Anil Agarwal

Towards Green Villages -a strategy for environmentally sound and participatory rural development in India

In India, recent micro-experiments clearly show that environmental regeneration is possible if native wisdom and local decision-making is respected. Towards Green Villages sets out an environmental improvement strategy that is based on real life experiences of grassroots work in which people have improved their environment together with their economy. Three initial steps are essential. First, the decline in overall biomass production must be reversed. Second, economic growth and rural development programmes must focus on how to increase biomass in an equitable and sustainable manner. Third, there must be democratic decentralization and a devolution of powers to village communities.

Plädoyer für grüne Dorfrepubliken in Indien

Auf Indien kommt in den nachsten beiden Jahrzehnten eine ausergewohnliche Herausforderung zu. Seine Bevolkerung betragt jetzt rund 800 Millionen. Am Ende des Jahrhunderts werden es etwa 1000 Millionen sein. Gegenwartig mussen jeweils eine Million Hektar des indischen Bodens etwa 2,5 Millionen Menschen ernahren; um das Jahr 2000 werden das jeweils drei Millionen sein.