their nation poor, by doing so. In some cases, local NGO green groups are funded by western interests that are funded largely by oil (e.g. Norway) or mineral revenues (e.g Australia) which fund local green NGO groups who fanatically oppose mining and exploration; so in effect, western nations are using oil and mineral money to stop poor nations from developing their own oil and mineral resources. I couldn’t think of a better way to keep the imbalance between rich and poor nations, than by rich nations using resource money to stop poor nations from developing their own resources.
If the UN is about reducing poverty, then why doesn’t it also actively promote mining research and development, especially in the 3rd world, instead of indirectly hindering it by their fanatical promotion of ‘protecting the environment’, whilst leaving out legal development and research.
The west got out of poverty largely by developing its resources, including mining. The UN wants to reduce poverty, but at the same time it effectively hinders mining development in the 3rd world, because of its radical environmental agendas. If it is to follow its own ideals, then it must also have an active pro-mining agenda, in addition to its environmental agenda, the same as any nation does.
Some of the world’s largest mineral deposits were originally funded, and found by the UN, or by its initiatives. In the 1960s-1970s, for example, it supported a 3rd world research program into mineral exploration, and one of these initiatives found the Yanococha gold deposits in Peru, one of the largest gold resources in the world. Mining now makes up a large portion of Peru’s economy.
They don’t do this anymore of course, too busy trying to ‘reduce poverty’ by other methods that don’t work. They don’t come out and try and stop mining and mineral exploration directly of course, but their obsessive agenda of locking away every bit of land that’s not bolted down into conservation reserves which don’t allow mining, and their radical green agenda allows local green groups to radicalise and then attempt to stop every legal and properly regulated mining project they can, and in some cases they succeed. Many of the green groups that fanatically oppose mining projects are funded directly or indirectly by various ‘green’ initiatives, which typically morph into corrupt local power plays and vested political interests.
Areas of land that are rushed into various types of conservation reserve tenure to ‘save the planet’ (i.e transferred to the environment estate, often so western researchers can get funding into it) sometimes have to be reversed once it is found that some of these areas contain billions of dollars of minerals and energy resources. Often nobody bothered to ask mineral exploration scientists whether there was any mineral or energy potential there. This is particularly acute in the 3rd world, which hasn’t had the luxury of centuries of research and development into its mineral resources the same way the west has done. Some of these conservation reserves, many of which have no specific local or other value other than adding land to the international environmental estate, are locking local people into poverty. But the real damage is that areas locked away into conservation can’t even be explored or researched for minerals and energy anymore, meaning we will never know whether many of these lands contain resources which can lift people out of poverty in the first place.
In some cases local villagers are also forced off their land, or their living is severely disrupted by green agendas. In 2010 for example, in Indonesia, some locals refused to leave their villages when the nearby Merapi volcano was erupting, because any land that is not ‘occupied’ can be confiscated into the nearby National Park. This caused deaths, because some people did not want to leave their land in fear that is would be confiscated by local National Park officials, and some of these people died in the eruptions.
And often in the 3rd world, conservation land-transfers have to be reversed, at great cost. In some cases, it was found that areas rushed into National Parks for example where I work in Indonesia, contained already well-advanced mining projects worth billions of dollars, with already granted mining titles and rights; nobody bothered to actually check this when the National Park was declared. Some of these had to reversed, because the mining companies could rightfully claim compensation worth billions of dollars.
The UN is effectively hindering the reduction of poverty in the 3rd world by their radical environmental agenda, because at the same time they are ALSO not addressing how this agenda radicalises local green groups and how it effects various legal and locally beneficial developments, and in particular well-regulated exploration and mining. Indonesia is often stated to be one of the most under-explored and prospective nations for minerals on earth, and yet investors shy away from it because it is also so difficult, admittedly socially as well as environmentally, to explore there.
Mining and exploration also directly, and indirectly, funds some of the largest social and environmental programs in the developing world, but it doesn’t do it through radical environmental idealism, it does it largely through direct interaction and involvement with locals on the ground, the way it has always done.
Another case of the not-so-jolly-green-giant:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_h5DTV–cNLI/TK4hoUjihnI/AAAAAAAAKJY/HntcV2BJ_c8/s400/GreenGiant67rug.jpg
…or maybe…..?
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTItIYJwOpzOjwKXRcb7eB_V074CJTnOI6rIuw87NqLlShUwVDW
@ur momisugly Gail Combs, re: “Third way, etc. ”
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Thanks for the links. But I have a question: What do you suggest as the ‘cure’ for this ‘Communitarianism’ and it’s predecessors and cousins? How do we avoid a return to the past? It seems unlikely that a ballot box would be a sufficient prophylactic. The historical remedy involved a lot blood and guillotines. I don’t see that happening either – at least not successfully.
thingadonta says: June 15, 2012 at 6:37 pm
THIS is exactly what’s happening.
I too live in Indonesia, and see tracts of valuable land with timber, but more importantly, valuable mineral resources, locked up as National Parks, based on pressure and funding from green groups and foreign governments, and I am sure the basic underlying strategy which underlies all this is removing competition from the market. The green groups would get nowhere without strong financial and political backing. And I fear much of the enabling funding goes into individual pockets, and get’s nowhere near the regional people who would otherwise be enriched by exploitation of those reserves.
Brazil is probably an example f the pressure; under pressure, mainly from the USA to NOT develop their forests and grasslands (for the sake of the world) they trod their own path and have displaced the USA as the world’s largest exporter of corn soybean and beef.
These dreadful examples of bully boy tactics is typical of these left wing ‘greens’. The ‘greenie knows best’ attitude indicates a small minded mob in action. It is these knowitall idiots who are preventing the development of the third world which will help the environment far more than holding them back in the stone age.
tango says:
June 15, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Australian PM Gillard is attending the RIO+20 fraud and is giving a 90 min speach on how she will destroy Australia in the name of saving us from ourselves….
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Just for kicks I put in a search Australia, Gillard, and London School of Economics…
This popped up
Looks like he is five for five…
Think Tanks are the place where the ideas put in place by the politicians originate.
Gee, Fabian Society, London School of Economics, Oxford University and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Australia, nope the Fabians have no influence over the Australian government… (/sarc)
Turnbull is The Opposition spokesman for communications, a real Spin Meister if he can convince us that China, who is building a coal plant a week, is a will take the global leadership on climate change. I think he forgot to mention that it is Western Tax Payers who are picking up the tab for all that “Climate Change” investment in China.
You will love this one:
“guarantees of energy security” for other countries while she is ripping apart the economic security of her own country, isn’t she a real sweetheart.
I also suggest reading this from a London School of Economics Analyst: Revolt in China only a matter of time: analyst
Bob in Castlemaine says:
June 15, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Under the current disastrous minority regime of the Gillard Government here in Australia Big Green is enjoying a free hand to trash our economy under the guise of “saving the environment”. The latest act of vandalism sees huge areas of our coastal waters being locked away in marine parks destroying the livelihood of many people dependent on what have operated for decades as a well manged and regulated fisheries.
But not to worry, this inept government will supply compensation to those impacted. And where will the money come from, why these inept fools will simply put more on the already maxed-out national credit card. This mob has been borrowing $100 million every single day since the GFC and still they continue with their profligacy. The election really can’t come too soon.
Bob, looks like you should read Gail Comb’s links on ‘the third way’ in this thread.
Its the same story in the USA where Federal Lands are expanding and taking over the areas where prospecting mining or drilling could take place.
The word for the rest of the year will be communitarianism