Rio+20 conference
In June 2012 government delegations and numerous others will go to Rio again, to take stock of what has been achieved over the past twenty years and to address new challenges. Two main themes of Earth Summit in 2012 are ‘green economy’ (an economy model that promotes sustainable development and aims at eradicating poverty) and the institutional framework required to meet these goals.
The conference has three objectives. Firstly, it aims at securing renewed political commitment for sustainable development. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for assessing the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of two earlier summits. Finally, it will address new and emerging challenges. Food security and sustainable agriculture were identified as one of seven emerging issues.
The conference is organized by a dedicated Bureau (compromised of representatives from main regional groups) and Secretariat. Participants of the conference will include high level government representatives of UN member states, representatives of the UN and intergovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, Major Groups and media. Numerous participants of the conference are sensitive to issues that matter for small-scale farmers: Farmer’s, Women’s and Indigenous People’s Major Group, UN organizations such as FAO or UNEP, and civil society organizations such as Oxfam Novib.
Beyond the conference: Rio +20 process
The official preparatory process for the conference started already in 2010 and it consists of 17 official events organized by UN. The events include Preparatory Committees, Intersessional Meetings, Regional Preparatory Meetings and Negotiations. Besides, there are numerous unofficial events organized by the global civil society and national governments.
During preparatory period, states, businesses and civil society organizations can send their submissions to draft outcome document. Another way of shaping the agenda and the outcomes of the conference is through lobbying. To achieve greater impact, many civil society interest groups organized coalitions and created platforms to negotiate common position. Green Economy Coalition and EarthSummit2012 Stakeholder Forum are some of the examples.
What can we expect from the third Earth Summit?
First Earth Summit resulted in formulation of sustainable development principles that emphasized the coordination of economic and environmental concerns. At that time important documents for sustainable development of were issued, such as Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, Forest Principles, Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Ten years later, in 2002, second Earth Summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. This conference produced the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI), a document aimed at providing further guidance to operationalise sustainable development.
What will be the outcome of the third Earth Summit? Some fear that Rio+20 is going to be a repeat of the 1992 conference and become another event where the necessities of eradicating poverty and saving the environment are discussed, without leading to any concrete results.
They wonder if Rio+20 will lead to “green” measures that are built upon the existing system, which has caused much of the problems we are trying to solve. There is a risk that instead of focusing on fundamental transformation of the current economic paradigm, the term “green economy” will be used for “greenwashing” existing unsustainable economic practices.
Yet, despite those doubts, Rio+20 offers a historic opportunity to transform abstract commitments into concrete actions. It can be a platform for fundamental transformation. There are real opportunities to upscale sustainable practices and to support viable local food systems.
Rio+20 and small-scale farmers
The topic of the Rio+20 conference is ‘green economy’. There is a growing agreement among important global actors that transformation towards alternative economical model is a prerequisite for sustainable development. So what could be the role of small-scale farming in greening the economy? Agriculture, especially input-intensive, large scale faming systems, is part of the current problem. But agriculture can also became a part of the solution, in which small-scale farming has a major role to play.
There are one billion small-scale farmers across the globe and in some regions they produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food. Small-scale farming contributes to food security, and creates jobs in rural areas. Integrating small-scale farmers into sustainable development path is necessary to achieve agriculture that produce healthy, diverse and culturally appropriate food in the manner that respects the environment and boost local economies.
There are different ideas on what policies would help small-scale farmers to develop in a sustainable manner. Firstly, we need to stop subsidizing unsustainable agricultural practices. Secondly, we need to create an institutional environment that encourages small-scale farmers to choose sustainable development path.
Among others, this means supporting rights and access to resources for women and indigenous people, stopping land grab and ensuring that food production is not compromised for bio-fuel production. It also means restoring of public funding for agricultural development, including support for (participatory) knowledge generation and dissemination. But to make it happen, we need to act jointly to convince policy makers realize the contribution that sustainable small-scale farming can make to feed the world in a responsible manner.
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