The wellbeing of people and natural living systems go hand in hand. Wellbeing can mean different things in different contexts but its central characteristic of interdependence is universal, connecting us all with each other in the human world and with the living ecosystems of the Earth. Social justice and addressing inequality increase wellbeing and are crucial to protect nature; in turn, ecosystem rights are also needed to protect and restore nature so that nature can protect and sustain us all. Benefits for people, climate and biodiversity cannot be played off against each other. Valuing oceans, forests and the land for the collective benefit provides us with healthy, living ecosystems in terms of clean air and protection against climate disruption, rather than corporate profit for the commodities extracted through natural destruction.

We need to replace damaging economic activities that over-exploit natural resources, workers, local communities and entire countries, with economic activities that restore nature and work in harmony with natural ecosystems by respecting boundaries, with the priority on tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. The rights of workers, their conditions and the type of work done are also key to wellbeing: decent and meaningful work that benefits the community and nature needs to be prioritised (Work less and better). This applies to all human activities, from street cleaners to advertising executives.

For economic activities to restore balance, there needs to be a shift in their primary purpose, away from corporate or individual profit, towards the collective benefit of the people, societies and natural ecosystems within the countries where they take place.

We also need to truly understand that nature is the source of all wealth, wellbeing and prosperity in the world, as African local traditional knowledge and wisdom points out “we protect the Earth to live better, and that we do not need to take everything out of the Earth in order to grow our wealth”. In the context of today, large areas need to be left alone to allow ecosystems to recover and provide a buffer against the worst impacts of climate change. Left alone, nature is the primary source of our wellbeing and the ultimate source of any economic prosperity.

Campaigns in these regions could contribute to the social and ecological justice narrative, lifting the most vulnerable from poverty, improving wellbeing and advocating for Pluralism by challenging the monolithic development model imposed by the West. We need to propose the expansion of activities (including economic activity) that directly contribute to meeting basic wellbeing needs in the Global South in line with the proposed principles and proposals above).

To make the biggest impact on wellbeing, the focus needs to be on reforms in sectors that are critical for economies, which large numbers of people rely on for their livelihoods and which are highly exploitative both socially and ecologically at the moment, such as farming, forestry and fisheries, energy, and in mobility/transportation.

Building movements to restore nature for the collective benefit
Implement rights-based ecosystem protection and restoration: recognising the need to restore and maintain ecosystem health by placing areas of land and ocean off-limits to industrial activity (with at least 30% by 2030 as a milestone towards protecting half of the Earth from industrial activity by 2050) to enable the protection and regeneration of ecosystems with maximum benefit for people, biodiversity and climate.

Aside from leaving some natural ecosystems alone, economic activities in the sectors above need to transition away from extractivist and environmentally damaging business models and towards systems which prioritise the balance of nature and the wellbeing of people and communities, whatever wellbeing means for the relevant people and communities.

Include policies and practices that include all stakeholders in just transition planning

• Holistic understanding of the social impacts in regions going through transition

• Participation, dialogue and consultation, whatever the democratic system in place

• From the outset, decent, secure livelihoods for all - not only contingent on relocation

• Respect for collective bargaining and unionisation

• Polluter pays principle, for the cost of the process to make the transition just

Promoting positive examples of alternatives to challenge large scale destructive methods

• Mainstreaming of ecological farming practices by prioritising foodshed production and consumption within ecological boundaries, and food production for human consumption as opposed to animal feed.

• Transition to low-impact fisheries (by promoting a transition from fisheries production dominated by large-scale, capital-intensive, destructive methods to smaller scale, community-based, labour-intensive fisheries using ecologically responsible, selective fishing technology and environmentally sound practices).

• Prevent any further destruction of forests, especially ancient forests, and implement comprehensive programmes for urban and rural reforestation

• Transition to an efficient and 100% renewable energy model and transition away from the destructive fossil fuel based system.

• Provide direct access between producers and consumers

• Support for local and regional trade.

Stories about these examples, taking the lessons learnt, the skills and experience gained and applying them to new situations, can show how this works in practice and be a source of inspiration.

To enable this to happen, we will need big changes in policy, regulations as well as financing.

See also - Exploring, experimenting and supporting alternatives to development and extractivism with new economic models that are committed to environmental and social justice.

Building support to recognise sovereignty
At a macro level we need to ensure that regulations, treaties and consultations recognise that sovereignty cannot be defined from the top down but can only be shaped through a collective and continuous process of dialogue. That legitimacy comes from eg. peasants organizations at the grassroots, combined with farming within ecological boundaries.

For all sectors this means adopting regulation, policies and incentives that favour cooperative and collective/ community-led production.

This requires the redistribution of agricultural lands through radical agrarian reform programs that support small-scale sustainable production: there is currently rising inequality with 1% of farmers, represented by a few major companies, operating 70% of the world’s farmland. For fisheries, priority access to fish resources needs to be ensured for small-scale fishermen, women and processors.

For energy, this means retrofitting and increasing energy efficiency across key sectors i.e housing, transport, manufacturing, construction, and calling for regulations to control the electricity market, including the mandatory horizontal separation of processes (generation, distribution, and marketing).

A mobility model for all requires pushing for policies and public Investment, firstly for transport systems that are accessible, safe and affordable, which run on renewables, and secondly, for green spaces and active mobility by expanding the infrastructure for cycling networks and public community spaces such as sidewalks.

Promoting accountability, financial interventions and incentives

• Shift public and private-sector financial support for polluting industries towards ecological and cleaner alternatives:

  • Divest and end financing linked to environmentally damaging economic activities and stop public subsidies in eg. fossil fuel industries, fossil fuel based transport, large scale intensive agriculture, industrial fisheries, deforestation, investing instead in ecological alternatives such as clean renewable energy.

  • Incentives and infrastructure:

    • Create job guarantee schemes to transition and expand renewables and energy efficiency.

    • Create a legal and infrastructure framework to boost community and personal energy production while promoting prosumerism and the right to produce energy.

    • Models to access public bids and contracts.

    • Practices and measures such as smart working and car pooling and shift the flow of resources towards fossil-free public transport alternatives such as a strong railway network and trams.

• Make corporations accountable for their bad practices of extractivism, overdevelopment and exploitation of people, communities and ecosystems (see Greenpeace’s 10 principles for corporate accountability). Hold companies more accountable for their production methods wherever they are located in the world, and in particular their vast displaced supply chains in the Global South. Connect these impacts in the South with the people in North who are mainly the final consumers or users of the products that result from exploitation. Build on regulatory initiatives for supply chain responsibility in both South and the North.

Note that for the above we have concentrated on the sectors where our work is mostly focused, but other sectors could be added as appropriate: tourism, textiles, terrestrial mining, construction and others.

There has been wide scale reform of sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fishing and manufacturing, with their economic objectives re-focussed according to ecological principles, becoming more local or regional and benefiting local communities. Pressure from communities and civil society for an economic system based on wellbeing led to changes in regulation which put limits on extraction and required accountability from companies and governments. This has come about after some significant successes, where nature has been protected and economic activities developed that enhanced and regenerated ecosystems that were formerly depleted, showing practical benefits that make a real difference to people’s lives.

Holistic, multi-sectoral approach
Previously destructive practices across many different sectors (food, fishing, forestry, energy and others) have transitioned to agroecological and regenerative practices. Ecological and alternative systems become more widespread to the extent that they become the mainstream practice. The systems being used are diverse and include those that have historically operated within ecological boundaries.

• An example of a multi-sectoral project running from 2011 to the present is the Chololo Ecovillage in Tanzania (farming, livestock, forestry, water, energy), initiated as a model of good practice for adaptation to climate change and supported by the EU, spreading to three more villages. A combination of empowering the community and training in modern methods and technologies (facilitated by the use of renewable energy for water conservation) was used to replace destructive practices such as slash and burn agriculture and deforestation for fuel.
  
  Its success is due to the muti-dimensional approach and focus on immediate livelihood concerns, so the community saw benefits in the areas that concerned them the most, which generated synergies and feedback loops, and added value. Women’s empowerment was central to the project and market sub-sectors of particular benefit to women were identified. The benefits include increased crop yields, reforestation, accessible clean drinking water and renewable energy. Chololo Ecovillage has emerged as a benchmark case for climate adaptation and resilience; as noted by IPES climate adaptation may offer a powerful avenue for advancing and scaling out the Chololo experience in Tanzania and other parts of Africa”.

Other case studies on agriculture are provided by IPES, eg. larger, agroindustry conversion of coffee cultivation in San Ramón, Nicaragua and Veracruz, Mexico. For ecovillages, see the map provided by the global ecovillage network; examples include a sustainable entrepreneurial hub for training and integration of excluded young people in the Philippines, pioneering Renewable Energy Ecotourism based on collective people management for sustainable development, established by a youth community in Indonesia, and a permaculture forest garden in Northern Thailand.

Reviving and building on Indigenous knowledge
Indigenous people are acknowledged for their knowledge and skills for living sustainably and maintaining balanced ecosystems and communities, with wellbeing at the core. Indigenous people are given the space and resources (return of rights to their original lands, commons) to maintain and extend these practices and systems, and involve other communities and modern techniques where appropriate.

In agriculture Indigenous peoples currently make up a large proportion of people using agroecological practices, and promoting the transition to an agroecological paradigm as well as more modern techniques and innovations.

• The Kogi are the descendants of the Tairona people which occupied the Sierra Nevada and the surrounding Caribbean coast for over 2000 years and are the last surviving civilization from the world of the Inca and Aztec. They consider themselves to be the guardians of the earth and are worried by our attempts to destroy it. Following the invasion by the Spanish they retreated to the high Sierra. The mountain is their home.
  
  “‘Imagine a pyramid standing alone by the sea, each side a hundred miles long. It’s a mountain nearly four miles high. In its folds imagine every different climate on earth. This is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the people hidden here call the Sierra the Heart of the World and themselves the Elder Brothers.’
  
  They have observed the increasing impact of the modern world - extraction and development have severely impacted many ecosystems nearby which is also damaging the Sierra Nevada - and the rest of the planet. The Kogi’s warning to us - the “Younger Brothers” - that if we do not change, they truly believe that the world will die, is the subject of two films from 1990 and 2012. The second film features the Buritaca River Valley which is being regenerated through reforestation, ecoagriculture and a new cooperative store for the fair exchange of Kogi products.
  
  Recently the Kogi have had success pushing back against the illegal bulldozing of mangroves for the construction of an “eco-hotel” on sacred ancestral lands, with support from the public and the intervention of the Colombian Government.

• Another example of indigenous people preventing deforestation is a campaign to stop the Pizzaro natural reserve inhabited by the Wichi, a unique forest of the Argentine Gran Chaco, from being sold as plots for the cultivation of soybeans. Greenpeace campaigned together with the Wichi in a long struggle against powerful interests, until a dramatic last minute intervention by the footballer Maradona which led to President Kirchner halting their eviction and ultimately restoring full rights to the Wichi over their lands. This was the first time that Argentina applied a participatory model for protected areas, embracing indigenous wisdom and abandoning the classic conservationist idea that human presence is, per se, disruptive for the wilderness. It was a tipping point for the environmental movement in Argentina as people woke up to the silent devastation of the forests and the dramatic situation of the peasants and indigenous peoples.

Wide uptake of urban agriculture
People who produce, distribute, and consume control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. People can obtain affordable, healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through sustainable methods and can define their own food and agriculture systems.

• There has been an "agroecological revolution” in Cuba, following the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s which led to economic isolation in the country. As well as a transition through a campesino-a-campesino (farmer-to-farmer) movement, with agroecological practices applied on 46-72% of small scale farms, accounting for about 60% of produce, Cuba is a global leader in urban agriculture. In larger cities throughout the country, urban agriculture (virtually chemical free) now supplies up to 70% of the consumption of fresh vegetables. The movement has spread in cities and suburbs since the early 1990s and now sees the production of diverse fresh vegetables, spices, fruits, flowers, and livestock in mixed crop-animal systems; with 77% of the Cuban population living in cities, it has become an essential component of the food supply. In 1999, the urban sector produced more than 800,000 tons of produce, mainly vegetables. By 2012, urban farms or plots numbered 382,000.

Decentralization of energy through cooperatives
Energy is understood as a natural commons and individuals, communities and peoples have the right to make their own decisions on renewable energy generation, its distribution and consumption. Generation, distribution and control of energy sources, by ecologically and culturally grounded and mobilized communities, both urban and rural, is possible in ways that do not affect others negatively and with respect for ecological cycles. This alternative makes the dominant energy paradigm controlled by centralised powers obsolete, with just and universal access, fair prices and secure, unionised and well-paid jobs.

• Different models are already implemented and functioning. Costa Rica is an outstanding example of a country with universal public services delivery. It has extended electricity services – as well as water, health and education – to all social groups and every region of the country. For energy, the rural electrification cooperative COOPELESCA has achieved virtually universal access to electricity, generating 82% of its own power through a combination of small scale dams and hydroelectricity. The cooperative has also acquired land in order to contain the negative impacts of commercial farming. Since 1969 it has become a driving force for social and economic progress in a largely underdeveloped area of the country. COOPELESCA is one of four cooperative enterprises supplying energy, mostly to users living in rural settlements where neither the state-owned nor the for-profit companies were interested or able to operate, providing jobs for 1,963 workers. Although Costa Rica is a success story for its renewable energy generation, (in the first trimester of 2016, 97% of the electricity generated came from renewable sources) there has been criticism of its over-reliance of hydroelectric power, small and large, and needs to diversify into solar and wind power, a process that the COOPELESCA has already started.

Enforcing accountability across Global Supply Chains
Working conditions in global supply chains are significantly improved and environmental boundaries are respected, resulting in greatly improved wellbeing. This is because people in both the North and the South have understood the connection between ecological and social impacts in the South and the products and lifestyles of the middle class and in the North in particular. In some cases aspects of production have been relocalized, bringing them closer to the final market. Because this is achieved through accountability, with regulations in both the North and the South for enforcement, where suppliers are impacted there is a reasonable transition to locally owned and self determined economic alternatives.

• For an example of voluntary accountability and disclosure see Greenpeace’s Detox Campaign (active between 2011-2018) (Detox and textiles case study) to eliminate the discharge of hazardous chemicals in the textiles supply chain of major clothing brands. While the improvements have been made by suppliers in the Global South (mainly East Asia, SE Asia, Turkey, Mexico) the success is influencing regulatory initiatives for extended supply chain responsibility in the Global North. In Germany a supply chain law was proposed for all corporations with global supply chains (not just textiles) which could be enforced through primary suppliers, such as farming, forestry and energy. There is a similar “due diligence” law currently being proposed in the EU.

See also Pluralism:

• Sparking new narratives and stories

• Contributing to the building of and connection between movements that are fighting for social, environmental and economic justice

Use this moment of disruption to:

SHIFT MINDSETS
FROM: Individualistic view of wellbeing (money, material goods, personal health, moving up the social hierarchy).
TO: Collective wellbeing with community at the core and connected to nature and spirit (“being well”).

FROM: I, me, myself: vs “other”; having. Promotion of the self
TO: We, us, ourselves: together; being. Promotion of better ways of living together.

FROM: TINA - There Is No Alternative (to growth)
TO: TAMPA - There Are Many Possible Alternatives

FROM: We can increase our prosperity by exploiting and selling the country’s natural resources (extractivism).
TO: Long term prosperity is based on natural wealth; understanding the inherent values in nature so that ecosystems are preserved and restored to benefit the livelihoods and wellbeing of the people.

FROM: Globalised extractive development, manufacturing and trade (global capitalism) will lift the world's poor out of poverty.
TO: Globalised extractive development, manufacturing and trade (global capitalism) depend on inequality and poverty to function, they are not designed to solve them.

FROM: We can increase our prosperity by allowing foreign corporations to benefit from our low wage economy and conditions (through deregulation, privatisation and maximising profitability).
TO: All people are equal and their wellbeing is valued, everyone is paid fairly for their work and conditions are good. This is the basis of collective wellbeing and prosperity, and should be protected by legal right.

FROM: Work is a material necessity for survival, a struggle, beyond which it has no purpose, and even is destructive to nature.
TO: Work is enjoyable and benefits the local community, it re-establishes the natural ecosystems that are the basis of the economic activity.

FROM: Unity in consumerism. Belief in corporate messages (advertising), products and possessions, to shape the individual identity, raise status, belong and compete with others.
TO: Unity in solidarity, diversity; intrinsic worth of all people. Fulfilment through creativity, collaboration and community.

SHIFT POWER

1. Call for changes in subsidies, taxes and incentives to favour localisation and alternative business models

The shift in power has to be away from large profit making corporations where value is exported from local areas - towards alternative business models for economic activities. These need to be purpose driven, inspired by ideas such as the commons (see Commons briefing), not-for-profit as the primary objective, and based on cooperation, partnerships and collaboration, with democratic ownership. A shift towards these business models will have a positive impact on the wellbeing of workers and communities.

2. Support allies calling for fair income and allowances to prioritise decent work

This shift is also towards a less work-centred society which challenges the centrality of market-coordinated, commodity-producing, paid employment and values the quality and quantity of free or community time (see Fair income and allowance briefing). Greater wellbeing will result from prioritising decent work, which is meaningful in terms of what is being produced and why, how it is being produced and by whom, with greater self-management, equal conditions and labour rights between men and women.

3. Push for economic recognition of unpaid work

An alternative economy puts greater value on care of all kinds, towards people and nature - so parents, care workers, gardeners etc are also seen as key components of the economy and society as a whole.

SPARK STRUCTURAL CHANGE/ ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL BOUNDARIES

1. Push for policies to restore sovereignty and stop subsiding extractivism

Sectoral reforms, especially in farming, fishing, forestry and energy, should shift away from private ownership and focus on restoring sovereignty, ownership and land rights to communities (as in the commons). Subsidies and resources should also be removed from fossil fuel based, extractivist industries and practices and towards ecologically sustainable and fossil fuel free alternatives.

2. Encourage and promote investments that increase wellbeing and restore nature

In the current crisis, we urgently need to change our relationship with nature and allow nature to restore balance. A greater connection between people and nature is proven to increase wellbeing. Economic activities that also restore nature will begin to heal the “nature deficit disorder” suffered by many people, by bringing nature back into their daily lives and engaging them in meaningful work.

3. Push for practices that place ecosystems off-limits to industrial activities

The stewardship of nature should be organised by setting ecological limits on the extraction of resources and on pollution, following a rights-based approach to ecosystem protection and restoration: recognising the need to restore and maintain ecosystem health by placing areas of land and ocean off-limits to industrial activity. Limits and restrictions need to be distributed fairly among people, according to justice criteria and determined by civic participation and local democracy. All economic activities should take place within these boundaries. We will need to work with allies to gather support, build momentum towards policy and regulatory targets and also ensure that equity is at the heart of any measures.