An open meeting was held for Woodcraft Folk members interested in becoming involved with a Steering Group to lead the movement's Education for Sustainable Development programme. About 30 people attended from around Britain and the meeting came up with some great ideas for future projects.

If you would like to know more, CLICK HERE to visit the Steering Group page

CLICK HERE
to visit our news archives and read about everything which happened in the Sust'n'Able project during 2002

Two peer-education projects on sustainability themes have been set up in London. In Boveney District (Lambeth) a project started in the summer with a grant from a local SRB fund in the Youth Service. Six young people came together during the summer to form a management team and to devise a work plan for the project. Help was given from the national office for this part of the work and the group has been meeting every two weeks.

They aim to put on a stage production and ideas for the content have been discussed with some of the Venturer group who, in turn, will be working with a group of 9 – 11-years olds on the production.

The ideas are around the themes of recycling and environmental conservation. The group plan to write songs and choreograph a dance on the theme. They are also looking at news items to help with the work, and hope to build up a play from improvisation.

Not everyone involved belongs to a Woodcraft group and it is hoped that the project will work with a new group of 9 -11 year olds in putting on the production.

One of the group, Jermaine, who has been involved with the technical side of things, has been awarded a further £500 grant to develop a sound system using alternative technology. All the young people involved with the programme are between the ages of 9 - 25 and are all from the inner city area.

Meanwhile, Ealing District in west London are just getting their project off the ground. Despite a disappointment over funding, the group are moving ahead with their plans.

They are currently setting up a steering group made up of Venturers and DFs who will then educate other young people about issues they feel are important - mainly sustainability, the environment and human rights.
Although the project is only in its early stages, the group are optimistic. If the project is successful they hope to get other London DFs involved.

Party for the Planet was a showcase for the Folk’s work on sustainable development and a great opportunity to celebrate the success of our participation in the Johannesburg Summit. The event was organised by

Members of the Midlands Woodcraft Folk open the Party, singing the 'World on a Tightrope' song

the Midlands Council of the Folk and took place in Birmingham.

It was an ambitious plan, Woodcraft Folk would take over the square outside the Council chambers as well as rooms in the Council house, for a day based on sustainability and environmental issues. Thanks to the hard work of Midlands Folk, everything was well organised and all that remained was for people to turn up on the day.

Hannah welcomes everyone to the Party. CLICK HERE to hear her speech.

The programme of the day started with setting up of the various stalls and attractions. These included a story-telling tent, bicycle powered scalextric, sustainability displays from Venturer camp, face painting, re-cycled craftwork, Folk Supply, Midlands Co-op, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Ladywood Credit Union, Amnesty International, United Nations Association, Student Action for Refugees, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, World Wildlife Fund, Trade Justice with Oxfam, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

It was a brilliant set of stalls and attracted lots of passers by and people enquiring about the Woodcraft Folk and also environmental issues.

Pedel-powered 'scalectix' car racing was a popular attraction

Victoria Square thronging with Woodcraft activity

Drum and music workshops - indoors and out

Inside the Council House were workshops run by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) delegation followed by a presentation on their experiences as well as the experiences of Woodcraft members who went as part of the UN Your Wake Up Call delegation.

Woodcraft Folk members and visitors assemble in the Council Chamber

The workshops looked at youth participation, water and sanitation, agriculture, food, biotechnology, and biodiversity and energy. They discussed outcomes from the WSSD, our take on them, how they affected young people and also any other issues in the subject area that people wanted to discuss.

After the workshops there was a quick break for some co-operative games and then into the Council Chamber for the presentation about the WSSD. Julie Thorpe introduced the project, followed by presentations from the delegation members covering points from the International Camp 2001 declaration, how it came up in Johannesburg and what outcomes were decided on. All of the points from our declaration were discussed at some point in Johannesburg which showed how spot on the young people at International Camp were.

Ouside in the sunshine activities continued - visitors are pictured above and below making a model of our ecosystem

There was then a presentation from the people who went as part of Your Wake Up Call, a project organised by of the United Nations Environment and Development Committee in the UK. Their experience of the Summit was different from that of the Woodcraft delegation and gave a useful outlook from another perspective.

The day was a great opportunity for the delegation to feedback to Woodcraft Folk members and was well attended with groups from Newcastle to Bath. It was also excellent for publicity for Woodcraft Folk and most importantly, continued our aim of educating young people about the world they live in – young people from within the Folk as well as outside.

Well done Midlands Council and thank you for a great day!

Many other local organisations had stalls at the Party

A special visitor promoting her Drop the Debt campaign!

The Committee's review is covering:

1. The overall performance and strategy of the UK delegation at the Summit and the degree of involvement and influence of non-governmental stakeholders at the event;
2. How far the UK Government capitalised on the Summit to raise awareness of sustainable development issues at home;
3. How the commitments made at the summit could/should reshape existing UK policies/strategies or act as the catalyst for new initiatives;
4. How far the Government has maintained stakeholder dialogue post-Johannesburg to inform its implementation of Summit commitments;
5. The particular changes to the EU strategy for sustainable development which the UK Government should be advocating when the strategy is reviewed at the Spring European Council in 2003.

Read the Woodcraft Folk's submission:
CLICK HERE for .pdf version (139 Kb)
CLICK HERE for Word .doc version (328 Kb)

The Woodcraft Folk returned to the Greater London Assembly in early November. At the invitation of the Assembly’s Environment Committee, Rhino Johns, Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Rachel Schon gave evidence at the committee’s scrutiny of the Johannesburg Summit. Rhino describes their contribution:

“Our brief was to discuss the implications of the Earth Summit for Londoners. The angle we decided to take was that of youth participation.
“I began by saying we didn’t think the official outcomes were substantial enough for local or national governments to come to any real conclusions or policy decisions. I then went on to say that I was more interested in other outcomes from the summit such as the networking of NGOs and discussions and idea exchanges about grassroots projects around the world.

“I talked about the EcoVillage which we visited in Jo’burg. After a brief description of the project I talked about how involved youth were and how important this was in the successful running of the project as well as in affecting the whole community through young people. In relation to Londoners, I said I thought that community projects such as this are a really good way to get people involved in determining their own future. This can happen in London if young people are given the opportunity to build such projects. It probably wouldn’t be another ecovillage but projects that deal with the need of each individual community.

“Next Lloyd spoke about education as a specific tool towards youth empowerment – how formal and informal education are both vital to increasing young people’s confidence.

“Rachel concluded by talking about how youth was mentioned in Agenda 21 and how the youth caucus worked at WSSD. She then made a case for a GLA youth advisory council.

“We were asked whether we thought any of the summit outcomes were positive. We said there were things to take out of it but the main thing was all the action and networking that was happening alongside the official drafting.

“A second questioner asked how a youth council would be representative because apparently no youth meetings ever see any kind of difference in opinion and all decisions come to immediate consensus. He obviously didn’t read our website while we were in Johannesburg! We did not really get a chance to answer that one as lots of other people chipped in with comments and the chair moved it on.

“After our contribution, David Goode, the Head of Environment at the GLA, spoke. He agreed with our analysis of the Summit process saying that the media reported it as all being a waste of time but the fact that all these civil society groups were there participating was amazing and worth something by itself.

“Nicky Gavron, the deputy mayor, then talked about her time in Johannesburg – meeting the mayor of Johannesburg, going to local government and regional meetings (representing London), and going to the EcoVillage. She talked about the need for joining up all the different things that are going on around London.”

You can watch Rhino, Lloyd and Rachel’s presentation on the GLA’s web site - http://www.london.gov.uk/approot/assembly/webcasts.jsp. Follow the link for ‘Environment Committee, 5 November’ – the Folk’s contribution starts about one hour into the broadcast.