Argentina's rural women against global warming(2)

In Argentina the hearing was organized by the Institute for Social Development and Human Promotion (INDES) which is part of the Encuentro network, a member of GCAP. INDES representative Analía Delssin said the aim is for the conclusions and contributions of the hearing to reach decision-makers at national and global level.

The hearing was presided over by a tribunal made up of one member of INDES and two women from organizations affiliated to GCAP.

A report documenting the women's testimonies and proposals will be drawn up and sent to the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 17), to be held in Durban, South Africa from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9.

Delssin said climate justice is about highlighting the fact that some groups are more vulnerable to climate change than others. Among the more vulnerable groups are women, and especially rural women. "They have to walk further to fetch water, firewood, and craft materials, and they struggle to care for their sick children who get respiratory illnesses from exposure to pollution," she said.

But women are also the people who are most knowledgeable about the problem, and they are part of the solution, so they should participate when decisions are taken about measures and financing for adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change. In fact, several women brought valuable experiences of mitigation to the hearing, such as teachers in rural schools in Chaco, who are developing educational programs to promote sustainable farming based on agroecological principles, in spite of resistance from neighbors who farm in the traditional way.

Lucrecia Marcelli, head of the School of Family Agriculture in the Chaco town of General San Martín, said that her secondary level students have an organic vegetable garden, and have shown neighboring producers that cotton can be grown without the chemicals that the other farmers use to the detriment of the school.

Maria Amelia Bertoldi, from a primary school near Pampa del Infierno, in Chaco, talked about a program to train "eco-guardians" to protect the environment. They are students and teachers who take part in studying and analyzing toxic agricultural chemicals, environmental laws and other activities to promote eco-friendly development.

Examples of eco-friendly agricultural production were also presented, for instance by Zunilde Poggio of the Bella Vista Ecological Association, in a rural area in Corrientes province, where some 20 families produce natural foods.

"The goals of agroecology are food sovereignty, respect for biodiversity and natural resources, avoidance of toxic chemicals and of air, water and soil pollution. And it is not large-scale farming, it does not use hired labor but instead encourages families to stay rooted to the land," she said.

However, this form of environmentally friendly farming is under threat. "We have three large rice plantations nearby, where they use pesticides, and we have not been able to get the 1994 law against toxic agricultural chemicals enforced," Poggio complained.

"We must change the large-scale agricultural production model, which causes pollution and employs only a few people. That is what summits like Durban are for," she said.

And it is the Durban summit that the dozens of rural women, whose meeting in Resistencia was held just ahead of the International Day of Rural Women, to be celebrated Oct. 15, are determined to reach with their proposals and testimonies about the impacts they are already feeling on their environment, production and way of life.