1ro de octubre de 2014 | Entrevistas | Anti-neoliberalismo | Derechos humanos
In the run-up to the Biennial General Assembly (BGM) of environmental federation Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) that starts on Thursday in Kandy, Sri Lanka, a conference titled “The role of communities in environmental decision-making” was organized.
In the run-up to the Biennial General Assembly (BGM) of environmental federation Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) that starts on Thursday in Kandy, Sri Lanka, a conference titled “The role of communities in environmental decision-making” was organized.
Delegates from Friends of the Earth from over 70 countries participated in the conference, in addition to local community members and representatives of Sri Lankan organizations who came from different parts of the country. The activity was organized by the Center for Environmental Justice – Friends of the Earth Sri Lanka and FoEI. There were over 200 people.
One of the main goals of the organizers was offering Sri Lankan participants some general views from different continents about different issues.
The beginning of the conference was featured by the participation of representatives of different religions (Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, among others) while at the same time it reflected the diversity of thoughts, cultures and ethnicities of Sri Lanka.
The participants agreed on the need to find more and more articulation paths among the people to achieve environmental justice. They also highlighted the importance of generating these convergence spaces where local communities and national organizations are able to discuss different issues, categories and situations at global level and the ways to face these realities and work in the national and territorial contexts.
The participants also made reference to FoEI´s commitment with local communities, not only in Sri Lanka, but also from different places in the world where the communities face the advance of the model of looting and destruction of nature, that has given way to a true crossroads for the future of human kind and life on the planet.
After describing the (mainly transnational) economic and political drivers that favor land grabbing, water privatization, deforestation, among other socio-environmental conflicts, the conference gave way to collective building exercises through participatory workshops. Women, indigenous people and the urban population, and their participation in environmental decision-making processes, were the main issues dealt with at the activity.