Social Forums and the Environment

 

In the first three editions of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, engagement with the environment and sustainability remained at a thematic level. There were, however, some interventions from movements and organizations that tried to call the attention of the participants and organizers to practical actions that this space should have.

The Intercontinental Youth Camp (IYC), a space of the WSF, has since 2001 been a place for the expression of a new political generation, where different organizations and social movements question the capitalistic way of life, its values and practices, involving people in the permanent construction of alternatives.

In 2002, the IYC was named City of the Youth Carlo Giuliani and was occupied by 15,000 people from several countries, showing and developing concepts and innovative practices of communication, culture, architecture, computer science and the administration of residues. In contrast to the previous year, when the IYC wasn't much more than a campsite, the occupation of the Park was designed accordingly, and most of the spaces for activities were built with recycled materials and bioconstruction techniques (super adobe, techniques with bamboo, walls of earth, etc..). The residues were separated at the Recycling Shed, built in partnership with DMLU (the City Hall ' s Department of Urban Cleaning) and the National Movement of Gatherers of Solid Residues (MNCRS), demonstrating not only residues management but also a means of income generation.

In 2003 the IYC was recognized as an integral part of the organization of the WSF, existing as a legitimate and differentiated space of the Forum, contributing to its organization and the moving of some of its activities to the shore of Lake Gua í ba where the IYC was also based.

With 30,000 people expected, the organization of the third IYC was enlarged considerably and within the Commission of Infrastructure a workgroup of Environmental Administration was formed by biology students, biologists, NGOs and social movements.

Besides the debate about the environmental situation and the search for alternatives that minimized the human impact, the Work Group helped to make approaches for the occupation of the spaces in the Harmonia Park and on the border of Guaiba.

The IYC was named City of the Cities. For ten days, it also sheltered the World Education Forum, having more than 26,000 campers. A model of collective administration in experiences of horizontal organization was proposed, where all the services (safety, cleaning, etc...) were managed by the campers.

Once again the construction of the spaces used recycled materials and bioconstruction techniques. The Recycling Shed was revived in partnership with DMLU and the National Movement of Collectors of Solid Residues, emphasizing environmental education and information on the types of residues and the correct way to manage them. A reduction of residues policy was developed through the production of 15,000 polypropylene mugs, reducing the plastic residues in Feeding Squares.

A gray water treatment station was designed and built to deal with the water used in the showers. This recycled the water of two containers (20 showers) through the cycling of nutrients, where the chemistry of the organic soaps used in bathing (rich in NPK) would feed the aquatic vegetation in the pond of the Park. Three groups that produce organic cosmetics (soaps, shampoos, conditioning and repellent) were present in the Camp, not only marketing but also informing the campers about the need to use of products that don't pollute the environment.

The Food Squares, mostly formed by cooperatives or family groups, offered organic food. They also practiced a waste reduction policy, and the materials (glasses, plates, etc.) they used were mostly made of paper or other recyclable materials. The selling of multinational companies ' products like Coca Cola or Pepsi was avoided, to prevent further damage to the environment and local economics. A local currency called the Sol ( from ‘solidarity', but also ‘sun' in Portuguese and Spanish ) was implemented, motivating the local economy of the camp and an exercise in systems change.

Of course the everyday details of the proposals were not all perfect during these three years of the process. Certainly, the environmental illiteracy of the majority of people is one of the main causes, added to by technical and administrative problems. But we believe that the difficulties faced in the IYC only reflect the social-environmental problems through which we are (ourselves) confronted in daily life, in the distancing of humans from nature, in the general lack of environmental literacy, and in the total fragmentation of debate, which means that a lot of people still don ' t see politics in the environment or, worse still, they think the search for the solution to our problems should just be made at debate tables and not in daily practices.

Unhappily, we were not able to participate in the 4th WSF and IYC which happened in 2004 in India so we don't feel comfortable evaluating its proposed environmental plan, even though we are aware that there were serious environmental problems within that process.

For 2005, the WSF returns to Porto Alegre with the intention to adopt many of the practices developed in the previous editions of the IYC. In order to make this possible, a Sustainability Working Group was formed in the WSF Organizing Committee with the NGOs and movements engaged in this space, such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF, FBOMS, Vitae Civilis, the IYC 2005 Organizing Committee (IYC – OC) and several local movements and organizations.

The Sustainability Working Group developed a solid residues management proposal with the DMLU (City Hall's Department of Urban Cleaning), the Porto Alegre Recycling Units Association for the whole WSF territory. It also initiated an education programme stimulating more sustainable practices in the Forum, such as the use of bicycles or collective transports, the rational use of natural resources, consumption of organic products, etc.

In the 2005 Organizing Committee of the Youth Camp there is now an Environmental Commission which has, as one of its main objectives, to plan the IYC occupation with the smallest possible impact and to make a better use of the work and financial resources invested by trying to return these investments to the community, the city, the Park and the social movements.

An Evaluation of Environmental Impact of the Camp was done, analyzing aspects of the Park environment as well as a critical analysis of the Farroupilha Camp (a traditional Camping Event that happens in the same space as the IYC). In this Evaluation the possible impacts generated by the Camp were described and compensatory measures were planned.

The Environmental Commission is also planning the residues management, drawing the involved groups and movements into this process, prioritizing the organized social movements and focusing on the social insertion through jobs and income. The management and structure of the 2005 camp differs a lot, in terms of organization and concepts, from the previous experiences of the IYC. The new concepts made us work to decentralize the residues recycling process. The types of collected residues will be extended to five categories (recyclable material, organics, rejected residues, toxic residues – batteries, medical residues).

Once again the Recycling Shed will be built and managed by the workers of the Porto Alegre Recycling Units Association and by the militants of the National Movement of Collectors of Solid Residues. A Paper Recycling Factory will be managed by the organized groups of homeless of the park who created themselves a job by paper recycling, and reusing and reappropriating other materials. A Composting Unit will serve as a demonstrative space for the different methods and forms of composting, managed by the movements and organizations that will be carrying out the composting of produced organic residues during the Camp. Once again, the gray water from the showers will be recycled using different techniques and the use of organic soaps and shampoos will be encouraged.

The practices proposed in the previous years of the IYC are being enlarged and improved not only technically, but also through the wider and more effective participation of environmental groups and organizations, in anticipation of the further internationalization of the Youth Camp process. What we believe to be fundamental is the consolidation of sustainability as a result of our daily practices, something that we can only achive in a horizontalized and collective construction process.

Potira Preiss is a biologist, political activist, member of the Youth Camp Organizing Committee and the World Social Forum Organizing Committee Sustainability Work Group. Tiago Eduardo Genehr is a journalist, president of the NGO Roessler Moviment, and member of the Youth Camp Organizing Committee.