Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Posted on November 14, 2009

VSO Nepal Goes Green

Volunteers reports on VSO Nepal’s latest green initiative.

by Rex T., Edited by Stephen Massey, and with the help of Hilary Wright.

Last September, VSO Nepal made a bold decision to ban the use of plastic bags within the office premise. Although causing extra inconvenience and being initially unpopular with some staff and volunteers, the decision was morally an easy one to make.

Staff and volunteers who venture to the office each day do not have to look very far to see the environmental consequences of society’s addiction to plastic. The nearby Bagmati River, a river that splits Kathmandu from Lalitpur and is considered a “holy river” both by Hindus and Buddhists, is literally choked with plastic refuse. The sad visual display is part of everyone’s morning commute to work – a constant visual reminder that plastic bags are detrimental to not only our natural environment but to our overall health and well-being.

So when our programme support manager suggested, “let us just ban plastic bags in the office all together”, although people were astonished at first (myself included), we quickly realized that it was the most common-sense thing to do.

A month or so later, anyone working or visiting the VSO Nepal office found themselves unable to bring plastic bags onto the premises. If any one does, or accidentally forgets that they brought one, they are asked to check the plastic bags at the guard post. There is even a prominent sign mounted on the gate depicting the office’s commitment to banning plastic bags in order to protect the environment.

Some might say that this ban is extreme and an inconvenience. Some people have even challenged the credibility of the ban and have brought up points about purchasing products that use excess plastic packaging or even purchasing milk that comes in plastic pouches. I can even imagine people have been thinking “How far will this ban go?”

In the end however, no-one can show that plastic bags are a good thing and we welcome the discussion that this ban has caused. In fact we want to see more of these types of discussions and debates, to force us to think critically about our work and lifestyle practices and how they impact on the environment. Staff and volunteers together have also started thinking about other issues such as energy, waste, and paper use reduction.

Since the ban, there has been a noticeable change in the office. The guards and kitchen staff now venture in and out of the office with reusable cloth bags and people often make it a game to spot and taunt anyone that accidentally brings one in (at least I do). As we all know, change can be difficult but it is slowly happening.

The banning of plastic bags was the first of many small steps to come – but also a symbolic gesture that sends a strong, thought-provoking message.

Posted on October 10, 2009

The view from Nepal

This guest post is from our fellow VSO Nepal volunteers Mel and Steve who work in Mahendranagar, in the far west district of Nepal.

Greetings to all Leicester FoE (Friend of the Earth) members and friends, Malcolm has invited me to write a short piece for the newsletter and, by chance, a few things recently have reminded me of the complexities of environmental issues here in Western Nepal.

Firstly, I helped write an English version of a funding proposal, for a local NGO. This proposal was for funds to conserve the nearby hill range. With my ‘international environmentalist’ perspective on such issues as global warming and globalization, I sometimes forget that, for most people, the immediate environmental concerns are focused on the local environment. People here are noting that farmland is less fertile and flash floods and landslides are more common than a few years ago. It is largely acknowledged that a main cause of this change is the deforestation of the hills, mostly for firewood and timber. Of course, although the outcomes of this deforestation are bad, people still need to cook and build houses.

Similarly, we live next to a nature reserve and the wildlife rangers (whom I sometimes assist) and officials are having to strike a balance between enforcing wildlife regulations and not causing extra suffering for the local villagers. For example, they often overlook grazing and firewood collection within the park.

Another issue, is that we are currently in the grip of a heat-wave. The monsoon rains are late and the temperature has reached the record high of 45oC. There are reports of children fainting in class and, as a result, we just heard today that the schools are closing a week early, for the summer vacation. Interestingly, during the radio announcement about this, global warming was mentioned as the cause. So far, the crops have not suffered too much but if the rains don’t start soon, problems will arise.

Finally, I recently read an article, in a local magazine, about energy needs versus climate change in South Asia, in which the authors tried to address these issues of local and global environment. For example, here in Nepal, most electricity generation is from hydro projects. Whilst producing very little CO2, hydro-electric generation has caused many problems to people in the local areas and, as a consequence, the World Bank no longer funds hydro-electric projects as it once did. Further, as climate change continues to shrink the Himalayan glaciers, the rivers on which hydro-electricity depends, are threatened. In terms of energy generally, most in Nepal comes from Bio-mass which means wood and cow-dung burning. These contribute to deforestation, as mentioned, as well as being energy inefficient. Given the problems in the local environment, neighbouring India is looking to nuclear and coal-fired power-stations to supply its energy.

It seems unreasonable to expect Nepal not to try to generate more electricity since energy consumption is seen to be the key to success of developed countries. Given that Nepalis have, over the last few decades, contributed almost nothing to current climate pollution but suffer disproportionately from the results, I don’t think that we have any right to expect them now to spend money or to lose energy potential in order to combat climate change, when all the ‘developed countries’, that did produce the pollution, are seen doing so little to prevent it themselves. Half of the population of Nepal and India (that’s approx. 600 million people) currently have no access to electricity and they want it.

As they say here in Nepal; ‘Ke garne?’ (What to do?).

Posted on November 1, 2008

From Bob

“The overall legacy we leave to our grandchildren is a combination of the side effects and leftovers of countless individual decisions – on purchases, policies and projects. How wisely those decisions are made determines whether that legacy contributes to sustainability or to further degradation.”

- Robert Gibson

“Sustainabilty is possible only if our activities maintain and repair the ongoing life-supporting functions of our environment, and only if we build social justice and mutual cooperation as well as technological capacity.”

- Robert Gibson