>The community ecosystem trust > >One vehicle for doing this is the "community ecosystem trust." In >such a trust, those with a claim to land create a legal instrument >to ensure that whoever uses and manages the land does so in a way >aimed at ecological and economic health - in perpetuity. The >community can do this however members choose, as long as they meet >the goals. The trust is a perfect vehicle because it is so >explicitly value-based, and so comprehensive. > ><snip> > >In Nepal, for example, thousands of legally recognized "forest user >groups" collectively manage economic activities to sustain both the >forest and the community. These efforts, for the most part, are >limited to more marginal lands and restricted by government >policies. Nonetheless, they have increased the sustainability of the >forests and increased returns to the communities. Recently, a >national federation of these groups was established to mediate >between these groups and the national government to get ever greater >support and authority for these groups. > >Drawing on this and many other experiments in Asia, Africa, and the >Americas, we at the International Network of Forests and Communities >have developed a process for the British Columbia provincial >government to develop such experimentation on an ongoing basis. The >will already exists in many communities - but there is no way. > >Here's how it would work. A province-wide "ecosystem trust charter" >would set the general terms under which any local trust would >operate. An independent working group would assist communities that >want to create ecosystem trusts and advocate for a shift in >authority over local resource management from federal and provincial >government to the local trusts. > >If such a process existed, the Nuxalk would have a way to move >toward the restoration of the health of the candlefish and the Bella >Coola Valley. Native and non-native fishers, tourist operators, and >local forestry operations would have a reason to talk. After all, if >something could be worked out among members of the community, they >could act - and the government would be required to support them. >And what could be the objection to this empowerment of local >communities if ecosystem sustainability and community health terms >are set out in the provincial trust charter, thus ensuring that >local action protected the "public interest"? > >So residents of the Bella Coola Valley could designate the >boundaries of a watershed area that would become the community >ecosystem trust. A community trust authority could set comprehensive >plans for the management of the trust area, establishing new >performance criteria and "best practices" that would apply to all >who live and work in the area. These would apply to shrimp trawlers >whose harvesting impacts the eulachon and forest companies cutting >in the watershed. > >This structure would support economic innovation that can work >within trust conditions, so the need for continuing agency >regulation would decrease as sustainability became embedded directly >in economic practice - the essence of the commons. > >Among the new roles for government would be to help this happen with >community loan funds, technical assistance, marketing networks, and >so on. (Forestry and fishery products from these areas would be ripe >for eco-certification, for example.) > >And, above all, the precedent would be set. > >Building on the successes of one place, more communities could sign >on. Over time, a whole new jurisdictional level would emerge, a >jurisdiction rooted in trusts that themselves embody the principles >of the commons. Adapted to local experiences but coordinated to work >together, this idea offers a potential to recast democracy, and to >do so in a gradual, cooperative fashion. > >Facilitated transition > >Today, governments that are secretly negotiating away their powers >at the WTO and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) have lost >any claim to ecological legitimacy. To regain ecological legitimacy, >governments must support initiatives that are already occurring on >the ground. In response to globalization's top-down agenda of >economic "structural adjustment," we can create models of local >initiatives across the planet that are community-driven, bottom-up >examples of ecological structural adjustment. > >The community ecosystem trust is one way to do this. It moves beyond >tinkering with sustainable practices through market mechanisms and >more agency rules to comprehensive change by developing whole >sustainability one place at a time. > >Communities can adopt the trust charter when the time is right and >adapt it to the local landscape. Then gradually, place by place, the >commons will once again be held by the communities that live with >them every day, protected and kept in trust for future generations. > >When there is a way, there is already a will.
Mike M'Gonigle, a co-founder of Greenpeace International and the International Network of Forests and Communities, teaches at the University of Victoria, British Columbia; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The report that describes this idea is available through the International Network of Forests and Communities at www.forestsandcommunities.org. http://www.yesmagazine.org/18Commons/MGonigle.htm Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
