The Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi, hosted a webinar on ‘Climate Change, Sustainable Development and the Commons’ on November 18.
The webinar began with a welcome address by Joseph Marianus Kujur, SJ, director, XISS, Ranchi, who focussed on environmental degradation.
“The issue of climate change and environmental degradation is not only a scientific, technological, geographical, management or governance issue; it is indeed a moral and ethical issue as well. And until human greed and avarice is addressed, nothing much is going to change,” Kujur said.
Indian scientist, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate and anti-globalisation author Vandana Shiva talked about sustainability as well as climate change from a global perspective.
“Nature, biodiversity and organic farming are solutions to hunger, climate, biodiversity distinction, water crisis, the crisis of degradation of the ecosystem. Let us work on some strong participatory research projects so that we can stay free in an era of carbon colonisation and carbon enclosures of the commons,” Shiva said in her keynote address.
She also shared details of her book titled Soil, not Oil on sustainability and invited the XISS faculty and students to visit her farm to understand about contributing to nature.
Himadri Sinha, the head of the Rural Management Programme at XISS, moderated a question-answer session with Vandana Shiva.
Prateep Nayak, associate professor, University of Waterloo, Canada, underlined the need for Commons Dynamic Understanding Change through communication and decommonisation.
Ruchika Singh, director, Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration, World Resources Institute, India, spoke about landscape restoration and planning and current initiatives and barriers in the context of climate risk.
Shailendra Tiwari from Seva Mandir, Rajasthan, highlighted the role of civil society in sustainable development.