Solutions Volume 5, Issue 6

November-December 2014, Volume 5, Issue 6

For a sustainable and desirable future

Solutions From Good to Better: Enhancing Ecosystem Management in New Zealand

by John R. Dymond, Anne Gaelle E. Ausseil, Duane A. Peltzer, and Alexander Herzig Venezuela’s Food Revolution

by Christina Schiavoni Can Money Grow on Trees? Nature as a Viable Currency

by Fabio Boschetti and Nick Hardman-Mountford Green is the New Black: The Global Urban Environment

by R.I. McDonald, B. Guneralp, W. Zipperer, and P. Marcotullio

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Pennies from Heaven: A Savings Account for Every Child

by Reid Cramer

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Parsons, A. (2014). Thomas Picketty’s Great Inequality Debate is Missing a Solution. Solutions 5(6): 1-3. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/thomas-pickettys-great-inequality-debate-is-missing-a-solution/

Editorial by Adam Parsons

Thomas Piketty’s Great Inequality Debate is Missing a Solution

T

he year 2014 may be seen as a turning point in the public debate on inequality, which is in large part thanks to Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book Capital in the TwentyFirst Century.1 There is no doubt that Piketty’s tome of analysis has done a great service for progressives in that it uses comprehensive data sets to discredit the prevailing economic ideology of our time.2 It is no longer just common sense to presume that extreme wealth is not good for everyone, and that the invisible hand of the free market will never lead to a fairer sharing of wealth among the population.

However, many questions remain about Piketty’s blanket solution of a global tax on wealth, which he firmly places within the context of a market-dominated and consumerdriven economy. While such a tax may constitute a rational response to the continuing upward redistribution of wealth and income in advanced capitalist economies (even if it is a “usefully utopian idea,” as Piketty himself admits),3 it proposes merely reform and nothing to change the source of systemic inequality.

Many critics of Piketty’s book have pointed out that the surest path to reversing inequality within countries is through strategies that create a better distribution of capital in the first instance, rather than relying on top-down, quick-fix, and state-centric strategies afterwards.4 In other words, it’s more effective to address the distribution of wealth at its source,

including through changes in institutions and policies to make pre-tax income distribution less unequal.

This will inevitably demand the collective organization of labour, the protection of workers’ rights, and new ways for capital to be owned broadly by the populace—such as a dramatic ramping up of participatory ownership through cooperatives.5 These people-driven solutions point towards the shifts in power that are needed to create truly egalitarian societies, although this is a subject that Piketty leaves largely unaddressed.

By far the greatest blind side to Piketty’s analysis, however, is his failure to take seriously the ecological limits to growth.6 It is clear that he defends the free market and the idea of perpetual economic growth, since his proposal for a global wealth

Tony Roberts

Picketty’s best-selling book has sparked public debate on inequality, but the text offers only ideas for reforms rather than challenges to the economic paradigm.

These people-driven solutions point towards the shifts in power that are needed to create truly egalitarian societies, although this is a subject that Piketty leaves largely unaddressed. tax assumes that wealthy countries will continue to grow at a rate of 1.2 percent (with a global growth rate of up to 5 percent). Nowhere in the book does he admit that infinite growth is unsustainable on a planet with finite resources, a position which is now conventional wisdom for many scientists,7 environmental activists,8 and civil society organizations.9 If degrowth on a global level is inevitable sooner or later—and there is enough evidence to suggest that it is—then the implications go far beyond Piketty’s solutions for how we can achieve a just and sustainable

world.10 When the pie cannot be grown any larger to share it out, much more serious questions of distribution arise given the planetary boundaries that economies are already hitting hard.11 As succinctly put by Herman Daly: “is not the solution to poverty to be found in sharing now, rather than in the empty promise of growth in the future?”12 To be sure, we cannot grow our way into a vision of prosperity for all that replicates the North American or Western European standard of living worldwide. Which leaves us with only one option: to share the

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 1

Editorial by Adam Parsons world’s wealth and resources more equitably among everyone, within the constraints of ‘one planet living.’

But unfortunately, this is not the conversation that has been spurred by Piketty’s analysis, which spends only a few pages talking around climate change and the ‘end of growth’ question, and in no way connects the dominant consumption-led growth model to the extreme social and environmental crises of today. As a result, his remarkably popular book has done little to help the general public embrace the radical transformations that will be required in the transition to a post-growth world.

Piketty is certainly correct that part of the answer lies in effective progressive taxation, in which corporations and rich individuals must pay their rightful share.16 But we also need to rethink the entire edifice of capitalist economics,17 in which growth is the primary objective of all policy. This demands solutions that lie outside of Piketty’s neoclassical and Keynsian worldview, despite being long discussed among heterodox economists and the progressive community at large.

At the least, it means that we will have to reconsider the culture of consumerism, fundamentally rethink

To be sure, we cannot grow our way into a vision of prosperity for all that replicates the North American or Western European standard of living worldwide.

There is much cause for optimism, however, as more and more engaged citizens and intellectuals are participating in this crucial debate over how to reimagine the economy as something different that escapes the growth compulsion, and in a way that is compatible with both social justice and ecological limits. This was particularly evident at the Degrowth movement’s fourth conference in September, which attracted an international audience of more than 2,700 people.13 Although no one has all the answers for exactly how a zero-growth world will function, a great amount of thinking has now been done on what such a world will look like,14 and how genuinely shared prosperity can be achieved without causing economic collapse.15

the paradigm of globalization and free trade, and reinvest in our local economies and communities. All this depends on a shift in values towards quality of life and wellbeing, a new ethic of ‘sufficiency,’18 and what Charles Eisenstein has called a “diversification in the modes of human sharing.”19 There is also no escaping the fact that a just transition will have to be managed and coordinated globally, with rich countries radically downscaling their resource and energy demands in order to clear the ecological space for those who need it. Considering that we already require one and a half planets to support today’s consumption levels,20 a popularization of the idea of ‘fair Earthshares’ is long overdue. For how much longer can we continue

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on a path of highly inequitable and overdevelopment, while two-thirds of the world’s population—mostly in the Global South—still live in relative or absolute poverty? Clearly, the majority poor also have a moral claim to their fair share of the Earth’s resources, which means they urgently require economic growth for the basic necessities of life—such as schools, housing, hospitals, basic infrastructure, and decent jobs.

There is much to admire in the great Piketty debate, which has strongly resonated with a disillusioned public who are struggling to understand the causes of inequality in an age of austerity. Yet the very premises of this debate are mired in outmoded economic assumptions and orthodoxies, and hence it fails to ask the right question: which is not how to restart the growth machine, but how to live more sustainably and equitably without it. For the moment, this renewed focus on inequality is a hopeful sign that the momentous discussion on global sharing is finally beginning to reach a mainstream audience. But it surely won’t be long before public opinion is forced to consider a post-growth, and thus post-Piketty vision of how to create an equal and balanced future for all.

References 1. Too Much. Institute for Policy Studies [online] (2014). toomuchonline.org/weeklies2014/ may262014.html.

2. Mason, P. Thomas Piketty’s real challenge was to the FT’s Rolex types. Theguardian.com [online] (May 26, 2014). www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/ may/26/thomas-piketty-economist-ft-attack-risinginequality-bling.

3. Foroohar, R. Thomas Piketty: Marx 2.0. Paris School of Economics [online] (May 19, 2014). piketty. pse.ens.fr/files/capital21c/en/media/Time%20 -%20Capital%20in%20the%20Twenty-First%20 Century.pdf.

4. Shaheen, F. Inequality: it will take more than bestsellers to break the spell. Neweconomics.org

Editorial by Adam Parsons

Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

A demonstration held after the September 2014 Degrowth Conference in Leipzig, Germany. The conference attracted over 2,700 attendees.

[online] (May 2, 2014). www.neweconomics.org/blog/

9. Peoples’ sustainability treaty on sustainable

entry/bestseller-to-breakthrough-whats-keeping-

economies. People’s Sustainability Treaties [online]

action-on-inequality.

(2014). sustainabilitytreaties.org/draft-treaties/

5. Alperovitz, G. After Piketty, the ownership revolution. Aljazeera.com [online] (June 17, 2014). america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/pikettycapital-cooperativeownershipworkerowned.html.

6. Ortega, N. What Piketty forgot. Foreign Policy in Focus [online] (June 18, 2014). fpif.org/piketty-forgot/.

7. Economic de-growth for ecological sustainability

sustainable-economies/.

370–371 (2010).

Degrowth%20Conference%20-%20Proceedings.pdf.

8. Weyler, R. Deep green: why de-growth? an

18. Alexander, S. Degrowth implies voluntary simplicity: overcoming barriers to sustainable

stockholmresilience.org/planetary-boundaries.

consumption. Simplicity Institute Report 12b

12. Herman, D. Wealth, illth, and net welfare. Center for

(2012). simplicityinstitute.org/wp-content/

(2011). steadystate.org/wealth-illth-and-net-welfare/.

it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/en/appel/

(2012). www.greenhousethinktank.org/files/

Resilience Centre [online] (2014). www.

International Conference on Economic De-Growth

of Ecological Economics, France, 2008). events.

17. Read, R. Green house’s ‘post-growth’ project: an

greenhouse/home/1Post_growth_inside.pdf.

11. Planetary boundaries research. Stockholm

the Advancement of the Steady State Economy [online]

(eds Flipo, F. & Schneider, F.) (European Society

(4): stop tax avoidance. Sharing.org [online] (October 1, 2012). www.sharing.org/node/207. introduction. Greenhousethinktank.org [online]

10. Victor, P. Questioning economic growth. Nature 468,

and social equity in Proceedings of the First for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity

13. Degrowth [online]. leipzig.degrowth.org/en/furtherreading/.

uploads/2011/04/OvercomingBarrierstoSustainable ConsumptionReport-12b.pdf 19. Eisenstein, C. Homepage for sacred economics: money, gift, and society in the age of transition.

14. Publications. Degrowth [online]. www.degrowth. org/publications.

Realitysandwich.com [online] (June 23, 2011). realitysandwich.com/103908/homepage_sacred_

15. Jackson, T. & Victor, P. Does slow growth increase inequality? Passage Working Paper Series 14-01

economics/.

20. Makwana, R. Sharing a (not so) living planet.

interview. Greenpeace.org [online] (June 27, 2011).

(2014). www.prosperitas.org.uk/assets/does-slow-

Sharing.org [online] (October 3, 2014).

www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/

growth-increase-inequality-paper.pdf.

www.sharing.org/information-centre/articles/

makingwaves/deep-green-why-de-growth-an-

16. Financing the global sharing economy, part three

sharing-not-so-living-planet.

interview/blog/35467/.

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Contents

November/December 2014

Features

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Conditions and Trends of Ecosystem Services in New Zealand—a Synopsis by John R. Dymond, Anne-Gaelle E. Ausseil, Duane A. Peltzer, Alexander Herzig

Recent ecosystem service assessments in New Zealand explore the balance between natural and managed systems in a country with many different kinds.

Given the high biodiversity, trends indicate most services are maintaining well, but opportunities for improvement remain.

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The Venezuela Food Sovereignty Movement by Christina Schiavoni Can an innovative national experiment shift Venezuela from food dependency to food sovereignty? Widespread participation in this food sovereignty movement has drastically reduced hunger and bolstered domestic food production in efforts to guarantee every Venezuelan’s right to food.

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A Natural Dollar Currency for Ecological Resource Transactions and Management

by Fabio Boschetti and Nick Hardman-Mountford

What would happen if money got its value from nature?

Rather than cherishing currencies, people would cherish and protect natural resources to conserve the value of their money—the driving idea behind the Natural $ currency.

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The Future of Global Urbanization and the Environment by R.I. McDonald, B. Guneralp, W. Zipper, and P. Marcotullio

Massive global urbanization demands innovative solutions to safeguard urban ecosystems. While ecosystem services are crucial resources, they are not valued like other utilities. Budgeting for green infrastructure and biodiversity conservation within cities will enhance life quality in these urban centers.

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On the Web

Perspectives

www.thesolutionsjournal.org Explore the Solutions website for more content and interactivity. What are your solutions? Share your vision for a sustainable and desirable future and learn more about the Solutions community.

Envisioning

Connect Every Child to a Lifelong Savings Account by Reid Cramer

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Where Airstrikes Fall Short, the West Can Still Act to End Violence Against Women by Christina Asquith

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Food and Faith by Janet McGarry

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Life in the Margins: The Role of the Post-Modern Hedgerow by Dave Coulter

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Muckrakers will not Die by Xanthe Ackerman

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On the Ground Removing Dams: Benefits for People and Nature by Cathy Bozek Unused dams along

the Taunton River in Massachusetts have degraded natural ecosystems and posed public safety risks to local communities. The Nature Conservancy is working with local and federal partners to make the solution of removing the dams attainable for dam owners and managers.

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Decarbonization of Cities: You’re Dreaming! by Chris

Ryan, Kes McCormick, Idil Gaziulusoy, Paul Twomey, and Stephen McGrail Visioning exercises that allow for creative, unbounded discussion are increasingly being used to develop strategies for transforming cities to low-carbon centers. Group envisioning processes encourage “dreams” about the future, producing innovative designs for sustainable cities.

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Solutions in History

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Thomas Jefferson and I by Jean-François Mouhot Thomas Jefferson is upheld as a moral stalwart in the history of American democracy, despite the fact that he was a slaveholder. We are also guilty of moral contradictions, as we drive alone in cars and purchase clothing made by slave wage workers abroad. Continuing to justify immoral actions (or merely ignore the consequences) that maintain comfortable lifestyles requires deeper analysis.

Idea Lab In Review

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A Mile Short

From San Salvador to South Africa, Reaching Conflict

by Sharing Experiences: An Interview with Tim Phillips

by Bruce Cooperstein

Noteworthy

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The Art of Dissent: From Beijing to Alcatraz In a Region Famous for Oranges, Students Use the Sun to Make a Car Bringing Geothermal Technology Home A Fitting Pair for the Nobel Peace Prize

by Christina Asquith For twenty years, Tim Phillips has been working behind the scenes of peace negotiations through his organization, Beyond Conflict. Helping embittered parties to recognize shared experiences and respect sacred values has given him insight into how individuals and groups process conflict, a topic Beyond Conflict is delving into with a new neuroscience initiative.

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Editorial Thomas Piketty’s Great Inequality Debate is Missing a Solution by Adam Parsons

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Solutions Editors-in-Chief: Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski Associate Editors: David Orr, Jacqueline McGlade

Contributors 1 4

Managing Editor: Colleen Maney Senior Editors: Christina Asquith, Jack Fairweather

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Editor: Naomi Stewart History Section Editor: Frank Zelko Book & Envisioning Editor: Bruce Cooperstein Graphic Designer: Kelley Dodd Copy Editors: Maria Hetman, Hana Layson,

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and Barbara Stewart Business Manager: Sung Lee Editorial Board: Gar Alperovitz, Vinya Ariyaratne, Robert Ayres, Peter Barnes, William Becker, Lester Brown, Alexander Chikunov, Cutler Cleveland, Raymond Cole, Rita Colwell, Robert Corell, Herman Daly, Thomas Dietz, Josh Farley, Jerry Franklin, Susan Joy Hassol, Paul Hawken, Richard Heinberg, Jeffrey Hollender, Buzz Holling, Terry

1. Fabio Boschetti—Dr. Fabio

http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/subscribe Email: solutions@thesolutionsjournal.com

Boschetti is a research scientist with CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, Perth, Western Australia. Fabio is an applied mathematician with a strong multidisciplinary experience, which includes modelling physical, ecological and socio-economic processes. His current research focuses on better understanding the interaction between ecosystem functioning and human activities. For this aim he develops and employs different types of computational models, ranging from intermediate size models are used to study complex multi-scale dynamics, to simpler models used to facilitate the communication of research results.

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2. Nick Hardman-Mountford—Dr

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Nick Hardman-Mountford is a Principal Scientist and biogeochemical oceanographer with CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, based in Perth, Western Australia. Previously he worked as Senior Scientist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, as Ocean Carbon Cycle theme leader in the UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), and as Acting Director of the Centre for observation of Air-Sea Interactions and Fluxes (CASIX). His research focuses on ocean biogeochemical processes, including satellite and in situ observations and numerical modelling of the ocean carbon cycle. More recently he has extended this research interest in carbon cycling to economic considerations of how to value carbon in ecosystems.

Irwin, Jon Isham, Wes Jackson, Tim Kasser, Tom Kompas, Frances Moore Lappé, Rik Leemans, Wenhua Li, Thomas Lovejoy, Hunter Lovins, Manfred Max-Neef, Peter May, Bill McKibben, William J. Mitsch, Mohan Munasinghe, Norman Myers, Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Bill Rees, Wolfgang Sachs, Peter Senge, Vandana Shiva, Anthony Simon, Gus Speth, Larry Susskind, David Suzuki, John Todd, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Alvaro Umaña, Sim van der Ryn, Peter Victor, Mathis Wackernagel, John Xia, Mike Young

Subscriptions:

On the Cover A hiking lodge atop Mt. Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park on the North Island of New Zealand.

Photo by Ida Kubiszewski Solutions is subject to the Creative Commons license except where otherwise stated.

3. John Dymond—John Dymond,

D.Sc., is a principal scientist at Landcare Research, specializing in environmental monitoring and modelling. He has had a varied career, working as a hydrologist

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with the Ministry of Works (1978–1983), and then as a remote sensing scientist, first with the Ministry of Works (1983– 1987), and then with the Department of Science and Industrial Research (1987–1992). From 1992 he has worked as a scientist with Landcare Research contributing to research into sustainable land use and ecosystem services.

4. Christina Schiavoni—Christina

Schiavoni is an activist and scholar focused on food sovereignty and the right to food. Originally from the US, she is currently working on her PhD at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands. Her most current areas of research include Venezuela, Tanzania, and global food policy spaces such as the UN Committee on World Food Security. Earlier, she worked as an advocate and organizer on efforts to grow and strengthen the movement for food sovereignty in the U.S. and globally.

5. Robert McDonald—Robert

McDonald is a Senior Scientist for Urban Sustainability at The Nature Conservancy. He researches the impacts and dependences of cities on the natural world, and is the lead scientist for much of the Conservancy’s urban conservation work. He is currently leading a global team of scientists mapping where the cities of the world get their water, and evaluating their dependence on ecosystem services and their vulnerability to climate change. He is also working on a book, Conservation for Cities, which documents the role green infrastructure can play to the well-being of urban residents. Another major research interest is the effect of U.S. energy policy on natural habitat and water use. Prior to

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joining the Conservancy, McDonald was a Smith Conservation Biology Fellow and professor at Harvard University.

6. Christina Asquith—Christina

Asquith joined Solutions in 2009 as one of the founding editors. She has been an investigative reporter, war reporter, and narrative nonfiction author; working both as a staff writer and freelancer for The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

She has reported from Afghanistan, Jordan, Dubai, Oman, Qatar, and South America. Christina is also author of two books, including the critically acclaimed Sisters in War (2009 Random House).

Christina has appeared as an expert on global women’s rights on ABC News, Fox News, Al Jazeera, NPR’s Morning Edition, PRI’s The World, as well as at The U.S. State Department, Harvard University, Boston University, Northeastern University, and many others.

7. Cathy Bozek—Cathy Bozek is

an aquatic ecologist at The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. Her work focuses on partnership-based watershed management and restoration, the use of green infrastructure for storm water management, and restoration of fish passage and river processes through dam removal. Cathy serves on the Advisory Board for the International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage. She has a M.S. in Water Resource Management from the University of New Hampshire and a B.A. in Geology from Colgate University.

8. Jean-François Mouhot—J.F.

Mouhot was until recently a postdoctoral research fellow based in

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the history department of Georgetown University (Washington D.C.). He has a long-standing interest in environmental and energy issues, particularly climate change. He has recently published several articles and a book showing the connections that exist between the use of fossil fuels today and of slaves in the past. He has recently started a new job for an environmental organization, A Rocha (www.arocha.org), working to set up an international center for environmental education and training in the south of France (www.courmettes.com).

9. Bruce Cooperstein—Bruce

Cooperstein is Professor of Mathematics at University of California, Santa Cruz, where he has taught since 1975. He was a Pew National Scholar for Carnegie Fellows from 1999–2000 and was Provost of College Eight (one of the ten resident Colleges at UCSC) from 1984–1990. In addition to his mathematical specialties in group theory and incidence geometry, he is interested in the interaction of education, politics, economics, and ecology. He has written numerous op-ed pieces on these and other topics as well as articles on economic conversion and the economic foundations of peace.

10. Chris Ryan—Chris Ryan is

Professor and Director of the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab at the University of Melbourne in the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning. From 1996–2004, he was foundation professor of Design and Sustainability at RMIT University and then Director of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund university, Sweden.

In 2002 he worked for the United Nations Environment Program as an author of the Global Progress Report on Sustainable Consumption for the Johannesburg UN world summit. He is an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Industrial Ecology and a visiting professor at Delft University, the Netherlands. He is chief investigator for the Visions and Pathways 2040 project.

11. Adam Parsons—Adam Parsons

is the editor at Share The World’s Resources, a civil society organisation campaigning for a fairer sharing of wealth, power and resources both within and between nations. Adam previously worked as a journalist and editor for national and regional newspapers in the UK before spending a number of years in South Asia and Australia as a freelance writer on progressive issues.

He has written numerous articles and publications on global justice and political activism, and participated in various panel discussions and civil society forums in the UK and overseas. He can be contacted at adam@sharing.org or www.sharing.org.

12. Xanthe Ackerman—Dr. Xanthe

Ackerman is a writer based in Istanbul.

She is the founder of Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa, an international non-profit that supports life-changing opportunities for secondary school girls in Malawi. Dr. Ackerman is a former scholar at the Brookings Institution and the United States Institute of Peace and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her writing focuses on education, refugees, Syria, and Africa.

13. Reid Cramer—Reid Cramer is

director of the Asset Building Program at the New America. His work aims to

promote policies and ideas that significantly broaden access to economic resources through increased savings and asset ownership, especially among lower-income families. His book, The Assets Perspective: The Rise of Asset Building and its Impact on Social Policy, was published in 2014.

Previously, Dr. Cramer served as a policy and budget analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, where he helped coordinate policies on housing, savings, economic development, and program performance evaluation. He has a doctorate in public policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an MA in city and regional planning from the Pratt Institute and a BA from Wesleyan University.

14. Dave Coulter—Dave Coulter

is a consulting horticulturist and educator based in Oak Park, IL. He has worked in the green industry for over 30 years and has owned his business since 1997. He has been engaged with the local arboriculture community, and primarily assists his clients in urban forestry, ecological restoration, and project management issues. In addition, he has taught and developed online/hybrid courses at the community college level. His interest in hedgerows likely was kindled during childhood forays in and around rows of Osage-orange trees in the suburbs of Chicago—and continues to this day.

15. Janet McGarry—Janet McGarry

lives in San Francisco where she writes about environmental and agricultural issues. She studied at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies after a career as a lawyer.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 7

Noteworthy. (2014). Solutions 5(6): 8-11.

Idea Lab Noteworthy The Art of Dissent: From Beijing to Alcatraz

by Colleen Maney

A prison is not the first place one would expect to find an art exhibit, nevertheless one exploring themes of freedom and human rights. But this is exactly where Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has chosen to display his work—at the United States’ notorious island prison, Alcatraz, found off the coast of San Francisco in California. The exhibit, titled @ Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, includes seven installations of sculpture, sound, and mixed-media works inspired by Alcatraz Island.

Alcatraz was made infamous during its time as a federal penitentiary, but the island has also been utilized as a military fortress and host to a Native American occupation and protest movement in the early 1970s. This rich and layered history made Alcatraz an intriguing spot for an exhibition raising questions regarding freedom of expression, by an artist whose freedoms have been repeatedly tested by his native Chinese government.

As a politically outspoken artist, Ai Weiwei has been arrested, detained, and put under continuing surveillance in his home city of Beijing. Although he has since been released after a 2011 arrest, Weiwei is still prohibited from

traveling outside of China. Yet these restrictions have not stopped him from expressing criticism through his art. His installments offer a new perspective on a place known for both detainment and protest- two themes that resonate in Weiwei’s life and work. In one section of the exhibit, visitors peer down at his work through the broken windows of a gun gallery, where guards once stood watch, weapons trained on the prisoners below.

While this arrangement adds a powerful dynamic to the exhibit, the vision for the piece required access to a section of Alcatraz that is normally off limits, for both the safety of visitors and the preservation of the historic

Benedicto De Jesus

The entrance to the @Large: Ai Weiwei exhibit at Alcatraz Prison.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy site. A Portland cleantech start-up was enlisted to engineer a custom solution.

Indow Windows rose to the occasion, creating custom window inserts that will both protect visitors from broken glass and the historic building from further damage.

The exhibit is on display at Alcatraz Island through April 26, 2015. For more information, visit the For-Site Foundation online at: http://www. for-site.org/.

In a Region Famous for Oranges, Students Use the Sun to Make a Car by Özge Sebzeci

Since Istanbul, Turkey is notorious for its hours-long traffic jams, one might not get terribly excited over the development of another car.

But, this is not just any new car.

The Portacar is a solar car named after the orange (‘portakal’ in Turkish), the symbol of Antalya, and also because the steering system was built from an orange-squeezing machine because the car engineers— all university students—lacked the money for anything more.

The students come from Turkey’s Akdeniz University Mechanical Engineering Department. Most of the Portacar’s parts are taken from junk metals, electric bicycles, or motorcycle materials. The car’s solar panels are able to recharge its batteries within an hour, and the car has 800 watts of panel power.

The Portacar can reach up to 60 kph and it has a reverse gear unlike most other solar cars. Test drives of the car are being conducted in the corridors of the university, and the car has not been put on display or gone to races outside Antalya for two years.

Ekke

An orange tree in the Antalya region of Turkey, where students used orange-squeezing machinery to build a solar car.

The team of students is working constantly to upgrade the quality of the engine and to give it more functions.

Project advisor, Hakan Ersoy points out that the car will attract more attention nationally and internationally

when they build a higher-powered engine. He emphasizes that, as Antalya is a city blessed with the sun, they cannot accept being in second or third place when it comes to projects using solar energy.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy Bringing Geothermal Technology Home

by Victoria Clark

A new residential community development on the outskirts of Sydney is stepping up to the sustainability challenge—and creating an unusual amount of attention in the process.

Constructed over what was previously a private golf course, the master plan includes restoration of wetlands and waterways connected into its stormwater management plan, and a number of green spaces and bike paths to support healthier lifestyles.

The main cause for attention, however, is the developer’s approach to energy efficiency. Geothermal technology is being rolled out across the project’s 800 homes, providing the heating and cooling systems needed almost year round in the Greater Sydney region. This is good news for residents, with the average 4-person household anticipated to reduce its energy usage by up to 60 percent compared to those with conventional air conditioning systems—a saving equivalent to approximately US$435 per year at current Australian electricity prices. And, perhaps more importantly, the houses are able to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.

Geothermal takes advantage of the constant temperature below the Earth’s surface, generally cooler than the above ground temperature in summer, and warmer in winter.

Typically, refrigerant or water is circulated through bores up to 150 m below the building’s foundations where it adjusts to match the surrounding temperature, before being returned to ground level.

Despite the benefits of geothermal technology, it has experienced a

TrishVeo1

Geothermal heating and cooling systems take advantage of the ground temperature, generally using water as a conductor.

relatively slow uptake when compared to other renewables, for example, solar and wind. This looks set to change however, thanks to Queensland-based company QPS Geothermal, who have developed the GeoAir system—the same one being installed across the Sydney community development.

GeoAir has refined the technology at the residential scale, reducing upfront installation costs and making geothermal more affordable for the domestic market. According to QPS Geothermal director, Paul Costello, this has been achieved by reducing the depth of drilling by up to half, resulting in a significant cost saving.

The potential benefits have not gone unnoticed, with a number of national and international developers, as well as one of Australia’s major energy providers, showing growing interest.

For more information, visit: http://www.qpsgeothermal.com.au/ residential/.

10 | Solutions | November-December 2014 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

A Fitting Pair for the Nobel Peace Prize

by Naomi Stewart

Few were surprised to hear of the selection of Malala Yousafzai for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, but, alongside the famed young Pakistani girl was another, less well-known child activist also being awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, Kailash Satyarthi. Satyarthi is a 60-year-old Hindu Indian, who quit engineering and teaching in 1980 in order to take up the torch for child labour and human rights. He has worked tirelessly in his own country, as well as the international arena, to rid society of the damaging practice of child exploitation, which often also takes place under the duress of dangerous working conditions, minimal to no wages, and bonded labor.

To date, Satyarthi has rescued over 83,000 children, and counting, from the perils of child labor. In the vein of

Idea Lab Noteworthy

Stortinget Stortinget

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014.

Gandhi, and under the banner of eliminating the exploitation of children for financial reasons, he has organized numerous peaceful marches and demonstrations, cultivated and participated in many international conferences, and even directly contributed to the development of Convention 182 with the International Labour Organization, which addresses the harshest types of child labor and is now applied by governments across the world.

The Nobel Peace Prize is not his first international recognizance either.

Satyarthi won the Aachen Peace Prize in Germany as far back as 1994, and has easily won a dozen more major international prizes for his efforts since. Despite all this, and the more

recent fame of the Nobel Peace Prize, Kailash Satyarthi remains humble and his ambition and dedication to his cause has not slowed down a bit—he is currently pushing for a boycott on all Indian goods produced with child labour. This is a constant pursuit of his, reflected also in the Goodweave organization he founded in 1994, which ensures, through certification, that all goods affixed with the Goodweave label were produced without exploitative child labor.

Like Yousafzai, Satyarthi bears the scars of standing up for human rights. He has been brutally physically attacked by opponents of his activism, yet continues to persist for the cause, with the benefits of his own labor

being reaped in India and across the world. Many other comparisons have been drawn between Yousafzai and Satyarthi—indeed, a century ago they may have been neighbors. Now, while their respective countries are neighbors instead, Yousafzai and Satyarthi are a symbolic choice for their Nobel Peace Prize. They have opposing characteristics of young and old, female and male, Muslim and Hindu, yet are unified through the common goal of a free, equal life for all children, everywhere. It is hard to believe that these two will ever be less deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, as both carry their progressive efforts forward into a more just world, one which they are ultimately creating together.

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Ryan, C., K. McCormick, I. Gaziulusoy, and S. McGrail. (2014). Decarbonization of Cities: You’re Dreaming! Solutions 5(6): 12-15. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/decarbonization-of-cities-youre-dreaming/

Envisioning

Decarbonization of Cities: You’re Dreaming!

by Chris Ryan, Kes McCormick, Idil Gaziulusoy, Paul Twomey, and Stephen McGrail

This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all the right changes have been made.

S

ocietal and technological transformation in the face of climate change will be won or lost in our cities and urban communities. This is not just because of the global urban demographic shift with more than 50 percent of the population now living in urban conditions, or because cities contribute around 70 to 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is as much to do with the growing economic and political importance of cities.1,2,3 Patterns of production and consumption are defined for—and increasingly shaped by—urban living. In spite of having no formal standing as actors within global processes to address climate change, cities have stepped up as powerful voices and loci for action.4,5,6 Studies seeking to understand the underlying determinants of the economic contribution of cities are drawing attention to the value of cultural and physical conditions that encourage social interactions, with such interactions seen as essential precursors for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial activity.7,8 Dealing with climate change—its mitigation and adaptation—will require an unprecedented period of innovation.

Well-planned and well-designed cities may be our best hope for the future.

However, our built environments have embedded dependencies on high flows of fossil fuels, and local

governments and community agents face significant hurdles in redirecting development (and re-development or retrofitting) to a low-carbon urban future. Add in the vulnerabilities of existing infrastructure from changing climate and extreme weather, and the obstacles can seem overwhelming.

In response to these challenges, there is increasing attention to the possibilities for ‘cracking open’ the transformation processes for decarbonizing urban living through the co-creation of future visions involving researchers, designers, professionals, and the community. A mix of projects are popping up in Australia, Europe, Canada, and the US exploring urban futures in a climate-change constrained world through participatory and creative visioning processes.

These projects adopt a variety of approaches, but an intriguing aspect is that of facilitating ‘dreaming’ about the future: supporting people to let go of commitments to where we are now and where we seem to be heading, and to simply think about what we desire for the future. Such approaches try to break through perceived barriers to creativity that involve unquestioning acceptance of realistic goals.

The challenge of decarbonization and resilience involves no less than a transition from long established systems (technologies, infrastructures, practices, lifestyles, values, and policies) to very different ones.9,10,11,12 For existing cities the ‘old’ systems are often embedded, physically and culturally, in built infrastructure, urban form, systems of provision (energy, water, food, transport, and information), and urban lifestyles, creating dependencies that are hard to overcome.

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However, there are models, frameworks, tools—and even games—that can help explore futures and the complex dynamics of technological and societal systems in order to transform those systems and our cities. Among these, multi-phase and multi-level models of system innovation, transition management, living laboratories, and urban design games are receiving attention.13,14,15,16,17 Research and engagement projects aimed at assisting cities and communities, by using various approaches to re-think futures, have emerged globally over the last few years. A few examples include Retrofit 2050,18 CRISP,19 POCACITO,20 CASUAL,21 and SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050, among others.22 A project called Creating Pathways to Decarbonization in Canada and the US is also relevant in this context.23 In Australia, there is a new flagship project of the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living called Visions and Pathways 2040 (VP2040)24 VP2040 was established in 2013. It focuses on Australian cities (including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth), envisioning possibilities for those cities if they have achieved an 80 percent reduction in their contribution to greenhouse gases, along with greatly enhanced resilience by 2040. In this project, citizen engagement and ‘dreaming’ about the future is a central element complementing research, scenario formation, and analysis of pathways for innovation.25 VP2040 is a partnership with the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales and Swinburne University in Australia, Lund University in Sweden, and a large

Envisioning

Peter Durand

The PopTech summit in 2013 brought citizens, stakeholders, scientists, designers, and policy makers together in Brooklyn to envision solutions to increase urban resilience.

number of partners from industry and government. An international scientific committee consisting of renowned experts in areas relevant to the project oversee the academic quality.26 So far, a series of workshops have challenged around 150 participants to re-think, re-design, and re-dream the physical, technological, social and cultural fabric of Australian cities in 25 years’ time.

It is a common feature of vision projects that they focus around potential disruptive forces that could change the trajectory of the future in surprising ways. In the urban context,

disruptive changes in attitudes, behaviors, and values (such as valuing public space, taking public transport or walking, buying local food, saving energy, and so on) can interact in complex ways with technological developments (such as renewable energy, electric cars, 3D printing, and so on) to produce rapid shifts in patterns of production and consumption.

The research part of VP2040 involves mapping potential disruptive forces, and the way that those forces could shape cities to achieve their rapid decarbonization.

What makes the VP2040 approach unusual is its connection to design.

The industry partners are either large design, planning, and engineering practices (including global consultancies like AECOM and Aurecon) or the design-led construction industry (such as Multiplex Manufacturing). The cocreation workshops included a cohort of professional designers who took the dreams of the participants as a brief for designing futures; they returned from their design practices to present the workshop participants with visualized glimpses of the dreamed-of futures.

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Envisioning

demoshelsinki

A draft timeline from a SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 envisioning activity on the scenario “Empathic Communities.”

These communicable images will be used to stimulate further cocreation activity in project workshops, and in strategic thinking processes in the partner organizations. As freely available images, they should become vehicles for expanding public interest in thinking beyond business-as-usual realities to the creative design of alternative cities and urban living.

Research and visions will help shape the deliberations of a coming series of expert workshops aimed at generating scenarios for the transformation of Australian cities.

The development of modern scenario and future thinking has been described as passing through three

generations. The first generation concentrated on predicting the future as accurately as possible; the second shifted the question from ‘whether something will happen,’ to the question ‘what will we do if something happens?’; the third generation focuses more on the future we collectively want to achieve, where the question then becomes ‘how might we get to that future?’ The clear interest now is in the current generation of approaches about what we want.

Work in the Australian and international projects is drawing attention to the role that dreaming and visions can have in defining the futures for which we might aim, in part because visual

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representations of alternative futures are an information-dense vehicle for ‘carrying’ ideas. Such glimpses do not pretend to provide blueprints for futures but suggestions for new possibilities—new alignments—for the social, cultural, technological, and physical elements that could form a desirable urban condition.

Engagement facilitated by such visions, organized around coherent scenarios (with narratives for the unfolding of events that could result in the visions), is a way of framing a dialogue about pathways for change—for the innovations (social and technical), and policies that might help us meet the challenge of

Envisioning living. Nature 467: 912–913 (2010).

8. Glaeser, E. Triumph of the City: How our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier (Penguin Press, New York, 2011).

9. Frantzeskaki, N & de Haan, H. Transitions: Two steps from theory to policy. Futures 41(9): 593–606 (2009).

10. Geels, FW. Technological Ttransitions and System Innovations: A Co-evolutionary and Socio-technical Analysis (Edward Elgar, Northampton, 2005).

11. Twomey, P & Ryan, C. Visions and Pathways for Low to Zero Carbon Urban Living: Australia 2050. State of Australian Cities Conference, November 26–29, 2013, Sydney, Australia (2013).

12. Ryan, C. Eco-Acupuncture: designing and facilitating pathways for urban transformation, for a resilient low-carbon future. Journal of Cleaner Production 50: 189–199 (2013).

13. Evans, J & Karvonen, J. Living Laboratories for Sustainability: Exploring the Politics and Epistemology of Urban Transitions. Cities and Low Carbon Transitions (eds Bulkeley, H, Broto, V, Hodson, M & Marvin S) (Routledge, London, 2011).

14. McCormick, K, Hellström-Reimer, M & Nilsson, E. Advancing Sustainable Urban Transformation through Living Labs. International Conference on Sustainability Transitions, August 29–31, 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark (2012).

15. Loorbach, D. Transition management for sustainable development: A prescriptive, complexity-based governance framework.

VEIL CRCLCL and Simon Cookes

A vision “glimpse” of Melbourne 2040, produced by a visioning exercise by VP2040: Melbourne’s tennis precinct has a vast, multi-level ‘Cool Zone’ below the adjacent river—a repurposing of an old car tunnel under the Yarra. This space is well lit by a matrix of Bio Dome light amplifiers apparently floating on the river. This ‘Cool Zone’ is the perfect place to escape the ever rising summer temperatures that occur in Melbourne due to climate change. These spaces have been planned as a large underground civic plaza, available for individual relaxation and for gatherings and events. These include concerts, municipal celebrations and dance parties. Below this civic zone the rail system runs deep underground.

Governance 23(1): 161–183 (2010).

16. Portugali, J. Complexity Theories of Cities: Implications to Urban Planning. Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age: An Overview with Implications to Urban Planning and Design (eds Portugali, J, Meyer, H, Stolk, E & Tan, E) (Springer, London, 2012).

17. Tan, E. Negotiation and Design for the Self-Organizing City: Gaming as a method for Urban Design (Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2014).

18. Retrofit 2050: http://www.retrofit2050.org.uk/.

climate change. Visions can be used to problematize current sustainability trajectories and demonstrate the tension between short term actions and long term goals; they can also be utilized to build a network of actors towards a common aim. So, in short, if we want to shape our future, get your dreaming started!

in climate change. State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World (eds Engelman, R, Renner, M & Sawin, J.) (World Watch Institute, Washington DC, 2009).

1. OECD. Cities and Climate Change (2010) [online]. (http://www.oecd.org/gov/citiesandclimatechange/).

2. Satterthwaite, D & Dodman, D. The role of cities

http://www.crisp-futures.eu/.

20. POCACITO POst-CArbon CIties of Tomorrow: http:// pocacito.eu/.

3. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Cities: Investing in Energy and Resource Efficiency.

UNEP, Paris (2011).

21. The CASUAL Project: http://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/ casual/.

22. SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles: http://www.

4. ARUP & C40. Climate Action in Megacities (2014) [online]. (http://issuu.com/c40cities/docs/c40_ climate_action_in_megacities/).

sustainable-lifestyles.eu/.

23. Creating Pathways to Decarbonization: http:// munkschool.utoronto.ca/research/creating-

5. Rosenzweig, C, Solecki, W, Hammer, SA & Mehrotra, S. Cities lead the way in climate-change action.

References

19. CRISP Creating Innovative Sustainability Pathways:

Nature 467: 909–911 (2010).

pathways-to-decarboninzation/.

24. Visions and Pathways 2040: http://www. visionsandpathways.com/.

6. Bulkeley, H. Cities and the Governing of Climate Change. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 35: 229–253 (2010).

25. http://www.visionsandpathways.com/about/ vp2040-video/.

26. http://www.visionsandpathways.com/international-

7. Bettencourt, L & West, G. A unified theory of urban

scientific-committee/.

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Asquith, C. (2014). From San Salvador to South Africa, Reaching Conflict by Sharing Experiences: An Interview with Tim Phillips. Solutions 5(6): 16-18. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/from-san-salvador-to-south-africa-reaching-conflict-by-sharing-experiences-an-interview-with-tim-phillips/

Idea Lab Interview

From San Salvador to South Africa, Reaching Conflict by Sharing Experiences: An Interview with Tim Phillips Interviewed by Christina Asquith

F

or 20 years, Tim Phillips has worked on the front lines of peace negotiations, helping the South Africans adopt a transitional justice program after apartheid and then sharing that experience to negotiate an end to “the troubles” in Northern Ireland, sectarian strife in Bosnia, and guerrilla warfare in El Salvador. Currently, his team works on conflict resolution in South America and the Middle East and has a new book, Beyond Conflict, which looks at lessons learned from 20 years of peace-making.

His new TED Talk can be seen online at http://tedxboston.org/speaker/phillips.

Your new book, Beyond Conflict, draws lessons from your 20 years of experience in conflict resolution. What’s the central argument you’re making, and how is it different from what others already know about resolving conflict?

Well the book is about the notion of shared experience—that people can learn from the experiences of others.

Too often people think every country is unique, every experience people have is so distinct that there isn’t a capacity to learn from others who have been through similar situations.

There is also the phenomenon of people who live under conflict or dictatorship becoming so traumatized or feeling so victimized that they adopt a certain outlook; an attitude that no one has suffered the way they have, that nobody can understand the depths of disparity/fear that they go through. However, the reality is that these experiences are universal. From

this, our approach at Beyond Conflict is very much based on the notion that people can learn from the experience of others. It does take time to conquer, to penetrate the defense layer that people have recognized the existence of the shared experience.

That I would say sums up the core to our approach.

Your first success was in Czechoslovakia, in the events surrounding the Velvet Revolution. How did you convince the parties to come together and discuss their shared experiences?

It wasn’t specifically Czechoslovakia; we started working in Eastern Europe as a region. There we focused on the notion that as this transition to democracy was unfolding throughout the former communist countries, there was a wave of what I would call self-described experts flying in from Western Europe and US. Their conversations encompassed “how to write a constitution, how to build a market economy, etc.”—important stuff.

During all this, I was thinking, well, that’s all important but what is fundamentally necessary is for these countries and for these new leaders to deal with their past. How to you deal with a legacy of repression, the legacy of human rights violations, possible future collaborators, or all this new state security funds that were starting to pop up? It struck me, and I often joke it was because I am the youngest of a large family and I have a problem with authority,

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Elizabeth Herman

Tim Phillips is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Beyond Conflict.

that it would be helpful to hear from people who had braved similar paths. In 1991 there were far fewer examples than exist today. There was Spain after Franco, the process in Argentina and Chile, or deNazification in Germany. The thought was if we could bring in leaders from those countries that had struggled with the same challenges and sit them down with leaders of these postcommunist countries, there would be good opportunities for success.

Idea Lab Interview

Pietro Izzo

A mural in Belfast City Centre depicts the ongoing peace process and challenges facing Northern Ireland sixteen years after the Good Friday Agreement brought a political end to the Troubles.

The first step in any process is to recognize that people have a sacred value.

Good chemistry between parties is vital. How do you go about selecting which leaders you would like to bring to the table?

Quite frankly, we can’t, nor do we choose who comes into the room from the country we are working in.

What we do is when evaluating the country, we try to understand what is the issue we are addressing. So in South Africa in 1994, it became evident that the South Africans would have to start dealing with the legacy of apartheid. In that context, our work was about dealing with the past. We thought it would be very useful for these leaders to have options, to look at what happened

in Latin America and look at what happened in Eastern Europe in the former Soviet Union. So in that case we ended up finding those leaders who we thought were articulate, had very powerful stories to tell. Stories of specifics like the Chileans and their successes with truth commissions or thematic advice on how to deal with international collaborators, people who were in death squads, the gambit really. We really just knew people who were good and thought that they would resonate.

In some conflicts, compromising on territory constitutes sacrificing identity often based in sacred values. How do

you approach mediating a conflict in which any party giving ground would be seen as abandoning these values?

The first step in any process is to recognize that people have a sacred value. Too often people try to describe someone else’s narrative. The first thing in this process is to say people should be allowed to own what is sacred to them, and it needs to be recognized and honored. This being said, you may not share it, but you have to recognize it. When it comes to land—that is a difficult issue. When we worked in Northern Ireland, a lot of Catholics who supported the republican side wanted the UK physically out and the property to go back to the Republic of Ireland. To mend this obstacle, Ireland began a narrative of shared sovereignty. The lesson had to be understood that you could own what was sacred to you: your culture, your language, your schooling, your identity, but you lived on the same land. The goal was to go beyond past initial and primal barriers.

Roelf Meyer, one of the six subjects of your book, credits the growing empathetic understanding between South Africans as one of four elements that drove change, the others being forms of international pressure. Do you see your methodology as one piece of the puzzle, and how do you approach bringing the other pieces together?

The part about international sanctions is really outside the realm of our work.

What we do is expand the imagination. That’s what I think it is that we do: expand the imagination to understand that if you are in this intractable situation that you can actually change for the better but you can’t do it on your own. That’s where we come in. I think a key understanding that Roelf had was the need to build trust. Roelf

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Idea Lab Interview understands that we need to get people to the point where they comprehend that taking a risk is worth it because it has been done before and been worth it. Showing folks this really gives them the space to be successful.

Does resolving conflict require several different approaches? What other approaches are effective, and where does the shared experience approach fit in?

The very nature of shared experience is that we aren’t coming in with the ‘only answer’ or some secret formula.

The idea is to be able to bring in different examples of ways to view conflict resolution. By our very definition it’s inherent to bring others to the table.

But we are very selective towards those that are connected to real human experience. Examples of this [are] the enlightened descent methodology, the principles of Roelf, and there is a lot of work that has to be done on different levels (from grassroots to lead political figures).

Do you think there is an optimal time within a conflict for your approach?

There is without [a] doubt windows of opportunity during the peace process, but I don’t think it’s a one-time window of opportunity. Look at Israel– Palestine: most people would look at it as intractable, but there will be a time when both parties say, “enough is enough,” and there is the time to do something. Somebody once said to me opportunity will never pause, will never wait, but it will be back again.

How have world leaders responded to your methods? What’s been the biggest challenge in getting leaders on board?

The leaders of countries who have been through transformation are often the easiest to recruit. These leaders

Allan Leonard

Roelf Meyer played a significant role in the negotiations that brought an end to apartheid in South Africa, where he became familiar with Beyond Conflict. He is now one of six subjects featured in the organization’s recent book, Beyond Conflict. Here, he speaks at the Rotary International-INCORE Peace Conference in Northern Ireland in 2013.

often claim they have a moral responsibility to share their experience.

The biggest challenge we often have is going into a country that is in the midst of conflict, coming out of a dictatorship, or struggling with change.

Because of the intensity of that environment, it’s difficult to get people to open up. These countries are often so saturated with international mediators that it is often hard to convey that we aren’t there to mediate. We are there to share experience. It takes time, but I think over the last 20 years we have developed enough creditability that people can really see who we are.

You’ve been involved in conflict resolution in a wide range of regions over the last twenty years. What was the spark for this neuroscience initiative?

From the very beginning, I often say that it has been in the DNA of our organization that there is shared

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human experience. We just didn’t know the biology behind it. About five years ago, I was teaching a class with my colleague Ina on the human dimension of conflict. In one class, a retired neuroscientist sat in and after he came up to me and said in a very wonderful way “we are not rational beings with emotions at our core and speaking scientifically we are emotional beings who can only think rationally when we feel that our identities are understood and valued by others.” That so struck me that there began the neuroscience initiative. Soon after that, we linked up with our partners at MIT to convince them and others that this emerging research can be translated to the world around us. We recognize that neuroscience is still at an early stage, but we see this as a tool: a tool to really allow us to shift paradigms in the future to how we think about conflict.

Cramer, R. (2014). Connect Every Child to a Lifelong Savings Account. Solutions 5(6): 19-22. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/connect-every-child-to-a-savings-account/

Perspectives Connect Every Child to a Lifelong Savings Account

by Reid Cramer

Mary Constance

Endowing every child with a lifelong savings account has the potential to end cycles of intergenerational poverty.

W

hile poverty is traditionally associated with immediate economic hardship, it is particularly debilitating if it persists over time and is passed on across generations. This is true throughout the world. People can still succeed despite short dips in income, but it is much more difficult to thrive without the array of individual resources and assets that can mitigate the effects of chronic income shortfalls. Instead of focusing exclusively on interventions that strive to raise income in the short term, policymakers should be looking for solutions that can interrupt sustained poverty and ultimately promote

economic mobility in the long term.

In addition to other essential foundations of a stable economic ladder, such as increasing access to educational opportunities and promoting public health, policymakers should add to this set of policy priorities those that help people accumulate a broad array of productive financial assets.

Building savings over the life course is a key contributor to financial security and upward economic mobility. This is because savings can be deployed in a variety of productive ways that make a significant difference in people’s lives. They offer the means to make the type of investments

that can eventually lead to greater economic stability, mobility, and prosperity. One of the most effective ways to encourage these outcomes is to start the process of saving early in childhood. Recent research has confirmed that the presence of savings plays a key role in facilitating economic security and mobility, the effects of which are especially pronounced in children.1 For example, a report published by the Pew Charitable Trusts showed that children of low-income—but highsaving—parents in the United States are more likely to experience upward mobility than children of parents with both low incomes and low savings.2 The idea of universally endowing every child with a savings account starting at birth was initially proposed

by Michael Sherraden in his 1991 book, Assets and the Poor. Sherraden argued that traditional welfare programs, which provide only income supports, were not enough to help families climb out of poverty. What were needed to bring about meaningful improvement in the long-term economic conditions of low-income families were asset-building policies like children’s savings accounts (CSAs).3 In theory, children’s savings accounts could increase a sense of financial inclusion, promote financial literacy and fiscal prudence, protect against economic shocks, improve access to education, improve health and education outcomes, and help develop a future orientation.4 Sherraden’s assets-based perspective helped drive the development of a series of large-scale demonstration projects and policy proposals in a number of countries across the globe.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of efforts to expand opportunities for children to save.

Philanthropic institutions have financed the development of pilot projects to model and study the impact

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Perspectives

Providence of British Columbia

Canadian Education Minister Peter Fassbender talks to preschool students and their parents about British Columbia’s Training and Education Savings Grant.

Canada also provides strong child savings options to low income families through its Canada Education Savings Program.

of these accounts and saving opportunities. States and municipalities have followed these initiatives and deemed them promising enough to mount their own efforts. Outside of the United States, a number of children’s savings policies have been developed and implemented at scale.

In the U.S., a large-scale demonstration project called the SEED Initiative (Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship and Downpayment), implemented in 12 states with almost 1,200 participants,

confirmed that children in lowincome families can and will save; that universal, automatic access to accounts is critical to success; and that these accounts promote positive behavioral and attitudinal changes in children.5 Since 2007, the State of Oklahoma has run a program called SEED OK, which is the first randomized controlled trial of a universal and progressive children savings account program in the country. Over 2,600 newborns were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group.

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The treatment group was automatically enrolled in Oklahoma’s 529 College Savings Plan and was provided with a $1,000 initial deposit. The SEED OK experiment demonstrated that automatic account opening is a highly successful strategy for inclusion of a full population. Follow-up research has found that SEED OK increased young children’s social-emotional development as early as age four among families that have low education, low income, receive welfare benefits, and rent their homes.6

Perspectives In 2011, San Francisco launched the Kindergarten to College (K2C) program, which opened accounts for every kindergartner in the city’s public schools. K2C accounts are opened with a $50 seed deposit. Parents and students can contribute up to $2,500 each year and earn matching funds on the first $100 of contributions each year in the ongoing program.7 Additional efforts are underway at the state level, where Maine and Nevada, to name only two, are running largescale programs designed to connect very young children (either newborn or entering kindergarten) with savings accounts that are particularly focused on helping to meet post-secondary education expenses.8

on family contributions. Low-income families are eligible for an additional C$2,000 grant.

In the developing world context, the potential for connecting children and young adults to savings accounts and other financial services is being explored in the innovative YouthSave initiative, which is dedicated to developing and testing savings products accessible to low-income youth in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal.11 These accounts are being assessed in terms of how they help youths stay in school, transition to adulthood, increase their financial capability, improve their nutrition and health, and benefit household well-being.

Initial results have been promising.12

Building savings over the life course is a key contributor to financial security and upward economic mobility.

Internationally, the United Kingdom launched the Child Trust Fund (CTF) in 2005 that awarded £250 to every newborn in their own savings account, which can receive deposits of up to £1,200 per year.9 The account cannot be accessed until the child reaches the age of 18, upon which point he or she will have full and unrestricted access to the fund.

The CTF was closed to new children in 2010, but existing accounts provide a rich base for research and insight. In another example of a CSA program, Canada leverages its college savings product by providing matched savings and seed deposits for lower-income parents through the Canada Education Savings Program (CESP).10 The program provides a progressive, universal matching grant of 20, 30, or 40 percent (up to C$7,200)

Learnings from these diverse experiences in the field can help inform future policy efforts. There are many ways to design a large-scale children’s savings account policy.

Choices in policy design features, such as participation, intended uses, and account features, will impact program costs, scope, and ultimately outcomes. Ideally, a children’s savings policy would be universal, meaning every child, regardless of income or background, would be automatically given an account at birth in order to ensure that no one is left out of this foundational system for saving, developing assets, and building wealth. The principle of universality would also build a sense of unity and participation in the nation as a whole, both essential features for maximizing the impact of the policy.

The key is to support the savings process with the right set of incentives and institutional structures.

The ASPIRE Act (America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education), introduced with bipartisan support in four consecutive U.S. Congresses between 2004 and 2010, represents a promising proposal to bring this aspiration to reality.13 In concept, the ASPIRE Act would offer a seeded account to every child born in America. Lower-income families would be given a larger seed and be eligible to have their contributions matched. Eventually the funds could be used for restricted purposes, such as paying for post-secondary education, buying a home, and serving as a source of income in retirement.

Creating an opportunity for every child to save and build assets over her lifetime is a concept whose time has come. Supporting saving early in life is a promising way to develop a robust culture of saving. In order to achieve a more financially secure, savingsoriented, and financially inclusive society, children’s savings accounts should be made universally accessible to all families.

The case for connecting every child to a lifelong savings account is strong. The underlying research shows unequivocally that the act of saving leads to many positive outcomes throughout the life course. The numerous experiments and trials testing the effects of savings on the lives of families and children support these positive conclusions. A policy reorientation towards savings and away from an exclusive focus on income supports, especially if achieved by promoting children’s savings through policies such as the ASPIRE Act, would pay dividends in terms of the greater long-term economic security for millions of families in the U.S. and around the world.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 21

Perspectives

krosinsky

The YouthSave initiative develops and tests savings programs in developing countries, assessing its accounts in part by how well they help youth to stay in school, such as this primary school in Mathare, Kenya.

References 1. Urahn, S et al. Moving on up: why do some Americans leave the bottom of the economic ladder, but not others? (The Pew Charitable Trusts, Washington, DC, 2013).

2. Cramer, R, O’Brien, R, Cooper, D & Luengo-Prado,

savings, and accumulation. (Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, 2009).

6. Nam, Y, Kim, Y, Clancy, M, Zager, R & Sherraden,

Development, St. Louis, MO, 2014).

9. United Kingdom’s Child Trust Fund [online]. https:// www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/overview.

10. Evaluation Directorate, Strategic Policy and

M. Do child development accounts promote

Research Branch. Formative evaluation of the

M. A penny saved is mobility earned: advancing

account holding, saving, and asset accumulation

additional Canada Education Savings Grant and

economic mobility through savings (The Pew

for children’s future?: evidence from a statewide

Canada Learning Bond. SP-951-05-10E (Human

Charitable Trusts, Washington DC, 2009).

randomized experiment. CSD Working Papers No.

Resources and Skills Development Canada, Canada,

3. Sherraden, M. Assets and the Poor. (M.E. Sharp, New York, 1991).

4. Cramer, R & Newville, D. Children’s savings

11-33 (Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, 2011).

7. Phillips, L & Stuhldreher, A. Kindergarten to

2009).

11. YouthSave [online]. http://youthsave.org/.

12. Johnson, L et al. Savings patterns and performance

accounts: the case for creating a lifelong savings

College (K2C): a first-in-the-nation initiative to

in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal. (Center for

platform at birth as a foundation for a ‘Save-and-

set all kindergartners on the path to college. (New

Social Development, Washington University in St.

Invest’ economy. (New America Foundation,

America Foundation, Washington DC, 2011).

Washington DC, 2009).

5. Mason, LR, Nam, Y, Clancy, M, Loke, V, & Kim, Y. SEED account monitoring research: participants,

8. Clancy, M & Sherraden, M. Automatic deposits

Louis, Missouri, 2013).

13. America Saving for Personal Investment,

for all at birth: Maine’s Harold Alfond College

Retirement, and Education Act of 2007 (U.S.

Challenge. CSD Policy Report 14-05 (Center for Social

Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 2007).

22 | Solutions | November-December 2014 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Asquith, C. (2014). Where Airstrikes Fall Short, the West Can Still Act to End Violence Against Women. Solutions 5(6): 23-26. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/where-airstrikes-fall-short-the-west-can-still-act-to-end-violence-against-women/

Perspectives Where Airstrikes Fall Short, the West Can Still Act to End Violence Against Women

by Christina Asquith

Mocassino

Women in Syria face increased threats from ISIS in addition to a poor women’s rights culture across the greater region.

T

he Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) atrocities against women have provoked worldwide outrage, generating increased support for U.S. action in the region and hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since August. Yet for all this indignation, similar abuses against women, including child marriages, legalized marital rape, and domestic abuse, occur in countries across the Middle East, often without legal consequences.

With or without ISIS, defense of women’s rights in the region has long been weak. Domestic violence

was legal in Saudi Arabia until 2013 and in Lebanon until this year.1,2 In Turkey, rates of domestic violence are two to three times higher than in either the United States or Europe, and increasing.3 Furthermore, crimes committed against women, such as rape, not only go unpunished, but are also frequently blamed on the victims. This belief that a woman bears responsibility for her rape often results in an “honor crime,” in which the victim’s family kills her to restore their honor. Thousands of “honor crimes” are estimated to occur

each year in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Turkey, and elsewhere, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.4 ISIS’s atrocities to women are not so unique in a region that ranks at the bottom of indices that measure women’s political empowerment, property rights, and economic freedoms.5 In January 2014—six months before the arrival of ISIS in Mosul—the Iraqi government pushed forth legislation known as “Jaafari Person Status Law” that would allow child marriage, facilitate polygamy, and restrict women’s rights in matters of inheritance and

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 23

Perspectives

NATO Training Mission- Afghanistan

Afghan police women graduate from Police Corps training. The US has funded the recruitment of women into Afghan security forces.

parenting after divorce.6 In Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden from driving, must be accompanied by a male chaperone, and are required to wear a full facial covering in public.

Women accused of adultery are still stoned to death in public settings.

Earlier this year, a Saudi woman was executed on charges of “sorcery.”7 Until the United States directly addresses this violence and inequality, women in the Middle East will continue to be oppressed and brutalized, and the underlying ISIS’s actions will not change. Along these lines, there is

much the West can do, such as include trained gender advisors in military missions, fund female police training and recruitment, support the inclusion of women in teams negotiating to end violence, and pressure allies such as Saudi Arabia to support the advancement of women.8,9 To begin, the United States should develop contacts and regularly communicate with women’s advocates when developing their military policies in places like Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. When the United States sends military and political advisors

24 | Solutions | November-December 2014 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

to conflict zones, for example Iraq and Afghanistan, it should also include those trained in women’s issues and sexual violence, according to Michelle Barsa of the Institute for Inclusive Security. Though the U.S. military does not currently deploy gender advisors, such positions do exist in other militaries, for example, Sweden’s.10 Women are also critical in the fight against domestic violence; in the 1970s and 1980s, the United States witnessed higher rates of reporting of domestic violence, better treatment of victims, and stronger efforts to prosecute

Perspectives

UK Department for International Development

UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening meets with women refugees from Syria in Lebanon.

offenders by integrating women into the police force. Yet in many countries, women are largely left out of security forces that respond to such crimes. In 2014, the United States appropriated $25 million for recruiting, retaining, and training women in the Afghan security forces. The same steps could be taken throughout the Middle East and in Pakistan, where the United States also funds security forces and less than 1 percent of the police force is women.

ending sexual violence, while all-male teams tend to overlook those issues.

The United Nations can support this effort by appointing more women as special representatives and envoys and expanding women’s role in peacekeeping operations, particularly among military observers.

Women’s involvement in negotiations is also beneficial in creating long-lasting stability. Peace processes that include women tend to be

In 2014, the United States appropriated $25 million for recruiting, retaining, and training women in the Afghan security forces.

Women should be included at the negotiating table in peace processes and post-conflict scenarios. Negotiating teams that include women are far more likely to prioritize issues related to protection measures for women, such as

more stable and resilient than those where women are absent. In Syria, for example, women are leading the ceasefire negotiations in the Damascus suburbs and elsewhere.11,12 By taking advantage of the perception that they

are less threatening, women are able to move more freely across borders, access restricted spaces, and engage with parties to the conflict that would not otherwise be available to men.

Yet despite all they have to offer, a UN review of 21 major peace processes since 1992 found that women were less than 8 percent of the delegates to talks and less than 3 percent of agreement signatories.13 Those numbers are not only unacceptable; they represent a missed opportunity.

Though ISIS’s recent atrocities have generated a tidal wave of media attention, the problems of gender inequality and violence against women are not new to the Middle East. It is time for the United States to address this issue head on and take concrete steps to empower women in the region. Only when we begin to see women in positions of power and influence can we imagine a Middle East in which violence against women is not just exclusive to extremist groups—it is nonexistent.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 25

Perspectives References 1. Malik, N. Saudia Arabia’s domestic violence law

Reuters [online] (2013). http://www.reuters.

9. Di Giovanni, J. When It Comes to Beheadings, ISIS

is a first step to changing attitudes. The Guardian

com/article/2013/11/12/us-arab-women-saudi-

Has Nothing Over Saudi Arabia. Newsweek [online]

[online] (2013). http://www.theguardian.com/

idUSBRE9AB00B20131112.

(2014). http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/24/

commentisfree/2013/aug/30/saudi-arabia-bandomestic-violence.

2. Lebanon: Domestic Violence Law Good, but

6. Coleman, I. Status Anxiety: How the Jaafari Personal Status Law Could Set Iraqi Women Back Decades. Foreign Affairs [online] (2014). http://www.

when-it-comes-beheadings-isis-has-nothing-oversaudi-arabia-277385.html.

10. Isaksson, C. GenderForce: why didn’t we do this

Incomplete. Human Rights Watch [online] (2014).

foreignaffairs.com/articles/141065/isobel-coleman/

before? Open Democracy [online] (2012). https://

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/04/03/lebanon-

status-anxiety.

www.opendemocracy.net/5050/charlotte-isaksson/

domestic-violence-law-good-incomplete.

3. Bilefsky, D. Women See Worrisome Shift in Turkey.

7. Saudi Arabia execution of ‘sorcery’ woman condemned. The Telegraph [online] (2011). http://

genderforce-why-didnt-we-do-this-before.

11. Koppell, C. Supporting Women in Negotiations:

The New York Times [online] (2012). http://www.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/

A Model for Elevating their Voices and Reflecting

nytimes.com/2012/04/26/world/europe/women-see-

saudiarabia/8952641/Saudi-Arabia-execution-of-

Their Agenda in Peace Deals. The Institute for

worrisome-shift-in-turkey.html?_r=1&.

sorcery-woman-condemned.html.

Inclusive Security [online] (2009). http://www.

4. Chesler, P. Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings.

8. Peters, A. Policy Brief: The Role of Pakistani

Middle East Forum [online] (2010). http://www.

Policewomen in Countering Violent Extremism.

meforum.org/2646/worldwide-trends-in-honor-

The Institute for Inclusive Security [online] (2014).

killings.

http://www.inclusivesecurity.org/policy-brief-

5. McDowall, A. Saudi Arabia makes advances on women’s rights, but still far behind: poll.

inclusivesecurity.org/publication/supportingwomen-in-negotiations-a-model-for-elevating-theirvoices-and-reflecting-their-agenda-in-peace-deals/.

12. Barsa, M & Williams, K. Syrian Women Know How

role-pakistani-policewomen-countering-violent-

to Defeat ISIS. Time [online] (2014). http://time.com/

extremism/.

author/kristin-williams/.

US Embassy Kabul Afghanistan

In March 2014, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan met with a group of female legal professionals to discuss gains and strategies in empowering women in Northern Afghanistan.

26 | Solutions | November-December 2014 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

McGarry, J. (2014). Food and Faith. Solutions 5(6): 27-30. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/food-and-faith/

Perspectives Food and Faith

by Janet McGarry

T

he Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative (ISFC) is a nonprofit organization working in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties.1 It gathers clergy and lay-people for monthly roundtable discussions about food and faith. In June 2014, members of Lutheran, Quaker, Congregational, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Episcopal, and Catholic congregations met at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Rosa, California to learn how their congregations could buy food directly from farmers through the use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as ‘food stamps.’

Although Sonoma County is famous for vineyards and wineries and has many wealthy residents, 12 percent of the population still lives below the poverty level. Discussions at the IFSC’s June roundtable included how to reduce the shame or fear that prevents individuals from applying for SNAP (70 percent of those eligible for SNAP don’t apply). They also brainstormed creative ways to use Congregation Supported Agriculture programs—a variation on Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) in which the ‘community’ is a religious congregation—to help those in need, such as asking members to pay a small fee per box to subsidize a low-income member’s box or to support a food pantry.

According to the Organic Industry Survey conducted by the Organic Trade Association in 2014, organic food sales in the United States market grew over 11 percent in 2013, while conventional food sales grew only 3 percent. Despite its impressive

Sandor Weisz

The Collaborative uses “congregation” rather than “community” supported agriculture to generate boxes of produce for purchase and provision to low-income members.

growth, organic food still makes up less than five percent of total food sales in the United States. The largest organic food sector is fruits and vegetables, which represent more than 10 percent of all fruits and vegetables sold in America and approximately 46 percent of organic food sales. Most of the people who currently purchase organic food are motivated by health and environmental reasons. In order for the sustainable food movement to grow, it needs to reach out to many more people, including those who may be more likely to be motivated by religious beliefs or moral values than environmental or health concerns. In a 2013 Gallup poll, 78 percent of those surveyed identified religion as either very important (56 percent) or fairly important (22 percent) to them.2 With this in mind, the ISFC is trying to convert these large populations of people to organic foods by joining forces with religious leaders. “Hearing about

sustainable agriculture from a pastor or rabbi who believes that being a good Jew or Christian includes taking care of God’s creation can help grow support for sustainable food,” says Steve Schwartz, Founding Executive Director of the ISFC. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism all share the belief that humans should care for the Earth.

Sara Tashker, Director of the San Francisco Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farm and a member of ISFC’s Advisory Board, views support for sustainable agriculture as a natural extension of environmental stewardship. “All faith traditions relate to food production and the holiness of food.” For example, Islam requires food to be both ‘halal’ and ‘tayyaba’—halal referring to the preparation and prohibition of certain foods and tayyaba meaning wholesome. “To be tayyaba, food must be organic and natural. The whole process has to be pure including the

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 27

Perspectives seeds (no GMOs) and soil. It’s part of the commandment but the concept is lost on many Muslims. I have introduced sermons to bring it back into focus, make people more aware and motivated,” explains Imam Ali Siddiqui of the Islamic Center of North Marin in Novato and also a member of the ISFC’s advisory board.

Tashker views congregations as ideal environments for discussing values and transforming attitudes and habits: “People go to church or temple to be better people and open to change. It seems like a ripe moment to talk to people about their behavior regarding agriculture.” Since congregations are established communities where members are already participating in activities together, people can support and encourage each other on a regular basis. When Sunday Mass includes fair trade coffee hour with organic treats, picking up a CSA box of vegetables and fruits, and swapping relevant recipes, it’s hard to ignore that environmental stewardship can easily be an essential and practiced tenant of one’s faith. With food served at religious events (weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, etc.) and celebrations (Passover, Ramadan, Christmas, etc.), congregations have many occasions throughout the year to reinforce the message. Promoting sustainable food also adds an ecofriendly dimension to an established mission of most religious groups: feeding the hungry.

“Social justice is an important piece of many congregations’ work. They already have food pantries but want to move beyond canned food drives and support local farmers,” says Schwartz.

However, many clergy and worshippers are overwhelmed by busy schedules and commitments, and may lack the time, knowledge, or money to act on their beliefs about environmental stewardship. To make it easier, the ISFC is identifying models and best

practices that congregations can replicate and is also providing information, technical assistance, and expertise in the field of healthy, sustainable food choices. “We figure out who is doing the best job and share it with the congregations so that nobody has to reinvent the wheel,” says Schwartz.

The ISFC surveyed farmers in Sonoma and Marin Counties and identified 33 percent of them as very interested in working with religious communities. Based on this, they created a list of the interested farms, a template CSA agreement to distribute to congregations, and a fact sheet which lays out steps that faith groups can follow to host a SNAP enrollment event. The process is already bringing about successful collaborations. For example, the Islamic Center of North Marin started a CSA with First Light

part of a holiday celebration, religious school, or camp; or sponsoring gleaning activities where congregations can gather unharvested produce from fields or orchards that farmers have decided not to sell.

The organization also awards minigrants of $500 to $800 that are funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture to help congregations overcome a stumbling block for many—money. In addition to all of these actions and the monthly roundtables, the ISFC also holds annual conferences such as “Faith, Family Farms, and Food Access” (2014) and “Feeding Our Souls, Our Soil, and Our Communities” (2013) where churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques can establish relationships and mobilize to strengthen the food and faith movement.

Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism all share the belief that humans should care for the Earth.

Farm in Petaluma. “A farmer brought a sample box to the mosque and made a presentation. Signing up was simple and the price was economical. It’s convenient for working people, who can’t get to a farmers’ market during the day, to pick up their boxes at the mosque,” says Siddiqui.

ISFC’s “Food and Faith Project Menu” lists practical solutions to the issue of healthy food provision, such as adopting congregational policies to serve fair trade and organic products at events;3 becoming members of a CSA with a temple, synagogue, church or mosque as the drop-off site; creating community gardens or farms on congregation property; hosting an onsite farm stand; visiting local farms as

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ISFC’s work is bringing new beliefs as well as customers to the sustainable farming community by connecting farmers with faith-based groups. Many of the organic farmers in Marin and Sonoma counties, who tend to be younger (in their 20s and 30s) and not members of a religious community, have become interested in learning more about religion as a result of growing food for churches, synagogues, and temples. Since members of the counties’ religious communities tend to be older, ISFC is also creating opportunities for different generations to share ideas and gain insight into the challenges faced both by young and old people regarding healthy food.

Perspectives

bwaters23

First Light Farm in Petaluma, CA has partnered with the Islamic Center of North Marin to start a CSA, exhibiting one successful partnership between local agriculture and congregations.

In addition to encouraging individual congregations to promote and support sustainable agriculture, ISFC is also bringing congregations together to share ideas and work collectively to improve America’s dysfunctional food system. Imam Ali Siddiqui feels strongly that it’s not enough for different religious groups to work independently on these issues, “Different faiths have to come together, work as a community, and create synergy. We need to create critical mass to have a greater impact.”

Small steps by individual religious communities can make a big impact if enough congregations are involved.

The ISFC was established in 2013 and has already worked on projects with

21 congregations and attracted interest from many more. Over 90 congregations have attended the ISFC’s roundtables, conferences, and other events.

ISFC is just beginning its work and plans to focus more on influencing agricultural policy in the future. With more than twenty years of experience working on sustainable agricultural and food policy, Schwartz thinks food activists can gain political clout by partnering with religious organizations. “There are only ten professionals on Capitol Hill [the staff of National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Organic Trade Association] who are working to promote sustainable agriculture.

More than twenty times that number work for national religious bodies.”

The Presbyterian Hunger Program,4 the Union for Reform Judaism,5 and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are three religious organizations already working to reform the nation’s food system.6 This kind of collaborative effort between groups that may not traditionally have worked together is crucial to building the momentum necessary to make profound changes to the food system.

Schwartz looks to history for inspiration, “The Civil Rights movement happened because progressive faith leaders were out front working for change. For the sustainable agriculture movement to grow, we have to build on the part of society working with faith communities.”

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Perspectives

Colleen Proppe

The Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative’s efforts are supporting sustainable food while mobilizing congregations to help provide food for low-income families and food pantries in Somona and Marin counties.

Although there are many economic, environmental, and other issues that impact agriculture, ultimately, decisions about our food system depend upon core values and how much importance is placed on protecting the health of our planet, ecosystems, rural communities, and citizens. The United States of America is a wealthy country and has abundant resources that can support and promote sustainable agriculture once it commits to making the long-term health of the planet and its living organisms a top priority over profit.

The Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative is growing the sustainable food movement by appealing to those who may be motivated to

purchase organic food because of their religious and spiritual values.

The group works with churches, synagogues, and temples, which are established communities where people share similar beliefs, meet on a regular basis, and practice strong traditions—all positive factors in supporting long-term change.

Members of congregations can support and encourage each other to adopt sustainable food choices, both in their congregations’ activities as well as in their individual lives. In addition to working with established communities, ISFC is creating a new interfaith community that plans to work with more powerful organizations on Capitol Hill to influence agricultural

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and food policy. If all religious communities in every county across America became involved in the sustainable food movement, it would create a novel and powerful force for positive change.

References 1. Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative. www. interfaithfood.org.

2. Religion. Gallup (2013) [online]. www.gallup.com/ poll/1690/religion.aspx.

3. Menu of Options. Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative (2014) [online]. www.interfaithfood. org/blog/menu-of-options.

4. Presbyterian Mission Agency. www. presbyterianmission.org.

5. The Union for Reform Judaism. www.urj.org.

6. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. www. usccb.org.

Coulter, D. (2014). Life in the Margins: The Role of the Post-Modern Hedgerow. Solutions 5(6): 31-33. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-role-of-the-post-modern-hedgerow/

Perspectives Life in the Margins: The Role of the Post-Modern Hedgerow

by Dave Coulter

Mike Small

Hedgerows are common in the British Isles, where they have been utilized for centuries as natural livestock enclosures and property markers. This hedge-lined road is found in Yelverton, England.

O

ne of my favorite memories from my childhood was finding a box turtle living under a line of gnarly Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) trees in my suburban Chicago neighborhood. It was not until many years later that I realized that this row of rough trees, threading through backyards and along roadsides, was a remnant farm boundary—a 19th century hedgerow that had outgrown its purpose and yet, managed to persist into modern times.

The sight of that turtle—a small, wild

(by suburban standards) visitor—must have made an impression on me. For several years now, I have felt that it is high time to reconsider the role of hedgerows, to be redeployed, this time, as a tool in the service of biodiversity enhancement.

I have to admit that I have a bit of a sales job ahead of me. It seems that when most people (especially Americans) hear the word hedgerow, they look a little bit puzzled. It is not a familiar concept, but on occasion I

will get nods of understanding from naturalists, hunters of pheasant or quail, and especially from anyone who has spent any time in the British Isles.

Hedgerows are utilitarian agricultural features that were developed thousands of years ago to hold in livestock and to delineate property boundaries.

The modern transformation of the landscape and society has been nothing short of tremendous, as have many of the negative impacts to ecosystems and biodiversity. This

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Perspectives

Dave Coulter

The author’s interest in hedgerows was piqued as a child, as he explored a row of overgrown osage orange trees (pictured). He later came to realize that these trees were once a hedgerow used as a boundary marker.

rapid change from the natural to the rural to the urban is a global concern.

The problems that are associated with this transition have led many on a search for pragmatic solutions in order to shift the balance towards more positive outcomes. Enter an old friend from the edges of farm country: the hedgerow.

Hedgerows seem to have become harbors of life by accident. Over time, as agricultural landscapes were being altered by the hand of mankind, the adjacent hedgerows and field margins often became havens for plants, insects, and animals seeking habitat.

These thinnest of reservoirs began to gain greater appreciation in the mid

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20th century. In one landmark study of British hedges conducted in the early 1960s,1 focus on the ecological value of hedges was based on the recognition that wildlife—birds, in this particular study—had come to depend upon these elements in the landscape as habitats. Such efforts and understanding have helped lead to the development of laws that protect hedgerows. Practitioners in the British Isles continue to take a leading role in research to better understand and promote the biodiversity benefits that hedgerows can offer.

Several years ago, while conducting a tree survey in the suburbs of Chicago, I found myself assessing dozens of old Osage orange trees growing in two long rows. These trees were also leftover farm field boundaries that were now themselves bounded on all sides by an expressway, new housing, and encroaching commercial developments. What struck me was the evidence of wildlife (birds, small mammals, etc.) that were clearly making use of these old hedgerows as a way station in a setting that was changing before our eyes. The trees were removed by 2010 to make way for new development, and I wish now that I could have spent more time there making more careful observations of what animals were visiting.

It was at that time that I really made the connection that these old hedges growing in the greatly-altered Illinois landscape were analogous to the hedgerows that I had seen growing in the greatly-altered landscapes of England. I think there are lessons to be learned from older cultures to examine where they have been and to see where we may be headed. Since then, my thoughts turned to the idea of American hedgerows, and their potential for improving natural biodiversity in our own landscapes.

Perspectives Such renewed interest in hedgerows has taken hold around the world.

Recent studies, led by researchers such as Morandin and Kremen,2 have shown that the restoration and installation of new hedgerow materials have improved the populations of pollinators and native bees. In June 2014, President Obama announced the creation of a Pollinator Task Force. For advocates of hedgerows, this was almost too good to be true in promoting our cause.

Who cannot see the myriad possibilities offered by a new generation of hedgerows, linear assemblages of plants designed specifically for biodiversity, or for food, pollinators, or endangered species? We are missing opportunities, that are right in front of us, to create new niches for life. How many suitable spaces—urban and rural—do we pass every day that are otherwise going to waste? No amount of wire fencing has the potential to regenerate life in this way.

Despite these many possibilities, hedgerows continue to be removed.

They are often seen as non-productive obstacles to getting full benefit from one’s land. The operative phrase to remember when discussing the hedgerows of the future is well-managed. One of the valid reasons for which hedgerows are disparaged is that they can become dominated by invasive species, becoming nothing but a nuisance. This is fair criticism, but the management of invasive species can be a problem in any restoration-type planting. Planting a hedgerow is like planting any other man-made installation.

The linear structure and nature that the hedgerow offers is well suited to many applications, but their ongoing management is a question to which willing designers and ecologists will have to speak. We are always tempted to promote beauty and utility at these moments, but in the projects upon which I have embarked, the land

Nancy Waldman

Well-managed hedgerows have great potential to positively affect biodiversity.

managers do not necessarily want to take on new landscape features that are difficult to maintain.

Once upon a time, our country put people to work creating windbreaks and shelterbelts in response to soil erosion and the Dust Bowl.

Here in the early 21st century, an old friend—the hedgerow—is waiting to be re-deployed and re-employed on a new mission, or possibly, on more new missions in more new places than we

can imagine. This is a good old friend to have, because I believe we live in a time where we will need to imagine quite a lot.

References Moore, NW, Hooper, MD & Davis, BNK. Hedges I. Introduction and reconnaissance studies. Journal of Applied Ecology, 201–220 (1967).

Morandin, LA & Kremen, C. Hedgerow restoration promotes pollinator populations and exports native bees to adjacent fields. Ecological Applications, 23(4), 829–839 (2013).

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Ackerman, X. (2014). Muckrakers will not Die. Solutions 5(6): 34-37. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/muckrakers-will-not-die/

Perspectives Muckrakers will not Die

by Xanthe Ackerman

W

hen Diana Jean Schemo co-founded 100Reporters, a news organization dedicated to fighting corruption through investigative reporting, she wanted to give citizens a way to leak material confidentially, knowing it would be reviewed by trusted journalists.

Even before Schemo launched her news site in 2011, she invested in Whistleblower Alley,1 a secure, digital exchange and communication point that allows anyone, anywhere to transmit information. Schemo built on the Wikileaks model, which uses sophisticated encryption technology to protect sources. But unlike Wikileaks, which makes information available publically or to the press, Whistleblower Alley is used only by 100Reporters. This guarantees a secure review process by journalists committed to reporting on corruption issues for a global audience. Schemo is now revamping Whistleblower Alley so that it can handle large volumes of data.

Investigative journalists like Schemo, once called muckrakers, play a critical role in uncovering abuses by corporations, governments, and other power holders. Despite the benefit to society, major news publications across the country have slashed their investigative capacity.

Now, journalist and social entrepreneur Schemo has a vision for how watchdog reporting will not only survive the digital news age but also transcend it.

Investigative journalism budgets have telescoped over the past 25 years, first because of pressure for high profit margins, and then as the byproduct of digitization. Eric Newton, Senior

Sharaf

Whistleblower Alley is a secure, digital exchange that uses encryption technology to protect sources.

What makes it unique is that information transmitted is only reviewed by 100Reporters, making it an even safer outlet for sources aiming to reveal corruption.

Advisor at the Knight Foundation, says that the migration of classified ads to the web and mobile devices, where earned income is lower, was devastating because, “the U.S. has news that is 85 percent supported by advertising, higher than any country in the world.”

Newton says these changes hurt investigative reporting disproportionately: “investigative reporters are the ones who work on more difficult stories, stories that other people don’t want revealed. It takes longer, it’s more expensive, and it doesn’t always work out.”

Rushing the Digital Age By 2008, Schemo had worked at The New York Times for 17 years, staffing almost every desk and serving as bureau chief in Rio de Janeiro. In those years, fear was in the atmosphere at the Gray Lady. Schemo says, “there

34 | Solutions | November-December 2014 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

was a threat from Wall Street that was pushing the paper to cut manpower and costs on the editorial side… People were afraid of their jobs.”

Yet even as the old order was crumbling, the digital age offered opportunities, and Schemo wanted to rush to it.

In parallel to cuts at traditional newspapers, the nonprofit sector grew and diversified. Now, there are four types of nonprofit institutions producing investigative journalism. National digitally native news outlets, such as The Center for Public Integrity,2 have been producing high quality investigative reporting for over 25 years.

Regional or local digital news outlets are growing quickly in number, consolidating and replacing to some degree the lost capacity at smaller papers. Public broadcasting, such as the television program Frontline,3

Perspectives

Cronkite School

The Carnegie-Knight News21 team at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

produces reporting that captures a broad interest, and public radio at times partners with digital organizations. Lastly, teacher-student teams formed through News21 and other university centers are publishing with major media partners.4 Other organizations provide training, conduct advocacy, and offer services to media organizations.

When Schemo co-founded 100Reporters, she surveyed the field and found that only a few nonprofit news organizations were tackling international issues. While focusing on accountability and corruption, Schemo helps fill the void. Schemo describes her approach as “horizontal.”

She leverages her network of reporters around the world, asking them for insight rather than determining what to cover up front. Working with whistleblowers and citizen-watchdogs, as well as local investigative teams, gets her access to stories that Western media could miss. Schemo also uses crowdsourcing to tap citizens for evidence on governments that misuse taxpayer money.

David and Goliath Professor Marilyn Greenwald of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University says that investigative journalism has been hurt by fear of litigation. According to Greenwald, “a lot of media outlets are not as courageous as they were before. They fear lawsuits… and now we have so many media outlets owned by five, six, or seven corporations and they could fear doing an investigative report on a sister company of the media outlet.”

Greenwald says nonprofits may have an advantage as “they don’t have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes.”

But independence isn’t enough to take on powerful adversaries.

Nonprofits need legal representation and insurance. In 2012, 100Reporters ran a story about the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), a Kazakh mining firm that filed a report with a British law enforcement agency disclosing suspected corruption in their plans to acquire mining rights in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo. Despite this, they asked for and received fast track authority to approve the deal. A newsletter in the U.K. ran the story only to retract it after ENRC’s lawyers threatened legal action.

100Reporters wrote about the mining company’s use of intimidation to prevent inquiry by the newsletter and other papers. When ENRC threatened 100Reporters with criminal charges, Schemo’s pro bono lawyers at Arnold & Porter supported the decision not to stand down.

100Reporters published another article citing ENRC’s lawyers’ threats.5 U.K. news organizations, observing that no charges were filed against 100Reporters, began to cover the story.

Schemo says that after the floodgates were opened, the BBC, News Corps, and others, “came in and resumed their watchdog function.”

The U.K. government investigated ENRC and delisted it from the stock exchange. The chairman stepped down and the U.S. government launched a separate investigation.

100Reporters aims to write stories that are difficult to cover in the country where they occur. I recently wrote an article for 100Reporters on education for Syrian refugees in Turkey.6 Schemo covered education for The New York Times for eight years and saw the opportunity to address a complex issue affecting a vulnerable group. I found that the Turkish government is both generous to Syrians and reticent to let UN officials and international nonprofits have full access to the refugee population.

The UN, protective of the access they have gained, cannot easily talk about the restrictions they face. For some local and even international news outlets, the relationship with the government is more important than relating these facts.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 35

Perspectives

United Nations Photo

A recent 100Reporters article on education for Syrian refugees in Turkey highlighted the difficulties the UN and other international organizations are facing in attempts to gain full access to the refugee population from the Turkish government.

Funding Against the Wind Although many foundations prioritize media projects, investigative journalism is not a focus area of philanthropy.

A report conducted by the Foundation Center, Knight Foundation, and Media Impact Partners showed that foundation support for the media is growing at nearly four times the rate of domestic giving.7 Of the $1.86 billion invested between 2009 and 2011 in media projects, only five percent went to investigative journalism. Although watchdog reporting often reaps multifold social and economic returns, according to Newton, “you never know for sure what topic is going to

be dealt with in the report, and you never know for sure whether the community is going to act on it. These are uncertainties and when people invest they like to give to some kind of specific, certain thing.”

Almost $28 million was awarded to investigative journalism between 2009 and 2011 from private and community foundations. During those years, among national, digitally native investigative journalism organizations, the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting received top funding at $8 million and $7.4 million, respectively.

For smaller investigative news outlets, the funding landscape represents

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a major challenge. Unlike nonprofits that provide education or health services, many funders expect media organizations to develop earned revenue streams after a few years. Schemo says it’s difficult because many consumers believe that news should be free. According to Schemo, “the only organizations that are making headway are earning their keep by doing other things… events, training… not by making the news. That is troubling.”

Widening the Lens In the news media landscape, philanthropy has muscle, with potential to encourage innovation and diversity.

And with the rise of charitable

Perspectives giving, new approaches are emerging from nontraditional outlets. Human Rights Watch provides reporting and collaborates closely with journalists on reports that regularly make the front page of The New York Times.8 InsideClimate News was the first non-journalistic outfit to win the Pulitzer Prize for an investigative series on the Enbridge pipeline oil spill in July 2010.9 Few philanthropic institutions, however, explicitly work to promote diversity in leadership at the board, executive, and editor levels in investigative reporting.

Professor Greenwald commented on the benefit of women and minorities in leadership roles and as reporters in news organizations: “whenever you have someone with a different perspective, you will always widen the subjects of stories.”

Among the premier digitally native national nonprofit news organizations, most leadership posts are filled by men, although in other news organizations, women are increasingly represented. Schemo says she’s embraced what some might consider a female management style: “studies show that… women tend to feel like they’ve got to accomplish something before asking for outside support. By and large, we’ve taken that approach, demonstrating a concept in action, and then seeking support to grow what we’ve shown can work.”

Outraged for Good Brant Houston, chair of the Investigative News Network, writes that the term “muckraker” was a pejorative one for journalists coined

by President Theodore Roosevelt in reference to John Bunyan’s seventeenth-century fable, Pilgram’s Progress, about men who rejected salvation in order to focus on filth. Journalists later took up the term themselves, using it as a badge of honor.

cool revolution

Networks such as Whistleblower Alley and 100Reporters have allowed investigative journalists to persist in their quests for truth in spite of increasing challenges in the modern age.

Because investigative journalism undresses power, the forces that threaten the profession are as old as the first report. Consolidations, profit margins, lawsuits, and digitization are formidable obstacles. Yet investigative journalists persist, and some, like the old muckrakers, even take these challenges as an opportunity to bare sharpened teeth.

4. News21. http://news21.com/jschools/.

5. Silverstein, K. Fast track past red flags.

100Reporters.org [online] (2012). http://100r.org/2012/06/fast-track-past-red-flags/.

6. Ackerman, X. Syrian refugees: uprooted and out of school. 100Reporters.org [online] (2014). http://100r.org/2014/09/syrian-refugees-uprootedand-out-of-school/.

7. Henry-Sanchez, B & Koob, A. Growth in foundation support for media in the United States.

Foundationcenter.org [online] (2013).

8. http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/ research/pdf/mediafunding_report_2013.pdf.

9. Human Rights Watch. NYTimes.com [online] (2014). http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/

References 1. Whistleblower Alley. 100Reporters (2014) [online]. http://100r.org/wa/.

for national reporting. Insideclimatenews.org

2. The Center for Public Integrity.

[online] (2013). http://insideclimatenews.org/

http://www.publicintegrity.org/.

3. Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/ frontline/.

organizations/h/human_rights_watch/index.html.

10. InsideClimate news team wins Pulitzer Prize

news/20130415/insideclimate-news-team-winspulitzer-prize-national-reporting.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 37

Dymond, J.R., A.E. Ausseil, D.A. Peltzer, and A. Herzig. (2014). Conditions and Trends of Ecosystem Services in New Zealand – A Synopsis. Solutions 5(6): 38-45. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/conditions-and-trends-of-ecosystem-services-in-new-zealand-a-synopsis/

Feature

Conditions and Trends of Ecosystem Services in New Zealand—a Synopsis

by John R. Dymond, Anne-Gaelle E. Ausseil, Duane A. Peltzer, and Alexander Herzig

Landcare Research

Much of the mountains and steep hill country of New Zealand remain in indigenous forest.

In Brief New Zealand is highly dependent on ecosystems for a range of services. Since the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century, many natural ecosystems have been converted to managed ecosystems. This conversion has been accompanied by biological invasions. Managing the balance between natural and managed ecosystems is crucial.

In this article, we review the conditions and trends of ecosystem services in New Zealand. We find that natural resource management is maintaining services, but there are several opportunities for enhancement. These include better matching of land use to soil capacity and improved management of riparian zones for water quality. A more systematic approach to evaluating trade-offs among invasive species and native biodiversity would also be helpful.

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T

he Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) identified many services provided to humans by nature, termed ecosystem services (ES),1 and demonstrated that these services make major contributions to improving human well-being.

More recently, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study advocated that ecosystem services should be measured and valued to facilitate their inclusion into decisions.2 The importance of this inclusion was first articulated

by Costanza et al., who valued global ecosystem services at about 30 trillion dollars per year, that is, approximately twice the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).3 Life is divided into six kingdoms.

In order of increasing complexity, these are bacteria, protozoa, chromista, fungi, plants, and animals.4 New Zealand is a unique country in terms of biodiversity with a very high level of endemicity, that is, the proportion of unique species found nowhere else.5 For example, 81 percent of seed plants, 99 percent of the 5,000 beetles, 89 percent of 18,000 arthropods, all 29 species of stick insects and 34 species of cicada, 96 percent of 1,600 spiders, and 99 percent of 1000 species of land snails are endemic. And inside New Zealand’s extended economic zone live almost three-quarters of the world’s penguins, albatross, and petrels.

The MEA was necessarily conducted at a global scale. However, management of biodiversity and natural resources are typically carried out at national and regional scales.

If we are to improve management in New Zealand through a more inclusive and direct consideration of benefits, then assessment of ecosystem services needs to be at these scales, within the context of high endemicity.

The recently published book Ecosystem Services in New Zealand— Conditions and Trends is the first assessment of ecosystem services at national and regional scales for New

Zealand.6 The authors of the chapters in Part 1, which relates to particular ecosystems, were asked to characterise the ecosystem, describe fundamental processes associated with ecosystem services, and review conditions and trends. Information on other issues touching upon natural resource management was also requested

Key Concepts • In terms of biodiversity, New Zealand is a unique country with a very high level of endemicity, making it deserving of a New Zealand-relevant ecosystem service assessment.

• New Zealand landscapes have experienced widespread change since the arrival of M ori (c. 1200 AD) and Europeans (c. 1800 AD).

• Biological invasions resulting from M ori and European arrival continue to have major impacts on natural ecosystems.

• Intensification of farming systems are increasing pressure on river water quality.

• Natural resource management is maintaining ecosystem services; however, there are several opportunities for enhancement, including, but not limited to: –– better matching of land use to soil capacity –– increasing use of managed riparian zones to improve water quality –– systemic evaluation of trade-offs among invasive species and native biodiversity

depending upon the ecosystem. The authors of the chapters in Part 2, which relates to particular ecosystem services, were asked to describe the fundamental processes, review conditions and trends, and outline drivers of change. Likewise, information on other issues was requested where deemed relevant to natural resource management. This article presents

a synopsis of the book. We provide perspectives on risks to services, and identify opportunities for enhancing ecosystem services.

Natural Terrestrial Ecosystems Terrestrial ecosystems in New Zealand encompass the full range of temperate vegetation types including forests, shrublands, grasslands, and dozens of naturally uncommon ecosystems such as volcanic dunes and unique geothermal communities. Indigenous forests are the most common, covering about 6.5 million hectares, equivalent to 25 percent of New Zealand’s land surface. Most indigenous forests are on conservation land and thus protected.

Although there is a continuing small loss of indigenous forests on private land, this is more than compensated for by about one million hectares of indigenous shrubland regenerating back to mature forest. Tussock grasslands cover 2.6 million hectares, mostly in the South Island high country, which is characterised by extensive pastoral management and sweeping vistas. These grasslands are rich in endemic flora and fauna, but many areas are being invaded by nonnative trees such as pines or Douglas fir, and animals such as rabbits, rats, brushtail possums, or stoats. While there is some ongoing conversion of tussock grasslands to exotic grassland (500 ha/yr), a tenure review process of high country farms has created 10 new conservation parks of 580,000 ha over the past decade. Naturally uncommon ecosystems are not large in areal extent but contain unique flora and fauna. Of the 72 different types, 17 are endangered, and 18 are critically endangered.7

Managed Terrestrial Ecosystems Pastoral farming is the dominant land use in New Zealand. Sheep and beef farming occupy over 9 million ha.

The climate in New Zealand favours pasture growth, which provides

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Landcare Research

A dairy farm in the lowlands with production forestry on the hills.

over 95 percent of animal feed in grazing systems. The annual value of meat and wool products is $8.5 billion (Figure 1), with $7.5 billion of that in exports. The area of pastoral agriculture has marginally declined due to reversion of marginal pasture lands to shrublands, but the efficiency of the sector has increased through improved management and technology. Dairy farming (1.6 million ha) occupies less area than sheep and beef farming, but provides $12.6 billion of dairy products, $12 billion of that in exports. Arable cropping is limited to 174,000 ha and provides $2.2 billion of food, $0.6 billion of that in exports.

Horticulture occupies only 70,000 ha of land yet it generates $6.4 billion, $3.5 billion of that in exports. This

high provision of income per hectare is second only to mining (Figure 2).

Planted forest occupies 1.72 million ha of land, with Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) the most common forest species. The annual value of ecosystem services from planted forests is $8.7 billion, which includes exports of $4.3 billion and important nonprovisioning services such as carbon sequestration ($250 million), avoided soil erosion ($250 million), and bioenergy ($920 million).

While urban-dwellers make up 85 percent of the population, population densities are low relative to cities elsewhere in the world. Cities are generally green, with large private gardens and accessible city parks. Most residents are able to travel by car to

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some kind of park in less than two and a half minutes, and most residents live within 5 km of the sea. Regulation of water quality, stormwater, flood and erosion control, waste disposal, and air quality is important in our cities.

Cultural services such as recreation and sense of belonging are notably important.

Soils and Mineral Resources Soils are a key component in ecosystems and directly provide a number of ecosystem services. Soil quality indicators monitored in New Zealand include total carbon, total nitrogen, pH, Olsen P, mineralisable N, bulk density, and macroporosity. These have been used to identify regional issues including soil compaction, organic matter decline,

14

BILLION DOLLARS

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Sheep/beef

Planted forests

Dairy

Arable

Horticulture

Minerals

Landcare Research

Figure 1: Gross ecosystem services in billions of dollars (y axis) for the six main managed ecosystems (x axis).

THOUSAND DOLLARS PER HECTARE

1000.0

100.0

10.0

0 Sheep/beef

Planted forests

Dairy

Arable

Horticulture

Minerals

Landcare Research

Figure 2: Gross ecosystem services in thousands of dollars per hectare (y axis) for the six main managed ecosystems (x axis).

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 41

excessive fertility, erosion risk, and accumulation of contaminants. ‘High class soils’ are those soils that have high functional capacity for primary production and are also highly versatile. While urbanisation has long been a cause of concern for the loss of high class soils, lifestyle blocks have a greater potential to lock productive land out of future production. It has been shown that 10 percent of high class soils are currently under lifestyle block farming, with concerns over the rapid expansion of lifestyle blocks in recent years.8 New Zealand is also rich in minerals, coal, and hydrocarbons and has been a significant producer of coal and gold since early European settlement.

Production has grown in the last 25 years, with peak production of coal in 2006.

Freshwater Ecosystems Water quality is generally good in rivers downstream of managed ecosystems and is very good downstream of natural ecosystems. Water quality in some rivers has improved due to better treatment of effluent from cities but has decreased in some rivers downstream of intensifying agriculture. Generally, freshwater biodiversity, both fish and invertebrate, is declining.

Most rivers experience sustained water flows throughout the seasons, but in some rivers the total amount of water allocable for human use at lowflow has been exceeded. In addition to rivers, New Zealand’s lakes provide fishing, cultural, and recreational services; however, the cumulative effects of agricultural land use, particularly nutrient runoff, are causing declining water quality.

Wetlands are at the interface between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. They provide important habitat for many species and ecosystem services including food provision, water quality improvement, flood abatement, and cultural services. In the last 150 years, more than 90 percent

of wetlands have been lost, and many of those remaining are under pressure from drainage, nutrient enrichment, and invasive plants and animals.

Saline Ecosystems Many estuaries in New Zealand provide important fish and bird breeding habitats, and important cultural and recreational services. They process contaminants from land and fuel productivity on the adjacent coast but are coming under threat from sediment loading. New Zealand’s marine realm (defined by the continental shelf) has an area of 5.7 million sq. km, about 21 times the land area. It has one of the most diverse ranges of marine habitats on earth, with rich and mostly endemic flora and fauna. Some marine ecosystem services are very important, such as CO2 uptake and O2 production (both ~1.7 percent of global levels). The annual fish catch is worth $1.4 billion.

annual emission from the energy sector is comparatively low at 38 Mt CO2-eq.

The agricultural sector, however, contributes another 34 Mt CO2-eq.

Counteracting these emissions are sinks associated with shrublands, planted forests, and erosion. There are over one million hectares of shrublands, which are growing steadily into indigenous forest and sequester 10 Mt CO2-eq per year. Planted forests sequester 20 Mt CO2-eq per year. Soil erosion is responsible for sequestering 12 Mt CO2-eq through soil replacement and the burial of soil carbon at the bottom of the ocean. In addition to the land sinks, the ocean in New Zealand’s extended economic zone sinks 50 Mt CO2-eq per year. On balance, New Zealand is thus a net sink of greenhouse gas emissions.

Pollination by animals is a crucial ecosystem service as it underpins New Zealand’s agriculturally dependent economy. Honey bees are the most

Pollination by animals is a crucial ecosystem service as it underpins New Zealand’s agriculturally dependent economy.

Regulating Services Erosion rates in New Zealand are naturally high due to high rainfall and steep terrain. With the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century, much of the indigenous forest has been converted to pasture, serving to increase erosion even further. However, the increasing trend of erosion is gradually reversing through widespread soil conservation measures (i.e. tree planting in highly erodible areas) and scrub reversion (i.e. reversion of pasture to shrublands on marginal hill country).

Both natural and managed ecosystems have significant impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. The population of New Zealand is small at 4.4 million and consequently, the

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important pollinators for most commercial crops, with bumble bees becoming more commonly used.

Background pollination is under stress with the invasion of the varroa mite, which has caused the demise of feral bee colonies. Other stresses to honey bees are pesticides and declining floral resources through (perversely) improved weed management.

Cultural Services Cultural ecosystem services are very important in New Zealand. Although 85 percent of people are urban dwellers, many have strong connections to the land either through farming or through outdoor recreational pursuits. Indeed, the value of sport and recreation is over

Service Group Service

Urban

Provisioning

Urban

Pasture

Cropland

Orchard









Crops

Production

Natural Exotic forest

Forest

Shrubland

Alpine

Rare

Wetland

Estuary

Lake

River

Marine







 

 

±

±

±

±



 





±

Livestock

Grassland

Capture fisheries Aquaculture



Wild foods

 

Timber

 

Fiber Biomass fuel

  



  

   











Thermal energy Freshwater

±

Genetic resources



 

 

 









Urban

Pasture

Cropland

Orchard

Exotic forest

Forest

   









  

 

 

 



Urban

Pasture

Cropland

Orchard

   

   







Urban

Pasture

 

 

Biochemicals, natural medications, and pharmaceuticals Minerals Physical support for dwellings Regulating

 

Air quality regulation Climate regulation Water regulation Erosion regulation Water purification and waste treatment Disease regulation

   

Pest regulation Pollination

±



Amenity value Recreation Tourism Sense of belonging Supporting Soil formation and maintenance Provision of natural habitat free of weeds and pests Importance for delivering service

High



±

±

 



Shrubland

Grassland

Alpine

  

  

  

 



Rare



  

  

 

 

Exotic forest

Forest

Shrubland

Grassland

Alpine

Rare

   

   

   



 

   

Cropland

Orchard

Exotic forest

Forest

Shrubland

Grassland

 

 

 



 

 

Medium-high

Medium-low

± Low

  

Trend over last 20 years



Improving



±

 

Wetland

Estuary

Lake

River

Marine

 





 





Natural hazard mitigation Cultural



 







Wetland

Estuary

Lake

River

Marine

   

   

±



  

  

   

Alpine

Rare

Wetland

Estuary

Lake

River

Marine

 













Some improvement

 



No net change



Some deterioration



Deterioration

Improvement and/or ± deterioration in different locations

Landcare Research

Figure 3: Estimated trends of ecosystem services over the last two decades.

$12 billion per year. New Zealanders appreciate wild and scenic landscapes for walking, fishing, or hunting. As such, wild foods form an important cultural service. As an example, eight million snapper fish are caught recreationally each year (i.e. about two for each man, woman, and child). The tourism industry, which contributes over $6 billion to GDP, is also dependent on our scenic landscapes.

The M ori perspective of ecosystem services is more integrated than the European concept, with people and ecosystems being interdependent— people caring for ecosystems (manaaki whenua) and ecosystems caring for people (manaaki tangata). This is distinct from the western viewpoint of separating ecosystems from people.

Trends Figure 3 highlights estimated trends in ecosystem services (over the last few decades) presented like the UK National Ecosystem Assessment.9 Trends are classified as improving, some improvement, no net change, some deterioration, or deterioration.

A ± indicates where there is improvement in some areas but deterioration in others. The importance of the service (i.e. relative significance of role in providing service) is denoted by the background color, with dark green denoting high importance, light green denoting medium–high importance, cream denoting medium–low importance, and grey denoting low importance. By definition (as ecosystem services necessarily include all

services), the results are multidimensional. Most services are maintained, while some are improving, and others deteriorating.

Overall, New Zealand is tracking satisfactorily, with most services being maintained and improvements to services generally balancing deteriorations. However, three services stand out with deterioration being prominent: pest regulation, pollination, and provision of natural habitat free of weeds and pests. These along with several other services offer opportunities for enhancement of the service. It is worth noting that Figure 3 represents a starting point based on the science perspectives expressed in the book.

However, as with the UK National Ecosystem Assessment,9 it offers

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Ida Kubiszewski

While most services in New Zealand are tracking satisfactorily, there remain several opportunities for enhancement of services.

promise for developing a complete natural capital assessment through debate and discussion with a range of stakeholders.

Risks and Opportunities The major risks and opportunities for ecosystem services in New Zealand mirror those globally, but the rate and trajectory of these changes are unique.

The two major drivers of changes in ecosystems are the rapid alteration of land use and intensification of biological invasions. For example, nitrogen (N) use has doubled in the past 20 years at the national scale,10 coincident with expansion of some primary industries (i.e. dairy farming) and declines in water quality for some rivers. These risks are, however, being offset by changes in management activity and farm practices, for example, widespread fencing to exclude cattle from

streams. This reduces bank erosion and thereby sediment loads to rivers, lakes, and estuaries, thus improving aquatic habitat. Stock exclusion also prevents direct input to streams of phosphorus, nitrogen, and pathogens in animal excreta. Newly fenced riparian areas for systematic planting of trees and shrubs also offer opportunities for high floral resources for bees, helping assure pollination services.

Pest regulation is one service under stress. New Zealand is one of the most profoundly invaded places on earth, with more than half of the plant species currently non-native, and several hundred of these considered to be environmental weeds. To counteract invasion, the number of agents released for biocontrol of weeds has increased in the last 30 years. These releases have had some success, with partial control (heather—Calluna

44 | Solutions | November-December 2014 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

vulgaris) and sometimes even complete control (mist flower—Ageratina Riparia) of weeds. Conversely, pest animal species such as rabbits, rats, brush-tailed possums, deer, and pigs are enduring features in New Zealand and have novel effects on ecosystems because there are no functionally similar native species. Because of the number, abundance, and perceived impacts of these non-native species, pests and weeds are a major focus of both research and management efforts. Important progress has been made in pest animal management, for example, through extirpation of invasive rats or larger mammals from increasingly larger off-shore islands.

On the other hand, many long-established invaders such as scotch broom, wilding conifers, and some invasive mammals continue to increase in both abundance and distribution.

More recently, interest is growing in whether pest management has implications for mitigating the impacts of non-native species in ecosystems and the services they provide.

This has driven a shift from elimination of individual invasive species as the primary objective, towards consideration of the additional consequences or benefits that weed or pest animal management has on services. As a consequence, a larger-scale ecosystem view is emerging in which conflicts and potential trade-offs among invaders, native diversity, and services are being considered.

A Shifting Paradigm for Resource Management?

The uniting narrative in this book highlights the importance of considering the full range of ecosystem services to ensure effective natural resource management. The monetary valuation of ecosystem services in dollar terms provides a common currency for comparing services and offers a way of incorporating all the dimensions of services within management and policy decisions. Research is ongoing to improve valuation methods and ensure a clear understanding of linkages and interdependencies between natural capital stocks and flows of services. Patterson and Cole have initially estimated the total net value of ecosystem services to be approximately $60 billion per year by summing the net use value and passive value for a national stratification of 14 ecosystems.11 The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is growing in acceptance as an alternative to GDP. It encompasses a broader perspective of human wellbeing, taking into account depletion of natural capital and uses principles on use and nonuse value of natural ecosystems. In New Zealand, GDP has doubled in the last 30 years, while GPI has only increased by a half.

Better matching between land use and soil type is necessary for a

sustainable future. New software tools have been developed to help determine optimal matches.12 They are able to determine what land use configuration maximizes objectives of ecosystem services within constraints of plausibility. For example, Herzig et al. showed that better matching of land use with soil type could reduce environmental impacts while maintaining food production in several land-use systems.12 These tools can also be used to identify remaining headroom for increased agricultural production within environmental limits.

Land-based ecosystem services in New Zealand are estimated to be worth $60 billion per year (Chapter 3.2), equivalent to 30 percent of GDP. Although this proportion is somewhat smaller than the equivalent global figure of 200 percent estimated by Costanza et al.,3 the figure is still high and highlights the importance for considering ecosystem services in natural resource management in New Zealand. The synopsis of the book Ecosystem Services in New Zealand— Conditions and Trends presented here is very brief and touches only lightly on many detailed chapters. While it may point the way to some rapid gains and key issues at play, the long-term management of natural resources in New Zealand is best undertaken on a firm foundation of science-based knowledge. We therefore recommend readers consult relevant chapters of the book as needed.

Institute of Economic Research, Plant and Food Research, Scion, University of Otago, and Landcare Research.

Acknowledgements The material presented in the synopsis has come from the book Ecosystem Services in New Zealand—Conditions and Trends. As such, we are indebted to the 118 authors. Senior authors of chapters come from the institutions AgResearch, Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Institute of Environmental Science and Research, Lincoln University, Massey University, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand

10. Parfitt, RL et al. Nitrogen inputs and outputs for

Disclaimer Although based upon the book written by 118 authors, who have been consulted with regards to Figure 3, the overall perspective of condition and trends presented here is the personal opinion of Drs Dymond, Ausseil, Peltzer, and Herzig. This opinion does not necessarily represent that of Landcare Research, nor of the institutions mentioned in the acknowledgements.

References 1. Hassan, R, Scholes, R & Ash, N. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Current State and Trends, Vol. 1 (Island Press, Washington, 2005).

2. TEEB—The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity for national and international policy makers. Summary: Responding to the Value of Nature 2009. Available at: www.teebweb.org 3. Costanza, R et al. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253–260 (1997).

4. Whittaker, RH. New concepts of kingdoms of organisms. Science 163, 150–160 (1969).

5. Parsons, S et al. Biology Aotearoa: Unique Flora, Fauna and Fungi (Pearson Education NZ, Auckland, 2006).

6. Dymond, JR. (ed). Ecosystem Services in New Zealand—Conditions and Trends (Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, New Zealand, 2013).

7. Holdaway, RJ, Wiser, SK & Williams, PA. Status assessment of New Zealand’s naturally uncommon ecosystems. Conservation Biology 26, 619–629 (2012).

8. Andrew, R & Dymond, JR. Expansion of lifestyle blocks and urban areas onto high-class land: an update for planning and policy. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 43, 128–140 (2012).

9. UK National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report (UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, 2011).

New Zealand from 1990 to 2010 at national and regional scales. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 55, 241–262 (2012).

11. Patterson, MG & Cole, AO. Total economic value of New Zealand’s land-based ecosystems and their services in Ecosystem Services in New Zealand— Conditions and Trends (ed. Dymond, JR) Ch. 3.2, 496–510 (Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, New Zealand, 2013).

12. Herzig, A, Ausseil, AGE & Dymond, JR. Spatial optimisation of ecosystem services in Ecosystem Services in New Zealand—Conditions and Trends (ed.

Dymond, JR) Ch. 3.3, 511–523 (Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, New Zealand, 2013).

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Schiavoni, C. (2014). The Venezuelan Food Sovereignty Experiment. Solutions 5(6): 46-53. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-venezuelan-food-sovereignty-experiment/

Feature

The Venezuelan Food Sovereignty Experiment

by Christina Schiavoni

In Brief

Christina Schiavoni

Practicing traditional agriculture in Comuna Maria Teresa Angulo, Sanare, Lara state.

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In 1999, at the start of its process of social transformation known as the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela became among the world’s first countries to adopt a national policy of food sovereignty.

Its newly reformed constitution guaranteed its citizens the right to food through a secure national food supply based on sustainable agriculture as a strategic framework for rural development, to be carried out through a series of laws, institutes, and programs. This move could be seen as a leap of faith for a highly urbanized country that had largely abandoned agriculture as it built its economy around its petroleum industry over the last century. And yet, against these odds, Venezuela has moved forward in its efforts to build food sovereignty, drastically cutting hunger while bolstering domestic food production. This has been carried out through a host of government programs, in partnership with communities, ranging from land reform to feeding programs to urban agriculture. Today, some of the most promising efforts toward food sovereignty in Venezuela are coming from citizen-run social institutions known as comunas, which are forging relationships and carrying out innovative projects across the urban–rural divide.

A

s I wandered through the streets of Caracas on my first trip to Venezuela nine years ago, a huge urban farm in the midst of concrete high-rises caught my attention. It wasn’t tucked away on a side street or in a residential area, but was right out in the middle of the bustling downtown. I asked a local walking by if he could tell me anything about the farm—whose initiative was it, how long had it been there, who farms the land? With a matter-of-fact shrug he said, “Es parte del proceso.” It’s part of the process. Part of what process, I wondered. Did he mean Venezuela’s broader process of political and social transformation, the Bolivarian Revolution? Or did he mean the efforts to transform Venezuela’s food system? Later, I would learn that the two concepts were inseparable.

Now having followed the processes unfolding in Venezuela for nearly a decade, I often reflect back on this early moment for the meaning behind that simple exchange. In the US, where I’m from, there are also inspiring community food projects, which are local manifestations of the alternative food system that many hope for, dream about, and painstakingly work toward.

Yet these still remain pockets of change in an otherwise broken system—in the US and globally—where profits come before people, good food is a privilege for those who can afford it rather than a right for all, and food production comes at the expense of farmers, workers, the environment, and human health. There is often talk of ‘scaling up’ positive models of food system change as a way forward, but there are few blueprints or examples as to how this might be done.

In a handful of countries, however, such as in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, there are national efforts to create systemic change in food and agriculture—and their advances and setbacks hold valuable lessons. Among these is Venezuela, which is home to one of the most fascinating experiments in food and agriculture today. The crux of Venezuela’s experiment is an attempted

180° shift from a situation of food dependency, with high rates of imports controlled by a few powerful companies, to one of food sovereignty, in which the country is able to feed itself from its own food supply and people have greater control over the food they eat and produce.

Key Concepts • Food sovereignty—defined as “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”—is a concept coming from social movements in response to the injustices of the global food system.

• Thus far, a handful of countries have adopted food sovereignty into state policy. Among the first to do so was Venezuela in 1999. This was a bold move for a highly urbanized country that had abandoned its agriculture sector as it focused instead on oil production over the last century.

• Today, there is a wide range of support for food production and distribution in both rural and urban areas coming from the Venezuelan government, working in conjunction with citizen-led efforts. These initiatives have dramatically reduced hunger while bolstering domestic food production.

• Some of the most promising efforts toward food sovereignty in Venezuela today are coming from citizen-run social institutions known as comunas, which are forging relationships and carrying out innovative projects across the urban-rural divide.

Food is Political It is an understatement to say that Venezuela’s late president, Hugo Chavez, and his predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, have been magnets for negative attention by the mainstream media.

A rare accuracy in current media reports on Venezuela, however, is that food is a highly politicized issue there. What the reports fail to mention, though, is

that this is nothing new. In fact, issues directly connected to food were among the sparks that ignited the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. On February 27, 1989, hundreds of thousands of people poured into the capital from the impoverished hillside communities on the periphery of Caracas, protesting in the streets as they looted shops first for food, then for other basic goods, and finally for anything in sight.1 The protest was precipitated by then Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez signing a deal with the IMF to enter Venezuela into a structural adjustment program. This led to an abrupt surge in food and fuel prices in which the cost of bread rose by over 600 percent.1 President Pérez’s response to the massive mobilization, known as the Caracazo, was to order the military to open fire. The official death toll was 276 civilians, with actual deaths estimated in the thousands. Corresponding events transpired in cities across Venezuela that same day. The Caracazo is credited not only with being one of the earliest public protests against neoliberalism but also a defining moment of popular power. It ushered in a politically heated decade and paved the way for the rise of the Bolivarian Revolution following the election of Hugo Chávez Frías in 1998.2 For insights into why an oil-rich country like Venezuela would embark on an ambitious food sovereignty experiment, it is important to understand the basic context that gave rise to the Caracazo. The hillside shantytowns of Caracas are a visual representation of Venezuela’s withdrawal from agriculture as the country developed its petroleum industry beginning in the early 1900s.

As attention turned to oil, both the land-owning elites and the government lost interest in agriculture and stopped investing in land.3 The flight of capital from the countryside was accompanied by a mass exodus of campesinos (peasant farmers and rural workers) into the cities, particularly Caracas.3 Finding little work, many

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campesinos were pushed to the edge of existence, living in extreme poverty.

For those remaining in the countryside—just over 10 percent of the population by 19994—the situation was equally tenuous. Seventy-five percent of the land was concentrated among five percent of the largest land owners while 75 percent of the smallest land owners shared only six percent of the land.5 These small land owners also faced a lack of basic public services and received little or no technical or material support to engage in agricultural production.

The abandonment of its agriculture sector led Venezuela to become among the most urbanized countries in Latin America and the first country in the region to be a net importer of food.5 At the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution in 1999, the country was importing an estimated 70 to 80 percent of its food supply—at prices largely out of reach by the poor—and the Caracazo was still fresh in the public consciousness.

It was against this backdrop that renewed attention to food and agriculture became a strategic priority of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Sowing the Seeds of Food Sovereignty The foundation for Venezuela’s current food sovereignty efforts was laid in a series of articles in its newly reformed constitution, passed by popular referendum in 1999. Article 305 states: The State shall promote sustainable agriculture as the strategic basis for overall rural development, and consequently shall guarantee the population a secure food supply, defined as the sufficient and stable availability of food within the national sphere and timely and uninterrupted access to the same for consumers… Food production is in the national interest and is fundamental to the economic and social development of the Nation.6

Today, a broad range of both government and citizen-led institutions and initiatives are aimed at carrying out the provisions of Article 305. On the production end, there are numerous programs to bolster domestic agriculture and provide support to small and midscale farmers.

Such measures include a land reform process that has redistributed large landholdings to over 200,000 farming families,7 totaling more than a million people—roughly half of the rural population.8 Once land is secured, farmers then have government assistance to access tools, inputs, credit, training and technical assistance, and support in receiving fair prices for their products.9 Similar support structures exist for fisherfolk, who

industrial agriculture and are pushing for a more wholesale paradigm shift.

On the distribution end, perhaps the most far-reaching initiative is Mercal, a national network of government-run supermarkets selling foods at affordable, subsidized prices.

With an emphasis on reaching the most underserved areas, Mercal outlets range from large supermarkets to small mobile markets and have distributed 12 million tons of food in the decade since their inception.13 A variety of other initiatives complementing Mercal bring the total number of government-run food retail outlets in Venezuela to 22,000.14 A recent addition is the piloting of mobile fish markets in collaboration with local fisherfolk.15

On the production end, there are numerous programs to bolster domestic agriculture and provide support to small and midscale farmers.

have also benefited from a ban on environmentally destructive, large-scale bottom trawling boats off the coast.

Other advances for Venezuela’s longmarginalized food providers include a debt eradication program and the unprecedented granting of pensions to farmers and fisherfolk.10,11 Through this reinvestment in domestic food production, Venezuela has reached self-sufficiency in several foods of strategic importance, such as corn and pork.12 Furthermore, the country has taken some important steps toward sustainable agriculture, including the availability of credit earmarked specifically toward agroecological purposes, such as seed saving and exchange and the use of biological pest control in place of pesticides. Agroecology advocates point out, however, that state support remains skewed toward

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Yet another critical program is casas de alimentación, or ‘feeding houses,’ run through communitygovernment partnerships in which community members lend their homes and labor and the government provides food and supplies.

Through the casas, people provide those most vulnerable in their communities—pregnant/nursing mothers, children, elderly, and the sick—with nutritious meals free of charge. To date, 6,000 casas across the country are serving 900,000 people.16 Free nutritious meals are also spooned out to 4.3 million public school children through the School Feeding Program.17 Many workplaces additionally arrange free meals for their workers through the Worker Nutrition Law.18 Along with free meals for those who need them,

Christina Schiavoni

A mural supporting “the process” at La Comuna Ataroa, Lara State.

there is an effort to make affordable meals more universally available. A growing chain of over 250 worker-run, government-supported Arepera Venezuela restaurants serves Venezuela’s most popular traditional cuisine, the corn flour-based arepa with a variety of fillings, as an affordable and healthier alternative to corporate fast food.13 These

restaurants pride themselves in supporting food sovereignty through using predominantly Venezuelangrown ingredients produced through socialist production chains.19 Together, these programs and others have dramatically reduced hunger and food insecurity.

Venezuela was recently recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) for surpassing the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger in advance of 2015.20 According to a national census, 96.2 percent Venezuelans now eat 3 to 4 meals per day, and the government has pledged to reach the remaining 3.8 percent who do not, with the goal of achieving ‘Zero Hunger’ for Venezuela by 2019.21

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Christina Schiavoni

Youth involved in an intergenerational urban farming project in Caracas.

Challenging Times Ironically, these developments came at the same time that international media outlets were widely reporting food shortages in Venezuela—presenting quite a different scenario from that recognized by the FAO. The fact is, given the continued power of private companies in the supply chain, connecting the many dots between the production and distribution remains a major challenge for the Venezuelan government, and shortages of particular food (and some nonfood) items in retail outlets are still a regular occurrence.22 While some attribute this to government-set price regulations creating disincentives

for companies to sell food products in the country, others point to politically motivated hoarding and withholding of products as a way to destabilize the government. Many see it as no coincidence that two items considered indispensable by Venezuelan households, that is, corn flour and toilet paper, were the two items most frequently missing from supermarket shelves in 2013. They see this as part of an ‘economic war’ by the members of the political opposition who own the country’s largest private food companies.23 The government has taken a series of measures to combat these shortages, including dialogue with

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the private sector, cracking down on illegal practices, and increasing imports of certain goods from neighboring countries. Venezuelan food activists say that the government’s ability to ensure that the population’s nutritional needs are not impeded by the periodic shortages demonstrates that Venezuela has reached food security but is still far from food sovereignty. “We know that food security is achieved through resources,” said Laura Lorenzo, a representative of the Jirajara Peasant Movement. “But food sovereignty has to be a process coming from the bottom up—from the peasant, from the communities,” she added.24

Transformations on the Ground Lorenzo’s sentiments get to the heart of the matter. Systematic change is necessary to achieve food sovereignty, but the advancements made at the national level in Venezuela, while substantial, are not enough. Change must also happen at the community level.

Indeed, this is what I find to be most encouraging in Venezuela—reaffirmed by my most recent visit in the summer of 2013.25 A fundamental component of the Bolivarian Revolution has been a shift from representative to participatory democracy, in which ordinary citizens take on a more active role in politics and governance. One of the main vehicles for this has been communal councils: local, self-organized governing bodies through which communities determine their own priorities, manage their own budgets, and interface with the government.

Supported by the Communal Council Law of 2006, there are upwards of 43,000 communal councils in Venezuela today.26 Most recently, coming from both above and below is a major push toward the construction of new social institutions called comunas through the joining of multiple communal councils across a shared territory. The stated goal is for power to gradually be transferred from the state to the comunas as they become increasingly organized, with an ultimate goal of a transition from state power to popular power. As of October 2013, there were 220 comunas officially registered with the government and, according to a recent national census, over 1,000 more under construction throughout the country.27,28 By September 2014, the number of registered comunas had reached 803.29 The construction of the comunas is seen as the cornerstone of the latest stage of the Bolivarian Revolution and has vast implications for food sovereignty.30,31 One of the ways in which comunas and other citizen-led efforts in Venezuela are working toward food

sovereignty is through attempts to bridge the urban–rural divide. In a country as highly urbanized as Venezuela, where upwards of 90 percent of the population lives in cities, food sovereignty will not be possible without the active participation of urban inhabitants. This is being addressed, not only through the creation of direct marketing channels such as farmers markets, but also through the co-construction of food sovereignty as a common political project shared by rural and urban Venezuelans. That is, people are increasingly seeing themselves as connected via the process of constructing food sovereignty.

In this process, they are not only changing their relationships to one another, but also their relationship to food and to the processes of food and how it is produced, distributed, and consumed. Relatedly, a term gaining in popularity among rural and urban movements alike is prosumidor(a), a combination of the words for producer (productor(a)) and consumer (consumidor(a)), in an attempt to blur the lines between the two.

One such prosumidor, Virgilio Durán of the Comuna Ataroa in the city of Barquisimeto, is encouraging the members of his urban comuna to grow food on rooftops, in patios, and in community gardens (practices for which communities can receive free technical assistance and supplies via state-supported programs). His vision is the creation of ‘productive corridors’ of traditional conuco-style agriculture that extend from the cities to the countryside (the conuco is a traditional form of small-scale agriculture with indigenous origins).

Comuna Ataroa has also been able to acquire land on the outskirts of the city that is designated for agricultural production and has been partnering with rural producers on a large weekly farmers market, to complement distribution of staple goods coming from state channels.

Another example is the urban comuna, El Panal 2021 of Caracas, and a rural social movement, the Jirajara Peasant Movement, which are working together on multiple fronts. For instance, El Panal has an established sugar-packing local enterprise that the Jirajara movement will begin to supply with sugar. This demonstrates a point raised by a number of food sovereignty activists in Venezuela: that the people power and food processing infrastructure in cities such as Caracas provides ample possibility for partnership with rural producers in this area. El Panal and the Jirajara movement are also working on joint farmers markets and other distribution projects. Perhaps most interestingly, the Jirajara movement has helped El Panal to acquire land in the countryside, which they will work on in partnership. Robert Lanza of El Panal explains that the comuna has several other projects underway in the countryside, including training and educational components that enable comuna members to connect (or reconnect) to agricultural production. These efforts are complemented by a fairly extensive urban agriculture initiative within El Panal supported by state programs. This is part of a broader push for urban agriculture that has resulted in over 24,000 urban agriculture units throughout the country as of 2013, which the government has pledged to help triple.32 Lanza explains that it is a process of ongoing learning that combines life in the city with life in the countryside.

Lessons to be Learned Unfortunately, the great strides being made towards food security and food sovereignty have gotten lost in the mix of news coverage on Venezuela.

But I think it’s important to share this story, not just for what it means for Venezuela and the surrounding region, but for those of us striving to change the food system in our own respective locations. Among the many lessons to be learned from the Venezuelan

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Christina Schiavoni

An integrated urban farming project in Caracas.

Food Sovereignty Experiment is that change is needed from above, below, and (as with the horizontal network of comunas) sideways. Similarly, food sovereignty is neither the task of the state nor of citizens alone, but rather it is the task of both, and how the two engage with each other is something that must constantly be renegotiated.

Therefore, mechanisms that allow for ongoing debate and dialogue and for fluid interaction between citizens and their government are critical. And finally, food sovereignty is not something that just happens, nor is it a state to be attained. It’s a process (el proceso, remember?)—and it’s a process that we too can put into motion wherever we may be.

Acknowledgements Many thanks to William Camacaro for his invaluable research support and collaboration; to Jack Fairweather and to several anonymous reviewers for their feedback; to Mary McGee, Salena Tramel, and Siena Chrisman for their editing; and to the many others who made this project possible.

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2. Ciccariello-Maher, G. We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution (Duke University Press Books, Durham, 2013).

3. Wilpert, G. in Promised Land: Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform (eds Rosset, P., Patel, R. & Courville, M.) 249–264 (Food First Books, New York, 2006).

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4. Rural Population (% of Total Population).

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An example of urban agriculture in Caracas.

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32. Mallett-Outtrim, R. ‘Venezuela receives

[online] (2013). www.mpcomunas.gob.ve/conoce-

320 technicians from the FAO; Maduro sets

24. Personal communication, August 1, 2013.

los-resultados-del-censo-comunal-2013-desglosados-

sights on 80,000 urban agriculture projects’.

25. Schiavoni, C. ‘Competing sovereignties in the

por-estados/.

Venezuelanaylisis.com (2013). www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 53

Boschetti, F. and N. Hardman-Mountford. (2014). A Natural Dollar Currency for Ecological Resource Transactions and Management. Solutions 5(6): 54-59. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/a-natural-dollar-currency-for-ecological-resource-transactions-and-management/

Feature

A Natural Dollar Currency for Ecological Resource Transactions and Management

by Fabio Boschetti and Nick Hardman-Mountford Kelsi Barr

Natural$ are backed by the natural resources to which they relate, with their value dependent on the protection of that resource.

In Brief Markets are potentially effective tools in the management of natural resources. This is because of their ability to allocate resources efficiently in the increasingly complex relationship between ecology and the global economy.

Nevertheless, increasing environmental degradation means that system and market failures, which impact the relationship between economic and ecological systems, must be addressed in order to ensure sustainable management of natural resources.

Alternative currencies are not new and are used for transactions in specific markets for a variety of reasons, usually to avoid some of the consequences of using an official currency. We propose extending this concept to develop a currency that is designed to define a market for specific natural resources, while simultaneously preventing their exhaustion.

The core idea is that the proposed currency is backed by the very resources to which it relates, rather in the way that the US dollar used to be tied to the value of gold. Thus, when the resource is exhausted, so is the value of the currency. We believe this would deter resource owners/managers from allowing the exploitation of a critically declining resource as its sale, should it occur, would destroy the value of the currency and thus provide no benefit to the seller.

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nconstrained free markets by their nature pose a threat to the natural environment.

Few people believe that without regulation of these markets, the environment can avoid irreparable damage. However, experts disagree on the cause of this threat. Some authors see this as a system failure, which can be addressed only via a significant restructuring of our economic system, our relationship with nature, and our social values. Others see this as a market failure, that is, a consequence of markets not working as they should.

In the latter group, we find representatives of both mainstream (market-centric) and ecological (i.e. eco-centric) economics. Both agree that properly designed markets are our best option for addressing current environmental challenges. Their main motivation is that, according to traditional economic theory a properly functioning market provides information on resource and service scarcity,1 leading to efficient allocation.

This information is provided in a decentralized manner by traders, who detect local scarcities through their market transactions and communicate this information globally in the form of prices. Within this view, it is argued that alternatives to market systems, like centralized price-setting and regulations, would be likely to fail even in the hands of the best-intentioned policymakers because of the sheer complexity of accounting for the vast network of ecological and economic relationships.

In this paper, we do not address the relative merits of a market versus a regulatory approach to environmental management. Rather, we suggest a novel instrument that could help markets to account for their environmental impacts.

In order to do so, we need to understand why markets currently fail to address environmental challenges. One reason is that markets are not responsive to the actual costs of production, including environmental

impacts, which are commonly either ignored or undervalued. If these costs were properly accounted for in prices, economic production would treat ecological scarcities like that of any other commodity.

The second reason is that traders have vastly differing purchasing power and market access. The welfare of poor farmers in a developing country may be totally dependent on a local water resource, and they may be willing to invest a considerable portion of available financial resources towards it. But they cannot compete against a wealthy

Key Concepts • We imagine a currency (Natural$) which has the dual purpose of defining a market for ecological resources and preventing their overexploitation.

• A Natural$ market has two aspects: (a) The natural resource can be purchased only in Natural$ and (b) Natural$ can be freely traded in the market for real $.

• Feature (a) addresses conservation by reducing the incentive to sell the natural resources as its availability diminishes.

• Feature (b) provides efficient resources allocation by standard market mechanisms.

investor from a developed country who may have the means to pay a much higher price for the same water resource in order to produce goods for a market the poor farmer cannot access.

Addressing this issue would require global market restructuring on a scale far beyond what is needed to account for environmental externalities.

The third reason is that natural and financial resources can (and are expected to!) grow at incompatible rates. This concept can hardly be described more effectively than by using the positive–negative pigs

story.2,3 It illustrates the core relationship between natural and financial resources by employing a fictitious market consisting of only one financial provider (a banker) and one producer (a farmer). In brief, a farmer borrows $100 at 5 percent interest, say, to start a pig farm. In time, the number of pigs grows but not past a certain carrying capacity: sooner or later no more pigs can fit on the farm. The loan, however, can grow indefinitely—but only in mathematical terms. When the banker tries to cash in the loan, the repayment cannot be larger than the number of pigs on the farm. Thus, the apparent financial growth is not backed by equivalent actual physical growth.

There is a parable-like feel to this story, as it describes a vain attempt to generate ever-increasing wealth from a limited resource. Particularly pertinent to our discussion, it reverses the commonly held relationship between money and resources. We are used to valuing resources (pigs in the story) in terms of money. The story highlights that, once a certain threshold is crossed, it makes more sense to value money in terms of resources: no matter how fast money grows, its overall worth is limited by the number of pigs, since that is all it can buy. While, of course, real markets consist of a large number of producers and financial actors, the fundamental insight remains that all the money in the world cannot buy more than the total amount of available resources or services. Our perception that the value of money is independent of natural resources may lead us to dangerously undervalue the latter.

In this section, we have summarized three reasons for market failures: externalities, uneven purchasing power and market access, and incompatible growth of natural vis a vis financial resources. Of these, we believe the third is easier to address because it involves a less far-reaching, albeit still considerable, restructuring of the markets in environmental resources.

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Our solution is designed specifically to address this issue. It does so by defining a currency that 1) can be used for transactions involving a specific environmental resource or service, 2) is subject to market forces, 3) accounts for the impact of economic activities on the resource, and 4) prevents resource exhaustion. In the next section, we describe how our solution might work.

A Tentative Solution: Natural$ Mediate between Traditional Markets and Resource Dynamics We propose an alternative currency, which we call Natural$, that can be used to buy access to a specific, local ecological service or resource. Natural$, which would be issued by the local government responsible for the management of that specific natural resource, has three main features: 1. Access to the ecological service/ resource can be bought only with Natural$. It would be forbidden to use real $ for these transactions.

2. Natural$ can be freely traded in the market for real $.

3. The local government would issue the Natural$ once only. Thus, the total amount of Natural$ in circulation at any time (Tot-Natural$) would be constant.

For example, a local council could issue Natural$ in relation to a local pine forest. Assuming the forest is divided into several lots, each managed by a different private owner or public entity, the following steps illustrate how the Natural$ would work: 1. Each manager independently sets the price (in Natural$) for access to the resource in the lot that he or she manages.

2. A company or business wanting to access the resource needs first to acquire Natural$.

3. These Natural$ are bought using real $.

Fabio Boschetti

Figure 1: Schematic representation of the relation between a natural resource, real $, and Natural$.

A manager sets a price to access a forest lot. Access can be purchased in Natural$ but not in real $.

A business can acquire access to the resource with Natural$, which it can purchase with real $. The manager can then sell the Natural$ for real $ and use them to improve ecosystem services in the area. A resource market is then established in Natural$, while the conversion rate between real $ and Natural$ is determined by standard market mechanisms. Crucially, a manager has no incentive to grant access to a critically declining resource, because when the resource is exhausted, the Natural$ lose all value. This should prevent overexploitation of the resource.

4. Access to the resource in a specific lot is then bought from the manager with Natural$.

5. The manager has the option to retain the Natural$ as an investment or to convert them into real $ at the prevailing exchange rate.

A regular market for Natural$ is thus established and, as a result, the conversion rate between real $ and Natural$ is determined by standard market mechanisms.

We suggest using Natural$ as an intermediate currency in transactions between ecological resources and real $ because the value of Natural$, unlike real $, is intrinsically coupled with and fully dependent on the state of the resource. Its growth potential is limited and it vanishes if the resource gets exhausted. Holders of Natural$ need to safeguard their value, which can be done only by ensuring the resource is not fully exploited. Let’s see why: As an extreme case, let’s assume that Region A (where Natural$ apply)

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is left with a single available pine forest lot. If this last lot could be sold in real $, its value could in principle grow without bounds. As discussed above, extremely rich buyers, possibly with access to external markets, could afford to make a large real $ offer that the local manager may not resist.

However, access to the last forest lot can be bought only with Natural$ that, crucially, will become worthless once the last lot is sold, because once that happens, there is nothing else Natural$ can buy. As a result, the manager has no reason to sell and the last forest lot is left unexploited.

Having said that, the Natural$ would start to play a positive role well before a single lot is left unexploited. At any point in time, the current owners of Natural$ should aim to maximize the value of the Natural$ they hold.

The cumulative value of all Natural$ (Tot-Natural$, as defined above) depends both on the exchange rate with real $ and on the general state of the resource. If either goes to zero, so

Carl Jones

The ‘parable’ of the pig farmer illustrates the logic of valuing money in terms of resources, rather than the more commonly accepted inverse relationship.

does the value of each Natural$. At any point in time, Natural$ owners thus have an interest in protecting at least some of the resource. Quite how much will be protected and at what point the Natural$ will start to affect the exploitation process will depend on the specific local context and on potentially complex dynamics between Natural$, real $, and the state of the resource.

Three contrasting processes will be at play. First, the greater the amount of available resource, the more ‘resource’ a single Natural$ can buy. Second, the greater the amount of available resource, the less valuable the resource (and the Natural$ that depend on it) is.

Finally, when the amount of available resource moves towards zero, its real

$ value may soar but the Natural$ will tend to become worthless, as described above. This suggests that the ‘worth’ of a single Natural$ should reach its maximum somewhere between the two extremes of very high and very low resource availability; exactly where will depend on the conversion rate with the real $ and thus on the dynamics of the real economy.

This leads to two crucial questions: 1) Is there a single maximum or multiple maxima? and 2) Do any of these maxima provide for an ecologically sustainable state? Answering these questions requires a mathematical analysis, probably aided by computer modelling, that we hope to carry out in future research.

Scaling Properties The strict coupling between Natural$ and a specific resource can be exploited so that several different types of resources and services can be managed concurrently such that several different types of Natural$ could be issued, each coupled with a specific resource in a specific region (see Figure 2). This adaptability provides a ‘scaling’ element to the Natural$, which could be issued at a global, national, regional, or local level—thereby preventing resource exhaustion at any of those levels.

The larger the number of small-scale Natural$ types, the lower the level at which resource exploitation can be prevented.

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Implementation Challenges Traditional markets develop over decades or even centuries. They incorporate (and often come to represent) cultural norms and expectations and are regulated in order to improve or modify their outcomes. Like any institution, markets rarely burst forth as fully functioning organisms. Rather, they evolve. We do not suggest that Natural$ could bypass this lengthy process. On the contrary, it needs to be seen as the seed of a solution, a proposition for a novel type of market.

For the proposition to become a real market, many details need further theoretical analysis, political and social negotiation, and crucially, experimental verification followed by proper tuning.

Should a local government attempt to implement this solution, a number of issues and challenges would need to be addressed. It is important to distinguish between the types of challenges inherent in the implementation of any environmental management instrument (e.g. zoning and closures, ecological offsets, quotas, regular markets, etc.) and the ones that are specific to the Natural$ solution. The first group includes, inter alia, such challenges as how the Natural$ should be issued; how existing property rights should be recognized and addressed; how we should develop and finance the infrastructure and accounting systems that are needed to implement, manage, and regulate the Natural$ market; how collusion and other market-altering behaviors should be prevented; and to what extent speculative behaviors should be accepted or even encouraged.

However, of greater relevance is the second group. One specific challenge is represented by the unusual relationship between the Natural$ and the resource (and the potential existence of multiple Natural$ for various different resources) in a culture accustomed to using a single currency both to value and to establish equivalences

Colin

The value of Natural$ is maintained by ensuring that a resource is not fully exploited. For example, the owner of the last remaining pine forest in a region would have an incentive to maximize the Natural$ value of the lot by protecting it.

between unrelated objects/resources.

Nevertheless, alternative currencies, while not mainstream, are already used for transactions in specific markets when there is a need to circumvent undesired consequences resulting from some properties of standard money. They are also increasingly proposed as a way to address different forms of market failures. An

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interesting discussion, including a number of examples, can be found in a previous Solutions article.4 A second challenge would be to ensure that the resource is not traded in real $ but only in Natural$.

Obviously, any market needs regulation to function properly, and the Natural$ market is no exception.

Transactions in real $ could be treated

Fabio Boschetti

Figure 2: Relation between real $, Natural$, and multiple natural resources, in this case, two forests in different locations. A different Natural$ type is issued for each forest. Each Natural$ type can be traded with real $. Natural$ types cannot be traded with each other. As before, direct trading between resources and real $ is also prevented.

as a form of corruption or bribery and existing regulatory instruments commonly used to counter these unlawful market behaviors could be employed.

Certainly the process would require sophisticated institutional supervision.

A further challenge would involve the prevention of any attempts by pro-environment groups to buy up all Natural$ (Tot-Natural$), as this would effectively block any trading in the resource. While, of course, this would constitute a drastic form of resource conservation, it would defeat the main purpose of the Natural$, which is to establish a market for the resource in question. Accumulation of Natural$ in a small number of hands should be avoided.

Final Comments The purpose of our solution is not to dismiss or replace nonmarket approaches in environmental management, whether they be exclusion zones, multi-use management, parks, quota restrictions, or other regulatory interventions. These obviously have an important role to play that we strongly support. Rather, we believe that Natural$ are worth exploring in situations in which market approaches are chosen or deemed suitable as a possible means of preventing a specific form of market failure, as discussed above.

Crucially, it could accomplish this while still fulfilling the role envisioned by both traditional and ecological economists by reflecting

the degree of scarcity that arises from decentralized market transactions.

Market sceptics should notice that, by its very nature, this would inevitably be a highly regulated market; the local council would decide which resource could be traded in Natural$ transactions, how much of it, and within what geographical limits. Furthermore, to ensure the market functioned properly and to monitor exchange rates between real and Natural$, the local council could require official registration of each transaction.

This requirement would also provide a means of accounting for both the quantity and quality of the resource. In fact, since potential growth of the Natural$ is limited, its value depends on the extent, quality, and distribution of the available resource, and holders of Natural$ should reasonably aim to maximize the Natural$ value. A Natural$ market may generate a further incentive for the establishment of an effective ecological accounting system as envisaged by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.5,6 Acknowledgments We acknowledge and thank Simon Mountford for constructive textual comments. Research was supported by CSIRO. References 1. Samuelson, PA & Nordhaus, WD. Economics 18th International edn, (McGraw—Hill/Irwin, Boston, 2005) 2. Soddy, F. Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1926).

3. Daly, H. Growth, debt, and the World Bank.

Ecological Economics 72, 5–8 (2011).

4. Lietaer, B & Hallsmith, G. Making money for business: currencies, profit, and long-term thinking.

Solutions 2(5), 64–69 (2011).

5. Woodward, RT. Nature’s numbers: Expanding the national economic accounts to include the environment. Land Econ 76(3), 486–490 (2000).

6. Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.

Accounting for Nature: A Model for Building the National Environmental Accounts of Australia (Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, Sydney, 2008).

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McDonald, R., B. Guneralp, W. Zipperer, and P. Marcotullio. (2014). The Future of Global Urbanization and the Environment. Solutions 5(6): 60-69. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-future-of-global-urbanization-and-the-environment/

Feature

The Future of Global Urbanization and the Environment Rob McDonald, Burak Guneralp, Wayne Zipperer, and Peter Marcotullio

Derek Finch

Giving value to ecosystem services would gain them greater consideration in urban planning, an integral step in conserving biodiversity and ecosystems in the face of widespread urbanization.

In Brief Using findings of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook (CBO), we propose three specific solutions to mitigate the loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity in our urban and urbanizing landscapes. The CBO identified continued loss of critical habitats for biodiversity conservation and degradation of many important ecosystem services due to urbanization.

The fact that most ecosystem services and biodiversity itself are common goods facilitates this loss and degradation.

To address this issue, a fundamental solution can be giving value to ecosystem services and biodiversity in the marketplace and firmly incorporating them in urban planning processes.

This solution can be achieved with a three-pronged approach: (1) ecosystem services can be conceived as a utility similar to the provision of electricity and water, and cities can structure their governance and urban planning processes to ensure adequate ecosystem service provision; (2) the local level solutions, especially in places where urban expansion encroaches upon biodiversity hotspots, can go a long way in the conservation of biodiversity at the global level; and (3) the well-being of biodiversity and the sustainability of ecosystem services in the face of humanity’s massive urbanization require coordination by governments at all levels. Thus, as the world becomes ever more urban, urban decision-makers and citizens will need to not only re-connect to nature, but also adopt policies to integrate nature into our daily lives.

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A

recent global assessment by hundreds of scientists, the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook (CBO) examined how the coming massive global urban growth will interact with the natural world.1 By 2030, there will be almost 2 billion new urban residents, and this rapid urban growth has significant implications for the fate of human society and the natural world.

With one of the sponsor organizations being the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), it is not surprising that the CBO had a strong focus on how urban growth directly and indirectly affected ecosystem services and biodiversity. The CBO also had a strong focus on how cities depend on ecosystem services, the benefits to human well-being provided by nature, and how that dependence will change with rapid urban growth in the coming decades. The report highlights the resulting synergistic effects on ecosystem services and biodiversity of climate change, projected growth of human population in cities, and urban land-use change. In this paper, we not only highlight a few key findings of the CBO, but also present the fundamental challenges that urban growth poses for ecosystem services and biodiversity, potential solutions to address these fundamental challenges, and three specific mechanisms that can help cities harmonize their relationship to ecosystem services and biodiversity.

The Fundamental Problem The CBO found continued degradation of many important ecosystem services upon which urban dwellers depend.

While there are many different causes of this degradation of service, including loss of habitat, climate change, and regulatory and institutional barriers, one fundamental underlying problem was identified in several of the chapters of the CBO: many ecosystem services, in particular regulatory and cultural services,2 are common or public goods.

That is, these ecosystem services are non-excludable goods, in that the

benefits they provide are not easily limited to only those who can pay for them, but are freely available to a large set of people.3 For instance, a large forested patch in an urban region helps to

Key Concepts • An international team of more than 200 scientists conducted a global assessment of urbanization and the environment, called the City Biodiversity Outlook (CBO), finding widespread degradation of ecosystem service provision for urban residents and a substantial loss of biodiversity in urban and urbanizing areas • The fundamental problem identified by the CBO is that most ecosystem services and the existence value of biodiversity are non-market goods and are not adequately considered in economic or policy decisions • In this paper, we argue that the fundamental solutions to this problem are to quantify the value of ecosystem services for urbanites and to create policy mechanisms that incorporate the value of ecosystem services into economic and policy decision-making. We present three such potential policy mechanisms: –– Cities should consider ecosystem services as a utility they supply to their residents, on par with the provision of electricity and water, and structure their governance and urban planning processes to ensure adequate ecosystem service provision –– As the vast majority of future biodiversity lost due to urban growth will be in a few hotspots in developing countries, local level solutions to safeguard biodiversity in the face of urban expansion would go a long way in the conservation of biodiversity at the global level –– The well-being of biodiversity and sustainability of ecosystem services in the face of humanity’s massive urbanization require coordination by governments across multiple scales and jurisdictions

maintain and regulate air quality and temperature locally and potentially regionally, yet these benefits are available to essentially all those near the forested patch, regardless of whether they have paid for their provision.

Both empirical evidence and environmental economic theory suggest that common and public goods are generally underprovided by free markets—a phenomenon called ‘market failure’. Since any actions individuals might take that increase ecosystem service provision would benefit people who do not have to pay to receive the benefit, there is little financial incentive for individuals to consider ecosystem services in their decisions.

For similar reasons, ecosystem services are often not given adequate weight during policy decision-making processes, although the mandate of some policy makers to consider the greater good can sometimes allow some consideration of ecosystem services. For example, by converting forested lands into new residential areas, the property developers may gain financially off this conversion, but other people in the city at large may lose because of the loss of ecosystem services once forests disappear. Such actions can also lead to intergenerational equity challenges in terms of the benefits derived from the ecosystem services. Property developers have no economic incentive to consider these broader social impacts. Such disconnect is the fundamental problem causing widespread degradation and loss of ecosystem services upon which humans depend.

One very important ecosystem service affected by development is freshwater provision.4 Urban areas depend on upstream natural habitat for regulating water flows, and impact freshwater provisions to downstream communities. Consider the example of the expanding city where forests are replaced by residential areas. This increase in the impermeable surface area leads to increased volumes of surface water runoff, which increases the vulnerability to flooding of downstream communities. Urban landscapes with 50 to 90 percent impervious cover can lose 40 to 83 percent of rainfall to surface runoff compared to 13 percent in forested landscapes.5

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Freshwater provision has significant externalities, but also has some characteristics of a private good. On the one hand, urbanization affects land cover which in turn affects the quantity and quality of water available for other users downstream. Unless restricted by government policy or regulation, cities tend to degrade the water quality of downstream water sources, either through diffuse pollution (e.g., sedimentation from construction, polluted stormwater runoff) or point source pollution (e.g., wastewater release). On the other hand, urban areas require water. Water is directly needed for human use, and supports a variety of other secondary ecosystem services (e.g., recreation, biodiversity, transportation). Many cities go to great lengths to safeguard their water source, and have a direct financial stake in the health of this water source.

Another example of market failure is not adequately considering the cultural ecosystem services provided by the urban forest, especially parks, during urban planning process. These cultural services are vital for human health and well-being, and include recreational value, aesthetic benefits, and benefits to human physical and mental health. Since city environments can be stressful for inhabitants, the recreational aspects of urban ecosystems are among the highest valued ecosystem services in cities. Parks, forests, lakes, and rivers provide a manifold of possibilities for recreation, thereby enhancing human health and well-being.6 Unfortunately, many of these areas are lost or degraded during urbanization, which could have been prevented to some extent through an integrated planning process.

The CBO also found continued loss of biodiversity due to urbanization.

Although the CBO stressed that urban areas continue to harbor important elements of biodiversity, the net impact of urban growth globally is a loss of biodiversity. Much like the situation with ecosystem services, the maintenance

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2012)

The City Biodiversity Outlook presents a global assessment of urbanization and the environment.

of biodiversity is not adequately considered in the economic decisions of individuals or in the policy decisions of governments. Despite the considerable importance of biodiversity, both for the maintenance of ecosystem services and for the value many people place on its existence, it is generally afforded little economic importance during decisions of urban planning and growth.

Cities are often located in areas of high biodiversity richness and endemism (along coastlines, some islands, and major river systems), and therefore, have a significant direct

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impact on biodiversity.7 Examples of biodiversity hotspots include the Mediterranean Basin, Atlantic Forest, California Floristic Province, and IndoBurma and Sundaland which contain nearly all Southeastern Asian urban lands (27, 000 km2). Direct impact includes habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation of remaining blocks of natural habitats, the increase in non-native invasive species, and the loss of sensitive indigenous species.

Moreover, the urban land in biodiversity hotspots have already affected ecoregions that contain 10 percent

of terrestrial vertebrates,8 and future urban area in hotspots is forecast to increase by about four times globally from 2000 to 2030.9 Protected areas (PAs) have been one of the main tools used to limit biodiversity loss due to habitat conversion. Urban expansion is expected to continue near PAs, at least at the same pace as elsewhere across most of the world.10 In fact, the amount of urban land near PAs is expected to increase around the world, on average, by more than three times between 2000 and 2030 (from 450,000 km2 circa 2000), with China developing the most urban land within 50 km of its PAs by 2030. The largest proportional change, however, will likely be in Mid-Latitudinal Africa where urban land near PAs is estimated to increase 15 to 25 times by 2030.

The CBO stresses, however, that significant biodiversity remains in urban areas globally. Williams et al. (2009) identified three sources of species in urban landscapes: (1) native species originating in the area itself; (2) native species occurring regionally; and (3) non-native species introduced by humans or naturalized in the region. Changes in any of them may affect species diversity in a city.

Analyses of long-term species records provide insights into how these sources change, with species richness in group 1 tending to decline and species richness in groups 2 and 3 often increasing, leading to biotic homogenization.11 Although the general pattern is of a decline in native-species richness, it can still comprise 50 to 70 percent of total species richness in a city.12 Finally, the CBO stressed that urbanization is a complex phenomenon tightly linked to a number of other development processes. It is counterproductive for policymakers to consider urbanization solely as a problem, since it is an unavoidable part of economic development and population growth. A more useful way to

think about global urbanization is as both a challenge to the sustainability of our planet’s natural systems and as a tremendous opportunity to change how cities structure and function.13

The Fundamental Solution If the fundamental environmental problem with urbanization is that most ecosystem services and biodiversity are common or public goods that are not adequately considered in economic or policy decisions, what is the fundamental solution?

Here, we suggest that one part of the solution must be giving value to ecosystem services and biodiversity in market decisions, as well as bringing new regulatory mechanisms and infrastructure systems in urban governance for the efficient management of ecosystem services and conservation of biodiversity.

This overarching solution is so general that it may seem obvious, and there are of course myriad specific ways that governments at various levels (municipal, regional, or national) can intervene to give value to biodiversity and ecosystem services. In this paper, we offer three specific mechanisms towards reaching the fundamental solution. While our experience as lead editors shapes our suggestions, these three specific mechanisms are in no way exhaustive.

Other potential mechanisms exist, and the mechanisms that are effective in one city may not be effective in other cities due to local ecological or socioeconomic circumstances.

Treating Ecosystem Services as an Urban Utility Cities worldwide are structured to have different departments or utilities that provide key services to their residents: clean water, electricity, sanitation services, and many more.

These services are now generally either directly provided by publicly owned entities, or by private companies that are employed by and strictly regulated

by the cities they serve. While it is easy now for many urban residents to take these publicly-guaranteed services for granted, they have not always been considered as an essential urban service. For instance, water provision and waste disposal have been at different points in history seen as primarily the responsibility of individual households, only becoming a generally accepted publicly-guaranteed service in the 19th century.14 Electricity provision only came to be seen as a publiclyguaranteed service in the 20th century, and in recent decades, some cities have begun to view cheap wireless internet access as a similar common good they can provide to their citizens.

We suggest that cities need to consider the provision of key ecosystem services on par with the other services they supply to their citizens. Currently, ecosystem services are considered piecemeal by existing municipal departments or agencies: the water utility might think about hydrologic regulating services upstream of reservoirs, the parks department might think about the recreational value of open space, and the electricity provider might try to promote shade trees to reduce summer air-conditioning costs.

Certain ecosystem services lack any advocates. For instance, few cities have departments with institutional mandates to facilitate carbon sequestration.

Moreover, this piecemeal arrangement means that it is difficult to fully account for the multiple benefits that natural habitats provide in a city or region. For instance, a water utility may consider source watershed protection for its benefits to raw water quality, but will tend to consider any recreational benefits that might occur with conservation as incidental to its mission.

What if public utilities engage in payments for ecosystem services (PES)? This requires a change in mindset, but also in pricing and related regulatory mechanisms of utilities.

Unfortunately, there is currently little research on how this may work in

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Casey Eisenreich

Residents enjoy Boston Common on a spring day. Urban parks have recreational and aesthetic value, and contribute positively to the mental and physical health of urban dwellers.

practice.15 One example is incentives put in place for public water utility districts in California to participate in innovative finance mechanisms.16 A component of this initiative involves paying landowners upstream to better manage their lands, avoiding increases in pollutant loads caused by land change. However, pricing mechanisms such as PES are only part of the solution and may need to be replaced or complemented with other mechanisms depending on the specific ecosystem-service bundle in question.

Moreover, the whole infrastructure network upon which utilities for delivering their services may need to be reformed to reflect the type of ecosystem services. For instance, the concept

of green infrastructure, also called integrated infrastructure, envisions a more landscape-oriented approach that integrates various resource flows and is a promising alternative to prevailing paradigm in infrastructure construction and management.17 Some cities are already beginning to think in a more integrated fashion by having sustainability offices that write sustainability plans for the city.

These plans are supposed to have integrated environmental goals, and can serve to coordinate the actions of different urban agencies so that they provide maximum benefit for citizens.

However, sustainability offices often have limited budgets and resources, and do not have any direct authority

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over the agencies whose actions the sustainability plan is supposed to coordinate. What would it look like if the sustainability office in a city had as its mission to provide the full spectrum of ecosystem services to its citizens, and managed the budget and resources that were to create the green infrastructure to provide those ecosystem services?

Minimizing habitat and biodiversity loss and limiting degradation of ecosystem services also require cities to integrate ecological knowledge into their urban planning practices.18 Specifically, urban planning practices need to become more attuned to conservation of biodiversity and preservation of ecosystem services

that are of critical importance for the inhabitants of the urban areas.19,20 In this respect, the dissemination of information and connection of science to practitioners is an important aspect of formulating sound urbanization strategies that explicitly acknowledge and consider conservation of biodiversity. However, one of the critical prerequisites to ensure this integration is that urban planners be equipped with the requisite institutional capacity to integrate policies and manage natural resources directly.21,22 Novel ecosystems, communities composed of both native and nonnatives species, which occur often on sites previously cleared because of anthropogenic activities, may give us insights into how future ecosystems in urban landscapes may function. Often these areas are managed with intention to be restored to a state reflecting conditions prior to urbanization. This is often a futile attempt; instead, these novel ecosystems should be viewed positively for their contributions to society rather than being treated as inferior to natural communities. In fact, novel ecosystems are critical ecological areas in both shrinking and expanding cities, where these areas can be managed to provide a variety of ecosystem services, including water, fuel, and food, as well as recreation.

Local Efforts to Protect Biodiversity Hotspots under Urbanization Pressure As discussed above, the biodiversity impact of cities tends to be concentrated in particular cities located in high biodiversity areas. Another way to measure the biodiversity impacts of cities is to calculate for the ecoregions of the world the expected number of endemic vertebrate species that might be lost due to urbanization (Figure 1). The total number of species lost depends on the amount of urban growth (and hence habitat loss) expected between 2000 and 2030, the endemic species richness, and

the species area curve assumed. In this simple case, we assume a linear species-area curve, although in actuality the shape of the curve will vary among taxa and geographic region.

Note that regardless of the species area curve that is assumed, the spatial concentration of endemic richness and urban growth implies that endemic species loss is highly concentrated.

The 25 most threatened ecoregions, 3 percent of all ecoregions globally, account for 50 percent of the expected loss. Urban growth in just 10 percent of all ecoregions accounts for 78 percent of the expected loss. Thus, actions to maintain biodiversity in a relatively small number of ecoregions could have a disproportionately large benefit in terms of avoiding biodiversity loss for urbanization.

Of the actions proposed to ameliorate urban effects on biodiversity, setting aside large parcels of native habitats in those parts of the biodiversity hotspots facing urbanization pressure may provide the best opportunity for regional floral and faunal species to persist. These protected areas would need to be large enough to contain the spectrum of natural disturbances as well as native habitats.

With land conservation, a number of landscape designs are possible. For instance, one design for large parcels would make these areas composed of multiple-utilization zones.23 The interior zone would be road-free and managed to conserve native flora and fauna. By comparison, the perimeter would serve as a buffer that is used for multiple benefits and linked to other areas. An example would be the Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Large parcels can, to some extent, buffer local climatic changes and contain more individuals of a single species, thus enhancing its genetic breadth.

Even these large areas, however, will not be immune to human intrusions; natural resource managers must also continually adapt to changing circumstances.

The conservation of large parcels of natural habitats brings into play debates over whether we should preserve large versus numerous small areas of native habitats. With climate change and the rapid changes brought about by urban land-use conversion as well as intensive utilization by rural populations, larger areas may be able to buffer against better than smaller sites, especially for native faunal species.

Nonetheless, smaller protected areas can also play a critical role for human use by maximizing ecosystem services for water, fuel, and food to minimize intrusions into the larger areas. In addition, both large and small parcels could be used to enhance species migration across inhospitable habitats, thus facilitating species relocation.

International Coordination for Urban Sustainability Solutions to reconcile the ongoing urbanization and conservation require policies that work in harmony across scales, from local to regional to global, and across political jurisdictions.

In particular, establishing effective biodiversity conservation strategies in regions that are expected to undergo significant urban expansion require coordinated efforts among multiple cities, provinces, and even countries.

Such coordination, however, has been hard to achieve even among conservation bodies under existing regional and global governance mechanisms.24 The recently formed Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES: www.ipbes.net) aims to remedy this lack of coordination by, among other things, conducting periodic sub-regional, regional, and global assessments on the state of the planet’s biodiversity, its ecosystems, and the essential services they provide to society.25 Established in April 2012, the IPBES will act as an independent intergovernmental body, much like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and will be

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A

Expected endemic loss <1

2-4

8-16

4-8

> 16

1-2

600

Most threatened ecoregions

0

100

200

300

400

500

B

Endemic species loss

open to all member countries of the United Nations. Clearly, the impacts of urbanization on biodiversity are critical enough to be included in these assessments. In this vein, the CBO—as endorsed by the CBD—is the first ever comprehensive assessment of the interaction of cities and biodiversity and ecosystem services.

However, many biodiversity hotspots threatened by urban growth are located in developing countries, which may have limited financial resources to devote to land protection. Moreover, since the attention of municipal governments in developing countries is often understandably focused on things like providing clean drinking water and sanitation to their burgeoning urban population, biodiversity protection may not be seen as a municipal priority. However, globally, there is substantial interest in preventing massive biodiversity loss in these biodiversity hotspots that face continuing urbanization. We suggest that this spatial disconnect between those making the decisions in cities in biodiversity hotspots and those who care about the biodiversity losses can be overcome by a global effort to protect these biodiversity hotspots from further urban encroachment. This effort must include focusing conservation funding from organizations and governments in the developed world to these hotspots in the developing world.

Several biodiversity hotspots and, in some cases, protected areas, span across national borders. In such cases, challenges posed by urbanization to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service preservation cannot solely be met by local-level solutions; they require policy responses on a broader scale, and thus call for appropriate strategies with sufficient breadth to be developed at the national and international levels. The implications of urbanization in such biodiversity hotspots and protected areas for their biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can be more accurately

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Prop. of ecoregions with greatest species loss

Courtesy of the authors

Figure 1: Expected endemic vertebrate species lost due to urban area expansion. The number of species lost depends upon the amount of urban growth expected between 2000 and 2030, the endemic species richness, and the species area curve assumed. The 25 most threatened ecoregions are shown with red dots (A). The majority of species loss due to urbanization will be in a small fraction of ecoregions (B). See text for details.

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assessed through trans-border regional cooperation between the countries involved.26 Two examples are the Indo-Burma and Himalaya hotspots, which are undergoing rapid urbanization,27 and span multiple jurisdictions within and among countries. There have been developments towards such cooperation between China and India in the region though obstacles remain.28 A promising initiative of such regional cooperation involves the Mediterranean Basin hotspot, arguably the most human-modified of all hotspots. MediverCities, an initiative in the making, aims to create a network of cities focused on biodiversity around the Mediterranean Basin.29 Though not established to address urban-related biodiversity concerns, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Centre for Biodiversity is another example of regional cooperation that can readily serve as a platform for the coordination of urbanization and biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia.

Notwithstanding uncertainties inevitable in any study on the future trends, it is increasingly clear that urbanization will continue to impact biodiversity and ecosystem services around the world. It is also clear that most of these impacts will take place in the developing world with limited means to address each and every challenge urbanization presents. We put forward three potential solutions to address this challenge: (1) treating ecosystem services as an urban utility; (2) local efforts to protect biodiversity hotspots under urbanization pressure; and (3) international coordination for urban sustainability.

Each of these solutions is currently being experimented with in different locations with varying levels of success. It is clear that as urbanization increases, however, urban decision makers and citizens will need to not only re-connect to nature, but adopt policies to integrate nature into our daily lives.

References 1. Elmqvist, T. et al. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities, A Global Assessment. (Springer, New York, 2013).

2. MEA. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: A Framework for Assessment. (Island Press, Washington,

Payments for Ecosystem Services: A California Rancher Perspective. (Defenders of Wildlife, Washington, DC, 2011.)

17. Belanger, P. Landscape as infrastructure. Landscape Journal no. 28:79-95 (2009).

18. Niemelä, J. Ecology and urban planning. Biodiversity

D.C., 2003).

3. Kolstad, CD. Environmental Economics. (Oxford University Press, New York, 2000).

and Conservation no. 8 (1):119–131 (1999).

19. McDonald, RI, Kareiva, P & Forman, RTT. The

4. McDonald, RI, Marcotullio, P & Güneralp, B.

implications of current and future urbanization

Urbanization and trends in biodiversity and

for global protected areas and biodiversity

ecosystem services. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and

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(6):1695–1703. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.04.025

Elmqvist, T. et al.) (Springer, New York, 2013).

5. Bonan, G. Ecological climatology: Concepts and

(2008a).

20. Puppim de Oliveira, JA, et al. Cities and biodiversity:

applications. (Cambridge University Press,

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implementing the convention on biological

6. Gómez-Baggethun, E. et al. Urban ecosystem services. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities (eds. Elmqvist, T. et al.) (Springer, New York,2013).

diversity (CBD) at the city level. Biological Conservation no. 144 (5):1302–1313 (2011).

21. Sandström, UG, Angelstam, P & Khakee, A. Urban comprehensive planning - Identifying barriers for

7. McDonald, RI, Marcotullio, P & Güneralp, B.

the maintenance of functional habitat networks.

Urbanization and trends in biodiversity and

Landscape and Urban Planning no. 75 (1–2):43–57

ecosystem services. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities. (eds.

Elmqvist, T. et al.) (Springer, New York, 2013).

8. McDonald, RI, Kareiva, P & Forman, R. The

(2006).

22. Blicharska, M, Angelstam, P, Antonson, H, Elbakidze, M & Axelsson, R. Road, Forestry and regional planners’ work for biodiversity

implications of urban growth for global protected

conservation and public participation: A case study

areas and biodiversity conservation. Biological

in Poland’s hotspot regions. Journal of Environmental

Conservation no. 141:1695–1703 (2008b).

Planning and Management no. 54 (10):1373–1395

9. Güneralp, B. et al. Urbanization Forecasts, Effects

(2011).

on Land Use, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services.

23. Noss, R & Harris, L. Nodes, networks, and MUMs:

In Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services:

Preserving diversity at all scales. Environmental

Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment. (eds. Elmqvist, T, et al.) 437–452 (Springer, Netherlands, 2013).

Management no. 10:299–309 (1986).

24. Larigauderie, A & Mooney, HA. The Intergovernmental Science-policy Platform on

10. Güneralp, B. et al. Urbanization Forecasts, Effects

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Moving a step

on Land Use, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services.

closer to an IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity.

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Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability no. 2

Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment. (eds. Elmqvist, T, et al.) 437–452 (Springer, Netherlands, 2013).

(1–2):9–14 (2010).

25. Larigauderie, A & Mooney, HA. The Intergovernmental Science-policy Platform on

11. McKinney, ML. Urbanization as a major cause of

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Moving a step

biotic homogenization. Biological Conservation no.

closer to an IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity.

127 (3):247–260 (2006).

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability no. 2

12. Müller, N, Ignatieva, M, Nilon, C, Werner, P & Zipperer, W. Patterns and trends in urban

(1–2):9–14 (2010).

26. Chettri, N, Thapa, R & Shakya, B. Participatory

biodiversity and landscape design. Urbanization,

conservation planning in Kangchenjunga

Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and

transboundary biodiversity conservation landscape.

Opportunities. (eds. Elmqvist, T. et al.) (Springer, New York, 2013).

Tropical Ecology no. 48 (2):163–176 (2007).

27. Güneralp, B. et al. Urbanization Forecasts, Effects

13. McDonald, RI, Marcotullio, P & Güneralp, B.

on Land Use, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services.

Urbanization and trends in biodiversity and

In Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services:

ecosystem services. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and

Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment.

Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities. (eds.

(eds. Elmqvist, T, et al.) 437–452 (Springer,

Elmqvist, T. et al.) (Springer, New York, 2013).

14. Melosi, MV, The Sanitary City. (University of

Netherlands, 2013).

28. Bawa, KS. et al. China, India, and the Environment.

Science no. 327 (5972):1457–1459. doi: 10.1126/

Pittsburg Press, Pittsburg, PA, 2008).

15. McConnell, V & Walls, M. The Value of Open Space: Evidence from Studies of Nonmarket Benefits.

(Resources for the Future: Washington, DC, 2005).

16. Cheatum, M, Casey, F, Alvared, P & Parkhurst, B.

science.1185164 (2010).

29. MediverCities. MediverCities [online] (October 5, 2012). http://www.cbd.int/authorities/medivercities. shtml.

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Preserving large parcels of native habitats in areas under urban pressure would protect regional biodiversity. An existing example is the Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Rubem Porto Jr.

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Barlow, M. (2014). A Mile Short. Solutions 5(6): 70-73. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/a-mile-short/

Reviews Book Review

A Mile Short

by Bruce Cooperstein REVIEWING Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever Maude Barlow

M

aude Barlow, the author of Blue Planet, is the chair of the board of Food and Water Watch, founder of the Blue Planet Project, a much honored and tireless human rights activist, and a recipient of the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize”), as well as numerous other commendations. She is also the author of over a dozen books on environmental issues, problems raised by “free trade,” attacks on public education, the depredations of multinational corporations, and the subject of this book: water. Blue Planet is the third and final book of her “Blue Trilogy” on the subject. The first, Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water (co-authored with Tony Clarke) drew attention to the growing scarcity of freshwater supplies and foresaw the emergence of both a “water cartel” seeking title to this essential resource as well as a global water justice movement to challenge it.

The second book, Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right To Water, described the efforts of a handful of powerful corporations to gain control and profit from the scarcity of water as well as the countervailing efforts of environmentalists, human rights activists, small farmers, and local grassroots groups fighting to keep water under democratic control.

Blue Future details both progress and regress in the struggle for water justice. It begins with the adoption, in late July of 2010, by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution recognizing a human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as “essential for the full employment of the right to life.” To readers of Solutions, such a right is self-evident, but apparently not so for some powerful nations (e.g. Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK) whose corporations benefit from the commodification of water. Consequently, rather than being adopted by acclamation, the resolution required a vote which, nonetheless, affirmed a “human right to water” by an overwhelming majority of 122 countries, including China, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, and Brazil (the opposition abstained).

This historic vote was a victory that took decades to achieve, but Barlow points out that it is only a beginning: “Recognizing a right is simply the first step in making it a reality for the millions living in the shadow of the greatest crisis of our era. With our insatiable demand for water, we are creating a perfect storm for an unprecedented world water crisis: a rising population and an unrelenting demand for water by industry, agriculture, and the developed world; over-extraction of water from the world’s finite water stock; climate change, spreading drought; and income disparity between and within countries, with the greatest burden of the race for water falling on the poor.”

Where the water justice movement has been successful is in bringing attention to the issue in the media, including the mainstream media, in public school and university classrooms (my nine-year-old daughter

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The New Press

The third book of Barlow’s trilogy discusses potential solutions toward a water secure world.

constantly reminds me to not waste water), local actions groups, and various global institutions. However, while there have been improvements in some locales, the larger picture is not encouraging. The numbers of people whose access is threatened is staggering: water experts estimate that over 3 billion people live within 30 miles of an impaired water source—one that is either polluted or running dry. Moreover, the message has not penetrated many corporate boardrooms nor the executive suites and legislatures of some of the world’s most powerful countries that continue to operate as if water were an infinite resource.

The purpose of this book is to establish the foundation for enacting solutions to the water crisis and securing a path to a water-secure world.

Such a foundation requires “principles to guide us and help us create policies,

Reviews Book Review laws, and international agreements to protect water and water justice, now and forever.” Barlow proposes four such principles and Blue Future is laid out in four parts, with one devoted to each principle. These are 1) water is a human right; 2) water is a common heritage; 3) water has rights too; and 4) water can teach us how to live together.

For those interested in movement building, the entire four chapters devoted to the first principle, water is a human right, is well worth consulting. It makes the case for a right to water and details the lengthy struggle that resulted in the UN resolution as well as a subsequent confirmation by the UN Human Rights Council, which went further by declaring that the right to safe drinking water and sanitation are part of international law and “requires that these services be available, accessible, safe, acceptable, and affordable to all, without discrimination.” The chapter on “Implementing the Right to Water” makes the case that these declarations create an affirmative obligation on the part of all governments. There is much material here illustrating how governments have been held accountable, including through the use of litigation in national courts. The last chapter devoted to this principle, “Paying for Water for All,” has many good proposals on funding and maintaining the infrastructure required to get water to all, including licensing and user fees for those who profit from the large scale use of water, such as industry and agriculture, with rates structures that encourage conservation as well as recapture and reuse technologies.

The part devoted to the principle that water is a common heritage makes the case that water resources should be understood as a public trust

kris krüg

“Water for the people:” a sign celebrating the ten year anniversary of the Cochabamba water wars in Bolivia, when the privatization of local water was reversed by the people and returned to a publicly managed system.

with each of us as stakeholders, as contrasted with the commodification and privatization of water resources.

Of particular interest is the chapter “Reclaiming the Water Commons.”

It chronicles dozens of instances in which communities fought back against commodification of water throughout the world, in many instances reversing privatization through “remunicipalization,” the conversion of former municipal systems that were taken private back to being publicly owned and operated.

Examples from South America, where privatization was pioneered, include communities such as Cochabamba and La Paz in Bolivia, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe in Argentina, as well as others in Mexico, Columbia, Brazil,

and Uruguay. There have been similar battles in Africa, such as in Mali and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and in Asia, where communities have taken back their water services from private operators. In the developed world, Europe has experienced the largest number of privatization reversals. Even in Canada, where the conservative Harper government favors privatization, many local communities have successfully opposed privatization.

Likewise documented are examples from the USA, such as the towns of Felton and San Lorenzo, which border the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I teach.

In the chapter “Putting Water at the Centre of Our Lives,” Barlow argues for a “new water ethic,” the essence

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Reviews Book Review

Andrew Hart

A true water justice movement will require a cultural shift in how people in economically wealthy nations consume water.

of which is to make the protection of freshwater ecosystems a central goal of all we do. She writes, “The adoption of such an ethic would shift human activity away from the strictly utilitarian approach to water management towards an integrated, holistic approach that views people and water as interconnected parts of a great whole.” There are several short accounts of municipalities restoring watersheds as well as water harvesting projects in China and Brazil.

Despite my overall positive assessment of this book I must mention some of its shortcomings. The success of such a “water justice project” will depend on people from the economically rich societies making significant

changes to their lives: what and how much they consume, the nature of the work they do, how much and how they travel, and in numerous other ways as well. To take one example, a transformation from industrial agriculture to small, organic, locally grown production will almost certainly raise prices (I shop a lot at Whole Foods and farmers’ markets and the cost is definitely much higher than at Safeway) and result in changes to our diets (no more blueberries in December or raspberries in January!).

They will also have to put the time and energy into rebuilding their democracies in order to take on entrenched business interests who profit from the way the world is now. To think

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that they can be persuaded to do so because it is the morally right thing to do is to delude one’s self. Neither will predictions of future water shortages motivate more than a fraction to support the necessary changes. Moreover, in the absence of a horrific water catastrophe, most people will succumb to the “availability heuristic”—concern will be washed away with the very next rainstorm.

As a consequence, much thinking has to be applied to the question of how we hold the attention of such citizens and move them to sustainable action. So I think the treatment would have been significantly strengthened if each part ended with several detailed narratives of successful actions, like

Reviews Book Review the recent one in San Juan Bautista, California, where a grassroots campaign overcame a ten-to-one funding disadvantage and was able to pass an initiative banning fracking.

In a statement that I very much endorse, Barlow quotes activist and author Sandra Postel who writes, “Instead of asking how we can further control and manipulate rivers, lakes,

and streams to meet every growing demand, we would ask how we can best satisfy human needs while accommodating the ecological requirements of freshwater ecosystems.” However, there is scant attention given to how to actually “satisfy human needs” and a preponderance of ways in which we can restore water systems and recognize the rights of water. This would

be a winning approach if rivers, lakes, and aquifers could vote.

In sum, this is an excellent book and should be required reading for anyone interested in the future of water, but hopefully it is not the end of the story. Rather, this reviewer thinks a fourth book is needed, one entitled Strategies and Tactics for Universal Water Justice.

Media Reviews Shark Fins and Celebrities

by Naomi Stewart With a burgeoning, wealthier middle class demanding luxuries once reserved for the privileged, cooks in China have come under fire for a hallmark dish of many Chinese weddings since the Ming dynasty: shark fin soup.

No one knows exactly how many sharks have been killed for their fins in recent years, but as a top predator, the ripple effects of decimating their populations and lowering their numbers drastically reverberate throughout the ocean’s food chains and the fine balance of the ecosystem. In addition to the pressure placed on the shark populations by the growing middle class, the soup also been criticized for the practice of removing the fin while the shark is still alive, and tossing away the rest of the shark.

Every year, thousands of sharks are killed, usually by removing their main dorsal fins while still alive, and leaving the fish to bleed to death in the ocean.

Shark populations off the coast of China are now on the point of collapsing, with local ecosystems already in chaos.

In recognition of this, many celebrities have started to use a combination

jay.tong

Shark fin soup is a traditional meal served at Chinese weddings. Celebrity activism is aimed at changing this tradition to protect Chinese shark populations and ecosystems.

of their star-power and social media outlets to speak out against this practice and to encourage people to stop consuming shark fin soup.

WildAid is a conservation organization that brings together celebrities like Yao Ming, Jackie Chan, and Ang Lee to speak out against shark fin soup and spark a social media campaign.

The organization recently launched a successful anti-fin-soup campaign that gathered over 330,000 photos of

people (including Chinese television celebrities) covering their mouths with their hands to demonstrate their resolve to no longer consume shark fin soup. In a country where social media is tightly regulated, it seems the campaign is being greeted with official approval. The Chinese government recently announced it would stop serving shark fin soup at state banquets. Hopefully, China’s brides will follow their example.

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Mouhot, J. (2014). Thomas Jefferson and I. Solutions 5(6): 74-78. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/thomas-jefferson-and-i/

Solutions in History

Thomas Jefferson and I

by Jean-François Mouhot

I

n the eyes of many, Thomas Jefferson embodies the contradictions of the young American republic. The principal writer of the Declaration of Independence was a man deeply committed to the democratic and equalitarian ideals of the Enlightenment and who professed to hate slavery. Yet, he was at the same time one of the largest slaveholders of Virginia and emancipated very few of his own slaves. Considering most Africans to be inferior intellectually and physically to Europeans and fearing racial mixing, he was also what we would today call a “racist.” However, Jefferson probably fathered several children with his slave, Sally Hemings.

Most people, and indeed most historians, find these apparent contradictions extremely puzzling.1 I don’t.

I don’t because, like Donella Meadows some 16 years ago,2 I very much identify with the paradoxes and dilemmas Jefferson must have felt during his lifetime regarding slavery.

Like him, I am a large slave-holder.

Like him, I consider the idea of owning slaves to be abhorrent but feel as though I cannot really do without them. Like him, I fear that without these slaves my world, indeed our entire civilization, would collapse.

I sympathize with his feeling that slavery was like “holding a wolf by the ears”—we cannot hold it, but we cannot let it go either.3 Like him, I feel these slaves have a corrupting influence on me and on society in general.

Like him I believe that it’s a great evil to own these slaves, but since society around me finds this largely acceptable, I carry on. Like him, I love books and the life of the intellect and feel that if I had to do all the chores that

are necessary to sustain my everyday life, I would be left with no time to read and write these books. Like him, I like the comfort slaves bring me.

Like him, I consider myself a decent person: I have never broken up any slave families nor whipped anyone.

This is because my slaves, unlike his, are (mostly) not human beings. They are “energy slaves”—a term coined by Buckminster Fuller in the 1940s to designate modern machines that perform the same services slaves and servants used to provide for their owners.

Oh, yes, you must think, “How dare you!” But these kinds of “slaves” are perfectly acceptable: they don’t suffer, they don’t cry, they don’t want to run away.

The problem does not stem from the machines themselves but from the fossil fuels and the nuclear power plants that are necessary for them to run.

Energy comes at an increasingly great economic, social, and moral cost. The first issue concerns the procurement of oil or gas—an activity that is often very messy environmentally and politically.

The necessity for the Western World to guarantee the constant flow of oil at gas stations is a direct or indirect source of corruption and a cause of conflict throughout the world (think of Iraq and the Gulf wars). It poses risks to the national security of the US and other industrialized nations because it places these countries in a situation of dependency on oil suppliers. Even “home grown” oil and gas are not bereft of problems: domestic production scars the landscape, disturbs ecosystems, and exposes the environment to the dangers of large-scale pollution. The long-term environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are not at all

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well understood. If history teaches us anything, it’s that technologies once hailed as today’s solutions often turn out to be tomorrow’s problems. Yet, due to the pressure to extricate the United States from a cycle of energy dependence that involves countries the American government would prefer not to depend upon, most people and politicians prefer to look the other way—even when the risk of causing earthquakes and polluting aquifers are not negligible.

There are also problems of pollution caused by cars and other fossil fuel-powered devices. In the past century, the number of lives claimed by atmospheric pollution exceeded the combined casualties of World War I and II.4 The direct consequences of the use of fossil fuels have been known for some time, but the advantages seemed, until recently, to outweigh the disadvantages to the extent that few voices raised moral concerns over the use of cars.

As powerfully demonstrated at Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power (fission) is not without major problems either. Despite attracting far more opposition worldwide, it remains to be seen whether this option is truly more dangerous than coalburning plants. Without even taking into account deaths attributed to climate change, known coal production casualties, which include mine fatalities and those who have succumbed to atmospheric pollution-induced fatal illness, far exceed the number of lives taken by nuclear energy mishaps.

As for renewables, they look great on paper but are not perfect either.

Wind turbines and solar installations are difficult to scale up quickly (it takes a lot of them to produce the

Solutions in History same power as a coal or nuclear plant), kill birds, and generate opposition from those who do not like their “aesthetic pollution.” And because the sun does not always shine nor the winds constantly blow, they are most of the time coupled with old-fashioned gas or coal stations—as seen in places like Germany where the government has recently begun to phase out nuclear power and adopt a hybrid system consisting of both renewables and fossil fuels.

A second problem linked with our use of fossil fuel is that cheap fuel has enabled us to push modern forms of “real” slavery far from view.

Working conditions that we do not find acceptable in our countries have been outsourced. In China, India, and Africa, workers labor from sunset to sundown harvesting cotton and cocoa beans and producing computer tablets for consumers in the rich world.

Oftentimes, this work is performed in appalling conditions for very low wages. There are currently an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, possibly more than at any other time in history.5 A US website sponsored by the State Department allows users to estimate the total number of people— including children—working in slave-like conditions to manufacture our food, clothing, and electronics.6 Utilizing this tool, I calculated my own slave footprint to be 44. If transportation were not so cheap due to the relatively low cost of fossil fuels, it would be more difficult to delocalize slavery, and we would find it less acceptable if we had to confront it face to face. We would be less inclined to act like nonslave owners who bought goods made by slaves or absentee plantation owners who benefited from the income from their plantation without ever becoming directly involved in the dirty business of disciplining their slaves.

Tony Fischer, Portrait by Rembrandt Peale, Courtesy of the New York Historical Society

Thomas Jefferson is an icon of American democracy, and yet he was one of the largest slaveholders in Virginia during his time.

There are also other moral problems associated with the use of slaves, real or virtual. As Jefferson found, slavery degrades both the slaves and their owners. For Adam Smith, slavery was mostly driven not by economic motivation (he wrongly believed slavery to be unprofitable), but by

the desire to dominate others. The same desire to assert superiority can certainly be found in the aspiration of people to acquire large gas-guzzling SUVs that confer little advantage on the well-paved roads of our cities (except perhaps increasing the sex appeal of their drivers).

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Solutions in History

Daniel Foster

American dependence on fossil fuels has fueled international conflict and resulted in practices harmful to the environment both abroad and domestically, such as the controversial method of fracking.

The last, but not the least, problem concerns climate change. This is a new complication. Before NASA’s Jim Hansen caused a stir in Congress and beyond in June 1988 by claiming that the atmosphere was warming because of human activities and that we ought to do something about it, there was little public awareness about this “glitch” on the path to progress.

Today, one just needs to read the summary of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to see that the consequences are not benign.

Of course, there are still many people who doubt the reality of climate change or the human responsibility in the matter. Lobbies in the fossil fuel industry organized systematic disinformation campaigns when they realized climate change could cause harm to their interests by altering the moral landscape.7 These lobbies and their think-tanks have had huge success in sowing confusion in people’s minds because we, the public, have a strong vested interest in ignoring the consensus view on climate science. In a way, this is not

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dissimilar to the way slave owners in the past had an interest in believing that their “peculiar institution” was benign (some people in fact suggested it was for the slaves’ own good). This is why it is much harder to convince leaders to act on fossil fuels than it was with CFCs.8 As Upton Sinclair wrote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary [or his lifestyle] depends upon his not understanding it!”9 The moral implications of climate change are not benign either. In the same way as those who benefited

Solutions in History from the labor of slaves were different from those toiling in the cotton fields, those benefiting from the “work” (in the sense physicists use the word) performed by fossil-fuel powered machines are not the same as those bearing the costs. These costs were “externalized” by slave-owners to their slaves and third parties10 and are also “exported” by us both to the poor (who are primarily affected by droughts or floods today—natural phenomena often strengthened by climate change) and future generations. As a journalist justly remarked, “just as the victims of slavery were distant unknowns to most Englishmen and women, so the victims of climate change mostly live in strange, far-off lands (including the future) and thus have no vote.”11 Most historians agree that we should only judge people living in the past according to the standards that prevailed in their time. Indeed, postwar psychology studies that looked at how ordinary, intelligent, mentally healthy people become perpetrators of evil has established convincingly that people with no evil intent can easily cause harm to others within a social context that allows it.

We should keep this in mind not only when we think about slavery, but also when we consider the present state of affairs. If, one day, our present cavalier attitude towards fossil fuel is severely and widely condemned by society—as I believe it will be, sooner or later— what will our children think of our current attitude? They will find it hard to accept our justifications, even though they presently seem absolutely compelling to us (the fact that ordinary citizens do something that will in time be seen as morally wrong—like slavery—is not an attempt to rehabilitate slavery or excuse Thomas Jefferson’s indiscretion12).

Of course, the problem is that our machines powered by fossil fuels are

not without huge advantages. With the new powers given to us by these machines in the 20th century “we banished some historical constraints on health and population, food production, energy use, and consumption generally. Few who know anything about life with these constraints regret their passing.”4 As the history of Haiti powerfully demonstrates, countries that have limited access to fossil fuels or renewable energy can rapidly be transformed into near desert landscapes when population densities increase. Machines have become de facto replacements for slaves in our contemporary world, and this substitution was initially seen as a great social and moral progress. Oscar Wilde wrote in 1891 that “all unintellectual labour, all monotonous, dull labour, all labour that deals with dreadful things, and involves unpleasant conditions, must be done by machinery. (...)

The fact is that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.”13 But since Wilde wrote these lines, we now know the consequences of the burning of fossil fuels and we cannot view the slavery of the machine in the same light.

In his play, Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe tells a powerful cautionary tale. In the story, Faust strikes a bargain with the devil: in exchange for his soul, he is granted unlimited power for a limited time. He uses this power to perform wonders, travel by “flying chariot,” and enjoy eating grapes in the middle of the winter (the story was written well before humans were able to fly and shop in supermarkets). After 24 years,

the devil’s agent comes back and drags Faust to hell. He begs for mercy—but it’s too late. “If you did not know any better,” writes George Monbiot, “you could mistake this story for a metaphor of climate change.” Monbiot further writes: Faust is humankind, restless, curious, unsated.

Mephistopheles, who appears in the original English text as a “fiery man,” is fossil fuel.

Faust’s miraculous abilities are the activities fossil fuel permits. Twenty-four years is the period—about half the true span—in which they have enabled us [or at least some of us] to live in all voluptuousness. And the flames of hell—well, I think you’ve probably worked that out for yourself. Of course, Doctor Faustus is not an allegory of climate change. But the intention of the poet does not affect the power of the metaphor. Our use of fossil fuels is a Faustian pact.14 Our abundant energy gives us an extraordinary power, and this is why it is so hard to do away with all the luxuries provided by our modern machines—even when we are convinced that using them is morally wrong. I feel this great contradiction every day: on the one hand, I very much wish to see fewer, more fuel efficient cars on the streets. But on the other hand, I very much enjoy taking a car for a weekend excursion. In principle, I am definitely in favor of lowering my carbon footprint. In reality, I continue to fly to far away destinations.

Thomas Jefferson faced the same conundrums. Like many people today, he spent most of his life living on credit: he couldn’t free most of his slaves because they were mortgaged as collateral for his large debts, and laws

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Solutions in History Yet, freeing slaves, real or virtual, is costly and painful. Like slave owners of the past, I am entangled in my contradictions. I think I understand only too well the dilemma Jefferson faced over slavery.

Note: The arguments in this article are developed in a longer article and a book.16,17

References: 1. Wiencek, H. Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2012).

2. Meadows, D. The Donella Meadows archive.

Donellameadows.org [online] (1998) www. donellameadows.org/archives/thomas-jeffersonand-donella-meadows-slave-owners.

3. Jefferson, T. Letter to John Holmes, 22 April 1820.

Loc.gov [online] (1820) www.loc.gov/exhibits/ jefferson/159.html.

4. McNeill, J.R. Something New Under the Sun: an Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (W.W. Norton, New York, 2000).

5. Bales, K. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (University of California Press, Oakland

Mark Woodbury

Freeing Americans from their “energy slaves” would require a significant shift in lifestyle.

CA, 2004).

6. Slavery Footprint [online]. www.slaveryfootprint.org.

7. Oreskes, N & Conway, E. Merchants of Doubts (Bloomsbury Press, London & New York, 2010).

in Virginia made it illegal for people to free their slaves if they were in debt.15 And he knew that even if he released his own human chattel from bondage, the heinous institution would probably still endure. That is to say that his gesture would likely have been symbolic— it might have made him feel virtuous, but it would very likely have had a limited effect on the larger picture. He knew George Washington had freed his slaves in his will, with no noticeable effect. Like Jefferson, I know that if I forgo my “energy slaves” (i.e. reduce my carbon footprint), the effect on the atmosphere, climate, and pollution will be negligible: it might make me feel less guilty, but it would otherwise have no discernible consequence—a textbook example of what economists call a public goods problem. (The scenario is worse in the case of fossil fuel use: even if I were able to stop using petroleum

today, I would not see the benefits of my action; whereas Jefferson, had he freed his slaves, would at least have been able to see the immediate effect).

This absolutely does not mean that I—we—should not try to reduce our footprint on this earth; there are many other benefits from living more slowly, more locally, and less wastefully.

Individual actions do matter. Political movements start with the actions of individuals: if Jefferson had freed his slaves, it could have sent a strong sign to others (not to mention what it might have meant to the slaves themselves). If I buy a smaller car, or fly less, or waste less, I model to my neighbors steps that they too could take. All social and political movements have to start somewhere and that somewhere is either with the actions of ordinary citizens or with prominent leaders, like Thomas Jefferson.

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8. McNeill, JR. in Climatic Cataclysm: the Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change (ed. Campbell, K.) 26–48 (Brookings Institution Press, Washington, 2008).

9. Sinclair, U. I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (University of California Press, Oakland CA, 1935).

10. Wright, RE. Fubarnomics: A Lighthearted, Serious Look at America’s Economic Ills (Prometheus Books, Amherst NY, 2010).

11. Hertsgaard, M. A worldwide Wilberforce. What climate activists could learn from the anti-slavery movement. The Nation (7 October 2010).

12. Lander, ES & Ellis, JJ. Founding father. Nature 396, 6706:13–14 (1998).

13. Wilde, O. The soul of man under socialism. Pall Mall Gazette (1891).

14. Monbiot, G. Heat: How We Can Stop the Planet Burning (Allen Lane, London, 2006).

15. Sloan, HE. Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville VA, 2001).

16. Mouhot, JF. Past connections and present similarities in slave ownership and fossil fuel usage.

Climatic Change 105, 1:329–55 (2011).

17. Mouhot, JF. Des Esclaves Energétiques. Réflexions sur le Changement Climatique (Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2011).

Bozek, C. (2014). Removing Dams: Benefits for People and Nature. Solutions 5(6): 79-84. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/removing-dams-benefits-for-people-and-nature/

On The Ground

Removing Dams: Benefits for People and Nature

by Cathy Bozek

“Schools and businesses were closed for a second day and thousands of residents still couldn’t go home Wednesday as a weakened timber dam threatened to give way and spill a 6-foot surge of water into downtown Taunton.”1 “Impassable dams have undoubtedly been the immediate cause of the decline of many fisheries, and a direct relation can be shown between the number of impassable dams on a stream and the condition of the fishery…”2

T

here are 2,918 dams on Massachusetts waterways; about two hundred of those dams are located on the streams and smaller rivers that flow into the Taunton River in the southeast corner of the state.3 Dams have contributed to the degradation of natural systems and the decline of fisheries in this area, and they also pose a real risk to public safety. Removing old, unused, and unwanted dams can remedy these problems.

The Taunton River runs through a gently sloping watershed in southeastern Massachusetts, nestled between Cape Cod and the Rhode Island border. The river is over 40 miles long, and it is the largest contributor of freshwater to Narragansett Bay. Smaller tributaries connect important headwater ponds and wetlands to the mainstem river.

Hockomock swamp, for example, at 16,950 acres, is one of the largest wetlands in New England. This diverse watershed contains 45 species of fish,

Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, MA

River herring provided a source of food for early residents of southeast Massachusetts.

154 species of birds, river otter, mink, and gray fox, and globally rare species such as the Atlantic sturgeon and bald eagle.4,5 The Taunton watershed has been inhabited continuously since at least the Early Archaic period, 9,500 to 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence of many early Native American sites near the Taunton River and its tributaries.6 People used the abundant and diverse plant and animal resources available along the river, and remnants of Native American fish weirs used for trapping river herring are still visible today.4 The watershed was also one of the first areas that Europeans colonized— the town of Taunton was incorporated around 1640. The communities that sprouted up in the region used the

river for transportation, as well as a source of food. Early settlers caught shad and river herring during the annual fish migrations, and then dried and preserved the fish for the coming year.4 People continue to use the river for recreational fishing, boating, and swimming. In 2009, Congress designated the Taunton River as a National Wild and Scenic River, in recognition of its outstanding natural and cultural resources.

Unfortunately, the Taunton River’s valuable natural resources and the present-day human communities are impacted by a relic of the area’s cultural history: dams.

European settlers, in addition to using the rivers for transportation and a food source, also used the rivers for power, constructing dams along

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On The Ground the waterways to run mills and factories. Colonists built the early dams for small industries, such as sawmills and gristmills. Later, larger industries developed, and dams provided power for textile factories and ironworks.6 Dam construction reached a high point around the Industrial Revolution, and many of the dams remain in place today. One example is the dam on the Rattlesnake Brook in Freetown, MA. This dam, built in the 1870s, provided power for the Crystal Springs bleachery, which dyed and bleached cotton piece goods. For many years, this bleachery was the town’s largest employer.6 The bleachery buildings are long gone, but the dam remains. Around 90 percent of the dams in Massachusetts no longer serve their original purpose,8 and with the mills gone, these dams are now owned by municipalities, individuals, businesses, agencies, and other organizations.

Dams block the natural flow of rivers, causing sediment to build up behind the dam, starving the river downstream of the silt, sand, and gravel needed to maintain the riverbanks and natural riverbed. Heat from the sun warms the water impounded behind the dam, changing the natural temperature conditions and providing an advantage to non-native species.

The impounded water also collects pollutants, such as excess nutrients flowing off fertilized lawns, leading to water quality problems.

Dams stop fish from reaching essential spawning and rearing grounds. Migratory fish, such as blueback herring and alewife (collectively known as river herring), need to swim from the ocean, where they live the majority of their life, to upstream reaches of rivers and ponds, where they spawn. A recent federal study found that dams and other barriers are the top threat to river herring

Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, MA

Workers at the Reed and Barton Factory along the Mill River in 1909. The West Britannia dam once helped provide power to the factory; the dam is now slated for removal in 2015.

populations.9 River herring were recently considered for listing on the Endangered Species list, and the river herring fishery in Massachusetts was closed in 2005 due to low population numbers.

In combination with other impacts, such as commercial fishing and pollution, dams have severely affected the populations of many migratory fish species. In the Taunton Watershed, dams block migratory fish from accessing approximately 50 percent of the available river habitat in tributaries of the Taunton River.10 These species are a crucial part of the oceanic food web, providing food for commercially important fish species that provide a source of income for communities along the coast. In Massachusetts alone, the seafood industry generated $7.8 billion in sales impacts, $2 billion in income, and 98,000 jobs in 2011.11 In addition to harming the natural environment, dams are also a risk to

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public safety. They are an attractive nuisance, drawing fishermen, swimmers, and boaters into dangerous waters. One study found evidence of at least 48 injuries and 191 drowning deaths at low head dams (the researcher identifies these as dams 3–5 meters in height) in 30 states between 1970 and 2010.12 In Massachusetts, only about 8 percent of dams have flood control as their primary purpose,13 and in fact, dams can actually cause flooding upstream by holding water back during storms. Old and unmaintained dams, like many in the Taunton watershed, are also at risk of catastrophic failure when flood waters build up behind the structure and put additional pressure on the aging construction. Sudden failure or overtopping of the dam can send floods of water and debris into downstream communities. In Massachusetts, nearly 70 percent of the state-regulated dams are classified as High or Significant

On The Ground

Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration

The Whittenton Mills dam on the Mill River in Taunton, MA was damaged during a storm in 2005.

Hazard, meaning that the dams are in locations where failure has the potential to cause loss of life and/or significant property damage.13 Many of these dams are in unsafe condition (at high risk of failure) or poor condition (having major structural, operational, maintenance, and flood routing deficiencies).14 Dam failures in West Virginia, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Georgia in the 1970s resulted in 220 deaths, destruction of hundreds of houses, and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.15 Since 2005, officials in two municipalities in the Taunton River watershed have declared emergencies because of the threat of dam failure.

When the Whittenton dam, originally built in the 1830s, threatened to fail during storms in 2005, authorities evacuated 2,000 residents from downstream neighborhoods, closed businesses in downtown Taunton, and repaired the dam under emergency conditions. The full economic impact of this emergency, including the loss to businesses, was estimated to exceed $1.5 million.16 During a storm in 2010, concerns about the failure of another aging dam, the Forge Pond dam on the Assonet River in Freetown, MA, led to evacuation of residents and the decision to breach the structure to release the pressure of the flood waters.

The solution to these environmental and societal issues is to remove the problematic, aging, and unused dams from our rivers. Dam removal is a one-time cost that restores river processes and permanently eliminates the public safety risk caused by the dam. However, in practice, removing dams can be quite challenging. Concerns from the neighboring community, lack of capacity, and high costs regularly deter dam owners from removing dams on their property. Communities often want dams to remain to preserve the history of an area, to maintain the impoundments that people use for fishing and recreation,

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On The Ground or because they are concerned about changing the system that they know.

Even if dam owners want to remove their dams, managing a dam removal project is beyond the ability of most owners. The project needs a manager or management team to meet with regulators, conduct outreach, oversee engineering and design, file permits, and raise funds. Obtaining permits and designing dam removal projects can be challenging, especially when sediments behind the dam are contaminated with pollution from past industry in the area. Regulations that are not designed for habitat restoration, but still govern dam removal work, can lead to a long, challenging, and costly permitting process. And dam removal projects aren’t cheap— the design, construction, and project management costs of these projects can range from tens of thousands of dollars up to the millions.

In the Taunton watershed and throughout Massachusetts, The Nature Conservancy is working in partnership with federal, state, and local agencies and other nonprofit organizations to build support and enable conditions for dam removal projects. This partnership is working with dam owners to remove dams and we are seeing results from both the environment and public safety. The organizations within the partnership are sharing the load of managing engineering contracts, reviewing plans, conducting public outreach, and building support with local communities and leaders. The partners have brought in funding for projects from state and federal grants and private donations. This funding acts as an incentive for dam removal by reducing the cost to the dam owner. The partners are also supporting improved legislation and regulations that promote and facilitate dam removals, and we are

completing dam removals that serve as examples of success to inspire future projects.

In the past few years, The Nature Conservancy has partnered with a seemingly unlikely alliance to rally the Massachusetts legislature to support a bill to improve dam safety regulations and provide a funding source for dam removal. This alliance included municipal associations, water suppliers, engineering professionals, and other conservation organizations—all of whom supported dam removal for their own reasons.

This diversity of support gave the message credibility with Massachusetts legislators, and after first considering the bill in 2005, they eventually passed the “Act Further Regulating Dam Safety, Repair, and Removal” in late 2012. The bill provides funding for dam removal through a state revolving loan fund to repair or remove unsafe dams. It also enhances the authority and requirements of the Massachusetts Office of Dam Safety to assess dams, ensure dam owners have emergency action plans and address safety issues, establish an inspection process and schedule, and importantly, increase fines for noncompliance from $500 per day up to $5,000 per day. This bill gives dam owners the incentive to remove dams, both to avoid the financial costs of dam maintenance or noncompliance, and to remove the liability of owning the structures. The bill also provides funding to create an additional incentive for removal: grants are available for design costs and loans for implementation make the expenses manageable by spreading the costs over many years.

Other important policy improvements include proposed changes to the state permitting process for aquatic restoration projects, like dam removal, that benefit rivers and other natural systems. These changes would ease and

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streamline the permitting process, to reduce costs and shorten the timelines for permitting these projects.

Perhaps the most significant headway in building support for dam removals has come from the successful projects themselves. As of 2014, there are seven dam removal projects in the Taunton River watershed that have been completed or are in the works.

On the Mill River, a tributary that flows through downtown Taunton, The Nature Conservancy and the other members of the Mill River Restoration Partnership have collaborated to remove two dams and provide fish passage at a third. Project engineers are in the process of designing the removal of a fourth dam on the Mill River.

With that final project, river herring will have access to critical spawning habitat that has been unavailable for 200 years. We focused our dam removal efforts in this watershed because of the important upstream habitat blocked by dams and the likelihood that removing barriers will result in a resilient, healthy river system where we will have measureable benefits. These projects provide both a learning tool for project proponents and an outreach and education tool for other dam owners, communities, and legislators. Through these projects, we have learned and shown others how to manage contaminated sediment, work with permitting agencies, preserve knowledge of the history of the dams and the associated mills, remove the dams safely, and restore the sites to a functioning river system.

There are numerous ways to measure the success of these dam removal projects. In terms of public safety, one of the dams removed from the Mill River was the Whittenton dam, the structure that threatened to fail and flood downtown Taunton in 2005. With that dam gone and the river system restored, water from

On The Ground

Cathy Bozek/TNC

The site of the former Whittenton Mills dam in Taunton, MA one year after the dam was removed in 2013. Fish passage, instream habitat, and floodplains have been restored in this reach of the river, and the risk to the community has been removed.

storms can be absorbed and stored in the floodplains along the edges of the river, and there is no longer a hazardous build-up of flood waters behind an unstable structure. Removing dams throughout the watershed improves public safety in downstream communities, providing benefits to residents and public infrastructure.

The return of migratory fish is an indicator of the environmental benefits of dam removal. In 2013, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries monitored the first runs of migratory fish to pass by the former Hopewell Mills dam site on the Mill

River in 200 years. The monitoring results show that river herring, American eel, and other species quickly came back to the new habitat, and scientists are hopeful that future dam removal projects and increases in available habitat will lead to larger fish populations in the coming years.

Another tributary of the Taunton, the Nemasket River, hosts one of the largest river herring runs in New England, and conservationists anticipate that, in combination with other work, improved habitat from dam removals may strengthen and build this core population.17

So what are the hopes for the future of dam removal in the Taunton watershed? We expect that, as successful projects and enabling legislation build support for dam removal, more projects will happen in this region.

With more available habitat and more natural river conditions, migratory fish populations will likely increase, providing support for the commercial fisheries at sea, and perhaps leading to the opening of the fisheries in state waters. We expect that the communities in the Taunton River watershed will be spared the risk of catastrophic flooding from dam failure and the

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On The Ground

US Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

The aging West Britannia dam and mill in Taunton, Massachusetts. This is one of several dams being removed in collaboration with the MA Division of Ecological Restoration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other partners.

expenses that are incurred during emergencies when dams threaten to fail. We also expect that if rivers are allowed to flow naturally, they will be more resilient to a changing climate and impacts from development, allowing these systems to remain healthy and provide important benefits into the future.

Acknowledgements This article was improved by comments from Beth Lambert, Amy Singler, Alison Bowden, and Bill Napolitano.

3. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Office of Dam Safety. Dam Safety Inventory (2014).

4. Taunton Wild & Scenic River Study Committee, Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District, National Park Service Northeast Region. Taunton River Stewardship Plan: Taunton River Wild & Scenic River Study 1–186 (2005).

5. Horsley Witten Group, Inc. Taunton River

1. Associated Press. Good news, bad news on weakened Mass. Dam. NBCnews.com [online]

Report TR-15, 1–134 (2004).

11. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/SPO-128. Fisheries Economics of the United States, 2011, 1–175 (U.S. Department of Commerce, Silver Spring MD, 2012).

12. Tschantz, BA & Wright, KR. Hidden dangers and public safety at low-head dams. Journal of Dam Safety 9, 8–17 (2011).

13. United States Army Corps of Engineers. CorpsMap:

Watershed Management Plan, Phase 1: Data and

National Inventory of Dams [online] (2013).

Assessment 1–152 (2008).

www.geo.usace.army.mil/pgis/f?p=397:3:0::NO::P3_

6. Public Archaeology Laboratory. Technical Proposal for Rattlesnake Brook Dam Removal Project, Freetown, MA 1–13 (November 2013).

7. United State Census Bureau. American Fact Finder [online] (2014). www.factfinder2.census.gov.

8. American Society of Civil Engineers. 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure [online] (2014).

References

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Technical

www.infrastructurereportcard.org/massachusetts/ dams/ 9. Endangered Species Act Listing Determination for

STATES:MA 14. Local Financial Impact Review: Massachusetts Dam Safety Law. A Report Issued Pursuant to General Laws Chapter 11, Section 6B, 1–34 (The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Auditor of the Commonwealth, Division of Local Mandates, Boston, January 2011).

15. Association of State Dam Safety Officials. Dam Failures, Dam Incidents [online]. http://www. damsafety.org/media/Documents/PRESS/US_

(October 19, 2005). http://www.nbcnews.com/

Alewife and Blueback Herring; Notice of a listing

id/9737192/ns/us_news-life/t/good-news-bad-news-

determination. Federal Register 78(155), 48944–

16. Ferreira, R. Personal communication, winter 2014.

48994 (August 12, 2013).

17. Bowden, AA. Towards a comprehensive strategy

weakened-mass-dam/.

2. Belding, DL. A Report Upon the Alewife Fisheries of

10. Reback, KE, Brady, PD, McLauglin, KD & Milliken,

FailuresIncidents(1).pdf.

to recover river herring on the Atlantic seaboard:

Massachusetts 1–135 (Division of Fisheries and Game

CG. A survey of anadromous fish passage in coastal

lessons from Pacific salmon. ICES Journal of Marine

Department of Conservation, Boston, 1920).

Massachusetts: Part 1. Southeastern Massachusetts.

Science doi:10.1093/icesjms/fst130 (2013).

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EARTHACTION

Gund Institute

for Ecological

Economics

University of Vermont

The Alliance for Appalachia

National Council for Science and the Environment Improving the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking

Associated  Socie0es  International Society for Ecological Economics

Joe Wirtheim / www.victorygardenoftomorrow.com / Green Patriot Posters

Unused space on rooftops, walls, windows, and lots in our cities has the potential to be transformed into urban farms and gardens. Urban farming increases access to healthy food, positively affects quality of life for city dwellers, supports more sustainable food production, and can decrease your environmental footprint.