The Fair Trade movement has always recognised the importance of the environmental impact of humans’ activities. This is stressed in one of the 10 Fair Trade Principles by which WFTO makes sure that its member organisations are following environmental standards in their day to day work.
According to Principle Ten:
“Organizations which produce Fair Trade products maximize the use of raw materials from sustainably managed sources in their ranges, buying locally when possible. They use production technologies that seek to reduce energy consumption and where possible use renewable energy technologies that minimize greenhouse gas emissions. They seek to minimize the impact of their waste stream on the environment. Fair Trade agricultural commodity producers minimize their environmental impacts, by using organic or low pesticide use production methods wherever possible.
Buyers and importers of Fair Trade products give priority to buying products made from raw materials that originate from sustainably managed sources, and have the least overall impact on the environment.
All organizations use recycled or easily biodegradable materials for packing to the extent possible, and goods are dispatched by sea wherever possible”.
Environmental issues and the consequences of climate change are, undoubtedly, one of the biggest challenges of our era.
- Peoples Climate March in NYC – Photo credit: Robert van Waarden
The last 19th of August was Earth Overshoot Day, the day when humanity exhausted all the natural resources available for the year, in other words, humanity’s annual demand on the natural world has exceeded what the Earth can renew in a year since the 1970s (WWF).
In the last weeks, climate change has been in the spotlight. People’s Climate March and the UN Climate Summit 2014 caught citizens’ and politicians’ attention on the issue and raised the urgency for a call to action. It was the first time the world has seen such a large mobilisation for this important issue. Climate change is a global problem and regional measures are therefore not enough, what is needed are global solutions and fast actions before irreversible consequence can lead to catastrophic outcomes.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, developing countries are and will remain the most affected by the consequences that Climate Change has on our planet, experiencing, among others, severe droughts in drier areas, and stronger cyclones and unpredictable rains in tropical regions (The Guardian).
The last 10th of September during the seminar “Climate change & the post 2015 development framework: Developing country perspectives” organised by ODI and CDKN different actors participated in the debate. According to Andrew Scott, ODI’s Research Fellow in Climate and Environment, climate change is not only an environmental issue. Climate change and development are intrinsically linked. The actions that we take to address climate change are intimately connected with development processes, and the actions we take to achieve development objectives have impact on the actions we take to reach climate change goals. So far, most of the debate about climate change in the SDGs framework has taken place in Europe and North America. We need an opportunity for the debate to take place in developing countries and to get the perspective of developing countries into the debate.
“It’s a fundamental injustice that the world’s poorest people are paying for a climate crisis that they didn’t cause” – ODI Executive Director Kevin Watkins on CNBC Africa: http://www.cnbcafrica.com/video/?bctid=3800438928001
- Peoples Climate March in Brussels – Photo credit: Martin Michiels
Politics is not responding in the way we want and unfortunately people who maintain the power have impact on people who don’t have any. Politicians instead are still obsessed with economic growth, which seems not to be the right solution to the problem. This is why individuals taking responsibility is the first step towards a more sustainable world. Each citizen of the world can really make a difference, not only changing his/her daily habits into more environmentally friendly ones, but also campaigning, participating, and raising the voice to make themselves heard. Don’t wait tomorrow, start being active NOW!
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world, is either a madman or an economist.” (Kenneth Boulding, Economics professor)
Artisans du Monde is a network of 150 Fairtrade shops in France which sell food and handicraft products.
through the sale of Fairtrade products but also by educating young people to Fairtrade values and by leading advocacy actions to change the international trade rules.
The Federation Artisans du Monde is a full member of WFTO-Europe since 2007.
The French Fair Trade Platform will organize the next 11th & 12th of September in Paris its annual « Fair Trade Summer Universities ». The event is opened to French Fair Trade organizations, their partners, and public authorities. For this edition, the focus will lie on the concept of “social and ecological transition”, by training on the topic and discussing whether the Fair Trade movement feels part of this citizen’s movement, promoting social and ecological transition, and is planning to actively take part in it. In addition, two workshops will be organized: The first workshop will deal with communication issues and how our Fair Trade organizations can change consumers’ behavior by awareness-raising and promoting fair trade purchases. To achieve this, the workshop will help to identify the different category of consumers and their specific incentives and obstacles for switching to fair trade products. The second workshop will contribute to share partnership practices and experiences among the fair trade organizations: How to build a partnership with producer organizations from the South, how to promote the “empowerment” of Southern Partners and how to promote capacity building. Please read more about the event 
Ferrara 28th sep.-6 th oct. 
Ferrara 3rd-5th oct. Tuttaunaltracosa, national fair trade fair (XXth edition):
In order to do so, the debate will be divided in three different sessions. The first 30 minutes will be dedicated to a general presentation of the debate and the different national Fair Trade actors that will take part to it. Each of them will briefly introduce himself and his activity in his own country. They will also quickly introduce the working group they will lead during the second session, addressing questions raised by the students.
The debate will end with a wrap up session where one person from each group (a student or the FT actor) will be invited to share insights or other results from the conversations had in the working group with the rest of the people.
The Worldshops Association has been acting in Italy since 1991 and is a network of 70 cooperatives and associations running about 200 worldshops. It is a point of reference for all the Italian worldshops, helping them to be not just shops, but cultural and political organizations.
Through Facebook, twitter and its newsletter services, the Wordshops Association manages a fair trade community with thousands of friends sharing interests, thoughts and initiatives.
This year marks the the 20th anniversary of Tuttaunaltracosa! We’re going to celebrate this special edition in Ferrara between October 3rd and October 5th, in partnership with the “Internazionale” festival of journalism. Waiting for you too!
COPADE has been working on international development through Fair Trade and the sustainable consumption of timber products. With our projects we support Southern producers, their families, and communities in order to help them to come out of poverty and improve their living conditions.
In COPADE we believe in people and their socioeconomic development. This is why we always involve the producers in all the process of our projects: from its theoretical foundations to its implementation.
From humanitarian to successful business project
The way one humanitarian idea developed into a successful business project
Synthesis of skill and natural materials
The products of the BHcrafts are made with use of domestic raw materials, thus supporting the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is the ecologically conscientious project, which does not pollute the environment in not a single stage of production (paper bags, cardboard boxes, looms for weaving). The project promotes Bosnia and Herzegovina in an attractive and original manner by export of the high-quality products. Our products are mixture of traditional and modern achievements of design, which is the combination that ensures a successful existence at the demanding world market.
Social responsibility and fair trade
