Gaia Commitment – Earth Condominium Forum
Gaia, Portugal, 4 and 5th of July of 2009
How to Organise the Global Neighbourhood?
As we have now discovered that there is a tangle of permanent interconnections that sustain life on the planet between the Earth’s crust, the ocean, the atmosphere and all living beings, the time has come when we must adapt to this global functioning of the Biosphere. We are all neighbours after all. This will probably be the greatest challenge ever faced by Humanity. The question the Earth Condominium Forum proposes to its guests and all citizens is:
How are we to organise a neighbourhood we now realise is global?
4th July
9:00 – Opening session and welcome to the delegates
9:30 Plenary 1 – Environmental Global Neighbourhood
How and why the global functioning of the biosphere turned us all into ‘global neighbours’?
Tentative questions for discussion:
- May we, anywhere on the planet, affect positively or negatively parts of the Earth’s natural system (which circulate and inter-relate all over), or not?
- Are we all functionally dependent on these parts (namely the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biodiversity), or not?
- Is the maintenance of these parts largely done by the services provided by the biodiversity, or not?
- What are the dimensions and the importance of these services? And their borders?
- What are the dimensions of the damages? And their borders?
MODERATOR
Arminda Sousa Deusdado - Former journalist, is currently managing partner of “Farol de Ideais”, a media producers in the area of economy, environment and sports. Producer of “Biosphere,” a weekly TV programme focusing on the environment. Portugal
SPEAKERS
(see speakers for short biography)
Neilton Fidelis
Luiz Pinguelli Rosa
11:00 coffee-break
Henrique Miguel Pereira
Scenarios for Biodiversity Change in the 21st Century
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and other recent studies have developed scenarios for the future of global terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity. Here we revise the main results of these scenarios and their implications for ecosystem services and human well-being. Terrestrial biodiversity will continue to be lost due to land-use change, and unless human population growth and consumption patterns are minimized, we may lose more than 20% of plant species by the end of the century. Freshwater systems are perhaps where biodiversity has been more threatened, mainly due to pollution and habitat fragmentation by dam construction. Climate change over this century and water withdrawal will further exacerbates the effects of these drivers. Marine biodiversity has been declining due to overfishing and unless better fisheries management is implemented worlwide, the growing demand for fish will bring marine fisheries to collapse by 2050. We also present some tipping points for systems such as coral reefs, the Arctic, Mediterranean forests and the Amazon. If the actions needed to avoid these tipping points are not taken, major and irreversible loss of biodiversity will occur with dramatic consequences for ecosystem services.
(will be presented in English)
Uilton Tuxá
Contribuições das Terras Indígenas para a Conservação dos Ecossistemas Florestais Brasileiros (PROJ. GEF NDÍGENA). Impactos ambientais em territórios indígenas: o caso do Rio São Francisco
(will be presented in Portuguese)
13:00 free lunch
14:30 Plenary 2 – Environmental Juridical Neighbourhood
The juridical dimensions of the Environmental Global Neighbourhood – what solutions are possible?
Tentative questions for discussion:
- The atmosphere and the hydrosphere are juridically divisible? And the services provided by the biodiversity?
- Is it necessary to distinguish between the titularity or sovereignty exerted over the ecosystems and the global services they provide, or not?
- Is creating a distinction between juridically indivisible parts and juridically divisible parts the way to conciliate the pursuit of common interests with the individual interest of each State, or not?
- Is it possible, juridically, to articulate the pursuit of common interests and individual rights, over the same materially indivisible asset?
- How can we conciliate each State’s need to exert sovereignty over their territory with the global functioning of the biosphere?
MODERATOR
Carmela Grüne – Carmela Grüne, born in Rio de Janeiro (BR). Executive President of the Jornal Estado de Direito (Official State of Law). Has experience in Education, with emphasis on Methods and Techniques of Education, working mainly in the following areas: preventive law, citizenship, education and access to justice. Has a degree in Social and Law Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (2006) (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul). Master in Social Rights and Public Policy by the University of Santa Cruz do Sul.
SPEAKERS
(see speakers for short biography)
José Manuel Sobrino
Sustainable development, global warming and vital resources of mankind
Global warming is a matter upon which there is a broad scientific consensus. Its adverse consequences are a common concern for the whole mankind. The different answers to stop or mitigate this process come from a precautionary approach and from the agreements of common but differentiated responsibilities among the States, according to their level of development, as well as the need of a sustainable development that guarantees the preservation of certain resources and goods which support the life on our planet and therefore are vital and common for the mankind. The climate system, from which the vital resources directly depend on, implies therefore a patrimonial dimension since it involves the concept of the transmission of a suitable climate for the life of our present and future generations.
(will be presented in Spanish)
Maria da Glória Garcia
Condomínio da Terra: razão para reflectir o direito
(will be presented in Portuguese)
16:00 coffee-break
Klaus Bosselmann
Institutions of Earth Governance
An exploration of the Earth Charter’s approach to global governance and transformation of relevant institutions: citizenship (from national to global/ecological), state sovereignty (the dual nature of territorial sovereignty) and trusteeship for the global commons.
(will be presented in English)
Viriato Soromenho-Marques
(will be presented in Portuguese)
5th July
9:00 Plenary 3 – Environmental Economical Neighbourhood
The economical dimensions of the Environmental Global Neighbourhood – what solutions are possible?
Tentative questions for discussion:
- If our economy only valuates Nature after destroying or transforming it, will it be possible to valuate the services it provides, which are vital to the quality of human life?
- Should the maintenance of the ecosystems and the vital services they provide be considered an economic activity, or not?
- Is it possible to speak of environmental economy without an articulation with the juridic concept of common parts?
- How may we articulate the pursuit of environmental accounting at each State’s level with the global functioning of the biosphere?
MODERATOR
Juliano Sousa Matos
SPEAKERS
(see speakers for short biography)
Bill Mckibben
Because the World Needs to Know: Building an International Climate Movement in 2009
Even two years ago, scientists could offer only vague ideas of how much carbon in the atmosphere was too much. But in the wake of the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice in 2007, it’s become clear that this is a problem not for the future but very much for the present. Bill will discuss the implications of the latest climate science and this unique political moment, and propose a path forward that is focused on action, creativity, and the rapid mobilization of an international social movement.
(will be presented in English)
Pushpam Kumar
Economics of Ecosystem services: What is at Stake?
(will be presented in English)
11:00 coffee-break
Fernando Nobre
(will be presented in Portuguese)
Colin Soskolne
Values, Ethics and Sustainability
Since the technological revolution more than 150 years ago, the human enterprise has become more and more removed from nature and its processes. Eco-epidemiology is a more recent field of study, addressing the connections and dynamics between ecosystem function and population health and well-being. This lecture will expose the issues through the evidence that points to calamitous collapses in life and civilization. Solutions lie in leadership that demonstrates solidarity on matters of a global nature, and through examining our underlying values and ethics as articulated in the Earth Charter and that are foundational to all actions to which we individually and collectively subscribe.
(will be presented in English)
16:30 Plenary 4 – The Juridic and Economic Valuation of the Global Interdependence: The Earth Condominium
In what way the recently discovered Environmental Global Neighbourhood will imply reaching a new combination between Ideas and Life?
Tentative questions for discussion:
- Is it possible for each State to continue to exert sovereignty without the pursuit of common interests?
- Is the 500 year-old concept of sovereignty outdated, or not?
- Is the distinction between the juridically indivisible and divisible parts the necessary condition to adapt the concept of sovereignty to the global functioning of the biosphere?
- What would be the valid criterion for the use of these indivisible parts?
- May the evaluation of the environmental services, articulated with a new concept of common parts lead to a greater environmental balance and greater social justice between the developed and the developing countries, or not?
- May the condominium model be a starting point to answer the necessary complexity of the relations between people, and between us and the planet we inhabit, or not?
MODERATOR
Luísa Schmidt – Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. PhD in Sociology of the Environment and Comunication. Co-founder of the Observatory of the Environment, Society and Public opinion. Author of the TV series “Portugal, na Environmental Portrait” and of several books on the environment. Columnist of the newspaper Expresso. Portugal
SPEAKERS
(see speakers for short biography)
Martí Boada
Crisis ambiental, una crisis civilizatoria
Argumentación teórica conceptual del contexto de crisis civilizatoria actual desde una perspectiva de análisis histórico y de algunas de las argumentaciones conceptuales actuales como el babelismo conceptual, como componente central de la problemática.
(will be presented in Spanish)
D.Manuel Martins
(will be presented in Portuguese)
16:00 coffee-break
Purificació Canals
(will be presented in Spanish)
Paulo Magalhães
(will be presented in Portuguese)
18:30 Final debate
