Declaration of the South Asian Caravan 2014 on Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty

Submitted to the People’s SAARC, Kathmandu, Nepal and UNFCCC meeting (COP 20), Lima, Peru

We men and women, small farmers, Adivasis, agricultural Labourers, workers, fishfolk, landless people, plantation workers, hawkers and youth Organized a caravan across Bangladesh, India and Nepal to bring people together for climate justice and peoples solutions to the climate crisis. Our 13 day South Asian Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty Caravan, was Organized by the Bangladesh Krishok Federation; Bangladesh Kishani Sabha, Friends of Bangladesh and All Nepal Peasant’s Federation and included in Original Movements as well as the Bangladesh Adivasi Samity, Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation, EKOTTRO, National Hawkers ‘Federation, Progressive Plantation Workers’ Union, All Nepal Women’s Association, MONLAR, La Via Campesina and Which are peoples Movements Struggling for dignity and the rights of rural and working people. We visited 12 towns and cities of Bangladesh, India and Nepal. We were joined by many in the same Struggle from our sister peasant Organisations of India; Sri Lanka; Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines; as well as friends of our Struggles from the UK; US, Germany, Sweden and Australia. Our Caravan culminated in a three day ‘People’s SAARC’ held in Kathmandu, Nepal Where Movements meat together to discuss alternative solutions to the climate crisis, and hold Demonstrations demanding climate justice. Together we are part of the overall people’s resistance for climate justice.

In the towns and cities we held meetings, workshops and seminars on the key issues facing our Communities. Through it esta caravan That Became clear to us our problems are shared by our brother and sister farmers in South Asia and across the world. These are dominated by the planetary emergency created by the climate crisis. Our very existence is becoming precarious-through landlessness; land grabbing by elites; Local government corruption; gender inequality and discrimination (especially women’s dual labor in the household and in the fields), and the imposition industry of market-based agricultural methods (including the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers) Which Have Increased our production costs and debts and forced Peasants from Their lands and livelihoods.

Climate change is aggravating Such problems and making farming Difficult Also due to flooding; salt water inundation; cyclone damage; desertification and drought; and unseasonal and unpredictable weather. These are Being Caused by excessive greenhouse gas Emissions and Unsustainable exploitation of the natural resources particularly from the wealthy Industrialized Countries, But Also from elites in Industrialized Countries: such as China, India and Brazil. They bear the Responsibility for climate change but the poor in the Global South are bearing the burden and suffering of climate change. Given in Original crises faced by us we totally reject the market-based interventions into Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali and Sri Lankan agriculture That aim To further worsen our conditions. The false solutions to the climate crisis, world leaders are pushing That at the UNFCCC process are an ineffective Attempt by multinational corporations That Have Caused climate change in the first place to take over what Further is left of our lands and livelihoods.

In farming They are pushing-through false solutions like climate ready GMOs (Such as Bt Brinjal in Bangladesh after it was rejected by India following farmers’ resistance); based petrol polluting fertilizers; biochar; agrofuels at the cost of food; increase increasing monocultures; and Programmes: such as the framework of Reducing Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM). The polluters think by throwing money at That poor-through loans tied to country clubs in Original Promoting false solutions, They can continue to emit coal and at the same time take over our agriculture. We reaffirm our rejection of, and Struggle Against, all transnational corporations That Pursue profits before people’s livelihoods. We demand That the Efforts of the people be supported to enable actual peoples’ solutions to the climate crisis.

WE DEMAND

1.  Including comprehensive land reform land titles and land for the landless; all land grabbing by elite Interests and multinational corporations needs to be stopped.
2. Government support for small farmers That feed the world and cool the planet – small farmers need fair prices for Their produce, interest free credit, subsidies, guaranteed markets, insurance Against disasters, self reliant agricultural ecological farming methods as traditional methods Such Which need state sponsored research. Small farmer agriculture needs support for Food Sovereignty of our nations. We Oppose dependence on food produced by agriculture and industry polluting Imports.
3. Recognition of peasant women’s dual burden of farming and household labor and the end to all gender discrimination and inequality.
4. Constitutional recognition and rights for Adivasi Indigenous peoples and support to farming.
5. Reparation rather than loans paid to the Governments of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and the rest of the Global South as part of the climate debt Owed by Industrialized Countries of the Global North.
6. All adaptation to climate change Measures to include full participation and Consultation with Local Communities.
7. A legally binding agreement to drastically reduce greenhouse gas Emissions signed by all Governments responsible for Those Emissions.
8. A full and just transition to community-controlled renewable energy.
9. Legal rights for all Climate Refugees.
10. A visa-free South Asia.
11. The protection of, and end to the privatization of, all biodiversity and genetic resources in South Asia.
12. Respect for the rights of Mother Earth.

Our Demands form part of the wider movement for climate justice emerging across the world Enshrined in the 2010 Cochabamba Declaration. We call for a Further intensification of international solidarity between farmers’ Movements and networks handler (such as La Via Campesina, Asian Peasant Coalition; South Asian Peasant Coalition, People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, Jubilee South Asia and the Pacific) Such Climate Justice Networks as Climate Justice Now! and Climate Justice Action; trade unions; and Indigenous peoples and Dalit Movements.

We demand system change, not climate change.

The South Asian Caravan 2014: Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty November, 24th, 2014, Kathmandu, Nepal.