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Trade and Environmental Justice

February 15-16, 2006

The Human Ecology Division at Lund University, together with LUCSUS and AGESI, are inviting you to a workshop on Trade and Environmental Justice. The main objective is to discuss and compare different non-monetary measures of commodity flows, such as ecological footprints, eMergy, material flow analysis, and exchange of embodied labor, in relation to overarching issues of political ecology, ecologically "unequal" exchange, ecological distribution conflicts, and environmental load displacement.

The two day workshop will include presentations from Scandinavian as well as international researchers on different aspects of Trade and Environmental Justice, representing major new perspectives on (and methodologies for identifying) ecologically unequal exchange, among them Joan Martinez Alier, Roldan Muradian, Dan Moran, Simron Jit Singh, Lennart Salomonsson, Susanne Johansson, Jan-Otto Andersson and Alf Hornborg.

Researchers, PhD-students, undergraduate students - and other interested - are very welcome to join the workshop. As a main structure of the workshop we have chosen group sessions, where the presentations of the participants will be grouped together according to different themes relevant to ‘Trade and Environmental Justice’. Every session will include about three presentations followed by a discussion, in which one of our specially invited key participants will act as discussant. The final panel discussion on Thursday afternoon is included in the series of LUCSUS Seminars and is open for everyone without registration.

An ambition for this workshop is to publish a conference volume. More information will follow, but participants who would like to contribute are encouraged to submit papers with a maximum of 6000 words. Please contact Alf Hornborg for further information.

Workshop organizers

  • Human Ecology Division, Lund University More info »
     
  • LUCSUS, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies
     
  • AGESI, Arena for Global Equity and Sustainability Issues More info »
    Sabina Andrén, project coordinator AGESI

Workshop reports

List of Participants »
Comments from participants »
Photos from the workshop »

Workshop report, Session 1 »
Andrew Jorgenson,
Jan-Otto Andersson
Chair: Alf Hornborg
 

Workshop report, Session 5 »
Joan Martinez-Alier,
Roldan Muradian,
Carl Nordlund
Chair: Lennart Salomonsson

Workshop report, Session 2 »
Fredrik Hedenus,
Stefan Hellstrand,
Kenneth Hermele 
Chair: Sabina Andrén

Workshop report, Session 6 »
Lennart Salomonsson,
Dan Moran
Chair: Joan Martinez-Alier
 

Workshop report, Session 3 »
Carl Dalhammar,
Chris van Rossem,
Sverker Molander,
Johan Törnblom
Chair: Roldan Muradian

Workshop report, Session 7 »
Sven-Erik Pettersson,
Matti Larsson,
Tao Kongsbak
Chair: Simron Jit Singh
 

Workshop report, Session 4 »
Per Angelstam,
Susanne Johansson,
Simron Jit Singh
Chair: Dan Moran

Workshop report, Open Session »
Panel discussion

 

Session 1

Andrew Jorgenson, Jan-Otto Andersson
Chair: Alf Hornborg

Andrew Jorgenson
Department of Sociology, Washington State University

Unequal Ecological Exchange and Environmental Degradation:
A Theoretical Proposition and Cross-National Study of Deforestation, 1990-2000

Workshop presentation as a pdf file »

Abstract

Political-economic sociologists have long investigated the dynamics and consequences of international trade. With few exceptions, this area of inquiry ignores the possible connections between trade and environmental degradation. In contrast, environmental sociologists have made several assumptions about the environmental impacts of international trade, but the assumptions lack theoretical specificity and are thus empirically under-investigated.

Bridging these two complementary areas of macro sociology, the present study proposes and tests a structural theory of unequal ecological exchange. The theory posits that more-developed countries externalize their consumption-based environmental costs to less-developed countries, which increase forms of environmental degradation within the latter.

To test a key assertion of the theory, a weighted index of vertical trade is created that quantifies the relative extent to which exports are sent to more-developed countries. Using the index, cross-national panel analyses of deforestation, 1990-2000 are conducted to test the hypothesis that less-developed countries with higher levels of exports sent to more-developed countries experience greater rates of deforestation, net of other factors.

Results of the analyses confirm the hypothesis, providing support for the theory of uneven ecological exchange. Additional findings correspond with other sociological studies of deforestation, particularly those that focus on the effects of rural and urban population growth as well as level of capital intensity and rate of economic development.

 

Jan-Otto Andersson
Åbo Akademi University, Finland

International trade in a full and unequal world

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

I highlight the role of international trade in a world that is full and unequal. I situate my reflections in a broad context, which I have called the global ethical trilemma. There is a genuine conflict between three generally accepted aims: prosperity, equity and sustainability. We can imagine how we could achieve two of these aims, but this we can do only by downgrading the importance of the third. Today's global economy, with very distant and indirect links between producers of primary goods and final consumers, is prone to blurring the social and ecological consequences of trade. The gross inequalities in purchasing power increase the risks of overexploitation of the biocapacities in poor areas.

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Session 2

Fredrik Hedenus, Stefan Hellstrand, Kenneth Hermele 
Chair: Sabina Andrén

Fredrik Hedenus
Department of Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology

Estimates of trends in global income and resource inequalities

By Fredrik Hedenus & Christian Azar

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

It is often argued that the inequality in the world is increasing. We study the global income and resource inequality between 1960 and late 1990s. Income is measured in GDP/capita in terms of both current market exchange rate and purchasing power parity (PPP). Consumption of paper, energy, electricity, food, animal food, as well as emissions of carbon dioxide, is also studied. Changes in the absolute and relative gap between the top and bottom 20% consumers as well as the Atkinson measure are used as inequality indicators. Some remarks are made on how to compare income across countries and how inequality should be measured. We find that the inequality in terms of GDP/capita measured in PPP terms is rather stable in relative terms, but increasing in absolute terms. We conclude that inequality as measured by the Atkinson index is decreasing for all resources but that the gap in resource consumption in absolute terms is increasing for paper and electricity consumption.

 

Stefan Hellstrand
School for forest Engineers, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

The Relevance of Different Resource Concepts to Policies for Sustainable Development

By Stefan Hellstrand, Kristian Skånberg and Per Angelstam

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

A sustainable development can be understood as social and economic development within ecological sustainability limits. The operationalisation of a sustainable development presupposes integration of resource concepts covering relevant disciplines and systems levels. In this paper descriptive domains within physical resource theory (PRT), nutrition theory (NT), economic theory (ET), and emergy theory (EmT)   a branch within systems ecology – are joined in what we call a “sustainability map”. The sustainability map represents a conceptual model of the economic production system in its ecological and social contexts. It is on the conceptual level a contribution within the field integrated assessment. The relevance domain of each resource concept is analysed by comparison to the sustainability map. It is concluded that integration of the above-mentioned theories may contribute to a theoretical foundation for operationalising a sustainable development. 
Key words:  resource concepts, value measures, exergy, emergy, integrated assessment, sustainable development

 

Kenneth Hermele
Human Ecology Division, Lund University

Greening the Human Development Index

Workshop paper »

Abstract

The HDI is intended to be an improvement over the traditional GDP measure. By including indicators regarding life span and knowledge, the HDI contributes a qualitative measure of development, as development is something else than mere economic growth. But the HDI lacks a dimension of sustainability. By complementing the HDI by an indicator measuring sustainability in the form of ecological footprint analysis, a new composite measure is calculated, the Sustainable Human Development Index, SHDI.

The SHDI is based on the same premises as the the HDI in the sense that the three indices – economic performance, ecological sustainability and knowledge – that make up the SHDI have absolute limits and are substitutable for one another. This means that the SHDI only captures weak sustainability: a dismal ecological performance can be compensated for by economic growth.

With SHDI the order among the world´s countries is completely overturned in comparison to GDP: the last are now among the first, at least when we use the measure of global equity, which means that the area of sustainable foot print is set to equal the area available to every human being if we consider that all human beings have equal rights to appropriate ecological resources.

Since the SHDI is a weak sustainability measure it may not be a very useful concept from an ecological point of view. Nevertheless, it may be an improvement over the HDI which neglects all ecological dimensions.

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Session 3

Carl Dalhammar, Chris van Rossem, Sverker Molander, Johan Törnblom
Chair: Roldan Muradian

Carl Dalhammar and Chris van Rossem,
International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, IIIEE, Lund University

Life cycle thinking, product standards, and trade: Compatible or not?

Workshop presentation »
Workshop paper »

Abstract

In today’s society, the traditional point source, risk-based approaches employed in environmental policy may have to be expanded to include solutions that pay more attention to diffuse emissions from products, and the problems of increasing consumption. Whereas point source pollution has been cut significantly in many industrialized countries, we see how waste, chemicals and transport, and other diffuse environmental problems along the product life cycle have been more problematic to address through policy-making. Targeting the product and its life cycle provides a more integrated approach to these problems. In the last couple of years ‘life cycle thinking’ has become a bearing idea in environmental policy. The core element of life cycle thinking is that relevant actors - most notably governments, industries, NGOs, and consumers - should be aware of environmental (and social) problems throughout the product life cycle, and take measures to address the problems. Life cycle thinking may even be viewed as a paradigm, which connects what we do ‘here’ to what is done ‘there’; indeed, the fashionable product we buy in Europe may partly be produced somewhere in Asia, where toxic by-products from production may go straight out into the environment, and where the working conditions are appalling.

As product chains are increasingly international in nature, the challenges for policymaking increase. National policies are of limited use, and are often challenged by actors employing free trade arguments. The product-oriented laws that are increasingly adopted in Europe affect industries in the developing World. With trade liberalization, the importance of product standards are increasing. Standards may be both mandatory and voluntary by nature. The increased importance of standards has raised a number of issues related to environment and trade. Firstly, standardization is an industry-driven process, and an increased use of standards rather than regulation may enhance the power of industry on expense of governments and citizens, which may have limited access to the standard-making processes. There is currently a lot of discussion on how consumer and environmental interest groups may get better access to the decision-making processes. A further issue concerns how environmental criteria addressing environmental impacts from the product life cycle concerns be integrated in standards in a meaningful way. Thirdly, a very hot topic relates to how product standards adopted in the industrialized world, with little or no consulting of developing countries, affects suppliers in developing countries and may pose a barrier for market access. Finally, there is a tension between industry’s legitimate preference for global standards which would be beneficial from a trade perspective, and the need to let certain countries set stricter standards and act as ‘policy innovators’.

In the paper, we will discuss some of the problematic issues and the existing tensions between opposing policy objectives.

 

Sverker Molander
Environmental Systems Analysis, Chalmers University of Technology

Life-cycle thinking and life-cycle assessment - tools for assessment of trade and uneven distribution of risks and benefits?

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

Life-cycle thinking provides a “one-minute to learn and a life-time to master” approach for assessing potential environmental impacts related to a particular product or process. In the presentation the life-cycle approach is briefly presented with coverage of the stages (goal/scope, inventory, characterization and interpretation) included in an ordinary life-cycle assessment (LCA). Since the context in this case is related to a possible application of LCA in the assessment of international trade particular attention is paid to the choice of system boundaries and the gathering of data needed to underpin such a study. The LCA-stage of life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) serves as a generator of indicators and indicator values, with or without monetization, which might give an option for connecting the LCA-procedure to life cycle-costing (LCC) methodology in order to reach a common dimension of comparison - money. The pros and cons of these approaches will be discussed.

 

Johan Törnblom
School for forest Engineers, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

TerrAquatic Gap Analyses in Riverine Landscapes

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

Forest and river management requires appropriate, practical and reliable tools for working towards ecological sustainability at different spatial scales. However, there is insufficient knowledge and lack of such multi-level tools to be applied at the scale of watersheds, sub-catchments and stream segments. This review presents appearing conceptual frameworks forming a hierarchical approach for concerning the assessment, planning and management of ecosystem integrity of riverine landscapes. Ideally such frameworks should be developed based on an active adaptive management approach that links governance, management and monitoring in iterated cycles. Gap analysis is a tool for strategic assessment of the extent to which environmental policies succeed in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem integrity by protection, management and restoration of habitats. Ideally a gap analysis should also evaluate monitoring programs and propose new perspectives and tools for proper management of ecological integrity by various formal and informal institutions at multiple temporal and spatial scales.

In the next step tactical planning Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) modeling is a useful tool. This requires combining spatially explicit land cover data with quantitative knowledge about the requirements of specialized species using geographical information systems. The result is spatially explicit maps describing the probability that a species is found in a landscape. Finally, operational management is needed. Historically, many stream rehabilitation projects have not realized their anticipated benefits because the primary causes of degradation – i.e. poor land use management – was not adequately recognized. Insights that restoration management should be designed for each watershed, based on basin wide analyses of historical conditions, trends and causal factors have appeared. Nevertheless monitoring and research must become more systematic about how much is enough of different structures and processes at multiple spatial scales to secure ecological integrity. Only then can true assessments be made.

Land-use patterns affect both the form and the function of the rivers throughout the world, yet these effects are little recognized or understood. Hence, there is a need to review quantitative knowledge about relationships between specialized riparian, semi-aquatic and aquatic species and spatially explicit land cover data describing the history of terrestrial land use, water regimes and fluvial dynamics. In this way hypotheses can be tested, and thresholds and performance targets be formulated for the requirements of viable populations of all naturally occurring species, and thus to maintain sustainable riverine landscapes. Finally, the extent to which adaptive management approaches are adopted by different institutions should be evaluated.

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Session 4

Per Angelstam, Susanne Johansson, Simron Jit Singh
Chair: Dan Moran

Per Angelstam
School for Forest Engineers, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Import of timber and export of ecological impact: the need for data and narratives

Abstract

The competition between ecological and economic dimensions of sustainability is the most common reason for conflicts regarding how much forest and woodland, and of what quality at different spatial scales, need to be maintained to ensure ecological sustainability. As wood and fibre resources are becoming increasingly globalised commodities, knowledge about the consequences of management for ecological sustainability need to become transparent to a wide range of stakeholders both nationally and internationally. A particularly clear example is the Baltic Sea region with a strong contrast between market economies in the West and countries in transition between planned and market economy in the East.

Making politics means to give only selected information to certain stakeholders, as far as it is useful for the success of the actor’s own objectives. By contrast, the role of science is to produce knowledge, which enables a wide range of stakeholders to influence the complex political process of transition between different economic systems. I will use ecological examples related to forest goods and services to illustrate how different kinds of data can be used to create narratives that contribute to transparent knowledge that can be communicated to different kinds of stakeholders. At the end of my talk I will argue for the need to develop ways of communication also economic and socio-cultural impacts at different spatial scales.

 

Susanne Johansson
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU

The Swedish Foodprint - how different footprinting methodology may visualise food consumption?

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

Future food supply may be approaching limits. Global available agricultural land per capita is decreasing. Climate change may impose further stress on agricultural systems by changing ecosystems ability to provide us with their services necessary for food production. One key factor influencing land use patterns and (over-) use of ecosystems services today is international trade of food and our consumption patterns. We are dealing with an increasingly global food system that is so trans-national that it has little governing other than the invisible hands of the market. Since almost all food is so obviously derived from land it has perhaps been too easy to evaluate future food security with area based studies, sometimes evaluating just the use and loss of agricultural land. While it is true that external resources can be used to increase yields in agricultural production, and decrease agricultural land use, the true efficiency of these improvements can only be understood by accounting for the land areas and environmental support that provision these external resources. Earlier studies have shown that analysing only the agricultural area can give a false impression of living within our limits and being efficient in our food production. We as a society must move towards measures that incorporate the environmental work invested in the food we consume, in order to develop sustainable and fair food systems.

In this paper the author investigates the food system supporting food consumption in Sweden using different footprinting measures. Results show that there is much more than what first meets the eye. The areas indirectly required are in fact larger than the field itself. The author has coined the term foodprint in an attempt to visualise our dependency on environmental support for food consumption. The foodprint is made up of direct agricultural area used and appropriated indirect support area. Direct land area used for food consumption in Sweden for 1997-2000 was on average approximately 3.7 million ha or 0.41 ha per capita. Using ecological footprinting methodology, the indirect land use for ecosystem support was estimated to 1-3 times the direct agricultural area, depending on approach used. An emergy calculation further develops the foodprint approach and comprises all resource use, including historical. An emergy footprint provides evidence that the area needed to support Swedish food consumption in 1996 was extensive. The emergy support area was 40 times the agricultural area, or 3.6 times the land area of Sweden! This provides a hint that we would need much more area if we wanted to, or had to, produce the same agricultural products using only locally renewable resources.

 

Simron Jit Singh
Institute of Social Ecology, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vienna

From unequal exchange to disaster capitalism: A look at pre-and-post tsunami Nicobars

Abstract

The Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal on an important sea route to Southeast Asia and the spice islands has been subject to a turbulent history of contacts with the outside world. The indigenous inhabitants that lived from centuries of hunting-and-gathering, fishing, and pig rearing were confronted with a situation where the export of coconuts (and later, its dehydrated form, copra) became foremost for their survival. At the same time, the growing dependency on "foreign" goods did little to prevent them from being on the disadvantaged side of the global economy. The recent tsunami of 2004 not only took away thousands of lives and property but also their coconut trees on which they economically depended. The Nicobarese now find themselves in the midst of "disaster capitalism" that threatens not only their social and cultural integrity, but may also have far-reaching consequences on the local ecology. The presentation provides a brief overview of past unequal trade, and goes on to discuss present trends in the aftermath of the tsunami.

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Session 5

Joan Martinez-Alier, Roldan Muradian, Carl Nordlund
Chair: Lennart Salomonsson

Joan Martinez-Alier
ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Social Metabolism and Ecological Distribution Conflicts

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

In Ecological Economics, the economy is seen as a system open to the entry of energy and materials, and to the exit of waste. This paper recalls Podolinsky’s agricultural energetics, received negatively by Engels in 1882 and positively by Vernadsky in 1924. Marx had used the word “metabolism” to describe the relations between nature and human society but Marxist authors still did not count energy and materials flows, and paid no attention to unequal exosomatic use of energy and materials. The paper also explains Patrick Geddes’ 1884 accounting framework for material flows that provides a basis for the theory of ecologically unequal trade. The debate between the ecological and the chrematistic views of the economy continued in the twentieth century, when prominent sociologists and economists (Max Weber, F.A. von Hayek) criticized authors who understood the economy as social metabolism. “Metabolic profiles” of countries or regions are today established by the statistics provided by MEFA (Material and Energy Flow Accounting) and HANPP (Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production). Links are traced between each society’s “metabolic profile”, and ecological conflicts at different scales, looking thereby at the relations between Ecological Economics and Political Ecology.

 

Roldan Muradian
Development Research Institute (IVO), Tilburg University

The effects of the Chinese economic boom on development perspectives and environmental transformations in Latin America

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

China is becoming a new core of the world economy, both in terms of economic growth and as consuming core of world’s natural resources. This process is unique in the modern economic history of developing countries, will very likely continue in the following decades and will drive major economic and environmental transformations worldwide. The objective of this paper is to explore the economic and environmental transformations induced by the Chinese boom. Two hypothesis are tested empirically: a) Latin America is increasingly unable to compete with China, and Asia in general, to compete in the manufacturing exports to industrialized countries; b) Enlarging Chinese demand for primary products is mainly supplied by developing countries, including Latin America. This combination of these two factors is expected to induce a specialization in a “reprimarization”of the Latin America economy. These hypothesis are tested using export data both in monetary and physical terms, and a index for estimating specialization of exports. Some examples of environmental transformations in Latin America driven by primary exports are given and the effects on long-term development perspectives in Latin America are discussed. Even though the expectations of economic growth in the region may increase, the “impoverishing” effects of primary specialization may impose development constraints on the region in the long run.

 

Carl Nordlund
Human Ecology Division, Lund University

International trade in Fuel Commodities: a network approach

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

The role of fuel commodities in international resource flows is indeed difficult to ignore, being of cruical strategic importance for upholding certain production structures and "non-negotiable" life-styles. Although only representing 6 percent of the value of world trade at the end of the 20th century, or perhaps just because of that, the upholding of certain flow patterns of fuel commodities in view of growing global demand and a would-be diminishing supply could mark the beginning of a new era of "global resource wars", where certain national strategies have repercussions on the global patterns of such flows.

This paper examines the structure of trade in fuel commodities among 100 countries, looking at the monetary values of these flows as well as the actual energy transfers they represent. Using a newly developed network-analytical method for identifying relations among different role sets, the study looks at the correlation between different roles in the fuel commodity trade network, and the actual price per energy unit paid by different actors in this network.

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Session 6

Lennart Salomonsson, Dan Moran
Chair: Joan Martinez-Alier

 

Lennart Salomonsson
Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU

Emergy and equitable exchange

Workshop presentation »

Abstract

It is often assumed that international trade agreements based on market prices are fair. However, market prices represent only the work that human beings have contributed, and not the work that nature has carried out to create and form different raw materials. Market prices therefore undervalue the real value of raw materials. As a result, international trade in raw materials favours the buyer. The consequence is that inequality in trade is large between those countries that supply raw materials (often those with a less advanced monetary economy) and those countries that buy raw materials (often more economically advanced). Emergy analysis is a new methodology capable of dealing with complex, combined systems. Emergy is an environmental accounting tool that can compare the work of the environment with the work of the human economy on a common basis. It has its theoretical and scientific base in thermodynamics and systems ecology.

 

Dan Moran
Participant in the Global Footprint Network, and student in the LUMES program at Lund University

Ecological Footprint to capture ecological trade flows

Abstract

Countries trade biocapacity when they exchange natural resources and use ecosystem services from one another. The extent and patterns of this globalized trade in ecological resources are not well-illuminated by price measures. Yet studying ecological trade balances is important if nations are to secure their own sustainability and understand their ecological dependencies. My research combines the Ecological Footprint - a biophysical accounting system - with the UN COMTRADE global trade database, to quantify the ecological weight of trade. Furthermore, rendering the results in spatially explicit maps can shed light on the ways in which nations are connected by trade in ecological goods and services.

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Session 7

Sven-Erik Pettersson, Matti Larsson, Tao Kongsbak
Chair: Simron jit Singh

Sven-Erik Pettersson
Ex Health Safety Environment Officer and adviser for agriculture workers

How can Fair Trade and Environment Justice support farm workers to a Fair Life?

More information »

Abstract

Fair trade, ecological production, code of conducts, labels of different kind, many NGOs and others have during years tried to increase the  awareness of consumers of production of different type of goods. The intention is sustainable production both ecological and social, but also economic according to WSSD, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002. In Johannesburg agriculture and SARD, Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development was a big subject for many, especially from delegates from South.
When talking of agriculture and SARD most people relate it to small scale farmers. It is truth that many farmers in South are dependent on what they can produce on their land. It is also truth that in many countries farms workers and are dependent of waged work in agriculture in order to feed themselves and their families. Key statistics from ILO tells that half of the world’s labour force is in the agriculture sector. Of the 1, 3 billon women, men and children who work in agriculture 450 million work for wages. It is also a fact that 170,000 agricultural workers die each year in workplace accidents and out of that 40,000 die each year from exposure to pesticides. Agriculture is one of the top three hazardous occupations. Children are also involved in agriculture instead of going to school.

Implementation of all nice words like Fair Trade, Environmental Justice and SARD could bee a tremendous help to farm workers and their families. As farm workers often live and work at the farm they are in many cases exposed to the same environment hazards both at work and at home. For farm workers a strong and implemented CBA, Collective Bargaining Agreements, are the best way to achieve a fair life for agricultural workers. Fair trade and Justice Environment, SARD, code of conduct and others can be a tool for implementation but not a substitute for CBA.

 

Matti Larsson
Student in Human Ecology, Lund University

Fair Trade in the Cederberg mountains, South Africa

Abstract

This presentation is based on a field-study to Southafrica in the summer 2005. Focusing on Rooibos (red tea) the discussion concerns the relation between ecology and fairness, fair trade and the commercial market and  large-scale plantations and smale-scale cooperatives.

 

Tao Kongsbak
Sheepholder, etnographer and smallfarmers syndicalist. Free Farmers, Denmark (NGO)

Can Anyone Hear Us? Towards the local farmers communal trade

Workshop paper by Tao Kongsbak »

Abstract

This paper argues that free trade cannot be fair and that agro-politics should not be reduced to economic environmental damage control. The notion of ‘Fair Trade’ remains a post-political consu¬merist ideology managed by the new business class and the NGO elites.

The paper presents critical arguments from small farmers and academics that support the independent international social movement of La Via Campesina, who would rather see an agriculture that is not dominated by world trade organisations,trans¬national food companies, and neoliberal environmentalists. It argues that another mode of dealing with the earth is possible, grounded in ecological concept and human practice referred to as ‘the local farming phronesis’.

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Open Session

LUCSUS Seminar: Trade and Environmental Justice

Panel discussion

Jan-OttoAndersson, Lennart Salomonsson, Susanne Johansson,
Dan Moran, Simron Jit Singh, Joan Martinez-Alier, and Roldan Muradian.

Moderators: Alf Hornborg & Sabina Andrén.

The Human Ecology Division, together with LUCSUS and AGESI at Lund University, are organizing a two day international workshop on Trade and Environmental Justice. The main objective is to discuss and compare different non-monetary measures of commodity flows, such as ecological footprints, eMergy, material flow analysis, and exchange of embodied labor, in relation to overarching issues of political ecology, ecologically "unequal" exchange, ecological distribution conflicts, and environmental load displacement. As part of this workshop a panel discussion between researchers representing different aspects of Trade and Environmental justice is organized as a LUCSUS seminar. Researchers, students and other interested are very welcome to join the seminar and participate in the discussion.

More information »