ELARD, ERCA, PREPARE and Polish Rural Forum signed the Rural Peoples Declaration on Thursday, the 15th of September. Unlike earlier declarations, this one states, quite strongly, that it is time to find another development paradigm than that of unlimited growth. ” I am especially happy about this last paragraph, since this is something new in our declarations, and I believe many of us have been thinking about it for a while. It is time to implement a new paradigm that is more robust. We need to get back to local development from our own land, our own ressources. Growth and globalisation has also served us good, but there are indeed some very disturbing problems that we cannot ignore anymore, given the situation that we are in today with gallopping energy and escalating inflation. Our climate is certainly also not well served from unlimited growth. The time has come to find a new paradigm, to find out what lies beyond unlimited growth. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come!” saus Marion Eckardt, president of ELARD.
ELARD, ERCA and PREPARE have together taken on responsibility for the ERP, and last gathering was hosted from the Polish National Rural Network in cooperation with the local LAG and Polish Rural Forum. Around 400 people from 39 countries participated and the declaration has derived from the participants. However a more detailled manifesto willl still be prepared in the wake of the conference.
Now the steeringgroup together with youth coordinators and host, are working on the manifesto and other reports from the meeting that xthey plan to present i Brussels in January.
Read the whole declaration here http://elard.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Declaration-signed-5th-gathering-ERP.pdf
