SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES IN THE CONO SUR

It is high time that the oft-repeated terms of sustainability and future-oriented action be put into concrete terms for the societies of the South and the North. The Rio Conference determined that the North’s model of civilisation, with its overproduction and wasteful consumerism the growth model cannot be made universal. Nonetheless, the model of catch-up development, which is neither sustainable nor future-oriented, continues virtually unabated.

In Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, NGOs and research institutions are, as part of a joint programme supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, developing concrete sustainability in their respective country. In this, the focus must be on the development of an independent Southern perspective, which might employ elements of concepts developed in Europe, but which places these in a Latin American context and adapts them accordingly.

A key aspect of this programme is to provoke and encourage civil-societal debate regarding sustainability and future-oriented action in selected countries of the Mercosur. Concepts of sustainability, relevant suggestions, and a concluding discussion regarding consequences must complement these activities. On the one hand, the process will be networked regionally; it will also occur on a multi-regional level within the scope of a North-South dialogue.