SCP, Livelihood and Well-being

RCEzinaida's picture

JOIN NOW! 8th Global RCE Conference SCP Discussion Group

Welcome to the 2013 Global RCE Conference Sustainable Consumption and Production Discussion Group! Please join in the pre-conference discussions today by sharing your thoughts on the topics you feel most need to be addressed in the group meeting during the Global Conference in Nairobi.
SCP, Livelihood and Well-being

Comments

RCEkano's picture

concentration is on resources that are over consumed. It about time to bring out those resources that are "under consumed" which can comfortably replaces those that are engendered or about to be extinguished.
Evans Kipngeno's picture

Bukar,

My names are Evans Kipngeno....and what would these resources be? Sounds interesting.
RCEjosephmacharia's picture

Hi Bukar
very interesting ,which are those resources that are not exploited? i tend to think, one particular commodity is either exploited or under utilized in any corner of this global village we live.
RCEgreaterdhaka's picture

May be human resource is not utilized and this is the corporate policy
RCEkano's picture

Dear Colleagues
Research and history show that 40-100000 plant species have been largely and regularly used for industrial,cultural,food,fibres and medicinal purpose.Out of which about 7000 cultivated species are in use today around the world.30 or thereabout crops species have become intensively and widely used and are now the basis of much of the world's agriculture. These commodity crops have been the focus of attention of markets and scientific research world wide. The fate of the vast majority of the remaining agro-biodensity has been quite different.
Some species have replaced or fallen into disuse, while others have remained important in their centres of origin or secondary centre of diversity, but largely ignored commerce and science.
underutilized resources are those resources with under-exploited potential for contributing to income generation, food security, health (nutritional/medicinal. It means neglected minor or promising niche as well.
It may interest us to know that global food security has become increasingly dependent on a handful of crops. Over 50% of daily global requirement of protein and calories is met by just three crops maize, wheat and rice. (FAO 1996) and only 150 crops are commercialized on a significant global scale.
Meanwhile ethnobatanic survey indicate that worldwide more than 7000 plant species are cultivated or harvested from the wild (Rehm and Espig 1991)
These species:
1-represent an enormous wealth of agrobiodiversity and have great potential for contributing to improved income, food security and nutrition and for combating the hidden hunger caused (by micro nutrient, vitamin and mineral)deficiencies.
2- are strongly linked to the cultural heritage of their places of origin (Since RCEs are locally and regionally based, we should give special attention to this point)
3-are mainly local and traditional crops (with their ecotypes and landraces) or wild species whose distribution, biology,cultivation and uses are poorly documented.
4-tend to be adapted to specific agro-ecological riches and marginal land
5-have weak or no formal seed supply systems
6-are recognized to have traditional uses in localized areas
7-are collected from the wild or produced in traditional production system with little or external inputs
8-receive little attention from research and extension services, farmers, policy and decision makers and consumers.
9-may be highly nutritious and/or have medicinal properties or other multiple uses.
ASSUMPTION:
-Population growth
-Agricultural land will be increasingly converted to non-agricultural purposes, thus increasing competition for remaining land area.
-Globalization will allow more international exchange of knowledge and goods.
RCEkakamegawesternkenya's picture

The attached is one project we wish to present for award in the category of SCP-2013 from the RCE-Kakamega -Western Kenya

Welcome
Ombajo Misava Edward
atiti's picture

Dear Edward, Warm regards. Please upload the project at this site: http://www.rce-network.org/portal/awards
Abel
RCEkakamegawesternkenya's picture

i have tried but link isnt active at all because i thought i would just edit and have it done but this isnt the case.Kindly assist
RCEjosephmacharia's picture

Dear all
I had difficulties in log in but now i can contribute in the discussion.one of the area i would propose to be on the menu during the forth coming global conference is promotion of bee keeping. it has great potential, ready market for honey and bees are not known to comprise the future. they give honey and are good pollinators.
RCEgreaterdhaka's picture

Honey is the best medicine gifted by the small insects, the honey bees. there are many species of honey bees but most of them are vanishing due to large scale use of pesticides and also for air pollution. In Bangladesh, Sundarban Mangrove has only two or three species and the rest has been wiped out. So what is the remedial policy to protect the bees from aggro-industrial aggression? Can GM bees be a substitute of those bee species?
Evans Kipngeno's picture

Thank Prof Marahman for your input. Yes, i know honey has medicinal value. Apart from this also our traditional customs literature talks of honey being preservative. A case which is well documented is when my my community pasted honey on raw meat and left to dry by the sun for three days.
The meat would then be eaten and may be preserved in that condition for as long as it takes and it would not go bad.

We can also talk about this as form of education, for sustainable development, where food may be need to be preserved without use of fridges which the rural folks may not afford.
RCEgreaterdhaka's picture

Yes sustainable consumption and production is a good answer for a sustainable world. But urbanization has created a great barrier. There the many conglomerates have been developing throughout the world for which it needs huge resource supply especially, the foods. Many challenges, like mass production, transportation and preservation, distance and the availability of secured environmental conditions are all linked together. In the poor and developing countries, the situation aggravates by political crisis ,as well as, business syndicates.On the other hand, sustainable production has become a dream as proportionate production from HYV and GMOs are difficult or impossible. HYVs need high inputs of chemical fertilizers which has exceeded the sustainable supply or use. Moreover, a great quantity of cereal food crops are being used for fuel for driving cars even there are many hungry people around world. So, we need to think all the aspects of sustainable production and consumption; needs a global policy?
RCEjosephmacharia's picture

Up load is Baraka Agricultural College submission for the 2013 RCE award for innovative project on ESD.
Thank you all. use of chemical may have led to extintion of some of the bee species, but we have a duty to protect what is left. promotion of sustainable agriculture will offer remedy. Baraka Agricultural College based in Mau complex in kenya strongly believe in promotion of Sustainable agriculture and rural development(SARD). the College success in bee keeping is attributed to the six guiding principle of sustainable agriculture. am proposing one of the areas of focus in the planned RCE conference is moving from general agriculture to sustaianable agriculture.
RCEgreaterdhaka's picture

Thanks a lot for a nice project. Do you have any agricultural activities around where chemical pesticides are used extensively? If there, what is the effect on of bee keeping?
RCEjosephmacharia's picture


Hi Marahman
Most of the areas of the project dont use alot of chemicals, but i shall explore further from the expert
Evans Kipngeno's picture

For africa case, what do we talk about here? The facts are well documented. We are not able to provide sustainable food for our society, because of droughts, conflicts, and projects mismanagement.
Even in conventional agricultural methods that are known,
the same fall victim to project failures, so until a time when our countries face these issues, Africa as continent are likely to languish in inadequate food production and thus less for consumption.

We have had ideas all over, about methods of managing projects, for more production. but its the same story over and over again, and we have many conferences in Africa in same subject of food security, but we still have real issues to deal with before we get there.

We have to deal with issues of project mismanagement, inequitable distribution of resources among communities,
lack of political will to implement a policy on sustainable food, or water production, because a certain community did not get a share!

In Kenya, we have recently discovered oil. But look at what is now being discussed in same column - that it will not be mined unless the community is assured of over 70% stake because it is in their county.
The same story is being told in Kwale, Kenya that unless
the community benefits from the mine it will not take off.
Lucy Ogol's picture

The discussion on Sustainable consumption and production could not have come at better time. I believe the RCEs have a great opportunity to advance the concept, while at the same time identifying what can sustain the people's initiatives. One of the main challenges that seems to prevail is the promotion of ideas and then futility fundraising to realise these dreams, especially among the youth and women. Realistic costing of the projects and futuristic strategic plans lack in most of these initiatives. I believe the governments can improve by assisting in identifying and placing value in these initiatives.
RCEjoshermans's picture

I am very happy with this discussion and especially with Lucy's last input. I indeed strongly believe that the best ideas in this respect will (have to) come from individual people, with a clear eye on their all-day livelihood problems. It will have to be the people themselves who come up up with the great ideas, not (government) organzations. The latter will mainly have to act as facilitators for the individual genius to get to realization! The basis for this is sustainable vocational training: how can we enable people, young but also experienced older people, to gain professional skills to improve production, consumption and livelihoods in a sustainable way. Training on the ground on all levels, best fitted in the local setting is a good way of achieving this. And it will be the individual people, local communities and regional groups of stakeholders that are best positioned to decide on what kind of vcational training they need to support them in their endeavors. To explain this idea, I have, together with a few good friends developed a project idea, called "Sustainable Vocational Schools". I would like to discuss it with you during the upcoming Nairobi-workshop Sustainable Consumption & Production & Livelihoods. You can find this project-document in the Community "Sustainable Vocation Schools". As we announced earlier this month, we want to have all of you participating in this discussion and find answers with us on questions like: ""do we know successful initiatives of vocational training institutes that are born "on the ground", or "are there any (groups of) people or local communities that have the ambition to start such an initiative themselves?" Another question: "how can we support and stimulate these initiatives and how can we organize the required governmental support". Could I ask you to download the project document and give me some initial feedback on this already?
Evans Kipngeno's picture

This is for Zenaida,
On social well-being subject on child welfare & security, i suggest the contact of Dr. Kusewa Edward, child welfare and security specialist to come and talk to us on ways to combat the child matters. His email is ekusewa@yahoo.com, tel contact +254 2 723 843 046

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