"The best time to plant a tree is
always twenty years ago.
And the second-best time
is always now."
Chinese Proverb
LINK ... https://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/mm0795.08.html
Typically LANDcare launches projects that allows members to submit Expressions of Interest (EOIs) outlining projects they want to deliver - from habitat restoration to weed control, dam improvements and community education. Once approved, these projects are listed on a website, ready to be matched with grants, partnerships, or new funding opportunities. It’s an effective system that helps small ideas grow into fully funded, on-ground outcomes, while also enabling members to showcase their projects and connect with others interested in similar initiatives. While all such projects are laudable they compete for funding with some (many?) falling by the wayside.
LANDlieracy might well fall outside such funded projects in that, at their best, they inform day to day LANSuse initiatives and oftentimes involve contesting the purposefulness of authority funded, TOPdown, ideologically driven, initiative that all too often serve the maintenance of the investment oriented status quo.
LANDlieracy arguably functions best, or better, when structured rhizomatically given that under such modelling there are multiple engagement and disengagement points. Rhizomatic refers to a non-hierarchical, interconnected network structure that allows any point to connect to any other, operating without a central authority or linear, top-down organisation. Coined by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, it describes systems that grow horizontally, similar to roots like bamboo, asparagus, and ginger, emphasising multiplicity, change, and adaptability.
In LANDliteracy's case it refers to 'placedness' and CULTURALlandscaping where people belong to places rather than in the INVESTMENTparadigm where 'place ownership' and fiscal dividends are paramount. LANDliteracy's speaks of social and cultural dividends!
KERALA:
Geographically a leader in sustainable land use management & LANDliteracy
Resource mapping Kerala's most innovative development effort is the People's Resource Mapping Program, which mobilizes villagers to inventory their resources on maps. These homemade maps are combined with scientific maps to guide environmentally sound local planning discussions of the long-term consequences and short-term gains of resource use. KSSP activists see the project as a logical extension of the total literacy campaign: the People's Resource Mapping Program is an attempt to create land literacy.
Because they see poverty and inequality as threats to sustainability, activists are suspicious of large-scale central plans that are drawn up in the national and state capitals. They put their faith in local landowners, arguing that they know area resources best and are better able to judge which land-use practices or inputs will improve land productivity. Collective action of villagers, with input from scientists, the activists contend, offers the best hope for promoting socially and ecologically sustainable land-use practices.... continued
KERALA MODELLING
HISTORY OF KERALA CLICK HERE & HERE
VIDEOS
END NOTE: While political parties often take credit for the 'Kerala Model,' the state's success actually stems from a multi-layered history. Pre-independence, the Maharajas of Travancore were visionaries who institutionalized free education and higher learning. Christian missionaries later expanded this by building a robust network of schools and hospitals. Post-independence, it was 'Gulf Money,' rather than local industry, that fueled prosperity. One could argue that without the safety net of the Indian Union, Kerala’s focus on welfare spending over industrial growth would have rendered the state’s economy unsustainable, like many other communist countries.
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