Environment

We protect the environment and natural resources

Climate change represents a reality which can no longer be ignored and which poses great challenges linked to the current dominant development model, highlighting how much the economic, environmental and productive aspects of life-style are all inevitably connected. A strategy which aims at sustainable change needs to combine both the protection of natural resources with communities rights to access and manage these resources.

However, this systemic approach requires a critical revision of the widespread principles in the world of cooperation. It needs to aim: for the recognition that only one world exists and that the dualities developed-underdeveloped/north-south are no longer valid; for the understanding that Man is an integrated part of the ecosystem; to assist the paradigm of balance alongside that of development.

The challenges in this area for COSPE are therefore: the development of an integrated eco-systemic approach for projects and programs regarding the management of natural resources which are at the base of local communities (water, land, biodiversity), an agro-ecological vision of food sovereignty, the promotion of sustainable activities which generate income (eco-tourism, local products), reducing the impact of human activities on the ecosystem, and the protection of local communities rights in the access and management of resources.