Description du projet
Des stratégies efficaces dans le secteur privé au profit du bien-être humain
Il est urgent de refaçonner les effets des investissements agricoles, de l’utilisation des terres et du commerce sur le bien-être humain. Les concentrations inégalées dans les chaînes de valeur agroalimentaires accroissent les inégalités dans le monde, et l’accaparement des terres menace la vie de millions de personnes. Il est donc nécessaire que le secteur privé élabore des stratégies pour protéger et améliorer le bien-être humain de manière équitable, mais les connaissances scientifiques actuelles ne nous permettent pas de déterminer quelles sont les stratégies les plus efficaces et comment remédier à leurs limitations. Le projet COMPASS, financé par l’UE, analyse une série de stratégies émanant du secteur privé, telles que les entreprises inclusives, les systèmes de certification et les économies solidaires, en vue de développer une grille d’analyse permettant de déterminer comment la reconnaissance de la justice environnementale dans ces stratégies est susceptible de soutenir ou d’entraver le bien-être humain.
Objectif
Unprecedented concentration in agri-food value chains is reinforcing global inequality. Waves of land grabbing threaten the livelihoods of millions. Reshaping the effects of agricultural investment, land use, and trade on human well-being is thus an urgent challenge. Certification schemes (CS) such as “Fairtrade” have become a common strategy to meet this challenge. However, accumulating evidence shows that many CS have limited effects on well-being. Inclusive business (IB) and solidarity economy (SE) strategies are emerging alternatives. Inclusiveness and solidarity are widely believed to enhance well-being, but evidence and theories disprove this common belief. Environmental justice may be a necessary condition to understand and reshape the effects of CS, IB, and SE on well-being. However, lack of reliable data and comparative analyses limits understanding of these links. COMPASS will tackle these challenges. This project aims to demonstrate how environmental justice influences the effects of CS, IB, and SE strategies on human well-being. COMPASS is organized in four work packages (WPs) and focuses on the cocoa and coffee sectors of Peru and Switzerland. WP1 surveys organizations (n=120) to compare their instruments used in CS, IB, and SE strategies. WP2 surveys households (n=840) and uses set-theoretic and process-tracing methodology to explain the effects of CS, IB, and SE on well-being. WP3 identifies the rules that organizations (n=18) create to regulate land use, investment and trade, assesses their environmental justice, and explains how they influence well-being. WP4 generates context-sensitive generalizations of these effects, and it tests and advances pertinent theories. COMPASS breaks new ground by systematically comparing CS, IB, and SE strategies and their effects on human well-being. It develops a new strand of environmental justice research on private-sector strategies and it tests the transformative potential of environmental justice.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
3012 Bern
Suisse