Current Page For This Project

Overcoming the systematic exclusion of community voices is not easy. It requires designing intervention strategies at both the national and global levels. Because the issues that are being negotiated in global processes tend to be technically complex and long term, communities do not have the capacity, resources, energy or interest to intervene. A concerted effort is necessary to help communities understand the implications that global processes on the environment and development have for their interests. Special effort must be made to link global issues to the daily lives of communities: the impact on their food security, livelihoods, resource control and tenure, cultural integrity, and political rights. This can be done principally through interventions at the national and regional level.

The next 2-4 years is crucial if things are to be turned around. A number of opportunities have arisen in global processes. In the WTO, the Climate Convention, the CBD, and other processes, decisions will be made in the next few years that could have an enormous impact on poor communities.

It is with this understanding, and given the context of the systematic exclusion of communities from global processes on environment and development that WRI is working, in partnership with The Ford Foundation, to implement Ford's Initiative on Globalization, Environment, and Communities, which has "the long term goal of changing the nature and functioning of key global institutions, such as the WTO and the institutions that manage the global environmental agreements, especially as they relate to the field of environment and development, so that they serve more equitably the interests of impoverished communities around the world."

Given this Initiative, this project has set the following principal objectives:

• At the national level: To ensure that global environment and development issues are integrated in national development plans and strategies in a manner consistent with the interests of poor communities

• At the national and global level: To support community learning and participation in global processes related to environment and development with the aim of ensuring that such processes serve their interests more equitably and effectively

More specifically, the intermediate objectives of this project are:

• To increase the understanding among poor communities of relevant global environment and development processes, with particular emphasis on emerging governance systems related to international trade and global environmental issues (such as climate change, biological diversity, genetic resources, and biosafety to the extent that they have significant consequences for such communities);

• To strengthen the abilities of local communities to influence these global environment and development processes so that their rights and interests are taken into account in the decisions that are made;

• To build the capacity of communities to design, develop, and actively promote policy options that reflect their concerns better and protect their interests more equitably in the relevant global and national processes;

• To increase the capacities of poor communities to take advantage of opportunities that global environment and development processes provide for promoting their interests, including maximizing payments for environmental services as well as obtaining compensation for the local consequences of decisions that are made in these processes;

• To influence the official positions of national governments and intergovernmental organizations in global environmental and development processes so that such positions are more sympathetic and supportive of communities on issues critical to them; and,

• To assist in building coalitions and networks of communities and relevant nongovernmental organizations with a view of maximizing their respective impacts on the relevant global processes.

The project has established the following major components to achieve these objectives:

• At the national level: WRI will work with bilateral and multilateral development cooperation agencies, key national governments, relevant nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations and networks to build the capacity of countries to integrate global environment and development issues in the design and implementation of national development strategies and plans in a manner consistent with the needs and interests of impoverished communities.

• At the national and global levels: WRI will work with private funding institutions, relevant NGOs, and community-based organizations and networks to build the capacity of poor communities to understand and intervene in global environment and development processes which affect them with the aim of ensuring that such processes benefit them.

The overall strategy that WRI is following for this project is to maintain a strong collaboration with the Ford Foundation by working closely with Foundation grantees and other nongovernmental organizations so that project activities will complement other efforts to amplify community voices in global processes related to environment and development. This includes working on the design, production, and release of the following deliverables:

• Monitoring of Global Processes: WRI will monitor key global processes on environment and development by sending staff to relevant international meetings. For each of these meetings, a special bulletin will be produced and disseminated electronically. Each bulletin will describe, among others, the agenda of the meeting, the dynamics of the process, and the extent of participation by communities and other stakeholders in the meeting. The concrete outcomes of the meeting will also be summarized. The implications of these outcomes to communities will be concisely analyzed with a view of alerting community organizations and networks, funders, and other relevant organizations to potential threats and opportunities emerging from each meeting.

• Research and Analysis: WRI will periodically analyze major issues in the relevant global environment and development processes. This analysis will be from the perspective of the implications and significance of the issues on the interests of poor communities. The analysis will involve framing the issue from a community perspective, identifying the key participants and stakeholders, and exploring options for effective intervention by impoverished communities.

• Outreach and Networking Activities with Community Organizations and Other Relevant Nongovernmental Organizations: WRI will participate and contribute to the work of community networks and other nongovernmental organizations active in the relevant global processes. Upon request of organizations, including community-based networks, WRI staff will also provide advice on relevant issues where it has competence and expertise.

Publications

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  SPECIAL BULLETIN #6: From Stakeholders to Rights Holders: Participation of Communities in the Kuala Lumpur Biodiversity Negotiations (2004)

  May 7, 2004. Gives a brief overview of the seventh meeting of the CBD and its results for funders and civil society organizations with a special emphasis on the significance of the meeting to poor communities and indigenous peoples worldwide.

  Lindsey Fransen, Bret Bergst, and Antonio G.M. La Viña

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  SPECIAL BULLETIN #5: Fifth IUCN World Parks Congress (2003)

  December 1, 2003. Provides an overview of the World Parks Congress (Durban, September 2003) and its results for funders and civil society organizations with a special emphasis on the significance of the meeting to indigenous communities worldwide.

  Anne Marie DeRose

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  WORKING PAPER: Genetically modified organisms and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: What is at stake for communities? (2003)

  Provides an overview of the international agreement including an analysis of the key challenges raised by modern biotechnology, the benefits and risks the technology poses to communities, and the opportunities for maximizing benefits and minimizing risks.

  Antonio G. M. La Vina

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  SPECIAL BULLETIN #4: Eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate change (2003)

  January 13, 2003. Gives a brief overview on the UNFCCC COP8 meeting and its results for funders and civil society organizations with a special emphasis on the significance of the meeting to poor communities worldwide.

  Antonio G.M. La Viña

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  WORKING PAPER: From Doha to Cancun: The WTO Trade Negotiations and Its Implications to Communities (2002)

  An overview of results from the Fourth WTO Ministerial Meeting (Nov. 2001): political context of ministerial meeting, key actors/stakeholders, and analysis of issues negotiated in the "Doha Development Round."

  Vincente Paolo Yu and Antonio G. M. LaViña

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  WORKING PAPER: From Kyoto to Marrakech: Global Climate Politics and Local Communities (2002)

  Provides a background on the threat posed by and history of international response to climate change while identifying opportunities to maximize local participation in these processes, concluding with a strategy for intervention.

  Antonio G. M. La Vina

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  WORKING PAPER: The Emerging Global Regime on Genetic Resources: Its Implications for Local Communities (2002)

  Gives an overview of the emerging global regime on genetic resources, with a special emphasis on its implications for local and impoverished communities worldwide.

  Antonio G. M. La Vina

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  SPECIAL BULLETIN #3: Sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2002)

  May 26, 2002. Provides a brief overview on the sixth meeting of the CBD in the Hague and its results to funders and interested civil society organizations with an emphasis on the significance of the meeting to poor communities worldwide.

  Antonio G. M. La Vina

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  SPECIAL BULLETIN #2: Seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Framework on Convention on Climate Change (2001)

  December 7, 2001. Gives a brief overview of the seventh meeting of the COP of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and its results to the Ford Foundation in relation to its work worldwide in the Environment and Development Field.

  Antonio G. M. La Vina

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  SPECIAL BULLETIN #1: Meeting of the Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2001)

  November 8, 2001. Provides a brief overview on the meeting of the WG-ABS of the CBD (Bonn, Germany) and its results to the Ford Foundation in relation to its work worldwide in the Environment and Development Field.

  Antonio G. M. La Vina