Video / Audio - Livelihoods and Culture
Empowered: Augmenting Livelihood through Renewable Energy
Rajanga and its neighbouring villages had never seen electricity due to their remote locations in the middle of dense forests. In order to electrify such villages in India, an off-grid electricity supply model was developed by TERI. The film highlights a successful model in the heart of a reserve forest in Dhenkanal, managed completely by the community at cluster level and the various livelihood activities generated under the model by the community.
Brazil’s Warrior Women - A Women’s Grassroots Movement for Access to Babassu Oil
The humble babassu palm provides a livelihood for communities of women across North Eastern Brazil. Bread, charcoal, oil and soap are produced from the nut and husk; the surplus is sold on. But production has not always been so peaceful. Babassu: Brazil’s Warrior Women tells the story of the hard battle to maintain these communities’ way of life. In the face of intimidation and threats from farmers for years, Babassu women have negotiated their own terms; creating a grassroots movement and establishing the ‘Free Babassu Law’ in seven states. The law gives landless coconut gatherers rights to collect from palm groves. These inspiring women are now able to plan for the long-term, diversifying their business and securing their future. They fight for their families, their forests and the Amazon as a whole.
BSP Biogas Sector Partnership, Nepal, Domestic biogas
The Biogas Sector Partnership (BSP) in Nepal managed the installation of over 124,000 domestic biogas plants in Nepal between 1992 and 2005. The plants use cattle manure to provide biogas for cooking and lighting. In addition, about 75% of the plants incorporate toilets. About 80% of the 4.2 million households in Nepal use fuelwood, cattle-dung cakes and agricultural residues for cooking, and kerosene for lighting. Demand for fuelwood substantially exceeds the rate of regrowth, and this is leading to degradation of the land and damage to vital watersheds. Cooking indoors over open fires, and lighting with kerosene, gives dangerous exposure to air pollutants and a high risk of fire, particularly for women and young children who spend much of their time indoors. In addition, women and girls have the drudgery of collecting fuelwood, which typically takes three hours each day. The Ashden judges commended this project for the many benefits which it provides. The biogas plants replace nearly all the use of fuelwood, and make cooking easier, cleaner and safer. In 20% of houses biogas provides safer lighting as well. This saving of unsustainable fuelwood use also reduces carbon dioxide emissions. The provision of toilets improves sanitation; and the effluent from the biogas plant is a valuable organic compost. The use of cattle dung to generate biogas is well known in the Indian subcontinent, but in no other place has it been used with such success as in Nepal. The scale of the programme is remarkable. Biogas already serves about one million people (4% of the population of Nepal), and the biogas sector provides about 11,000 permanent jobs in the country. If anyone needed to be convinced that 'small scale can be big' then they need look no further! The Ashden judges also recognised the excellent collaboration between different organisations (BSP, government, construction companies, donors, finance organisations) in order to achieve such outstanding results.
Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation
Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. has developed and installed newly designed ram pumps in 68 hillside villages in the Philippines. They won an Ashden Award in 2007.
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, Bangladesh, solar pv boats
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha was founded in 1998 to help poor, marginalised communities living in the remote Chalanbeel region of Bangladesh to develop sustainable livelihoods. Shidhulai has achieved this by building up a fleet of flat-bottomed boats, all made with locally available materials, that make their way through the shallow rivers and canals of the Chalanbeel to bring a range of educational services and renewable energy supplies to water-side families. The boats use solar PV modules to generate all the electricity they need to provide daily classes in primary education for children, libraries, training in sustainable agriculture, health advice, mobile phone and internet access and battery-charging facilities. Shidhulai has also provided villagers with 13,500 solar-home-systems, 2,500 lanterns and 15,000 bicycle pumps that deliver between 60 and 100 litres of water per minute - enough to irrigate half a hectare of land during the dry season. By putting into practice the agricultural techniques they have learnt on the boats and using the renewable energy devices, farmers have been able to significantly increase their income and reduce the use of synthetic pesticides, with about one third of farmers eliminating their use altogether.
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, Bangladesh, solar pv boats
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha was founded in 1998 to help poor, marginalised communities living in the remote Chalanbeel region of Bangladesh to develop sustainable livelihoods. Shidhulai has achieved this by building up a fleet of flat-bottomed boats, all made with locally available materials, that make their way through the shallow rivers and canals of the Chalanbeel to bring a range of educational services and renewable energy supplies to water-side families. The boats use solar PV modules to generate all the electricity they need to provide daily classes in primary education for children, libraries, training in sustainable agriculture, health advice, mobile phone and internet access and battery-charging facilities. Shidhulai has also provided villagers with 13,500 solar-home-systems, 2,500 lanterns and 15,000 bicycle pumps that deliver between 60 and 100 litres of water per minute - enough to irrigate half a hectare of land during the dry season. By putting into practice the agricultural techniques they have learnt on the boats and using the renewable energy devices, farmers have been able to significantly increase their income and reduce the use of synthetic pesticides, with about one third of farmers eliminating their use altogether.
IBEKA, micro hydro power in Indonesia
Off-grid hydro schemes are bringing the benefits of electricity -- like good quality light, TV and power tools -- for the first time to remote communities in Indonesia, creating new livelihood opportunities and a window on the wider world. The not-for-profit People Centred Economic and Business Institute (IBEKA) is responsible for developing the schemes, which are owned and managed by communities. IBEKA also develops on-grid schemes, which provide an income to communities from selling electricity to the grid. With 61 hydro schemes installed so far, 54,000 people currently benefit and 7,400 tonnes of CO2 a year are being saved.
Land Grabs
What are land grabs? Why are they happening, and what are their impacts? Indigenous communities around the world are seeing their lands threatened by the extractive and agro-industries, by conservation schemes and by tourism developments. This video looks into the scale, drivers, and impacts of the global rush for land. In this video we hear from indigenous peoples from Asia, Latin America and Africa who have first hand experience of the impacts of land grabs.
Women Champions of Buffalo River
This video is about a powerful women-led movement for indigenous land rights, from Loliondo, Tanzania. Without the community’s consent a large part of their lands were occupied. When the women in the community realised that the efforts to defend their territory were failing, they decided to take matters into their own hands. The women used awareness-raising, protests and political pressure to lead a movement in defence of their territory.