Well-being practices and world views from around the world are showing transformational alternatives to conventional 'development' and political governance models, as they are based on ecological sustainability, equity, and cultural diversity; these need to influence the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda which otherwise remains within today's unsustainable 'growth' paradigm.

1. Well-being, Biodiversity, and the
Post-2015 Agenda
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh and ICCA Consortium

2. Today’s vision of ‘development’
Violence against nature, people, and cultures

3. Are there alternatives?

4. Resistance …
… is part of
the
alternative

5. Transformative frameworks of well-being
(small sample …)
Buen vivir / sumak kawsay (“living well”, South America)
Swaraj (“self-rule”) / Radical ecological democracy (South
Asia)
Happiness (Bhutan)
Ubuntu (“compassion/humanism”) (S. Africa)
Degrowth / Solidarity economies (Europe / N. America)

6. Recipe for transformational alternatives:
Ingredient 1. A NEW POLITICS
Swaraj
“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi,
we are the government in our village”

7. Ingredient 2.
A NEW ECONOMICS OF PERMANENCE*
Earthshastra: Economics as if the
earth mattered
* JC Kumarappa

8. Ingredient 3. A JUST SOCIETY
When people go
hungry, it is not
food but justice
that is in short
supply

9. Ingredient 4. WAYS OF KNOWING
Diverse
knowledges,
diverse
cultures

10. Hey, don’t forget the spices!
Values & principles….
• Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies,
economies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basics
• Cooperation, solidarity, the ‘commons’
• Rights with responsibilities
• Dignity of labour & respect of subsistence
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness
• Equity & social justice
• Simplicity, ‘enoughness’ (aparigraha)
• Respect for all life forms
(add your own spices…)

11. Well-being in the Post-2015 Agenda
Some elements of sustainability, equity, justice, state responsibilities
… but
Continued faith in economic growth & linear notions of progress
Soft approach to private corporations
No radical rethinking on political power structures (local to global)
Indigenous / community worldviews missing
Reform vs. transformation: co-option of well-being notions into
‘sustainable development’ (e.g. UNEP publication on L. American
development strategies & green economy)

12. Can the CBD help push the envelope?
May be too late, but what could still help …
Strong message on integrating full vision of CBD
/ Strategic Plan
Precedence of participatory processes
Some national policy changes based on CBD

13. Peoples’ movements of resistance and reconstruction
are the biggest hope … when the ‘followers’ lead, the
‘leaders’ follow…

14. for more information:
http://radicalecologicaldemocracy.wordpress.com
www.alternativesindia.org
www.kalpavriksh.org
chikikothari@gmail.com