Better Governed Landscapes for Sustainable and Equitable Well-being

Ashish Kothari

Kalpavriksh and ICCA Consortium

Today’s vision of ‘development’

Violence against nature, people, and cultures

Are there alternatives? How does better governance fit into them?

Governance diversity & quality

crucial for conservation: expanding coverage, enhancing connectivity, improving effectiveness

enables integration of conservation with economic and cultural sectors … beyond zonation

Indigenous peoples and local community conserved territories

and areas (ICCAs) sites with significant biodiversity, ecological functions and cultural values voluntarily conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities through customary laws or other effective means

Peoples’ movements of resistance and reconstruction across world … practical models of sustainability and

equity

• Collective governance crucial for human well-being in harmony with rest of nature … along with…

Transformative frameworks of well-being(small sample …)

Buen vivir / sumak kawsay (“living well”, South America)

Swaraj (“self-rule”) / Radical ecological democracy (South Asia)

Happiness (Bhutan)

Ubuntu (“compassion/humanism”) (S. Africa)

Degrowth / Solidarity economies (Europe / N. America)

Questions for discussion …

1. Can diverse types of governance across the landscape create better conditions for sustainability and equity?

What elements of governance quality enable this? • participatory or direct democracy• collective, customary institutions• rights with responsibilities • collaboration of various sectors • resilience

Does a landscape with diverse types of ‘protected areas’ and ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ provide greater possibility of achieving human well-being based on sustainability and equity?

What are practices and visions of well-being from other sectors (e.g. ‘development’, livelihoods, human rights), that can contribute to more equitable and enhanced conservation?

How do the following contribute: • secure tenure for indigenous peoples and local

communities• respect for various forms of knowledge• direct or radical democracy with decision-making

emanating from the grassroots• ecoregional governance and planning • social justice and eradication of inequities of

gender, class, caste, ethnicity, race, and others• economic democracy with producer and consumer

control over the market; • dignified, sustainable livelihoods linked to

sustainable production and consumption; • alternative, community-based approaches to health

and learning/education.

for more information:

http://radicalecologicaldemocracy.wordpress.com

www.alternativesindia.org

www.kalpavriksh.org

chikikothari@gmail.com