Banane

Welcome!

The organic banana that brought you here was locally grown in Magé, Brazil.

"Organic," "local" and "fair trade" are examples of the kinds of labels and certifications discussed in the Certified Green panel that you just attended.

They are also major preoccupations of our organization, Quebec, Canada-based environmental group, Equiterre.

Mission

Equiterre helps build a social movement by encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to make ecological and equitable choices, in a spirit of solidarity.

Based in Quebec, Canada, but active in the world

Equiterre has been active at the international level since its founding by a group of young activists after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

• At the discussion panel, you may have met Steven Guilbeault, our cofounder and deputy executive director, who has attended many U.N. climate change conferences on our behalf, including last year’s conference in Durban, South Africa, where we organized a panel discussion on sustainable transportation.
• Steven also co-chairs Climate Action Network International, a network of more than 700 non-governmental organizations from more than 90 countries.
• In 2007, our cofounder and executive director Sidney Ribaux received a fellowship from Ashoka, an international organization that recognizes and supports social entrepreneurs.
• Last year, in honour of the 15th anniversary of our community supported agriculture (CSA) program, we published a book on organic basket schemes, which has since been distributed in French-speaking Europe and Africa.
• In the past year, we took part in the Paris leg of an E.U. tar sands lobby busting tour, received a Greek member of E.U. Parliament and met with U.N. right-to-food envoy Olivier De Schutter.
• Every year, we welcome interns from around the world. Last year’s interns hailed from as far afield as France, Mexico and Iran (by way of Sweden.)

But one of the main ways we are active internationally is fair trade

Equiterre helped pioneer the fair trade movement in Quebec in 1996. Now most Quebecers would be hard pressed to remember a time when fair trade products were not readily available. Today, we are still involved in the movement, which continues to find new ways to address issues of poverty, the environment and North-South inequities.

For more information on our fair trade projects

To contact us at Rio+20:

Eveline Trudel-Fugère
etfugere@equiterre.org