Report (Part 1): Sustainable Development Convention 2002

Track 2: Community

Time: 30 October 2002, 11:15-11:30 Location: A Chair: Peter Sissons Presenters/ Participants: Jeremie DERAVIN (ANDA), Jo Hill (Global Youth TV), Julia Hausermann (Rights and Humanity) Reporter: Makoto Fujiwara (ICVolunteers) Languages: English Key words: ANDA, Global Youth TV, Rights and Humanity, Amazon Forest, On-line Broadcasting, Comprehensive Program

As a continuation of Peter Sissons' interview sessions, three project representatives in Track 2, Sustainable Community category were interviewed on stage.

Mr. Jeremie Deravin represented, in a very passionate manner, the ANDA project that aims to create an economic alternative to the deforestation problem of the Amazon Forest and to develop a system of fair trade. The idea is to pay the local people more money for planting trees than they would earn cutting them. "We pay minimum of 200 to 300 dollars per month," Deravin explained. The issue of salary was raised by Deravin's colleague during the keynote speech of Ashok Khosla earlier in the morning (see interviews in this volume). The project, named after a Portuguese word meaning "new year of trees", is 2 years old, and ready to change the scale, Dervain further stated. The group wishes to make concrete production on the field. Confronted by Peter Sissons, "is it self-sustaining or are you simply bribing the natives?" Dervain responded by saying "this is global sharing of businesses. We work on the consciousness of people in Europe. We share different solutions; we need to link them." At this convention, he wishes to find funding and new partners.

Ms. Jo Hill then presented Global Youth TV, an on-line broadcasting platform, made by the youth, for the youth. "Our agenda is to amplify the young voices, which tend to be marginalized by the mainstream media," explained Hill. She stressed that the media is both a process of participation and a tool for social changes. The project has a partnership with an UNESCO project. The platform of Global Youth TV was officially launched in July 2002. At this convention, the project organizers were seeking to learn about tools and platforms for other organizations, for example, in training for journalists, as well as the funding.

Ms. Julia Hausermann, Founder of Rights and Humanity, described their program, which aims to implement, measure and evaluate a human rights approach in sustainable development. The goal is to use human rights as a tool of analysis for the empowerment of individual. Asked by Sissons whether the absence of human rights might impede sustainable development, Ms. Hausermann answered with a definite "yes." She drew an example of the correlation between the level of blood donation and the rights of HIV carriers: if the HIV/AIDS rights are not protected, no one will donate any blood, fearing they might get marginalized. Ms. Hausermann further stated that she does not think that sustainable development was possible in a country where human rights are suppressed. In the SDC02 convention, she wished to meet other people, develop measures of cooperate human rights, in addition to looking for the funding.

Conclusions
In concluding the Track 1 and 2 interviews, Peter Sissons commented on the passion, the commitment, and ingenuity of the variety of projects introduced.