Bolivia blog 7: Moving forward, looking back

As I write, I’m on the bus, heading north from Cochabamba on the long road to La Paz. Saying goodbye to Cochabamba, after two very different but equally inspiring conferences back to back – the ten year anniversary of the water wars and the People´s Conference – as well as meeting so many amazing people, feels like quite a pull. But at the same time I know that many of the connections and ideas that have come about in Cochabamba will last long beyond the time I have spent here.

The eight hour bus trip seems like a opportunity to reflect on the past few days. I’ve been on the bus for four hours now. The journey began with hints of lush green shrubs and plants clinging to the landscape. ‘Lush green’ should be usual at this time of the year, as the rainy season is just drawing to a close. But, as many people have told me since I arrived, not much rain fell this year, and the land is dry. As the scorched hills role past, the midday sun burns through the window and down on the deep red earth. We pass by parched rivers, and animals struggling to drink from evaporated lakes. The road, though a main highway connecting two major cities, is little populated. From the bus, Many of the adobe mud houses scattering the landscape, seem abandoned. Of course, as an onlooker whizzing past, it’s hard to know for sure, but I’ve heard many times in the last few days that increasing numbers are leaving from the countryside for the city as like for the campasinos gets harder, water drying up and crops failing.

After the cumbre, most people I spoke to thought they would collapse for at least a short while. Over a week of long days, followed by nights of little sleep as raised heart beats from the altitude, and the whirling minds that accompany spending time with so many inspiring people, had made it hard to stop still, even to sleep, for more than a few hours at a time during the cumbre. This should have left everyone feeling at least a little weary. But each time we sat down with the intention of letting go, the conversations continued. What next? What did this gathering of people mean, for Bolivia and beyond? How would it be perceived by the outside world? Could the submission of a people’s declaration into the UN process have any impact on the UNFCCC process which has so far utterly failed the people for nearly twenty years? And, significantly, what would this mean for the movement for the emerging movement for climate justice?

A meeting of the Climate Justice Now! Network, the first since Copenhagen, highlighted the stark difference between these two processes. The final statement summed it up well:

CJN! Celebrates and supports the emergence of an alternative, inclusive global voice on climate change from that conference, including the outcomes of the 17 formal working groups as well as the unofficial "group 18." While summary documents may not represent all the positions or priorities of our member organizations, the overall outcomes from Cochabamba, and the vast participatory process that produced them, have created a large and growing alternative voice and process to the undemocratic, illegitimate and scientifically insufficient "Copenhagen Coup," officially known as the Copenhagen Accord. Whatever happens in Cancun this December, the Cochabamba process will continue to grow and coalesce to bring the people's voice to the front of the global stage on climate change. Meanwhile, the principles and priorities articulated by working groups will inform our concrete action around the world, to make the structural changes we know to be necessary to solve the climate crisis with equity, and in time. We invite governments to recognize this new emerging leadership and join forces with us on the road to real and just solutions."

You can read the statement created by the People´s Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights here.

As Evo Morales said in his closing speech, the next battle is to "win the war of ideas". And there are many people ready to take this forward, both on a national level in Bolivia and all around the World.