Local Policy & Community Rights

Madagascar

After learning that 95% of Madagascar’s ring-tailed lemurs had disappeared, the Anja Miray community in central Madagascar worked with the UNDP to establish a 30-hectare community-managed forest reserve. With revenue from ecotourism in the reserve, Anja Miray has constructed schools and paid teacher salaries, created aquaculture, fuel wood plantations, and other sustainable agriculture projects to diversify income streams, developed a job training program for community members with disabilities, and maintained a reserve fund for individual and community emergencies. Today, the Anja Community Reserve stands out as a successful model for villages throughout the country, is a vocal advocate for policies that grant communities the right to manage their own land – and is now home to the highest concentration of ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar. Read more about Anja Miray’s activities on this archived page from the UNDP website and this case study from the Equator Initiative.

https://www.equatorinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/case_1370356089_EN.pdf

USA

In November 2018, Baltimore, Maryland, became the first major US city to ban privatization of its municipal water and sewer systems. Citizens overwhelmingly voted to keep the systems under the control of the local government in perpetuity, to ensure that they remain accountable, transparent, open to input from residents, and free from the influence of corporate profit margins.

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/baltimore-becomes-first-major-city-ban-water-privatization

El Salvador

In March 2017, the national legislature of El Salvador voted unanimously to ban all metals mining– the first such ban ever enacted on the national level. The ban was implemented in response to grassroots and religious groups across the country forming a coalition to educate the public and policymakers about the hazardous impacts of mining on soil and water health. After “countless marches, protests, petitions, testimonies, reports on the impact of mining, and study trips and delegations”, a corporate legal challenge to a temporary version of the moratorium was tossed out, and the legislative ban in its current form was born. 

Find an update here: ‘Gold fever: big mining companies circle as El Salvador prepares to reverse ban’.

Photo by Christopher William Adach (CC BY-SA 2.0)

https://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2017/historic-wins-democracy-rights-el-salvador/

Greece

Ever since 2008, it has been widely reported that Greece is in complete economic collapse. But the Greek economic crisis also provided the people of Athens with a rare opportunity to step outside of the global economy – to come together to revitalize communities, share resources and re-shape public spaces to serve their own needs, rather than the needs of big business and commerce.

Read more…

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/21/athens-unofficial-community-hope-government-failures

USA

Farm to Plate is a policy in the US state of Vermont, initiated by the Vermont Legislature in 2009. It tasked the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund with creating a 10-year Farm to Plate Strategic Plan (2011-2020). Project priority areas include: protecting and expanding affordable and environmentally sustainable farmland in agricultural production, improving the viability of local food and farm businesses, increasing local food availability and affordability, increasing consumer demand for local food, and creating as many good jobs as possible in the local food and farm economy. To learn more, visit the Farm to Plate website.

Photo by Matt (CC BY-NC 2.0)

http://www.vtfarmtoplate.com/about-farm-to-plate