Romania’s chance to gain the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner seat is lost by domestic power wringing

At the EU level, Romania is not considered a serious candidate for the portfolio of the European Commissioner on Agriculture. Romania’s entire political class compromised the chances of small farmers to be represented by a Romanian commissioner at the EU’s Agriculture Commission. The lack of responsibility manifested in the past months by the Romanian Government and Parliament in this highly important issue and opportunity of the future is absolutely condemnable, reads an Eco Ruralis press release.


According to internal sources, Romania once had a good chance at securing EU's Agricultural portfolio,with several influential member states backing Romania. But now, after a long delayed nomination and apparent signalling from EU Commission head Jose Miguel Barroso, big supporters like France, Germany and Finland have switched their allegiance to more viable candidates from Ireland and Austria. Romania failed to see this opportunity and as a result the interests of the approximately 3 million small farmers in Romania, which represent over 50% of the total number of the small farmers in the EU will remain unrepresented.

The PD-L liberal and PSD socialist parties (the coalition that until 2 weeks ago formed the Romanian Government) as well as the parties in opposition, contributed to the loss in support for a Romanian EU Agriculture Commissioner. Romania’s politicians instead considered the presidential campaign and internal power wringing as being more important and thus demonstrated a total disregard for the country’s agricultural sector, which is one of the country’s most important sectors. The defective way in which the Romanian authorities have managed European funds so far further highlights and exacerbates this situation. The corruption in the Romanian administration only aided to a lack of confidence on the part of the European Commission to trust Romania with the responsibilities of coordinating the EU's Agricultural portfolio and the substantial budget that comes with it.

The way in which the Romanian authorities dealt with this lost opportunity shows the political classes’ incompetence. Despite the evident signals from Brussels which questioned Romania’s capacity to coordinate such an important portfolio and despite the pressures for Romania to submit on time its nominations for the post, the Romanian authorities instead preferred to work on other issues like the upcoming presidential campaign. During the last months the Romanian authorities had ample opportunities to gain the EU’s trust and the support of the member states. Instead, the scandalous and irresponsible fight for power in Bucharest made Romania a very weak candidate for this vital position. Mr. Dacian Ciolos was eventually nominated by the Romanian Government but this happened far too late and without the government even initiating any kind of negotiations with Barroso, the EC president and member states. While the country is currently inundated by propagandistic speeches from politicians who pretend to serve the national interest, the country’s farming sector is angered by the political realities and lost opportunities.

Eco Ruralis is a Romanian grassroots association made up of small farmers who practice organic and traditional farming based on environmentally conscious principles.

Florestania: Amazonian Social Development in the Heart of the Forest

Building on the legacy of Chico Mendes’ socio-environmentalism, in the last twenty years his followers in the state of Acre have developed and implemented the most successful sustainable development strategy in the Amazon basin.

The pioneering work of the father and martyr of Brazil’s environmental movement has flourished in a series of innovative approaches guided by the concept of florestania, or forestinzenship, which brings together the expansion of citizenship rights with demands for better quality of life for the peoples of the Rainforest.

Development in the Amazonian region does not merely lie in laws and consultancy programs; “it presupposes a social pact, a permanent dialogue, that comprises all layers of the society in the region,” said Binho Marques, governor of the Brazilian state of Acre.

This type of developmental pattern is named Ecological Economic Zoning - EEZ. It is defined by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) as a form of land use planning that takes into account all elements of the physic and biotic environment on the one hand and the socio-economic

environment on the other. It then matches both of them through multiple goal analysis, thereby providing a neutral tool for the various land users to arrive at a consensus on the optimal use or non-use of the land

The Acre developmental system is based on a strong social capital, assessment of environmental vulnerability, and an excellent educational system. “The main base of sustainability is education”, stresses Marques. The government of Acre has practically created a “digital jungle” of libraries, modern computers, and access to information and knowledge.

‘Ecosystem services’ is the economic concept that revolves around the development of Acre. “We are manufacturers for the forest,” stresses the governor, “an industrial park that takes good economic advantage of the forest’s resources functions as a mix of public and private investments.” The condom factories use natural rubber and enjoy successful exports, while a poultry processing plant involves a vast number of local households. Agro-forestry is at the center of both agricultural and environmental development of the small Brazilian state, giving as outcomes reforestation of the world’s most important carbon sink and sustainable exploitation of rubber and fruits.

As governments and environmental, scientific and business organizations prepare to launch the negotiations of a new global protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in December, in Copenhagen, the governor of the state of Acre militates for a global deal to be sealed in the Danish capital. “We need our sustainable practices related to forest conservation to be internationally assessed and recognized in order to lead to a certification of our products and services.”

Following Chico Mendes’ heritage, Foster Brown, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center, expert on the Acre experience, spoke on the capacity building given to the indigenous people in the Amazon under the REDD mechanism. Their observances of the regional changes are extremely accurate and noteworthy for any scientist, even though they are not published in Science Magazine.

A UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s program, REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation mechanism - addresses incentives for conservation in tropical forests, so it does not maximize the carbon sequestration potential of natural systems worldwide – nor their social and biodiversity benefits. The mechanism is an important part of the solution, and leaving conservation out of REDD would be a monumental missed opportunity. It now looks as if REDD+ is in place for the climate talks in Copenhagen this December. This is an important step in the right direction – for people, for biodiversity, and for climate.

Chico Mendes (1944 – 1988) was a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist in the state of Acre. He fought to stop the burning and logging of the Amazon Rainforest to clear land for cattle ranching, and founded a national union of rubber tappers in an attempt to preserve their profession and the rainforest that it relied upon. He was murdered in 1988 by ranchers who opposed his activism.

Predatory Capitalism Causes Climate Change

All crises, climate crisis included, have been created by “predatory capitalism”, stated John Perkins at the Green Festival in Washington, D.C, October 2009.



The root of all this, said the controversial author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, lies in the adolescent stance on competition that Americans find deeply embedded in their education: “be better”, “beat others”.

“It might be positive for our homeland security, however… Our homeland is the Earth.”
The world is witnessing the first global empire that was created not by military force, but by economic means and corporations. These latter ones, believes Perkins, are central to politics for they control the whole economy via lobbying and the media.



However, “corporations exist only because of us; we buy their products and we worship their leaders by printing on the covers of the magazines their bosses’ faces. But they use slave labor (…). Say ‘no’ to that! Say no to Nike shoes manufactured in Vietnam!”
It takes real consumer responsibility and a deep reform of politics and of government. “If we don’t buy their tennis shoes and their cars they are going to have to come around. Instead of Monsanto’s GMO’s and dirty crops of Chiquita or Kraft why not go organic in Africa and local elsewhere”, said the “Economic Hit Man”.



The best students in Economics are oriented towards entrepreneurship and they do not want follow a corporate career. “Who the hell would want to look like that guy with ridiculous hairdo and that repeats that cynical line on TV – ‘you’re fired!’ – Donald Trump? Who wants to look like this guy?” asked Perkins.

If we want to put an end to “corporatocracy” we will need a new rule for business: make profits – yes, but only if your work creates a better world. More than 200 years ago corporations, continued Perkins, could exist only if they served the public interest in USA. And that was capitalism too.

There are many examples of Latin-American countries that had brutal dictators and currently they turned to good democracies. “We don’t want foreign aid, they would cry out with Perkins’ words, we must give our peoples the opportunity to raise out of their bootstraps.”

What you can do?

Find your passion, advises Perkins. Join an organization that fights for good causes. “We must rise up, we are a democracy, so act democratically,” shouts Perkins. See good democratic examples such as Yes! Magazine or Dream Change!

Or as Perkins states in the Epilogue of “Confessions…”:

“(…) cut back on your oil consumption. In 1990, before we first invaded Iraq, we imported 8 million barrels of oil; by 2003 and the second invasion, this had increased more than 50 percent, to over 12 million barrels.' The next time you are tempted to go shopping, read a book instead, exercise, or meditate. Downsize your home, wardrobe, car, office, and most everything else in your life. Protest against "free" trade agreements and against companies that exploit desperate people in sweatshops or that pillage the environment.

I could tell you that there is great hope within the current system, that there is nothing inherently wrong with banks, corporations, and governments — or with the people who manage them — and that they certainly do not have to compose a corporatocracy. I could go into detail about how the problems confronting us today are not the result of malicious institutions; rather, they stem from fallacious concepts about economic development. The fault lies not in the institutions themselves, but in our perceptions of the manner in which they function and interact with one another, and of the role their managers play in that process.

(…)
I could enumerate the amazing opportunities we have available to us for creating a better world, right now: enough food and water for everyone; medicines to cure diseases and to prevent epidemics that needlessly plague millions of people today; transportation systems that can deliver life 's essentials to even the most remote corners of the planet; the ability to raise literacy levels and to provide Internet services that could make it possible for every person on the planet to communicate with every other person; tools for conflict resolution that could render wars obsolete; technologies that explore both the vastness of space and the most minute, subatomic energy, which could then be applied to developing more ecologic and efficient homes for everyone; sufficient resources to accomplish all of the above; and much more.” (Perkins, 222)

“We do not know where this movement is going to go, but we have faith,” closed Perkins in mystical manner. “We have faith in a sustainable, peaceful, and a just world for everyone!”

John Perkins recently launched his new book, “Hoodwinked”. Besides “Confessions…”, previous books by John Perkins include “Shapeshing”,” The World Is As You Dream It”, “Psychonavigation”, “The Stress-Free Habit”, and “Spirit of the Shuar”. To learn more about John, to find out where he is lecturing, to order his books, or to contact him, go to his Web site:

www.JohnPerkins.org

Perkins is also twittering under the I.D. of ‘Economichitman’.

WWF: Money woes threaten Romanian protected areas

Brasov, Romania: Dwindling resources and bureaucratic hurdles are threatening to destroy Romania’s protected area system – home to some of Europe’s largest remaining natural forests.

The protected area system, which on paper covers 20 percent of Romania, also houses more than half of Europe’s populations of bears, wolves, and other large carnivores.

Despite these natural riches, salaries of many park rangers and other staff have not been paid for months, and telephone and internet connections are being cut as operational funds disappear.

Although the Romanian Government has committed to ensuring the protection of these lands, both as a member of the European Union and through its signature on several international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, it has failed to stand by these pledges, citing fiscal difficulties.

“The Romanian government must take immediate action to address the crisis faced by the country’s protected areas and their tremendous natural wealth,” said Andreas Beckmann, Director of WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Programme. “Priorities should be setting up and properly financing a single national agency to oversee and manage the areas.”

Back to "paper parks"?

The protection afforded by the Romanian protected area network is impressive - at least on paper.

Significant support for protection activities has been financed through EU and various governmental and private funds, including the Dutch MATRA programme. An ongoing WWF programme supported by the MAVA Foundation has been providing significant training and support for protected area professionals in Romania and other parts of the Carpathian Mountains.

According to the Romanian legislation, Protected Area management can be subcontracted to institutions, companies or organizations that have the interest and resources to support active management and implementation of management plans.

Based on this legislation, in 2005 the Ministry of Environment subcontracted the National Forest Administration to manage most of the nation’s national and nature parks, including flagship areas such as Retezat, Rodna and Piatra Craiului National Parks, with no contribution to the management costs from the state budget.

The National Forest Administration provided funding to Protected Area administrations allowing for the management teams to function at a minimal capacity and carry out some management activities. Although the support provided was limited, it nevertheless was critically important for at least the basic functioning of the protected areas.

This system worked, even if not with maximum efficiency, until 2009 when the National Forest Administration began facing major financial difficulties.

As a result, many PA staff have not received salaries for months or are receiving salaries with very significant delays; office costs are not covered, leading to situations where PA staff have no access to telephone or internet service, and have major problems meeting basic costs.

Situation critical

The situation is now critical, WWF said.

Many of the PA staff are planning to leave or have left already, and there are no possibilities to hire new people. Work in previous years to build an effective protected area system in Romania is quickly unraveling.

The current state of Romania's protected area system is proving a liability not only for the future of the country's natural treasures but also for local development.

For example, many of the areas in Romania that have been designated as part of the EU's Natura 2000 network of specially protected sites often cover very large areas of 150,000-250,000 ha, including numerous communities and their administrative land. Approval of various local development projects is being held up by the lack of management plans and guidelines for the protected areas.

Although the Ministry of Environment has overall responsibility for protected areas, including Natura 2000 sites, there is very limited capacity within the Ministry to coordinate and support protected area management.

The previous government planned for and issued a governmental decision for the establishment of a National Agency for Protected Areas, with dedicated staff for PA related issues.

However, the present government has decided not to establish the agency, citing the financial crisis.

Unfortunately, even those funds that are available for nature protection are not being effectively used. More than €250 million in EU regional development funds have been allocated for Natura 2000 and Protected Areas.

But bureaucratic restrictions imposed largely by Romanian authorities have made it difficult if not impossible for institutions and organizations to access this support.

European and global treasures

Some 20 percent of Romanian territory is covered by one form of protected area or another, ranging from relatively strictly protected areas such as national parks to areas with fewer restrictions such as nature parks and biosphere reserves.

It also contains the globally important Carpathian Mountains and Danube Delta ecoregions.

This tremendous natural capital is of national and even European and global significance, and provides a host of ecosystem benefits, including food and fiber, growing opportunities for tourism and recreation as well as flood protection and carbon sequestration.

Romania's protected area system goes back to the early 20th century.

The first nature reserves were established in the 1920’s, followed by Retezat as the country's first national park in 1935. But few if any measures were taken for the management of protected areas in Romania until the mid 1990s, when the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the global financing instrument for the Convention on Biological Diversity among other conventions, supported the establishment of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration.

In 1999-2000, with GEF support, the first national and nature park administrations were established and management plans developed and partly implemented for Retezat National Park, Piatra Craiului National Park as well as Vanatori Neamt Nature Park. GEF support continued and some financial resources were allocated from the National Forest Administration and other institutions, permitting the establishment of management teams for most of the national and nature parks by 2006.

Eastern European allowances reveal weakness of the EU carbon market

Only in Poland and Estonia there will be extra 80 – 90 tons of CO2 emitted in the atmosphere in one year. The two countries won court challenges against the European Commission limits on carbon-dioxide emissions by energy and manufacturing companies.

This decision of the European Court of First Instance took the market by surprise, said Daniel Butler, carbon trader and Senior Consultant at the Czech based Wallich & Matthes. The market was down anyway and we expected a downward trend. However, this made the market to drop hard, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. If early September 2009 a carbon certificate revolved around EUR 15, now it might get to EUR 8, argues Butler.

The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg ruled in its Judgment that the European Commission has a restricted authority to review national plans for allocating CO2 permits in the EU emissions trading system, ETS – European Trading Scheme, the biggest greenhouse-gas market in the world today. The Commission set tough CO2 limits on Eastern European Member States.

The European Commission, however, is contemplating an appeal to the European Court of Justice.

More similar cases are pending from Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

The rulings may undermine a push to curb the supply of CO2 allowances in the EU market as six other nations in Eastern Europe demand looser limits. With the United Nations negotiating an accord to fight climate change, the Commission aims to make fossil fuels more expensive and turn the European emissions trading system into the cornerstone of a global market.

The Copenhagen deal in December does not look good from this perspective, believes Butler. USA and China seem to want to go separately and not link to a global market. I would not say that this is the end of the carbon market but it sure induces a lot of pessimism. At the moment we talk (September 25, 2008 a certificate is worth EUR 12.5). And that is not all: many carbon funds will close down.

Probably the extra tons of carbon will not affect the atmosphere too much as the European production market is very weak. Steel mills work at a little capacity, industrial centers are slow, there is an obvious economic slow down and that means less carbon, explains Butler.

In October 2008, as the financial crisis started to bite, a ‘rebellious’ group of EU Member States pressed for a deferment of the date at which EU’s plans for emissions targets were supposed to be accepted as binding. A group of Eastern European nations and Italy were gathered into a protest against emissions reduction. The leaders of the ‘revolt’ were the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk. Governments of Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia followed them.

Global Impacts of a Warming Arctic Surpass Predictions

Warming in the Arctic could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world’s population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools, and extreme global weather changes, according to a new WWF report.

The Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications report, released today, outlines dire global consequences of a warming Arctic that are far worse than previous projections. The unprecedented peer-reviewed report brings together top climate scientists who have assessed the current science on arctic warming.

“What they found was a truly sobering picture,” said Dr. Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor for WWF’s Arctic programme. “What this report says is that a warming Arctic is much more than a local problem, it’s a global problem.”


“Simply put, if we do not keep the Arctic cold enough, people across the world will suffer the effects.”

The report shows that numerous Arctic climate feedbacks – negative effects prompted by the impacts of warming -- will make global climate change more severe than indicated by other recent projections, including those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 assessment.

The dramatic loss of sea ice resulting from the Arctic warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the world will influence atmospheric circulation and weather in the Arctic and beyond. This is projected to change temperature and precipitation patterns in Europe and North America, affecting agriculture, forestry and water supplies.

In addition, the Arctic’s frozen soils and wetlands store twice as much carbon as is held in the atmosphere. As warming in the Arctic continues, soils will increasingly thaw and release carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, at significantly increased rates. Levels of atmospheric methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, have been increasing for the past two years, and it is suggested that the increase comes from warming arctic tundra.

In a first-of-its kind assessment incorporating the fate of the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica into global sea level projections, the WWF report concludes that sea- levels will very likely rise by more than one meter by 2100 -- more than twice the amount given in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 assessment that had excluded the contribution of ice sheets from their projection. The associated flooding of coastal regions will affect more than a quarter of the world’s population.


“This report shows that it is urgently necessary to rein in greenhouse gas emissions while we still can,” Sommerkorn said. “If we allow the Arctic to get too warm, it is doubtful whether we will be able to keep these feedbacks under control.

WWF has joined with other NGOs to produce a model climate treaty for Copenhagen that gives the world a blueprint for achieving the kind of emissions cuts needed to likely avoid arctic feedbacks.

“We need to listen now to these signals from the Arctic, and take the necessary action in Copenhagen this December to get a deal that quickly and effectively limits greenhouse gas emissions,” said James Leape, director general of WWF International.

In December 2009, the governments of 191 countries will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the final round of negotiations for a new global agreement on climate change. The first period of the current agreement, called the 'Kyoto Protocol', will end in three years, in December 2012. The negotiations in Copenhagen are supposed to approve a new legal framework for global climate action from 2013 onwards.

According to WWF, this framework must guarantee much deeper and more rapid emission cuts from industrialized countries, and financing to developing countries to enable them also to take climate action.

Environmental Journalism...

Five years ago I had the chance, given by the Romanian Center for Independent Journalism, to carry out the first environmental journalism course. Every one labeled it "exotic" at the time, as environmental journalism was merely a theoretical twist for the Romanian media in 2005. "Interesting stuff, man, but get back to the real world," friends used to tell me with a tap on my shoulder. In five years we shall see offsprings of journalism materials that will consider environmental risk and report on green business, I used to reply. Three years after, almost all media set up green coverage, environmental pages or eco-events. Now it's a hype!

This course sought to instill an environmental facet of reporting for young Romanian journalists. The core of the lectures consisted of the analysis of global and local environmental issues with the tools and instruments of the reporter. Key concepts such as media effects, media events or media salience have been molded on environmental aspects of today's social and political life, enhancing a journalists' bias on sustainable development and imposing the "language of risk".

Here is a "schemata" of the course. For a detailed syllabus please contact me via e-mail.

1. Environment and Journalism. This lecture sought to shed a light on the complex relationship between the media system in a country and the management of indicators describing uncertainty that environmental journalism requires.

2. Flow and Framing of Environmental Information. The cyanide pollution disaster from Baia Mare was an excellent illustration that helped students observe PR and communication strategies of the companies, institutions, ngo's and mass media involved, as well as the international implications of such an incident.

3. Environmentalists and Their Communication. This lecture focused on Dieter Rucht's brilliant analysis of Greenpeace and Earth First!'s organisation and communication. A short presentation of an environmental national active network, Legambiente in Italy, concluded the lecture.

4. Reporting with an Environmental Bias. Sustainable Development. Media: an important actor that takes part in environmental conflicts, a watchdog that has to always raise the question "how risky?".

5. Access to Environmental Information. This discussion was concentrated on a thorough analysis of the Aarhus Convention and its implementation in Romania. Questions of environmental law, public international law and transparency were also taken into consideration. The Bystroe Canal case mirrored the above mentioned theory.

6. Environmental Press and Environmental Reporting in the Mainstream Media. Students were presented a few tools of quantitative and qualitative media research methods. The media coverage of Dracula Park in 2002 has been a relevant case study in this respect (Raul Cazan - "Environmental Issues Covered in the Romanian Press - The Case of Dracula Parc", MA Thesis, CEU, 2002). Agenda setting, framing and objectivity were the notions that we followed.