Continue reading »]]> Dyfodol (previously the Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development) lost its core funding last year and has sadly had to cease all activities.
We would like to thank the many, many individuals and organisations that over the years helped make Dyfodol a truly exciting, innovative and inspiring organisation. We have had some great times and reached a lot of young people all over Wales, and even as far as Mongolia!
For those of you who are interested in similar work in Wales, please visit www.gwerin.org
For urgent enquiries regarding Dyfodol, please contact annalouisebullen@gmail.com

Continue reading »]]> In the Mid-Wales/Ceredigion area?

We’re making an interactive canteen type set which will get people thinking about food issues, who makes it, how they are treated, the carbon impact of grub, how much food is wasted, etc.  alongside all the things we can do about it!  We’ll need help getting the canteen out to schools…youth groups…festivals…by running workshops, guiding people through the set, dressing up as dinner ladies, working puppets, there’s a job for everyone.  Get involved!  Send us an e-mail kirsti@dyfodol.org or post on facebook that you’re interested so we know to keep you in the loop…

Check out this album of pictures showing the progress of the project…

Continue reading »]]> Spending 3 hours in a ʻsuiteʼ of the millennium stadium in Cardiff could never be called exciting in itself: the sandwiches are pretty gross and you feel like youʼre in the middle of an industrial warehouse. However, if, you were to find yourself there to take part in a consultation with the Welsh Government on their new Sustainable Development (SD) Duty Bill you might just exit feeling as excited as I did.

Yes, this is going to be about Wales. And yes, it will be about Welsh Government.

BUT, it relates to all of us who are interested in issues of SD all around the world

because having a working example of what Government engagement and consultation on issues of SD is invaluable in lobbying other countries to do the same, to rise to the challenge.

Wales is now hailed as the only country with SD written into its constitution (surely this isnʼt true?!), meaning, every member of Government has a basic duty to implement policies in full consideration of SD issues. Ages ago the Government produced this strategy called ʻOne Wales, One Planetʼ which despite my initial nagging scepticism screaming GREENWASH at me, has actually proven to be a serious and comprehensive blueprint of how Wales aims to reduce its footprint on the planet. Amongst many measures which all come under the banner of SD it has included drastic planning changes to how new housing is built in Wales (all new housing stock must be zero carbon after 2015), it has made Wales the leader in waste disposal as 80% of homes in Wales are serviced with regular doorstep recycling and composting facilities, etc etc.

What is the point in creating an SD Duty?

Good Q. And I suppose this was what todays initial consultation was supposed to glean from those outside of government. So far a vision and an aim of the duty have been outlined by the Welsh Government, now it was our turn to contribute our thoughts on the definition of SD, the content of the legislation, the purpose of the duty, and the way in which it should be implemented.

According to the governments discussion paper:

“Sustainable development is our central organising principle. This means that our approach to Government is about:

• Taking decisions that are effective in the long run, and not just over the short term.

• Taking a joined-up approach to Government, ensuring that the economic, social and the environmental issues that enhance people’s quality of life are integrated into everything that we do.

• Working in partnership with others, so that participation and engagement with people, communities, businesses, the third sector, and the public sector in Wales is central to how we make decisions.”

As you might expect there were many different ideas and interests; most people were of a consensus that it needs to be able to hold public sector bodies and businesses to account for breaking the duty, but most of all, it needs to be an incentiviser, a goal setter and the catalyst for dialogue.

The First Minister of Wales announced that the bill to further elaborate on the existing constitutional duty is “…about defining the long term development path for our nation. It means healthy, productive people; vibrant, inclusive communities; a diverse and resilient environment and an advanced and innovative economy.”

The Welsh Government wants to attract business and investment into Wales that wants to be in Wales because of the SD Duty; it wants to create a positive obligation on the Welsh Assembly and the Government, rather than just restricting and regulating everything it does. The best way of putting this duty into practical terms would be to say that it seeks to create a positive mentality rather than a list of tasks and extra bureaucracy that everyone just ticks off but doesnʼt engage with in any way.

That sounds good to me, but will it work? I think the best I can offer is, you donʼt know until you try. With most environmental law that isnʼt regulatory, that is it contains substantive values, it is very new, and so no one can predict the effect accurately but you can at least try and learn from other areas of practice.

Has this ever been done before by a Government?

Thereʼs a great bit of a speech by Welshman Phil Williams talking about Walesʼ SD Constitutional Duty: “In our euphoric moments we claim that we are the only parliament alongside the parliaments of Tasmania who have a constitutional duty to pursue sustainable development. It is a sophisticated Welsh device to always claim to be second or one of two. Anyone can claim to have a unique feature: all you need to do is fail to look anywhere else.”

One environmental lawyer recently said that legislation is needed to create legal duties and monitoring of Sustainable Development, instead of hotch potch good practice springing up here and there. And there certainly are SD Duties of public bodies and councils etc, but not so much on the Constitutional level. Given the supposed longevity and difficulty in amending a countryʼs constitution, this is why such a fuss is being made.

In a different spin on the same issues, Bolivia has enacted laws which make Mother Earth Rights equal to those of human rights. That means that its mineral deposits and natural resources have been redefined as ʻblessingsʼ. This is the spiritual, indigenous peoples version of a sustainable development duty which usually defines peoples, resources and the environment in a very anthropocentric way, this more holistic version considers all entities equal-humans, environment, animals, resources etc. These laws are projected to halt large infrastructure projects, restrict the mining that has created mammoth environmental pollution in Bolivia as well as empowering communities to be involved in decision making and challenging large corporations active in Bolivia. Framed differently this is how I would envisage an SD Duty working in this country.

The other aspect of the Welsh Government which could prove a great addition to an SD Duty is the position of ʻCommissioner for Sustainable Futuresʼ. SD easily slots into the mandate of a future generations commissioner because without SD future generations can expect a much depleted and dirtier future devoid of many things in the natural world that we take for granted today.

I would hesitantly say, that a legal duty that can be prescriptive and specific about how to meet certain requirements/regulations as well as inspire a positive and long term mentality and behavioural change in public institutions through the principles and aims it embodies, will have more capacity to instill long term change than one person (even with their own commission behind them) ever could.

However, the value of having a commissioner on top of a duty is that it is everyones role to implement the duty (so half of the commissionerʼs job is done) leaving the Commissioner free to check up on implementation and possibly seek enforcement actions where the body/person has breached their duty on behalf of future generations. So its time for Welsh youth to swing into action and make the most of this guy, after all he needs a mandate, so lets give him one!

Moving forward, beyond this initial consultation the Welsh Government will be conducting sectoral consultations (e.g forestry, business etc), and hopefully Dyfodol can secure one for young people. As much as I was happy to be there, most young people would have felt that their quality of simply ʻbeingʼ a young person was not enough to bring to the table. It is hard to stand your ground when the person next to you runs a big charity, or the person opposite used to be the Welsh Environment Minister. For a duty that is for the benefit of future generations, and the future of the current generation, there needs to be some creative brainstorming and some serious buy in by those of us whose future in Wales it will affect.

**Watch this space and if youʼre interested in being involved in the youth consultations post a comment below**

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SD workshops at Caerleon Comp School in South Wales

Over the last month or so Dyfodol have been touring around Wales giving workshops on climate change in schools and youth clubs, inspirational speeches, manning stalls and conferences and generally talking to people about climate change and sustainable development!  Check out our facebook page for more photos of what we’ve been up to!

Continue reading »]]> Come along to Dyfodol’s big gathering of the year: this is where everyone gets together to talk about all things Dyfodol – our future, what we’re good at, how we’re doing.  There are some big changes on the horizon for us, so we need to get as many people, new and old along to shape our future. We’ll be doing some stuff too, like hearing about Project Mongolia – what the group did out there, and all the stuff that’s still to come from the project, sharing skills, workshops, having fun, and enjoying some free food…! Dyfodol can pay for your bus and train tickets.

Date: Fri 11th – Sun 13th November

Location: Llangollen Hostel, Denbighshire.  If you want to come email gwenlli@dyfodol.org or let us know on facebook

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TWM

I wonder what I’d be doing if I weren’t on this trip. I’m fairly I wouldn’t be writing this, watching the Polish countryside on a sleeper from Moscow to Cologne. Whatever I’d be doing, it certainly wouldn’t have been as rewarding, productive or as memorable as this trip.

Memorable is certainly the word when describing some of the things we’ve been doing. One in particular is the last workshop we gave to school children in Bulgan, roughly 10 hours from Ulaan Baatar. I felt that that workshop was the ideal thing to present to those children, eventhough we had to adapt the workshop a lot in order to present it outside with the beautiful mountain backdrop. For me that showed us that we could think on our feet and adapt to any situation. I also felt that the group was a unit reliant on each other whenever any of us needed help.

Though there were some moments where that group dynamic was off. These tended to happen when one of the group felt left out or felt unsupported in some way, when these feelings became apparent they permeated through the group and really flattened the group dynamic. I think this proves how close we are as a group. Though we have all come from different backgrounds, we’ve all come together complementing our differences and relishing our similarities.

Ipso facto, in conclusion, I feel like I can use the skills I’ve learnt and developed on this trip to tell our story not only after getting off the train but to use it to help future generations to create their own stories.

ANTHONY

I am really happy I came on the trip. It has been a great way to spend a month; I’ve enjoyed delivering workshops even though we had minimum time to prepare. It has been a a pleasure to be part of the group even when we were stuck on a train for 8 days and shared a room with everyone for the duration of our stay in Mongolia. I hope I can stay involved with Dyfodol. Mongolia is an amazing country with many religious beliefs. It was a pleasure to experience the nomadic life and ride horses, play chess, see the palace, meet Green bell, visit museums, go to the traditional music concert, meet the Minister, meet the nomadic children and much much more.

Continue reading »]]> My first experience of the palace of Bogd Khan was stepping off the bus and seeing a small but beautiful building which immediately gained my respect. There was a ticket booth in the corner and while Chimgee, our Mongolian friend from Greenbell, got the tickets I watched as three men who looked like monks made repairs to the outside walls.

When Chimgee got the tickets we made our way to the entrance which was along a see-through fence. As we walked in Chimgee, who guided us through the palace, informed us that the grand stone which I thought was maybe a gravestone turned out to be a stamp that all Mongolian palaces had to have. A pretty big stamp (definitely first class!). The stamp was on the left of a grass filled court yard and the path that led up to it turned right 90° and led up to the first of two grand entrances. The first entrance was made out of wood as was the whole palace. It had three different entrances; one main and bigger entrance in the middle and two smaller entrances. The main entrance was for the Khan, his noble men and warriors with the public and servants going through the entrances either side of the main entrance.

Immediately after we came across the same set up again only this time it had doors and was much grander. The roofs were designed beautifully, the main colour scheme was red, golden yellow and green. We walked through the right public door and the area of the palace opened out; thats when I realised it was more than just one building, but a mix of buildings, courtyards and gardens. I walked through a room in similar style to the entrance but with only one entrance; it was a small room and either side there were two grand statues; I remember one side it was the king and queen but I was unsure what the other two statues were. When I walked through the other side of the door there was a courtyard with these amazing red buildings with green roofs. Making the border of the courtyard there was a path in the shape of a cross going to each door.

There were three courtyards almost symmetrical to this and a few of the group got confused as to which rooms we had been in. The rooms had been transformed from meditation rooms to museums. We toured through all the red and green building and they were all separated into three rooms with red panel doors. Inside the rooms there was impressive sewing design’s of Buddha and other religious characters, each one of them telling a story in itself. There were also more statues that showed great Mongolian craftsmanship. This was repeated through three more similar and almost symmetrical courtyards .

It was very impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We walked through the exit and there was a large white rectangular building with royal windows. The ground was set up the same with a path cutting through the grass and up to the building. I could also see three large bowls as I got closer and I was informed the bowls were to cook for 1,000 plus monks who stayed in the grounds. Just after the bowls was an entrance to the building which was the Bogd Khan’s winter house. In the palace it was also like a museum. We walked up some stairs; there was lots of history in this building as well as the Bogd Khan’s wife’s afternoon bed; there was also a ger covered in white leopard skin, a selection of stuffed animals, a lion, a leopard, a cheetah with a baby deer in its mouth and a zebra. I was really impressed with the stuffed animals and didn’t’ expect to find them in the Bogd Khan palace. A really impressive room had to be unlocked and contained the Bogd Khan’s magnificent gowns, the royal crown, and it also had some of the queen’s gowns.

We left the building the same way we came in and left through a door which brought us back to the ticket booth. We had a few pictures by the exit and got on the minibus and travelled to the view point where you can see most of the long city of Ulaan Baatar.

We pulled up in the car-park, the view from there was pretty good it was a bit like a kissing point, like you see on movies. At first I didn’t realise it but there was a load of stairs behind us going up above the UB skyline. I set off for the stairs before anyone else. At the bottom there was a gift shop and a man with an eagle who you could pay to have a picture with, but I went straight past them and up the stairs. I tested myself and ran up them passing many Mongolians and tourists on the way; I stopped half way up for a look it was a brilliant view then I ran to the top where the view only got better. There was a big monument at the top surrounded by circular walls; the monument and walls were built by Russians after the second world war because the Mongolians helped the red army fight Germany and Japan. It had been defaced by graffiti and had signs of wear and tear but the view was immense I took a few pictures and walked back down the stairs where I met Kyle who had bought a fox fur hat. We waited 10 minutes got on the minibus and headed back to UB.

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We got up at 4am, and were ready and waiting outside in the cold by 5am for our minibus.  We were setting off for Bulgan, approximately 500km north of Ulaan Baatar, into the countryside to meet with a school and stay with a nomadic herder family. All a bit tired, but excited about what was ahead.

For me I felt like we were heading into ‘real’ Mongolia. This was one of my dreams to stay with true nomads and get a very small taste of their life.

What was supposed to be a 5 hour journey turned into a 9 hour journey as our rather old and tired minibus struggled up the climbs of the mountains. As we headed out of UB the sun came up behind us to slowly reveal mountains, gers (Mongolian yurt, pronounced geir) spotted amongst them, and scatterings of horses and other stock.  Most of the bus slept, while Kirsti and I sat up front capturing as much as we could on camera, each occasionally sleeping for a few moments, only to be woken by the other’s gasp and nudge as we spotted a new sight. By the end of our journey we had seen more horses than I have seen in my whole life (there are 15 horses to every person in Mongolia), cows (often wandering along the road, often very nearly missed by our minibus), a pack of vultures (still trying to find out what the collective noun for vultures is – does anyone know?), eagles, ground squirrels, and yaks. By the end of the weekend we had added camels to this, the Mongolian Bactrian camel, a two humped, shaggy coated beast, still used by the nomadic herders to carry their worldly goods when on the move.

After 9 long and very hot hours we eventually pulled off the road onto a dirt track where we were met by 3 minibus loads of very excited children. We formed a convoy of minibuses and sped cross country deeper and deeper into the wilds of Mongolia it seemed. Our poor old minibus struggled to keep up with their more superior ones, struggling to see our way in the cloud of dust left behind the ones in front, and swerving to stay on the  slightly treacherous track; most of us being flung about the bus, once so extremely that Kyle managed to break the plastic covering on the ceiling of the bus with his head (I didn’t think of that one in the risk assessment!).

We arrived at our destination at about 4 o’clock, 4 hours later than planned, but no-one seemed to mind. We were in the small community of the north Sum of Bulgan, a collection of wooden shack type houses, some gers and what looked like a large wooden shed, which was in fact the community centre in which our lunch awaited us – the traditional milk tea and ‘broth’ (a bit like Welsh cawl but with less veg). The vegetarians, vegans and milk intolerant amongst us politely passed our food on to others, and discretely slipped outside for a meat-free picnic.

After lunch we set off with the group to a large open space. Our workshop had been prepared with a classroom and projector in mind, so again the group quickly adapted on the spot and delivered a brilliant workshop in the most beautiful setting with some of the most enthusiastic kids I have ever come across. It was a huge success and at the end the children sang to us, in return demanding entertainment from us, so the boys sang and Rosie danced. As the sun went down we picnicked with the kids and adults and shared our stories. Gifts were exchanged and we left for out next adventure, armed with a selection of very strong smelling dairy products.

By now it was virtually dark, and we were off again over the treacherous terrain in our mini bus, this time in search of the gers that were going to house us for the night. Our guide impressively navigated his way across country with no obvious signals as to which way we should be going, his knowledge of the landscape was incredible, even in the dark.

Eventually we pulled up at a small group of gers, and were ushered inside one. Melody had been informing us all of the do’s and don’ts of ger life. Do walk around the inside of the ger in a clockwise direction, don’t talk for too long in your own language, don’t step on the wooden threshold as you enter and leave, do wait to be directed by the head of the household on where to sit, do sleep with your feet pointing towards the door, don’t lean against the support column, don’t touch another persons hat (?!), the list goes on. In light of this there was naturally a slight nervousness as we entered the ger. The head of the household did direct us where to sit, and then as he staggered back to his place explained (with translation) that he was a little dizzy as he’d had a few friends round and they had been drinking the famous airag (fermented mares milk)!

The moment we had all (except for Robin) been dreading arrived as the bowl of airag (fermented mare’s milk) was passed our way. I had managed to avoid the milky tea (milk with salt and a film of grease on top – yum!) earlier in the day, but knew there was no getting away from this. I closed my eyes and tried not to breathe as I swallowed (yep, totally gross), and then passed it on quickly.

Fortunately soon after this the girls were taken to their ger, and we left the boys with the other boys and a vat of airag. We were to stay with a woman and her daughter, who’s names I ashamedly cannot begin to pronounce, let alone write here.

And so, 11 women, of varying ages, from different parts of the world and very different lives, speaking different languages, all spent a night together in a ger in what felt like the middle of nowhere.

We were welcomed into a strangers home with incredible warmth, but also as if this was the most normal thing in the world, to have 9 visitors stop by for a sleepover.  The ger was beautiful inside, a round room, of probably about 16 foot diameter, that contained all of the family’s belongings. The structure consists of wooden trellising for the walls and a beautifully carved and painted central ceiling piece, like a cartwheel, with lots of poles going between this and the wooden trellising, and two central support pillars, to hold the ger up, then covered in felt (insulation) and canvas. Opposite the door (which always faces south) is the most important area of the ger, known as the khoimor; it houses a piece of furniture which acts as an altar, housing family photos, images of the buddha and other sacred objects. This is also the place where the head of the household sits, unless guests are invited by him/her to sit there instead. There were two beds, one on either side, some cabinets and a kitchen area to one side of the doorway. In the middle was a large wood burner, roaring away. Around the walls and ceiling the families possessions are tucked between the canvas and the wooden trellising and poles, anything from toothbrushes to books to horse equipment. As well as this, chunks of raw meat hung from the walls, a large bucket of meat sat between Rosie and I, and by the door sat the head of a sheep that I presume the rest of the meat had been taken from. They certainly don’t waste any of it. Time to get over my squeamishness about raw meat.

Eventually we snuggled down, most of us on the floor round the fire, all squeezed in closely providing each other with a bit of body warmth. It was the best night sleep I had had since leaving home.

I awoke early in the morning to the sound of the fire being lit. It was really early, but a bit like on the journey out here, I was so excited by this experience, I was not going to go back to sleep. The door was open and I looked out across a vast landscape with mountains in the distance. Time to get up and make the most of this extraordinary experience.

A little while later the cows had been herded and it was milking time. The milk is brought straight into the ger to begin the various processes of tea making, yoghurt making and curd making. Every drop is used, nothing wasted.

Next breakfast is underway -  a noodle soup with meat from their own sheep and some potato and cabbage (vegetables are delivered from the village where we had been the day before). I have to say, this is the only time in 23 years of vegetarianism that I have been in the slightest bit tempted to eat meat.

But I didn’t.

But if I was going to, this would be the way I would do it. These people rear their animals in a humane way, and then kill them themselves, and by the looks of things use every single part of the animal; I can fully accept meat eating in this context, I just couldn’t face actually eating it myself.

My time with these nomadic herders was brief, but affected me enormously. These people have a very very small impact on the world. They live a simple existence, only taking what they need, and nothing more. They live in a truly sustainable manner. They are also completely dependent on the environment and its elements. They described how climate change is making their winters much colder – and not cold in the sense we think of cold in the UK – this is seriously cold; -40° plus wind chill factor and getting colder. This is making the nomadic existence harder and harder to maintain, in fact impossible for many of them. 50% of Mongolia’s stock has been lost in the last 5 years due to increasingly cold winters. When a herder looses their stock, they have lost everything except their home, they have lost their livelihood.  They have nothing else to live on, and there is no benefits system to fall back on. They have no choice but to move away from everything they have ever known and set up their ger on the edges of Ulaan Baatar, which is causing a whole load more problems. But that’s another story.

I know that our actions, predominantly in the west, are affecting others all around the world. I have been aware of that for a long time, I wrote a PhD on it, I have worked for 10 years with young people spreading the message and trying to encourage them to change their lifestyles to reduce the impact. But it’s not until you are there, with those people who’s lives we are impacting on that you really get it.

The nomadic herders in Mongolia are just a few of the many victims of climate change.

They have the smallest carbon footprint, but are being the most affected by others’ footprints. Spending this brief amount of time with them, really brought home the damage that humans’ greed is doing. Because it is basically greed that is causing most of the problems. These people are kind, loving, hard working, with very strong families and communities, no social problems, and most noticeable of all, they are incredibly happy. Yet they have none of the material items that we in the west, and increasingly elsewhere in the world, convince ourselves we need. They live in extreme conditions for a substantial part of the year. They are completely dependent on elements totally out of their control, like the weather. If only more of us could adopt some of their principles and ways of being.