Vandana Shiva - Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth

Praise for Reclaiming the Commons

If you ever wondered what a Saint would look like in our modern era, search no further. Vandana Shiva has emerged as one of the globes most effective advocate for family farmers, the poor, safe, nutritious food, dignified communities, humane working conditions, democracy, and biodiversity. Her profound spiritual dimension forms the platform for her ideals, and gives her the resilience to withstand daily slanders, vilification, and censure from the global power centers. She risks her life, safety, and freedom in a fierce struggle against the Chemical Cartel: tyrannical governments and the homicidal corporations conspiring in tandem to privatize the commons, commoditize the planet, subjugate its people, and to censor dissent.

In her new book, Reclaiming the Commons, Vandana argues that the commons, the shared assets of communityair, water, wildlifeform a social safety net for the poor, and provide the essential foundation stone for dignified, democratized, communities. Vandana brilliantly and pragmatically lays out the philosophical and logistical underpinnings of her battle to preserve the commons as public asset, and to protect them from privatization by the wealthy, authoritarian elite.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Environmental Lawyer, Activist

A powerful, deeply moving call to rethink the very way we understand life, including our own. We will protect and, ultimatelysavelife on this planet only as we experience ourselves in relation to allonly as we move from the manufactured fear of scarcity to fall in love with the majesty our connectedness. Reclaiming the Commons is about reclaiming ourselves. I love this book.

Frances Moore Lapp, author of Diet for a Small Planet Co-founder of Small Planet Institute, Cambridge, MA

As she has, nonstop for 30 years, Vandana Shiva has done it again. Reclaiming the Commons is a vital political aid to a magnificent local resistance movement in India. At a crucial moment in history, as a handful of corporations are aggressively seeking ultimate control over worldwide agricultural resources and products, Shiva steps forward and leads the movement to block their incursions, both globally, and notably in her native India, where corporatists powers seek full take-over.

Shiva brilliantly articulates what is at stake in the battle between two paradigms, that of an age-old system based on local community rights, and the outrageous over-reach of global corporations seeking invasion and control of local systems, notably food and agriculture. This is a profound and disturbing book by one of the most powerful global voices on these matters. It is a vital and illuminating work; timely and profound.

Jerry Mander, author of Paradigm Wars Founder and President, International Forum on Globalization

VANDANA SHIVA

Foreword by Ronnie Cummins

with the Navdanya Team

Anugrah Bhatt Prerna Anilkumar Neha Raj Singh

Copyright 2020 by Vandana Shiva

Foreword copyright 2020 Ronnie Cummins

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

Published by Synergetic Press 1 Bluebird Court, Santa Fe, NM 87508 & 24 Old Gloucester

St. London, WC1N 3AL England

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shiva, Vandana, author.

Title: Reclaiming the commons : biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and the rights of Mother Earth / Vandana Shiva ; foreword by Ronnie Cummins with the Navdanya Team, Anugrah Bhatt, Prerna Anilkumar, Neha Raj Singh.

Other titles: Enclosure and recovery of the commons

Description: [New edition]. | Santa Fe : Synergetic Press, [2020] | New edition of: The enclosure and recovery of the commons : biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and intellectual property rights / Vandana Shiva ... [et al.]. New Delhi : Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, c1997. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020019730 (print) | LCCN 2020019731 (ebook) | ISBN 9780907791782 (paperback) | ISBN 9780907791799 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Ethnobotany--India. | Ethnoscience--India. | Biodiversity--India. | Ethnobotany. | Ethnoscience. | Biodiversity.

Classification: LCC GN635.I4 E53 2020 (print) | LCC GN635.I4 (ebook) | DDC 304.2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019730

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019731

Cover and book design by Ann Lowe

Managing Editor: Amanda Mller

Printed by Versa Press, USA on 55# Tradebook Cream

Typeface: Adobe Caslon Pro and Caslon Antique

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TO THE INDIGENOUS AND TRADITIONAL COMMUNITIES who are dependent upon biodiversity and are jointly experts in the crucial biodiversity knowledge that we need for the future of humanity and all species. Who live in the commons through commoning; who have freely shared their innovation and creativity with others; who have engaged in a struggle to protect this culture of caring, sharing, and who resist the enclosure of the biodiversity and Intellectual commons, and to our small farmers who have been seed savers, breeders, and conservers of millennia, keeping alive the Seeds of Life, the Seeds of Hope, and the Seeds of Freedom.

TO CHAKRAVARTY RAGHAVAN, editor of SUNS, earlier head of PTI, who woke me up to GATT in 1987; To Shri SP Shukla who as GATT Ambassador defended Indias sovereignty, and continued to lead the Peoples campaign on WTO after retirement; To the late Shri Keayala who created the National working on Patent Laws and worked tirelessly with the Government and Parliament to ensure TRIPS implementation put India and her civilization values first; To the late Shri Chaturan Mishra, then Agriculture Minister, who invited me to be part of the Expert group on Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Rights Act as a sui generis alternative UPOV; To Shri Suresh Prabhu who as Environment Minister, and Shri BP Singh, Secretary of Environment, invited me as an expert to draft The Biodiversity Act of India; To the late Justice Krishna Iyer who guided us at every step on earth jurisprudence and the commons; To the all-party parliamentary group who ensured that Article 3, including 3(j), clearly defined what are not inventions; and to all colleagues who have continued to defend Indias sovereignty with creativity, consistency, and clarity.

This book is a product of a collective and cumulative effort.

It was first published in 1997 as The Enclosure and Recovery of the Commons and was used widely in the national and international debates on biodiversity and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). The new edition is being published in 2020. Much has happened in twenty years, many laws we were working towards to protect our biodiversity and were proposing in 1997 are now in place.

The Navdanya team has also changed over the last two decades. However, our dedication to resist the enclosures of the commons and creatively recover the commons has remained unchanged. To build and strengthen the struggle of our people to live peacefully and sustainably, with true abundance that comes from biodiversity.