The IUCN Local Action Summit took place on 3 September 2021—the opening day of the IUCN World Conservation Congress—in Marseille, France. Leaders convened to showcase and galvanise conservation efforts in cities and regions, make the case for a nature-based recovery to COVID-19, and announce ambitious action pledges for nature. The Summit included four roundtables, the first of which focused on ‘Realising environmental rights.’ A transcript of this roundtable is outlined below.
Moderator
- Russell Galt, Head of Urban Alliance, IUCN
Speakers
- David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
- Cheryl Charles, President and CEO Emerita, Children and Nature Network
- Ines Hernandez, Conservation Leader, University of Cambridge
- Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar, PlanAdapt-FEBA Urban EbA Working Group Member and Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) Secretariat, Evidence Review Lead
Roundtable transcription
Russell Galt (RG): So now, we can turn to the next roundtable, we have a roundtable which I have the great honour of moderating, on realising environmental rights. Now, this is a topic that has really risen to the fore of public discourse over the last couple of years of civic action, given the situation we are facing, now, who better to discuss these issues then the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment? We have David Boyd, I believe, who is signing in virtually, if the technicians could kindly confirm that David is with us.
RG: Oh, great. Great. Thank you very much, David, for joining. Now. I was just wondering if you could give us a brief crash course on environmental rights. What are they? Why are they important and more specifically, why should subnational governments care about them? That would be much appreciated. Thank you.
David Boyd (DB): Yes. Thank you very much for the opportunity. And it’s really terrific to follow up Bruno Oberle who talked about the importance of transformation. You know, we’ve had the Sustainable Development Goals, the Millennium Development Goals, the Aichi biodiversity targets, the Paris Climate Agreement targets and the reality is we have thus far failed to achieve any of the goals and targets we have set for ourselves. And I think that’s where human rights enter the equation, because some of these environmental targets and these goals are viewed as our policy options, something that you know, it’d be nice to achieve but we have a lot of other priorities as well. Human Rights bring obligations into the equation and the right to a healthy environment, which is already recognized by 80% of the countries in the world either in their constitutions, their legislation or through their inclusion in regional human rights treaties. This right to a healthy environment really does have the potential for transformative change. And we’ve seen that throughout the course of human history. If you look at the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, these powerful social movements have used human rights to bring about profound and positive transformations in society. That’s not to say that rights represent a magic wand that can instantly solve our problems, but they do have that transformative capacity. And when we talk about the right to a healthy environment, we’re talking about clean air, safe and sufficient water, healthy and sustainably produced food, a stable climate, healthy ecosystems and biodiversity and non-toxic environments where everyone can live, work, study and play. Those are the elements and then they also come with a set of procedural tools a toolbox if you will, for citizens to use which include access to information, public participation in decision making, and access to justice, whether rights are not being respected. So given those elements of the right to a healthy environment, think how critical the role of local and national governments is in all of these, you know, in the provision of safe drinking water in ensuring adequate air quality, in delivering services for sanitation, and solid waste management, public transit, zoning bylaws, building codes, green spaces, parks, all of these things really fall upon the shoulders of local governments. And yet, I can draw on my own experience as the co-chair of the city of Vancouver’s greenest city initiative in Canada, where I was really astounded to learn at the outset of that process that only eight cents out of every dollar that are raised in taxes in Canada go to local governments, despite the enormous responsibilities that local governments bear. That’s the first problem that we have to overcome in order for local governments to perform their role in transforming society. And then the second problem that we confront was one of authority or jurisdiction. You know, in the city of Vancouver, we thought, wouldn’t it be excellent, if we could do something about these oil tankers that are transiting past our beautiful beaches, but the city’s lawyer said, we don’t have any power over that. Another thing we wanted to do was ban these wasteful single use plastics that are littering our beaches and littering our streets. And again, the lawyer said, or sorry, you don’t have the power to do that. So these two issues of resources and authority are really at the heart of enabling local governments to be part of this transition to help fulfil that essential human rights to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. And I’m joining you today from Geneva because I’m here pushing the United Nations Human Rights Council to take the historic step of recognizing that everyone, everywhere rich, poor, black, white, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has the right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. And I believe that the passage of this UN resolution which should happen in just a matter of weeks, will be a catalyst for all kinds of transformative changes from the National to the subnational to the local level. And so that’s really what I wanted to say. I know that there are many cities and local governments around the world that have recognized their citizens have the right to a healthy environment, and who are doing everything in their power to bring about the transformations we’re talking about today. And I look forward to working with local and subnational governments, going forward, to deliver on the promises of clean air, healthy water safe and sufficient water, healthy and sustainably produced food, safe a stable climate, healthy vitamins and non-toxic environments. This is something that in my work of Special Rapporteur, I do a lot of work with children and youth, and their message is absolutely crystal clear. The time for talk is over the time for action is now. Thank you very much.
RG: Thank you, David for those incredibly inspiring words. I think we should think about that we should digest that and take a moment. Everyone everywhere regardless of race, gender, age, postcode, income bracket. Everyone everywhere has a fundamental human rights to inhabit a clean, safe, wildlife rich and I think you said sustainable world. So let’s hope we can realize that right? We have some fantastic panellists with us here today. And I want to turn to Cheryl Charles, President and CEO Emerita, Children and Nature Network. Cheryl, I know that it’s very, very early where you are I think you’re on the West Coast of the United States. So thanks for getting up. And joining us is great to have you with us. I hope you’re with us. Are you here. Fantastic. So Cheryl can you maybe just to kind of illuminate this issue, share an example of some of the work that you’re doing to advance the realisation of environmental rights, but perhaps particularly with reference to children. Thank you.
Cheryl Charles (CC): All right. Pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity to join you I think, you know, I’m one of three international co-chairs of an IUCN initiative called “Nature For All”. And so that is really nature for all, for all people of all ages, all cultures, in all regions of the world. I’d actually like to build on what David Boyd just said. So I think it’s very exciting because this important United Nations declaration is being considered now and will be passed and endorsed by our nations throughout the world. I’m reminded I was in Jeju, South Korea, for the World Conservation, the IUCN World Conservation Congress, when a resolution was passed, that included a child’s right to nature, a child’s right to nature in a healthy environment. And that really creates that vision, the attention of that resolution has not yet been the fulfilled. So I think we have an opportunity based on what David actually just described, to have that come to light. Let me say a little bit more about nature for all, and what we’re doing in response to Russell’s question, nature for all is an initiative as I said, it’s not an organization it’s really a community of people and organizations throughout the world. And our commitment really is to create the opportunity, the access, the experience, again, for the people of all ages, especially children, to connect with nature in a meaningful way. starting around the, why is that so important? The single biggest predictor of people who grow up to take action, to care for the earth, is having those meaningful, bonding emotionally based connections in childhood. We should probably talk about love. Not to make that a strong word, but the idea is to connect, to be inspired, to really understand that we’re part of nature, that we’re not separate human beings. So with nature for all, we’re also working on our approaches collaboratively, in communities, working especially on making those opportunities available. When I think of cities, I think, of parks of schools, neighbourhoods, of where people live, were they work and play, as was said earlier, by the opportunities and events, the need is intense. I’ll say again the nature of this framing, all of this work in ecological concepts using nature to guide our work. So examples of diversity, everybody has a role to play. All of this comes together in the form of communities, healthy communities, for all species, all habitats, all people on Earth. So I thank you for this work. I thank you for what the alliance is doing today. And I encourage everybody to do what you can where you are and nature for all will be one resource for all. Thank you very much.
RG: Thanks, Cheryl. And I hope you can hang with us a little longer. Hopefully we’ll have time for questions as well. Now, I want to turn to Ines Hernandez, who is a Mexican political scientist and a conservation leader at the University of Cambridge and she’s been working on a very special assignment over the summer, buried in books. So Ines, tell us about and what have you learned and what are your plans?
Ines Hernandez (IH): Thank you very much, Russell. Well, first of all, I want to acknowledge what a privilege it is to be here. I’ve spent as Russell said, the past months reading a lot about the work of both special preparator David Boyle and Cheryl Charles also. So it’s a big honour to now have the opportunity to discuss with them my research. So as Russell said, I spent the last three months working in collaboration with IUCN Urban Alliance with a special challenge of understanding how could IUCN not only as an organization but also through its members and alliances help promote environmental human rights in cities, and also how was that happening already? So my first task was to review literature what has been said about environmental human rights in cities. So, to these I read about literature in cities, literature in human rights and literature in conservation in general. I dove into the intersection of these three big groups. And what I found basically is that between conservation and cities, there’s a lot of discussion around ecosystem services, Nature-based Solutions, which of course, are needed for ensuring environmental human rights in cities, but are not enough. In the intersection between human rights literature and cities literature. I found a lot about sustainable urban development, but mostly focusing on human rights relating to housing and sanitation, which again, are very important for environmental human rights in cities but not enough. And finally, I dove into the intersection between human rights and conservation where I found very interesting literature around rural communities, about the definitions of environmental human rights, which are fundamental to move forward. But again, I didn’t found much around environmental human rights specifically for cities. So as the work of the Special Rapporteur, David Boyle is pioneering in this direction, I decided to study what has he gathered as good practices in terms of environmental human rights? So my challenge now was to understand the good practices that he’s gathered through his work, what has been reported on cities specifically. So I reviewed the 71 reports that different stakeholders sent to the special rapporteur with good practices and environmental human rights. And mostly to sum it up, I found out that between 71 reports that were sent to a special rapporteur, less than half of them mentioned once the word urban or cities, and also that local government was a concept that only appeared in half of the reports sent as a good practice to the special rapporteur. Finally, as a third part of my research, I did some interviews to some other stakeholders that were in the same category as the stakeholders that we’re putting to the special rapporteur, which is international organizations, members of local governments, NGOs, and academia. And the three main take home messages that I got from the interviews to the experts are which I think has been already covered. Previously, there was a challenge of bridging the gap between international levels and local governments, in terms of environmental human rights. This means, remember, the human rights are context-based and happen in the local governments in very context specific realities. At the same time, they meet the international discussion to enhance visibility and to guarantee that everyone has their environmental rights fulfilled. On the other hand, the interview in both the research results show how urgent it is to bridge the gap between the local level and international level to empowering citizens. It’s people who has to learn about the rights, people need to defend the rights and to this, of course, people need to connect to nature. People need to want these rights if we want them to defend them. Right. And finally, there is an urgent need to open this discussion internationally and to talk more about what is the role of cities and local governments in environmental human rights promotion. And I think that’s it. Thank you. Thank you.
RG: Thanks. I have a few questions for you. I’m sure others do as well. But firstly, let’s hear from our panelist Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar. So, if I may just quickly introduce you Sumati, of PlanAdapt-FEBA Urban EbA Working Group Member and part of Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) Secretariat, in which she serves as the Evidence Review Lead. Now. You’ve also been working on a very important publication. I saw it I saw the draft most recently, and I believe it espouses a number of principles of climate justice, and how urban ecosystem-based adaptation can be used to help people realize that justice so can you please explain for us exactly what those principles are, and their implications for subnational governments. Thank you.
Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar (SPG): Sure. Pleasure. Thank you. Firstly, thank you very much for this invitation and to be part of this panel. It’s lovely to hear from David and Cheryl and Ines. just before me, who is talking about the lack of this space of research and knowledge, which is an intersection of nature, conservation, cities and human rights. And I think for me, coming from a climate change background, it’s almost like an opportunity, because in climate change adaptation, ecosystems-based adaptation (EBA) has been around for quite a while. And it has been speaking about the intersection of biodiversity and well-being as well as climate adaptation for more than a decade. However, when, personally for me when I worked between Delhi and Cape Town a couple of times and I’m very aware of work happening in cities by colleagues from the north generally, you will also know there was always this concern or consideration as to how the concerns of local people get incorporated into Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for cities. So, that is the journey in arriving at what our people looked at, which there was when the working-group urban EBA which is chaired by Planadapt at IUCN, was trying to look for examples of EBA in cities from the Global South, a survey was conducted. So the paper actually explores the contribution of EBA to climate justice in cities and adds to the ongoing discussion on various understandings of it in the Global North and Global South. It presents case studies of urban EBA, which are conducted through a survey as mentioned before, and it builds on existing principles and criteria for EBA and NBs. So we looked at multiple sources as you have seen through our review of principles and criteria, we have established several social principles. The first one is participation and inclusiveness, which is in the planning and implementation stages of EBA in cities. Capacity building which is again a bedrock of climate adaptation, how our communities and local people building capacity through these projects. Then fairness, and equitability, which is incorporating more than several aspects of the process. Integration of indigenous and local knowledge, as I also heard mentioned earlier by other speakers. Livelihood improvement, again, from EBA and its application in countries like South Africa where I am, livelihood improvement is very important in its application. Gender consideration. And finally, Appropriateness of scale. The last point being important because we are looking at a turning point, where if you’re looking for solutions that would draw finance, we need to find those that are appropriate to be scaled out, and scaled in as well as scaled deeply. So what we envision is that the consideration and integration of these social principles in the design, evaluation and implementation phases of urban EBA interventions will enhance their contribution to various kinds of justice, such as distributive, procedural and recognitional. You’re welcome. I can put the link to this publication in the chat. There are also story maps that are coming out because we delve deep into six cases two from America USA, one from South Africa and other from Vietnam, from Kenya. And one more that I can’t recall right now, but yes, we did in-depth analysis. Thank you for this opportunity.
RG: Excellent. Well, thank you so much Sumetee for joining and I think it’s a really fantastic publication. I had the privilege of reviewing it early, and I think it’s so pertinent as well. I have a few questions, but I realized we have about 10 minutes or so. And we haven’t had a huge amount of audience interaction yet. So Do any of you have questions for our panellists on this very, very topical issue of environmental rights?
RG: In fact, many of the panellists have questions for each other. I’m sure Ines, you’ve been researching David Boyd’s work for many months now. I’m sure you must have a couple of questions for him. What would you like to ask? Why not? David, if you’re still, if you’re still with us, I think Ines may have a question or two for you.
DB: Sounds terrific. Thank you.
IH: This is an incredible opportunity. I mean, I’ve been asking myself this for four months. Now I can directly ask you this, David, but I would like to know what do you think is the role of local governments in the promotion of environmental human rights and how can the bridge been built between local governments and international discussions around this matter? A broad question.
DB: Thank you for this question Ines. you know, I think that when we talk about the role of human rights, we have to recognize that human rights which are commitments made generally by national governments apply to all levels of government. And so, when we talk about the right to a healthy environment, I think it’s actually very important that it need not only be recognized at the international level, but the bridge that you’re talking about, Ines, is that that right should be recognized at the national level, at the subnational level and at the local level. And we have pretty inspiring examples of that from all over the world. You know, as I said, we’re on the brink of UN recognition which will deliver at the universal level. We have more than 155 governments that recognize this right at the national level. In countries like Mexico and Argentina, Canada and the United States. There are governments at the subnational level that recognize the right to a healthy environment. And then there are also local governments that recognize this right. in my home country of Canada, over 170 local governments have signed on to something called the Blue Dot Declaration, which is named after Carl Sagans observation that the earth is just this tiny blue dot in a massive universe. And those governments have committed to taking action within their jurisdictions to deliver on the promise of the right to a healthy environment. So I think we need to action at all levels. And I would encourage local governments around the world to take this challenge up and to become part of this global movement. And I certainly stand ready and willing to assist any local government in the world that’s interested in exploring this to partner with me and to deliver on this promise.
RG: Thanks very much, David, and just, you know, continue in that vein, there’s clearly an implementation gap isn’t there between what’s enshrined in constitutions what local, subnational and national governments are supposed to do and what actually gets delivered? And why is that do you think why is there such a challenge to meet the word of the law, so to speak?
DB: Well, I think, Russell, you’ve just put your finger on one of the greatest challenges we face, which is the gap between what governments promised to their citizens and what governments deliver with their citizens. And that is why human rights are so critically important because if we talk about climate change or biodiversity, these wonderful sounding international conventions like the Convention on biodiversity an the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, what’s missing from those international environmental treaties, is anything related to accountability or enforcement, and that I believe is their Achilles Heel, but what happens when you blend human rights with environmental law? What you get is almost something like alchemy, where human rights deliver accountability and enforceability. And so I can tell you inspiring stories from all over the world where citizens have taken their legal rights to a healthy environment. They’re human right, and they have used it to demand accountability from their governments. Let me give one quick example from Buenos Aires, Argentina, were in the poorest part of Buenos Aires, Argentina, citizens living near the Riachuelo river one of the most polluted rivers in all of South America. They sued their local government, their provincial government and their federal government and 44 large corporation saying you are not respecting our right to healthy environment. That lawsuit was decided by the Supreme Court of Argentina, which ordered all levels of government to get together and to cooperate in fulfilling the right to a healthy environment. And the changes that have happened in that community in the ensuing years are nothing short of transformative. The river has been cleaned up, they’ve created new parks and pathways along the river. They’ve moved people out of you know, basically corrugated metal shacks and into social housing. They’ve improved air quality, water quality, soil quality, have created proper waste management systems. And so it’s an example of how this marriage between human rights and the environment can actually change people’s lives. And I think ultimately, that’s the yardstick by which we must measure our actions. Are we improving people’s quality of life? And that’s why I’m so bullish, if you will, on this union that we’re talking about today, because I believe it can deliver on that promise.
RG: Thanks so much. Yeah, really inspiring, inspiring example there from Buenos Aires and speaking about the benefits, I mean, every week we hear new, we receive new scientific papers or testing you know, the psychological health or well-being benefits of access to nature, particularly for children. So I just want to turn to Cheryl again. Might you be able to, for the benefit of our audience, explain, you know, what is the evidence base? And what is the case for actually ensuring that children have access to nature? Could you unpack some of that perhaps a psychology sort of formational years in a child’s development and how pivotal it is, how essential it is to have contact with nature.
CC: Well, thank you and you know, I actually refer people to our international website for children and Nature Network, its children and nature, those words all spelled out.org. And there is a collection of research now more than a 1000 studies that helps you make this case. When I founded the children and Nature Network with Richard, the author and others in 2006, there were not any studies that really support the benefits to children and to adults as well in terms of their emotional health and well-being or intellectual capacities, physical health, all of that. And now as I say, we’ve got a database with more than 1000 annotated studies that people have access and you can do a search by terms to figure it out. And what we’ve learned, and it’s become even more clear, as recently as in the last five years, we can actually finally say that there’s causality, that there is a direct relationship between children’s emotional development, their social development, their overall health and well-being and direct experiences in nature on a regular basis. The data is finally clear, compelling, clear, and so I urge everybody’s can with confidence, experiences for people of all ages with nature, in their everyday lives. That’s where everything, you know, yields enormous benefits again, socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually.
RG: Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for restating that. And certainly it’s a penalty if children are not accessing nature, they’re not receiving nature’s contribution, then then they are penalized, essentially. And that’s, that’s out of order. Far too many social inequities exist in our cities, and we must address them as a as an imperative of the highest order. Sumettee does anyone have a question for Sumettee about climate justice? Perhaps we could ask you to unpack one of those examples. You mentioned a few there Sumettee, why don’t you pick your favourite and describe it to us?
SPG: sure. I think one of my favourite ones or rather the one I find met most of the principles that we’ve come up with is the one from Vietnam in Hue city which involved the Centre for Research and Development there. It involved the women and their activities around flood, flood management, and how the panel or the group that was formed with the women ended up informing the Disaster Management Authority at the local level. So I think I hear when David was talking about agency and sometimes in certain places that agency is not easily exercised. And so we are looking at both ways of change happening and sometimes a project where women come together, whether it’s through self-help groups or through international donor funding, in elevate the status of the work they’re doing. Another example is from South Africa from Melbourne. Again, the C40 Finance Facility has been involved in the transformative riverine program, and there’s several kilometres of river lands that’s been restored some of it in the coast city and again, the sites where there are informal settlements are located very close to those streams, urban streams, one would wonder, how does one tackle you know, such a site? Because there is no legal mandate of the local authority. They don’t own the land. It’s privately owned, and yet there are informal settlements. There. But there has been a turn around by involving local youth to become eco champs, and they do river health monitoring. And early warning systems have been integrated so that when the government in the city knows that there is a flood or heavy rainfall event coming up, local residents can be informed. So, basically, for us the lesson here in the Global South, especially is that there are multiple challenges to be addressed simultaneously, and it requires several levels of the government to be involved, often for them to be successful.
RG: Thank you. Thank you very much. So I think we have a couple of minutes left and I want to use these remaining minutes to invite each of our speakers and panellists to convey one key message in no more than 25 words, very briefly, so please Ines come to the microphone. One key message your targeting subnational governments, and IUCN members.
IH: Environmental human rights cannot be generalized and must come from bottom-up approaches. So we need to listen to all different voices.
DB: Local governments are absolutely critical actors in fulfilling everyone’s right to a healthy environment through clean air, safe water, green energy, sustainable transport and more.
CC: Cities and local neighbourhoods create the places, spaces, access for all people to be able to connect with their environment.
SPG: An all-of-society-approach where community members and local governments have the equal power and voice to make change happen can help us towards a nature positive future for people everywhere.
RG: Wow. Thank you. How inspiring I hope those words will be heard. What a wonderful melody of messages to bring this roundtable to a close. Thank you very much to our speakers and panellists.