ETHICALLY TRADED FURNITURE AND HANDCRAFTS

FAIR TRADE FOR OUR WORLD

It’s not often that a campaign comes along which aims to tackle not one but two of the major problems facing the world.  So when it does, we should pay attention!

May is the month when a Global Day of action and awareness raising takes place, which is campaigning for both environmental and trade justice.  World Fair Trade Day (Saturday 10th May) is running this year under the banner ‘Fair Trade For Our World’, which is a pretty unarguable concept, and is based on the premise that fighting poverty and alleviating climate change aren’t alternatives – but vital aspects of policy that can lead to sustainable development for us all – hence the ‘our world’ bit of the strapline.

Organised by the International Fair Trade organisation (IFAT) and the Network of European Worldshops (NEWS), World Fair Trade Day is taking place on every continent, and is calling on consumers, politicians and campaigners to support efforts to minimise the negative impacts on the environment whilst at the same time fighting global poverty through trade.

It’s this last bit which sets it apart from being a worthy but ultimately aimless campaign to being something which everyone can really get behind.  Sustainable development through trade – in other words helping fight poverty not by giving handouts, but by trading fairly in a relationship in which both sides win.

The environmental aspect is interesting.  In the southern hemisphere, where 1.1 billion people are living in absolute poverty, many are also living under harsh climatic conditions: natural disasters such as storms, droughts and floods threaten lives directly.  It is in the developing countries of the southern hemisphere where climate change will strike with the greatest effect.

And yet these communities also have the lightest environmental footprint, even though it is their food security, homes and livelihoods which are most threatened by environmental destruction.  So climate change – like trade – becomes a matter of justice and fairness between North and South.

Promoting fair trade also promotes development and the fight against poverty.  And because this kind of trading works in long-term relationships, and is committed to paying a fair price, it enables partner s in the developing world to invest in environmentally friendly production – hand crafts, organic agriculture and the use of recycled materials, for example, as well as production methods which are not capital or oil intensive.

Fair Trade For Our World, promoted on World Fair Trade Day, is about trying to get the message across that this kind of trading is beneficial to us all, and will help make our world more sustainable.,  Can we afford not to take notice?

• Here’s a practical way you can help: in the UK, the British Association of Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS) is trying to target every member of Parliament to ask them to support Fair Trade organisations in their push to change global trade rules to put people and the planet before profit.  You can request a postcard to send to your MP on the BAFTS website at www.bafts.org.uk.