Translated from French by Ana Mattarollo

Three students meeting actors of sustainable development projects around the world. 1st October 2003-August 2004

Table of content

1. PROJECT ...........................................................................................................................................................................1 1.1. MOTIVATION................................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2. MEET / DISCOVER ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3. OBSERVE/UNDERSTAND ........................................................................................................................................... 2 1.4. SENSIBILISE / TELL.................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.4.1. PEDAGOGIC DIMENSION ...................................................................................................................................2 1.4.2. MEDIA...................................................................................................................................................................3 2. PARTNERSHIPS.............................................................................................................................................................4 2.1. SUPPORTS...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1.1. OUR SPONSOR JEAN MARIE PELT ................................................................................................................4 2.1.2. MARK COLLINS................................................................................................................................................5 2.1.3. WALTER SCHWIMMER .................................................................................................................................6 2.2. SCHOOLS ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3. NEWSPAPERS............................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.4. ENTREPRISES ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.5. LOCAL AUTHORITIES................................................................................................................................................. 7 3. ITINERARY......................................................................................................................................................................7 3.1. MALI: THE DESERT’S ADVANCE (01/11/03 ‘ TIL 07/12/03)............................................................................ 7 3.2. BRAZIL: TROPICAL FORESTS PROTECTION (12/12/03 ‘ TIL 12/01/04)....................................................... 8 3.3. MEXICO: U RBANISATION (10/03/04 ‘ TIL 02/04/04) ................................................................................. 9 3.4. INDIA: WATER RESOURCES (16/04/04 ‘ TIL 10/05/04)................................................................................ 9 3.5. CHINA: THE THREE GORGE DAM CONSTRUCTION (11/05/04 ‘ TIL 11/06/04)....................................... 10 3.6. DENMARK : INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY (14/07/04 ‘ TIL 01/08/04).................................................................. 10 4. THE TEAM......................................................................................................................................................................11 5. ARTICLES .......................................................................................................................................................................12

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1. Project 1.1. MOTIVATION We are three students from the Lorraine region (France). Despite our different itineraries and personal walks of life, we have decided to carry out our own reflexion and questioning about sustainable development. We do not want to stay inactive in a planet where half the world population lives with less than £1.50 a day, and where the ecological problems are always increasing. Even though the practice of sustainable development is not yet an object of consensus, and the fact that it is determined by the personal interpretations and judgements of each actor, we have decided to retain Gro Harlem Brundtland’s definition, which seems to us simple and sensible: “Respond to the needs of the present without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their needs” (1987) We understand, through this sentence, that sustainable development is neither a theory nor a concept, nor a notion devoided of substance; its aim is to allow everyone on Earth, today and tomorrow, to have a better life, and to live well. This implies, necessarily, to think and to act differently. We hope that this trip will allow us to approach this debate from different angles, under different lights, and that thanks to the elucidation shed by testimonies from far away lands we will be able to re-evaluate our behaviour.

1.2. MEET / DISCOVER To put names and faces to the concept of sustainable development, to illustrate the human ecological and economic reality, we have decided to meet a vast array of actors. In the field it will be a case of meeting: • • • • •

Local communities Non-governmental organisations Associations Enterprises Local authorities

The journey, establish with our sponsor Jean-Marie Pelt, will take us first to Mali so as to address the problem of the expansion of the desert. Then, we will meet people involved in the protection of tropical rainforest in Brazil. Then, going north through the Andes, we will arrive to Mexico where we will see how the inhabitants of Mexico City organise themselves to counter-arrest many of the pollution problems which threatened them. After this stop, a visit to India will be the opportunity

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to address the subject drinking water and its access through projects which do not compromise the existence of each person. Our fourth region is China. We will go to the construction site of the Three Gorge Dam, one of the biggest and most controversial dams ever built. Finally, we will end the trip in Denmark, so as to learn about the new concept of industrial ecology, which could spell the beginning of reconciliation between the societies from the North and nature.

1.3. OBSERVE/UNDERSTAND The development model of today does not fulfil the needs of the world population. Indeed, half the world population lives in very poor conditions with less that £1.50 a day! It is in this context that our intentions are to meet those who, through a change in their behaviour, persevere in finding long lasting technical or cultural solutions so as to bring together respect, justice, equity and responsibility. We will follow these people in their day to day. We want to get to know their history and the context in which they act. We will look at their activities and initiatives which allow them to live in considerable good relationship with nature. This work should help us to a better understanding of the challenges of sustainable development and of its meaning in, for example, an African village or a South American mega-city, or also in an industrialised occidental nation. Therefore, with this modest contribution, we hope to be thought provoking by showing the European public how only responsible initiatives can safeguard fundamental rights, such as food, housing, freedom, education, environment…and perpetuate these goods for future generations.

1.4. SENSIBILISE / TELL 1.4.1. PEDAGOGIC DIMENSION - We have created a partnership with five schools, and it based on an interdisciplinary work approach. (click here to see the details of the partnership signed with Baccarat). Under the directions of the science, biology history and geography teachers, students will follow our trip studying the subject we will be able to apprehend coupled with the geography and history of the countries visited. This exchange has the following steps: • • • •

We have met students before our departure; They follow our journey thanks to the web site and the travel diary; Dialogue is regularly established by email and digital photos; At our return, we shall meet students for a conference with slides.

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The educational core of this partnership is to make of l’An Vert du Monde a pedagogical and “extra-ordinary” (in its literal sense) vector to obtain knowledge and to sensibilise students regarding, on the one hand environmental challenges but also the situation of developing countries. The establishments of partnership are, in Meurthe et Moselle: • Baccarat school • Langevin-Wallon school of Blainville-sur-l’Eau • Gerbévillier school And in the department of Hauts-de-Seine: • Lakanal school of Sceaux • Pierre Brossolette School of Châtenay Malabry - We are also in permanent contact with primary schools in and around Lunéville. Pascal Burgain has created for this an interface to access and filter information we send throughout our project (click here to contact him and join this project).

1.4.2. MEDIA So as to tell about the different environmental conundrums addressed during our ten-month travel and make aware the most quantity of people about the positive local sustainable development actions, we aim to give an international dimension to this project. We have already, and will keep doing it, published articles, given radio interviews at a regional and national level, and created the website. - GENERAL PRESS AND UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPERS

Thanks to the partnerships with different organisations, we regularly publish, throughout our journey, articles describing the countries visited, the issues and initiatives found. We have aimed working with generalist publications such as: - l’EST REPUBLICAIN a specialised environmental publication: - EKWO but also with university newspapers such as: - The CAFIGNON, University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) - The UNIVERSE, University of Hertfordshire (United Kingdom) - The CENTRALIEN, alumni of Ecole Centrale (Paris, France) - The PI, Ecole Centrale (Paris, France) Up to now, six articles have been published in l’Est Républicain, Universe, The Calignon and The Centralien.

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Furthermore, the Meurthe et Moselle General Council, strong in his commitment for an environmental awareness, wishes to reserve us a space in their every-three months publication – VIVRE EN MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE. - INTERNET

Thanks to this web site we put at your hand information about the project, photos of places we visited, information about the NGOs we met, articles published in French and in English. Of course we invite you to participate in this reflexion. Do not hesitate to send us your remarks as well as the suggestions you deem useful to share by using the forum of this site.

2. PARTNERSHIPS 2.1. SUPPORTS 2.1.1. OUR SPONSOR JEAN MARIE PELT We have met Jean-Marie PELT (distinguished Professor at Metz University, President of the European Ecology Institute, President of the European Association of Man, Nature and Life, Member of the High Committee for the Environment, author of the TV series “about plants and Man”). During our first meeting he explained to us the way he went about, in 1988, to writing and carrying out his “An ecologist’s journey around the world”. In his book, he sets a pessimistic state of the world’s resources while he invites the reader to rethink fundamental questions about our relationship with nature. His advice, experience, and contacts which he established in the different parts of the world will be very useful to us in many respects. Jean-Marie PELT, for whom “life is built on trust”, has naturally and spontaneously accepted to be the sponsor for this adventure, which he judges with these words: « During our encounter of 5th November 2002 in Paris, you have explained to me your project of creation of the An vert du monde association so as to enable you to visit certain places in the world, so as to grasp main environmental problems. Your itinerary will be based on my book An Ecologist Round the World Trip and will consist partly of visiting world regions (Brazil, Mexico, Mali…) confronted with specific environmental risks, assessing the outcomes, and encountering local people who are involved in the protection of their environment. I think that this project is interesting and worth of interest, because it falls completely in the concept of sustainable development. Moreover, it is fully human, instructive and educational

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because images, photos, documents will be brought back from the travels and will serve to inform our children in schools, colleges and high-schools. Therefore, I support unconditionally the project of the Association An vert du monde, and give you my sponsorship for your travels around the world. »

2.1.2. MARK COLLINS In Britain we have met and obtain Mark COLLINS support, Director of the UNEPWCMC programme (i.e. the joint programme between United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Monitoring Conservation Centre, with the purpose of doing an inventory and evaluation of all the world’s natural resources, from forests to threatened species, and climate change). Today, the gathering of all this information is to enable the evaluation of priorities for biodiversity conservation under all its forms. We hope to make most of this support, by continuing our exchange with Mark COLLINS, but also by using the resources of UNEP-WCMC. In his letter (presented below) Mark COLLINS considers that it is paramount to act to reestablish a harmonic relation with nature. To him, conservation of biodiversity, which makes us live and that is given to us as a gift, is achieved through the re-enforcement of all forms of popular education. Dear Friends, I am writing in support of your “An vert du monde” expedition, October 2003 to August 2004. This is an enterprising venture that will help to build understanding around the world of the importance of nature and ecosystems to the whole of humanity. All of us depend upon the gifts of nature for our food, fibre, medicines, fuels and other necessities of life, but unfortunately we are gradually destroying the natural processes that provide these gifts. It is only through raising awareness and understanding that the environmental movement will succeed in its aim of sustainable development. Your journeys will bring you into contact with people in all walks of life – local communities, students, decision-makers and businessmen. By raising awareness and understanding in this way you will be helping to build international understanding about the road to sustainability that will enable future generations to live in harmony with nature. I wish you every success in your venture! Yours sincerely

Mark COLLINS MA MBA PhD Director, UNEP-WCMC

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2.1.3. WALTER SCHWIMMER Created in 1949, the Council of Europe is an international organisation which today has 45 member states. Its objectives are the respect for human rights, democracy, and the Etat de droit throughout the European continent. Since its creation numerous conventions have been written. The most significant is without any doubt the European Convention on Human Rights, which is presided by a court of the same name based at Strasbourg. The Organisation works on other subjects too, such as bioethics or sustainable development. Because of the convergence between the An Vert du Monde objectives and the principles developed by the Council of Europe in environmental matters, Walter SCHWIMMER, the organisation’s General Secretary, has given his support to this project.

2.2. SCHOOLS The activities described under “pedagogic dimension” will be undertaken by three schools in Meurthe-et-Moselle: - Baccarat school - Langevin-Wallon school of Blainville-sur-l’Eau - Gerbéviller school and with two other schools from Hauts-de-Seine: - Lakanal school of Sceaux - Pierre Brossolette school of Chateau Malabry

2.3. NEWSPAPERS During our journey we will regularly be in contact with the following newspapers: - L’EST REPUBLICAIN, daily regional newspaper from Eastern France - the magazines CENTRALIENS and PI, from the Ecole Centrale, Paris - the CAFIGNON, Neuchâtel university’s newspaper (Switzerland) - The UNIVERSE, university of Hertfordshire newspaper (UK) - VIVRE EN MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE, newspaper from the county’s General Council When we come back, the newspaper EKWO, which aim is to make the public aware about the challenges of sustainable development, will publish a complete report about this project.

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2.4. ENTREPRISES - AFP SIGNAL - ARCELOR - BURGEAP - BIOGAM - BOUCHERIE HINZELIN - CRYOLOG - FROMAGERIE DE LA MEIX - MADALEX INTERNATIONAL - MATARA - SAGONE - SOL CONSEIL - TOSHIBA - VOLUNTIS

2.5. LOCAL

AUTHORITIES

- COMMUNE DE BACCARAT - COMMUNE DE CHARMOIS - COMMUNE DE DAMELEVIERES - CONSEIL GÉNÉRAL DE MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE - CONSEIL GENERAL DES HAUTS-DE-SEINE - DIRECTION RÉGIONALE DE LA JEUNESSE (Défi-Jeunes)

3. Itinerary 3.1. MALI:

THE DESERT’S ADVANCE

(01/11/03 ‘TIL 07/12/03)

The term desertification refers to the process by which the soil looses its green cover. This comes about by factors which are not yet well explained. Overgrazing, deforestation caused by wood used as fuel, climate change all contribute, no doubt. Six millions hectares are deserted every year in the world. This is equals a tenth of France’s area, or more or less twice the size of Belgium. In Mali, country situated at the Sahara’s doorsteps, this crisis took exceptional proportions during the severe droughts of mid-1970s. Land exhaustion has been most acute due to not only these unfavourable climatic phenomenons, but also due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier following the demographic explosion of the last 50 years.

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Around Gao, near Niger’s loop, some villages have completely disappeared, swallowed forever under the sand of the immense African desert. Confronted to such calamities, we will ask ourselves about the everyday life for the inhabitants of this region since there is no forest left, since agriculture curls-up and dies allowing the expansion of dry areas, of decimated lands. If nobody is currently thinking about making it rain over this region, this does not mean that there has not been practical solutions put in place. It seems that the agro-ecology offers interesting perspectives to these problems by allowing the revalorisation and restoration of lands thanks to working with humus. Other solutions consist of planting shrubs and nitrogen-fixing plants, and these show that with a small amount of imagination and lots of simple techniques it is possible to work respecting the natural equilibriums. We will address all these possibilities with the local authorities and peasants. We will also discover the work carried out by the Association Française des Volontaires du Progrès (AFVP) – similar to the UK’s Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

3.2. BRAZIL:

TROPICAL FORESTS PROTECTION

(12/12/03 ‘TIL 12/01/04)

Tropical forests are amongst the most diversified and the most threatened ecosystem in the world. Today, their destruction is carried out at an unprecedented rhythm, and specialists talk about the loss of all its richness by 2100 if we continue like this. During the period 1980-1990, the estimated yearly deforestation rate was 15 million hectares, meaning the equivalent of two football pitches every second. In Brazil, since the government wanted to put value to its territory by opening up the Amazon to colonisation, numerous indigenous cultures have disappeared, decimated by the destruction of their habitat, or through the arrival of new diseases. To this, it can be added the irremediable loss of biodiversity, and the addition of atmospheric carbon, which detrimental effects for climate equilibrium are known. Once in the field our work will be to define what is deforestation and evaluate its causes and consequences. We will see how it is possible to amend the anomalies our species has caused by allowing itself to exploit irrationally the natural resources. When the planetary scale seems to impose itself as the frame for societies survival, this will tak e us back to the question of if it is legitimate for Northern countries to interfere in the debate about tropical forest protection. Located at 200kms northwest Rio de Janeiro, the NGO Iracambi has initiated encouraging actions with concrete results to conserve the Atlantic tropical forest, one of the most threatened habitats. We will see the efforts orientated to educate so as to warrant the integrity of human activities and thus allow responsible revenue from the natural patrimony. Together with other specialists we will see how the system of ecocertification works (system based on internationally recognised ecological, social and economic standards). We will meet those who have chosen to prioritise these alternatives.

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3.3. MEXICO: URBANISATION (10/03/04 ‘TIL 02/04/04)

Half of third-world population lives today in urban areas (in France it is 80%). If the city is a dreamed oasis for many, it also represents in the majority of cases a place of degradation and misery. Mexico, the old Aztec empire, has today 30 million inhabitants. The capital receives every morning 2000 newborn babies, 60,000 in a month, and nearly one million every year. This spontaneous development raises many problems. Overpopulated slums appear on the city’s fringes. The lack of water in some neighbourhood, the atmospheric pollution caused by traffic jams, the insufficient health care assistance, lighting, shortage of schools and health dispensaries have made Jean-Marie PELT say, in its Le tour du monde d’un écologiste, that Mexico city “proliferates in the most complete and regrettable improvisation”. In this context, our objective is to visit again this boisterous city, 20 years after Jean-Marie Pelt’s stopover, so as to see the efforts made since by the authorities, NGOs, enterprises and neighbourhoods associations in pro of a better well-being. We will see if it is legitimate to abandon oneself to the scepticism and discouragement or if, in the contrary, one has to carry on believing in mankind and its capacity to reabsorb the problems it generates. Our research will lead us to the specialists of the EMBARQ programme, from the NGO World Resource Institute. We will address the strategies developed by the city to control urban expansion, transport problems, and waste treatment while providing clean water to its inhabitants. We will also enquire about atmospheric pollution. Thanks to testimonies from charity organisations, we will see how some people give themselves to re-building the social fabric to impulse urban dynamics with new bases.

3.4. INDIA: WATER

RESOURCES

(16/04/04 ‘TIL 10/05/04)

Water is indispensable to life. If industrialised countries achieve, through the use of sophisticated techniques, to assure the quality of this resource, the majority of Third World cities on the contrary, find it difficult to insure its treatment and distribution satisfactorily. Today, 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water, 2.9 billion do not have access to minimum sanitation, and 4 billion do not have access to sewers. In Bombay, metropolis which like tentacles extend over the west Indian coast, the urban demographic explosion, the lack of infrastructures and awareness of sanitary rules all lead to an accentuation of this problem in slums and deprived areas, as they do not have running water facilities. The extent of this phenomenon is such that every year thousands of people die of diverse diseases such as cholera, typhus and gastro-enteritis. The majority of victims are children. How is it possible in such a context, to guarantee a complete and free life to everyone, offering to each access to water in sufficient quality and quantity? The logic of sustainable development

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bringing together economic growth, social progress and ecological balance, can it contribute to such a life quality objective, can it bring to these problems the urgent solutions they require? Thanks to the organisation presided by the doctor Vandana SHIVA, who works essentially to bring awareness and responsibility to women, as well as on Development Alternatives, we shall address the questions related to water treatment and distribution within urban contexts. With other specialists, we will discover the sewage water treatment works. Additionally we will meet the communities who benefit from access to clean water and we will see the ways applied to ameliorate the fate of those least fortunate.

3.5. CHINA: THE THREE GORGE DAM CONSTRUCTION (11/05/04 ‘TIL 11/06/04)

On the Yangtze river, China has initiated the construction of the biggest dam in the world, the Three Gorge Dam, so as to produce the necessary energy for its development, and control the regular man-eating floods. The challenge is huge, it equals the construction of about 15 nuclear power stations. However, dams bring about many controversies. They affect watercourses, impede fish migration, and upset the physionomy and functioning of ecological systems. They also retain the fertile sediments, rich in phosphate which would naturally enrich the floodplains, and under certain conditions they provoke the river’s delta to retreat due to the loss in sediment inputs. The water filling of the dam has started in June 2003. It will finish by 2009. In total 100 villages have been displaced, and over a million people re-located on the infertile and ungrateful slopes of the valley. To gain space, many forest have been cut down, exacerbation erosion problems and the uncertainties linked to lake-reservoir sedimentation. Such construction will make spectre of poverty recoil, and will it resolve all the chronic problems of floods along the river? Faced with all these contradictions about this structure, we will weight the pro and con arguments of this project, placing every time the debate in the sustainable development perspective; model which entails social justice, ecological precaution and economic efficiency. During our journey in this region, we will meet people working on a government and WWF project which aim is to lessen the dam’s negative impacts by combining techniques of reforestation and restoration of humid zones. We will widen our research by including other projects meant at respecting biodiversity at the whole catchment level. Moreover, we have been invited at Beijing’s Popular University where we will deepen these aspects.

3.6. DENMARK: INDUSTRIAL

ECOLOGY

(14/07/04 ‘TIL 01/08/04)

The industrial revolution, initiated at the beginnings of the 19th century, sets off deep transformations in the relationship between mankind and nature.

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The consumption of primary resources at a greater rate than the ecosystem’s capacity to regenerate them has brought the abating of certain resources. Our behaviour has equally generated an increasing production of non-recyclable wastes, and a continuous accumulation of residues in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel combustions. To produce and consume always more disregarding biological realities put our societies at risk, and incompatible with sustainable development objectives. Who would indeed risk to generalise our way of life, knowing that, for example, 6000 nuclear power stations would be needed to cover for the energy needs of the whole world population? The emergence of the industrial ecology brings precisely elements to answer these questions. This concept is applied in Kalundborg eco-industrial estate at 100kms west of Copenhagen. Enterprises there exchange matter (water, vapour, wastes…) and energy (mechanical, electrical, chemical…) and thus reducing their consumption of resources and emission of polluting gases. In some way it is almost like an industrial symbiosis bordering certain ecological associations. In some cases indeed, certain anima or plant species associate themselves to form unities where each individual take advantages of its neighbour. To help us understand these mechanisms, professors of the Danish Technology School will be our first contact. They will then direct us to Kalundborg engineers with whom we shall observe the economic, social and ecological benefits of this modern approach. Approach which favours cooperation rather than competition and which could be announcing a deep change in industrial practices.

4. The team The people around the world are: Marcellin Aubert (aged 22, student at the Ecole Centrale de Paris): As of 1st September 2003 I benefit from a year gap from my engineering studies to participate in this project. Following this, I plan to study “environmental techniques” for a double engineering diploma in Germany, at Stuttgart. Matthieu Birker (aged 23): After a maitrise in public and European Law at the Faculty of Law of the University Nancy II, and a master Protection of Human Rights in Europe at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Européennes of Strasbourg, I am currently dedicating one year to the An vert du monde project, before starting with my PhD. Geoffroy Genay (aged 23): Following a BTS in Forest Management and one year in the ONF’s research and development department at Clermont-Ferrand, I have done a licence in “environmental sciences” at the University of Rouen. I have completed this degree in the United Kingdom, at the University of Hertfordshire, where I have done a master in Ecology. After An vert du monde I will join the Nancy School of Forest Engineers.

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5. ARTICLES L’EST REPUBLICAIN, 10th January 2003 – Translated from French by Ana Mattarollo

“L’an vert du monde” The team of French students which is currently preparing its trip around the world has now been enlarged. Since September, the one year scientific project called “L’an vert du monde” (World’s Back to Front or World’s Green Year) of Marcellin AUBERT, Matthieu BIRKER and Geoffroy GENAY, has made progress (read article “Popularizing sustainable development” in L’EST REPUBLICAIN, 17th September 2002). “Adding our contribution to increasing popular ecological awareness is still our goal”, explains Geoffroy. After having met Jean-Marie PELT, who has accepted with a lot of enthusiasm to become the parrain of this venture, the team has increased its size and is nearly on the point to becoming an association. Ana Mattarollo, young Argentinean girl studying Agricultural Ecology, at the University of Hertfordshire, England, joined the group in order to bring the experience she acquired within an indigenous community and also to share her skills gained while at Amnesty International. Siri Franck, a fourth year Swedish student at L’Ecole centrale in Paris, is going

to work more particularly on the Chinese step of their trip. Aurelle Du Pont de Romémont, a third 3rd year student in Agricultural Engineering, at the ISRA in Lyon, is going to use her relations with Africa in order to work on desertification issues in Mali and ecotourism in Niger, first step of their round the world.

October 2003 June 2004 These young people show great humility and wisdom. “By creating an association, we really hope that the links established in the world can eventually be useful for other people, far beyond our experience”. One point of agreement: not to be tempted by an ethnocentric approach. “Our project will be essentially set up under the light of environment”, confirms Marcellin. After October 2003 and the step in north Mali and in Niger, the direction will be the tropical rain forest of Brazil. “We will approach the ecocertification question of forest management with

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associations, enterprises and NGOs which are over there”, explains Geoffroy. Following Jean-Marie PELT advice, the next step will be Mexico: its urban expansion and its consequences and then, a stop in the Quintina roo state, where an experience of preserving biodiversity while maintaining human activity. An original step is the one of Tuvalu island, near Fiji. “The 11,000 inhabitants are threatened by the regular sea rise level and are reclaiming for an ecological refugee status which does not exist yet in the International right”, explains Matthieu. He is also responsible of the Indian step in Bombay, in a similar scientific approach to the one engaged in Mexico city: in particular, the overpopulation. Two more steps, before they return back in June 2004.

Looking for help The period in China is problematical. A country well known by Marcellin because of the work he has already done. “But we are still missing contacts there. If we cannot go to the gigantic Three Gorges dam

construction, we will probably go and investigate in another dam, on the Mekong, a border river with other Asian countries”. After travelling by the transSiberian train with a stop in Baikal lake (the biggest store of fresh water in the world) the end will come with the European step in Kalundborg in Denmark. “This industrial area is exemplar in the way it integrates and manages in itself all kind of pollutions generated by the activities there undertaken”. Even though the meetings within the different stages are not excluded, contacts with scholar establishments are the priority. The first partnerships have already been established with four different colleges: Baccarat and Blainville, probably the one of Pagnysur-Moselle and the Francillien college of Chatenay-Malabry and Sceaux. In order to raise funds, these young people are asking for multiple types of help. For example, Marcellin the pianist and Mathieu the flutist can play if you ask them to. All the information on their project is available on their electronic mail [email protected] D.L

L’EST REPUBLICAIN, 17th September 2002 – Translated from French by Ana Mattarollo

Popularizing sustainable development Three young men will dedicate one year to discovering the world in the service of the Earth’s future.

Three French ex-school mates from the Lycée Bichat de Lunéville have set as their objective to raise awareness about the necessity of a good management of the Earth’s resources to insure its future. “People’s understanding of the concept of sustainable development is still very vague. We want to put names, faces, actions in front of these abstract words” explains Matthieu Birker, who, after his master in Law, is preparing his PhD in Human Rights. “Our project, called L’An Vert du Monde (World’s Back to Front or World’s Green Year) consists of meeting men and women - the actors of this type of development - in India, Sahara, Brazil, certainly in Egypt, maybe China, where big concrete actions are carried out”, Marcellin Aubert, a fourth year student of L’Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris, has already left his home village for another way of human adventure. Challenge “Four years ago, with Marcellin and another former student, we went to Ukraine by bike, to bring back the testimony of the reality that several of our fellow-citizens ignore”, Geoffroy Genay, the third party, from the village of Charmois, who has just obtained his degree in Environmental Sciences. “Very inspired by Jean-Marie Pelt’s book “Le tour du monde d’un écologiste” (An ecologist’s round world trip), we will prepare this new challenge methodologically. As him we are convinced that reading is not enough, we must act”. Matthieu mentions some examples of the subjects they are considering approaching. “Fresh water management; demographical influences; primary forest disappearance; the consequences of Assouan’s dam in parallel with its equivalent but bigger construction in the Yang-Tse-Kiang river”. Echo Planned for September 2003 until June 2004, their trip will consist of six or seven main stages. “We will work hand in hand with our contacts that we already have in Brazil, in the Indian continent, and those which we are currently building”. Financially, as in Ukraine, sponsorship is part of their project. “In addition to the web site we are preparing to maintain people informed in a daily basis, we are going to offer our services to the media. The idea of making our work heard on a regular basis, through radio or the written press, is still ripening. After this, we will organise conferences. L’Ecole Centrale is very interested in this project”. To add one’s contribution to humanity’s fabric while always conserving a personal approach, this is their real ambition. Utopical attitude? “If at 22 we don’t believe in humankind we will never do so”, ensures Matthieu. Daniel Loppion

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