---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 14:40:01 -0800 From: charlotte utting <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [WASAN] FW: ADNA Update: African NGOs Mobilize for Community & Farmer Rights ---------- From: "Nunu Kidane" <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: [log in to unmask] Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 09:39:41 -0800 To: "ADNA E-mail List" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: ADNA Update: African NGOs Mobilize for Community & Farmer Rights ADNA Update: 020327 Message from: Africa Faith & Justice Network http://afjn.cua.edu/ For contact information see also: http://www.africapolicy.org/adna This is an article I've written for AFJN's April newsletter. It serves as an overview of the recent meeting I attended in South Africa of over 40 participants representing more than 30 NGOs from 12 African countries. The meeting was held to discuss community and farmer rights and draw up advocacy plans for national legislatures and regional policy-making bodies. Participants also discussed ways to influence the upcoming Earth Summit in Johannesburg. I hope it will give you a flavor of what took place at this very important gathering of African NGOs and grassroots groups, and what they have to say about sustainable agriculture, food security and sovereignty, and community rights to agricultural resources in the face of present trade rules and practices. AFRICAN NGO'S MOBILIZE FOR COMMUNITY & FARMER RIGHTS By Larry J. Goodwin On 01-08 March 2002, I was privileged to represent AFJN and the Africa Trade Policy Working Group* (ATPWG) at a meeting on community and farmer rights, which was held at the Valley Trust, 1,000 Hills, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. Forty-three participants took part, representing 31 NGO and professional groups from 12 African countries, and Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe. We met to support the rights of African local communities and farmers to sustainable agriculture, food security and sovereignty, bio-diversity, indigenous knowledge and technologies. Background: As Around Africa readers know, AFJN has helped lead a 2-year effort to persuade the US Government (USG) to back the rights of African farmers to freely access, use, save, exchange and sell their seeds, plants and food crops. Global trade policies that mandate the patenting of these agricultural resources threaten African farmers’ food security and livelihoods. Multinational pesticide and agribusiness companies, many from the US, have already laid claim to seeds and plants that Africans developed and have used for generations. By asserting exclusive rights over these agricultural resources often termed “biopiracy” the companies are in a position to deny local farmers access to them, or to exact fees for their use. In another twist to the issue, international trade rules favor multinational companies introducing genetically altered seeds and plants (Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs) into developing countries. This raises serious concerns for Africa about GMOs’ effects on biodiversity (contamination/replacement of local species), development (cost to farmers of using these untested technologies and their chemical inputs) and land ownership (GMOs induce large-scale industrial agriculture, which spurs land consolidation to the detriment of small holder farmers). The USG aggressively backs the patenting of living organisms (including seeds, plants and crops) and the dissemination of GMOs, where US companies hold the international research and marketing edge. The USG is the chief opponent of Africa’s attempts to overturn WTO provisions requiring the patenting of life forms. Africa’s response: One of Africa’s most innovative responses to the threats its sustainable agriculture faces is the formulation of African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources, or simply African Model Law. This instrument, initiated by the African Union (formerly Organization of African Unity), seeks to introduce the principle of community rights over agricultural resources into international law in contrast to the present sole recognition of individual/corporate rights. The African Union has reaffirmed its commitment to the African Model Law at two high-level meetings, and it is urging individual African countries to incorporate it into national law. AFJN and its colleagues in the Africa Trade Policy Working Group, backing this critically important African initiative, have launched a series of efforts to bring African farmers’ rights to the USG’s attention. In 2000, we organized an on-going international sign-on campaign for the Declaration of Support for African Smallholder Farmers that now has nearly 400 endorsers [see <http://afjn.cua.edu/> for the text and list of endorsers]. In November 2001, we worked closely with Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D- CA39) to introduce a resolution (H. Con. Res. 260) into the House of Representatives upholding the principles of the African Model Law [see Action Alert]. We are currently trying to get a companion resolution introduced into the Senate, and we have initiated an organizational sign-on letter to Congress urging passage of the resolution [see Action Alert on page four]. The South Africa meeting: In view of the key role the USG is playing in this issue and AFJN/ATPWG efforts to generate support for the African Model Law, African partners invited me to attend the South Africa meeting. I came away greatly impressed by the caliber of the participants, mostly from African grassroots organizations highly committed to community rights, sustainable agriculture and the protection of indigenous knowledge, especially related to food and medicinal plants. There was keen awareness of the role local agriculture plays in African culture, family life and livelihood systems. Food security and sovereignty figured prominently in our concerns, as did the importance of enhancing the viability of sustainable agriculture. We agreed strongly on the threat GMOs, patenting and the resultant corporate control of agriculture pose to community and farmer rights; we affirmed the need to expand the capacity of farmers to employ sustainable agricultural techniques and to participate in local, national and regional policy decisions. Each country group devised strategies for on-going action. The African NGOs committed themselves to intensified collaboration with partner groups to lobby their legislatures and regional bodies in support of community and farmer rights. They laid plans to liaise with farmer and community organizations to create awareness of how GMOs and patenting living organisms could undermine sustainable agriculture, community rights, food security and biodiversity. Participants placed considerable emphasis on the UN’s Aug/Sep 2002 Earth Summit (World Summit on Sustainable Development, or WSSD) the follow-up to the 1992 Rio Summit that will devise and promote international environmental and development policies. We agreed to contact our delegates to the summit, urging inclusion of the principles of the African Model Law in the final declaration. There is great concern that proponents of market-style globalization, who oppose community rights over agriculture, are steering the summit away from initiatives such as the African Model Law. NGOs from many developing countries are organizing an alternative “People’s Summit” to coincide with the WSSD as a way to make their positions known to the delegates and media on critical issues like community rights, sustainable agriculture and food security. A major outcome of the meeting was the Valley of 1,000 Hills Declaration [See <http://afjn.cua.edu/>]. This statement sums up the principal concerns and commitments that came out of our discussions. We agreed to circulate the declaration widely, using it as an educational and lobbying tool to advance African community and farmer rights. We face monumental challenges from USG and WTO policies, multinational corporations and even UN bodies in mobilizing support for including community and farmer rights in international law and agreements. The stakes are high, and the only real hope for successfully resisting the economic and political forces seeking to privatize and control the seeds, plants and crops on which food security rests is the combined efforts of citizens and grassroots groups committed to community rights and sustainable agriculture. That is the urgent message I brought home from the Valley of 1,000 Hills. * ATPWG is part of the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA), a coalition of nearly 200 US-based NGOs that seek a greater focus on human rights and economic justice in US policy toward Africa. Larry J. Goodwin is Associate Director for Organizing at AFJN --------------------------- This message from the Africa Faith & Justice Network is distributed through the Ad vocacy Network for Africa (ADNA) via IDEX Nunu Kidane Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA) Communications Facilitator for IDEX International Development Exchange - IDEX 827 Valencia Street, Suite 101 San Francisco, CA 94110 Tel: (415) 824 8384 www.idex.org ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Stock for $4. No Minimums. FREE Money 2002. http://us.click.yahoo.com/BgmYkB/VovDAA/ySSFAA/DKgolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Next WASAN meeting is Wednesday, March 27, 2002. 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