Environmentalism in the South

India/ Brazil comparison Guha, 2000• Similarities: – Large, cultural diversity – Poverty – Aggressive gov industrialized programs – Free use of nature and natural resources – Env’l move

Environmental Politics:

Perspectives from the South

Pham Van Dung

12 April 2011

The Southern Environmentalism (Guha, 2000)

• Poor countries can generate environmental movements

• Five examples of third world environmentalism:

1 The Penan community in Sarawak, Malaysia fight against

commercial loggers with forums and network action

2 The Sardar Sarovar dam on Narmada river in Central India, and movement of Medha Patkar to raise awareness of effected

people

3 Peasant protest against eucalyptus and monoculture in

Thailand with Buddhist priests mobilization and practice of

‘ordination’ ceremonies for keeping natural forest

4 Ogoni in Nigeria lost from Royal Shell oil exploration and

beneficial government

5 Environmental reconstruction by Green Belt Movement in

Kenya

Nature of Southern Env’t struggles (Guha, 2000)

India/ Brazil comparison (Guha, 2000)

• Similarities:

– Large, cultural diversity

– Poverty

– Aggressive gov industrialized programs

– Free use of nature and natural resources

– Env’l movement contributed to democracy, openness,

accountabililty

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/maps.htm

http://www.istanbul-city-guide.com/map/images/country/Brazil-map.jpg

India/ Brazil comparison (Guha, 2000)

• Differences:

– India:

• take more account of the human costs involved

• long settled rural communities – farmer

– Brazil

• shorter history and vast Amazon resources

• urban squatters and indigenous people

• higher levels of literacy and education

• environmentalism has higher inter’l visibility and influence

Renewing the land and the people (Guha, 2000)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/09/16/rinjani-Chipko/ Chico comparison (Guha, 2000)

• the sitting of large dams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chipko.jpg

Chipko/ Chico comparison (Guha, 2000)

• Chico:

– deforestation during 1960-80s & road expansion

– indigenous people do not have land titles

– rubber tappers + indigenous inhabitants form a Forest Peoples’ Alliance

http://www.chicomendes.com/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/14/endangeredh

abitats.forests

Chipko/ Chico comparison (Guha, 2000)

• Outcomes:

– Formulation of people-sensitive forest policies

in India

– Rubber Tappers Council of Brazil

– Policies for Development for Forest People

– Eco-feminism

– Active environmental debate

Question 1

• How do you evaluate the environmental movement in developing countries?

Pesticides Poison the South & Environmental Justice

(Pellow, 2007)

• Toxic waste dumping

– Transnational environmental inequality

– Reflects North/South divisions

– Theorized in the context of race, class, nation, and environment

• Impacts of pesticides

– Problematic: greater efficiencies by producing larger crop yields– Devastating public health and ecological harm

– Violence to the ecosystem is similar to social domination

– Thousands of suicides by pesticide

– Pesticides banned in US are exported, dumped, or used in

South –> global environmental inequality and racism

Social Inequality, Labor, and the Ecology of Pesticides

Environmental Injustice, and the Violence of Toxic

• Illegal/ legal pesticide trade

• 70.000 Vietnamese citizens suffer from

Agent Orange exposure

• Herbicides killed coca, cannabis, and

opium poppy in Colombia

Vietnam1aug06.htm

http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/2006/Agent-Orange-International Agreements on Pesticide Production and Export (Pellow, 2007)

• No law in the US against exporting and dumping banned pesticides

• Some international law/ treaties:

– The international Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides (1985)

– The Stockholm convention on Persistent Organic

Pollutants (2001)

– Rotterdam Convention (2003)

• Weak environmental regulations

• Efforts of grassroots transnational networks to develop & implement

Resistance against Pesticides

Resistance & movement (Pellow, 2007)

• Advocated a

return-to-sender approach

• Antipesticide activists are

also deeply opposed to

militarism and state

• Policy making of repelling

and returning pesticides

http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/greenscapes /projects/pji.htm

http://www.speri.org/eng/index.php?

act=newsdetail&pid=112&nid=123&id=515

Question 2

• How do you comment on the unequal trade relation between North and South (especially relating to toxic pesticides)

Subaltern public: CSR omissions

(Munshi & Kurian, 2007)

Corporate proxies (Munshi & Kurian, 2007)

• Powerful corporations – states – financial institutions

– Big businesses invariably team up with the state to get profit

– State grant precious resources: land, water, and power

– First and Third world trade in toxic waste

– Powerful financial sector - capitalics system – Dominant coalition undermines subaltern

publics

Political realties (Munshi & Kurian, 2007)

• Undermined the welfare

Question 3

• How can citizens (subaltern/

nonconsumers and consumers) address and contribute to improve social

responsibility of businesses?

North-South Non-cooperation

(Roberts & Parks, 2006)

• A right to social and economic

development

– Global inequality & socially shared understandings of “fair” solutions

– Understandings of fairness and justice can

• reinforce zero-sum worldviews and causal belief

• erode conditions of mutual trust

• promote risk aversion

• foster retaliatory attitudes

– Ecologically unequal exchange

is a social reality

http://graduateinstitute.ch/corporate/Internationalnegotiation.html

– Worldviews and causal

beliefs influence issue

definition, expectations,

interests, principled

beliefs

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp? NewsID=27015&Cr=climate&Cr1=change

North-South Non-cooperation

(Roberts & Parks, 2006)

• Global Inequality & Climate Treaty Deadlock

– three types of beliefs that influence policies and

• Profligate North consumption

• Environmental reform depends upon South position of labour division

• North use environmental issues to undermine South growth

North-South Non-cooperation

(Roberts & Parks, 2006)

• A Climate of Mistrust

– climate of mistrust is obstacle to cooperation

– promote conditions of mutual trust

• reciprocity

• evaluating other actors’ expectations, strategies

– Mistrust in reality

• North – South different point of view on compensation

• South conomic liberalization and trade deficit, lost control

• Financial event/ crisis

North-South Non-cooperation

(Roberts & Parks, 2006)

• How the Development Crisis Breeds Mistrust in Climate

Negotiations

– rich nations need to rebuild conditions of trust

– Trust, sincerity, and diffuse reciprocity are sustained by

principled, consistent behaviour

– Poor countries face risk averse

• Post-2012: Participation in a Climate Treaty

– principled belief affect environmental cooperation

– contract: no involved country stands to lose

– Definition of fairness are elastic, manipulated

– Negotiation is sometimes influenced by emotion rather than material self-interest

– Aid needs to be reoriented and combined with favorable trade, debt, investment, finance, and intellectual property rights

policies

Question 4 & 5

• What is the strongest influence to

international environmental negotiations?

• What are essential factors to improve

North-South environmental cooperation?

Thank you!