Green economy in the south conference

The conference will be held between 8-10 July 2014 in Tanzania

With its full title of Green Economy in the South: Negotiating Environmental Governance, Prosperity and Development this conference will bring together academics, researchers and civil society organisations to critically discuss the particular impact of a range of green economy policies in the global south.

Conference website

At the end of January 2014 the accepted panel and proposals were published. They show a diverse range of research areas including: the objective of the green economy, sustainable development, land grabbing, green grabbing, biofuels, payments for ecosystem services, rights of indigenous peoples, corporate social responsibility, adaptation and REDD+. Read the full list of abstracts

The conference website presents the context and rationale for the conference:

The momentum gathering behind the idea and practice of the Green Economy is coinciding with financial instability and continued economic woe in the North, but generally happier economic circumstances in the South. Economies are growing and ‘green economic initiatives’ are part of these changes. Carbon payments, ecotourism, community-based wildlife management, Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives and offsets by mining companies exploiting new resources are all a part of a landscape offering new commodities, opportunities for commercialization and integration into wealth-generating markets.

And so too are growing incidents of land (and water) grabbing, displacement and alienation of resources required for wealthy tourists, bitter local conflicts over the locally-defined rules of access to carbon (e.g. firewood) purchased by wealthy northerners, green washing and other harmful activities that either cause poverty, or else distribute the fortune and misfortune of the green economy inequitably. Equally demands for alternatives to market-driven environmental degradation, and for market-dominated solutions are also gaining strength and coherence.

————————————

This summary was prepared by Why Green Economy?. The views expressed have been paraphrased. See the original source for more information.