"The only remedy for disconnec�ng people from the natural world is connec�ng them to it again.", Dirt!

Greener workcamp season – how to

reduce our impact

In 2009, GAIA working group introduced

Recommenda�on on sustainable living in workcamps

at EEM (Exchange Evalua�on Mee�ng) in Hungary. It

was welcomed and adopted, but following the

implementa�on of it has not been easy to do. As long

as most of the workcamps in SCI are about

environment and the support for the working group

exist, we will be sure that we are on a good way. S�ll,

there are many movements, ini�a�ves, grassroots and

interna�onal campaigns going on in the world, which

we would like to share with the rest of SCI world as

source of inspira�on and ideas for volunteers and

organiza�ons because “workcamps are a specific

opportunity to promote sustainable living and to raise

the awareness of the volunteers on the social and

environmental impacts of our way of life.”

EEM recommenda�on proposed following ac�ons:

a. Raise awareness of the volunteers/par�cipants

b. Increase involvement of all actors involved in the

workcamp

c. Reducing the nega�ve impacts of our materials

consump�on

d. Reduce, Re-use, Recycle wastes

But if you need more informa�on or ideas to share,

please feel free to contact us to:

$2gaia@googlegroups.com

Content:

page 1 Spring gree�ngs & greener workcamp

season

page 2 Grounding our future, Gaia MicroGrant 2011

page 3 Rio+20, Patagonia, Peasant’ Struggle

page 4 Permaculture and global ac�ons

Contributors:Stefania, Seb, Reka, Madu, Maria, Helena, Irene,

Bao, Zoe...

GAIAZINE the voice of Gaia - SCI Working Group on sustainable living

Dear friend,

We are hoping that you enjoy a great spring (or a nice

autumn if you are further South). Gaia – SCI Working

Group on Sustainable Living – thought that this would

be a perfect �ming for us to share with you the latest

edi�on of GaiaZine…

This GaiaZine is par�cularly at the image of what the

Gaia Working Group is about: linking the big picture

and key issues for our planet, with everyday ac�ons

and engagements that ma%ers, both within SCI and

outside…

Within our organiza�on, spring also announces the

coming summer, and with it, another exi�ng

workcamp season. Let us seize this opportunity and

also share some ideas on how we all can make the

best of our camps…

Have a fantas�c �me, enjoy the reading, and don't

hesitate to share GaiaZine around :)

And of course, we would be delighted if you get in

touch or join us ;)

The GaiaZine team

International Conference on Environmental protection 2012

Activistes Conference on Environmental protection 2012

Activistes Conference on Environmental protection 2032International Conference on

Environmental protection 2032

Someone know

what is that?

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e

SPRING 2012 – Issue #5

"Where there is power, there is resistance.”, Michel Foucault

Gaia MicroGrant 2011

In 2011 we tried with the idea of MicroGrant which

will support volunteers in realizing their small

ini!a!ves at the local or na!onal level. The idea was

frui#ul and with less than 600€ we supported ini!aves

in Hungary, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Italy.

SCI Sri Lanka organized a weekend workcamp which

connected environmental protec!on and,

intercultural understanding, since they brought

together 25 people from different ethnic groups

(Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala) and even foreign

countries (Finland and Sweden). During this workcamp

they cleaned garbage from nearly 1km of area along

the beach where turtles lay their eggs. SVIT Ukraine

prepared one-day event „Ecodeya“ about many

different environmental issues such as „the second life

of things”, environmentally friendly household

chemicals, vegetarianism and pregnancy, yoga as the

way in society, organic food including prac!cal

workshops on crea!ve recycling, making natural soap

and cream, vegan dishes and cocktails. SCI Hungary

organized 5 Gaia events about eco-village design,

green ac!vism, urban sustainable living and greening

households, sustainable project planning - Dragon

Dreaming. With enthusiasm and mo!va!on of

Hungarian Gaia group sustainable living prac!ces

became stronger integrated in workcamp

organiza!on, networking and their regular ac!vi!es.

SCI & GAIA

Grounding our future

Grounding our Future is the name of a project carried

out by SVI Mauri!us, SCI India, SCI Italy, VPV

(Volunteers for Peace Vietnam) and KMGNE (Kolleg

for Management and Forma!on of Sustainable

Development), dealing with Climate Change and its

peculiar connec!on with unfair North/South

rela!onships. During the different phases of this

project, volunteers coming from both the South and

the North of the world improved their knowledge

about Climate Change, designed their campaign

against global warming and pursued it in Mauri!us,

India, Italy and Vietnam through several prac!cal

ac!vi!es and awareness-raising prac!ces.

Let’s talk to Elena, an Italian volunteer who worked in

Vietnam with Federico Benede% (Germany), Kien Vu

Duyand and Nguyen Ba Khiem (Vietnam).

Why the North and the South of the world need to

work together in the fight against Climate Change?

The arrogance and the presump!on of being able to

choose for everything and everyone, typical of that

part of the world named “North”, led to the situa!on

that we are now breathing. The “South” needs to be a

co-star not only because it is it’s own right, but also

because sustainable life-styles, new energies and the

use/re-use of materials different from oil can be the

key to its economic development.

What is the surplus-value of an associa"on as SCI in

the fight against Climate Change?

SCI promotes the work among people of different

na!onali!es in order to meet each other, to fraternize

and to connect construc!ve thought. Therefore, it is

important and due that SCI directs the

above-men!oned work to ecological goals, promo!ng

a bigger and bigger exchange of informa!on and

collabora!on.

About your experience, what did strike you more?

What stroke me more was the almost abysmal

difference among the informa!on that an ordinary

young German and a Vietnamese one, both deeply

interested in this issue, can have access to in their

countries. For instance, a very efficient and capable

ac!vist of VPV’s, who helped us in our researches,

didn’t know if there were associa!ons interested in

Climate Change in her hometown; moreover, when

we asked her the view of the Vietnamese government

about nuclear energy, she confessed that she didn’t

know anything about it.

The project aimed to enhance Youth volunteering and

volunteer ac!vi!es as a tool to endorse sustainable

life styles and to contrast global warming. Let’s work

all together, all over the world, to ground our future

against Climate Change and injus!ces!

www.groundingourfuture.org

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e

GAIA PRESENTS

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.", Chinese Proverb

Tomorrow, Farmers organisa!ons and their allies will

reclaim land all over Brazil and organise mass

mobilisa!ons against landgrabbing in Tete,

Mozambique and in front of the Cons!tu!onal Court

Peasant’s struggle in South America

When you are visi!ng South America, something that

not many 'Northerners' knows about is the struggle of

landless farmers to fight for their livelihood against

mul!na!onals and government corrup!on. A quick

overview can be found from viacampensina.org who

has a recent press release as follows:

<< ...

Small scale farmers and their allies are celebra!ng the

Interna!onal Day of Peasant's Struggle tomorrow,

17th of April 2012, organising more than 250 ac!ons

and manifesta!ons all over the globe.

This event commemorates the massacre of 19 landless

farmers demanding access to land and jus!ce in1996

in Brazil (1). A full list of ac!ons, ranging from

university lectures to land occupa!ons is available on

the website www.viacampesina.org

The interna!onal farmers movement La Via

Campesina is mobilising this year to oppose the

current offensive by some states and large

corpora!ons at interna!onal level to grab land from

the farmers, women and men, who have been

cul!va!ng it for centuries. Small farmers' demand is

simple: they need access to land to grow food for their

communi!es. When land is grabbed by transna!onal

companies, huge monoculture planta!ons for export

are developed. This only leads to increased hunger,

social unrest and environmental devasta!on, including

the current climate chaos.

IN THE BIG WORLD

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.", Chinese Proverb

The Patagonia without dams Campaign

HydroAysèn is a project that plans to build a mega

hydroelectric plant made by five dams and a

transmission line in Patagonia. Is this a sustainable way

to produce clean energy and create jobs? Absolutely

not; in fact, this project will devastate hectares of

Patagonia, will

deflect Pascua

and Becker

rivers, damaging

lands, aqua!c

environments

and fauna and

will rob many

communi!es of

the lands for

cul!va!on and

turis!c sites. This

project belongs

to Endesa, a

company which

ENEL, owned by

one-third by the

Italian governament, is part of. As SCI Italy, we support

the Campaign “Patagonia without Dams” and the

struggling Chilean communi!es, figh!ng against a

development model based only on economic profits

and poli!cal interests, without respect for local

communi!es and the surrounding environment.

www.patagoniasenzadighe.org

www.patagoniasinrepresas.cl

IN THE BIG WORLD

Rio+20

Rio+20 is now coming soon. No, it isn’t the 20th

episode of the anima!on movie featuring colorful

birds. Rio+20 is a global interna!onal discussion

leading to an interna!onal conference focusing on

sustainable development.

Just twenty years ago, the city of Rio hosted a major

interna!onal conference dedicated to environment

and development. During this Rio 1992 conference,

governments adopted a few major interna!onal

agreements, including those dedicated to biological

diversity and to climate change.

This year, Brazil will host another interna!onal

summit focused on finding solu!ons to the

environmental crisis. Inside this UN process, the

governments are having two main parallel

discussions. Firstly, they discuss how to promote the

transi!on to a green economy that would deliver

simultaneously environmental, social and economic

benefits (this is a quite controversial discussion).

Secondly, governments are also discussing how to

reform the way the UN works to be equip it to make

decisions that would be&er take into considera!on

their environmental and social impacts. Also, new

Sustainable Development Goals might be adopted as

a follow up to the Millenium Development Goals.

While the Millenium Development Goals (maternal

and child health, access to educa!on…) have not been

successfully reached, many actors agree that they

have been useful in helping the interna!onal

community focus on a few key issues.

But the most important aspect of this conference in

Rio is that it could promote a global momentum for

sustainable development. The recent economic crises

have taken the focus of the interna!onal community

away from sustainable development. The issues

related to it (loss of biological diversity, climate

change, overfishing in the oceans…) have however

not improved since then and s!ll require urgent and

strong ac!on. Hopefully the conference in June can

s!mulate all actors involved, from governments to

NGOs, to reengage in discussions on how to develop a

different model of society, so that our current

ac!vi!es do not reduce the opportuni!es of those

coming a*er us.

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.", Chinese Proverb

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.", Chinese Proverb

Tomorrow, Farmers organisa!ons and their allies will

reclaim land all over Brazil and organise mass

mobilisa!ons against landgrabbing in Tete,

Mozambique and in front of the Cons!tu!onal Court

in Jakarta, Indonesia. In Brussels, they will launch a

parody of the EU Commission's website marking the

50th anniversary of the Common Agriculture Policy.

This ac!on day will take place a few days before the

World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty in

Washington DC, April 23-26, 2012. The Via Campesina

mobilisa!ons will voice small farmers' strong

opposi!on to the World Bank ini!a!ve of Responsible

Agricultural Investment (RAI) that is supposed to

prevent land grab abuses but in fact legi!mizes

farmland grabbing by corporate and state investors.

“In the run up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, farmers

and supporters of the food sovereignty and

agroecology movement are now ac!vely opposing the

“greening of capitalism” that is now promoted at

interna!onal level. We believe that land, water, seeds

and all natural resources should be used by small

farmers to protect them and feed to world, and not by

transna!onal corpora!ons to make profit”, said Henry

Saragih, general coordinator of la Via Campesina.

Peasant’s struggle in South America

When you are visi!ng South America, something that

not many 'Northerners' knows about is the struggle of

landless farmers to fight for their livelihood against

mul!na!onals and government corrup!on. A quick

overview can be found from viacampensina.org who

has a recent press release as follows:

<< ...

Small scale farmers and their allies are celebra!ng the

Interna!onal Day of Peasant's Struggle tomorrow,

17th of April 2012, organising more than 250 ac!ons

and manifesta!ons all over the globe.

This event commemorates the massacre of 19 landless

farmers demanding access to land and jus!ce in1996

in Brazil (1). A full list of ac!ons, ranging from

university lectures to land occupa!ons is available on

the website www.viacampesina.org

The interna!onal farmers movement La Via

Campesina is mobilising this year to oppose the

current offensive by some states and large

corpora!ons at interna!onal level to grab land from

the farmers, women and men, who have been

cul!va!ng it for centuries. Small farmers' demand is

simple: they need access to land to grow food for their

communi!es. When land is grabbed by transna!onal

companies, huge monoculture planta!ons for export

are developed. This only leads to increased hunger,

social unrest and environmental devasta!on, including

the current climate chaos.

IN THE BIG WORLD

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e

"You may never know what results come of your ac�ons, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.”, Gandhi

Permaculture principles in your

workcamps and in everyday life,

wherever you are!

In short: permaculture connects people from all

around the planet around the same idea of

sustainable living which is inspired by nature. It was

created in 70s and since then it has inspired people

and communi�es for living which produces more than

consumes. Through observing nature, understanding

its principles and pa!erns, everybody anywhere can

enjoy living sustainable and in harmony with nature.

But there is a lot in a pot that everybody can do

following the basic principles of Permaculture

Earth Care

People Care

Fair Share

IFace to face with the ravages of climate

change – Climate Impact Day

05/05/2012

Join this global campaign

organized by 350.org

„Across the planet now

we see ever more flood,

ever more drought, ever

more storms. People are

dying, communi�es are being

wrecked — the impacts we’re a l r e a d y

witnessing from climate change are unlike anything

we have seen before. But because the globe is so big,

it’s hard for most people to see that it’s all connected.

That’s why, on May 5, we will Connect the Dots.“

More informa�on at www.climatedots.org

Movies screening in your office or during

your workcamp

Documentary movies can inspire people for

discussion, change and ac�ons. Therefore we

recommend you the following documentary movies

which you can show to your volunteers in your place

or on your workcamp.

DIRT! takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells

the story of Earth's most valuable and

underappreciated source of fer�lity - from its

miraculous beginning to its crippling degrada�on.

“Floods, drought, climate change, even war are all

directly related to the way we are trea�ng dirt.”

www.dir!hemovie.org

BLACK GOLD movie is about how mul�na�onal coffee

companies now rule our shopping malls and

supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80

billion, making coffee the most valuable trading

commodity in the world a&er oil. But while we con�nue

to pay for our la!es and cappuccinos, the price paid to

coffee farmers remains so low that many have been

forced to abandon their coffee fields. Nowhere is this

paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of

coffee. www.blackgoldmovie.com

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY: HOW CUBA SURVIVED

PEAK OIL An empowering look at how communi�es in

Cuba worked together to decrease their dependence on

fossil fuels when their oil imports were cut in half as a

result of the fall of their ally and oil supplier, the Soviet

Union.

www.powerofcommunity.org

GAIA PRESENTS

v o l u n t e e r i n g f o r p e a c e