Regional revitalisation is a concept originated from Japan in 2012. Since Taiwan is facing similar problems as Japan, the Taiwanese government also decides to adopt this concept to attract people to move to rural areas. Instead of focusing on redevelopment, revitalisation comes to play an important role.

On 27 January 2021, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) adopted a draft for a European supply chain law. The draft proposes strict regulations of the environmental standards and human rights within the value chains of companies.

Land grabs facilitated by multinational corporations, foreign investors and local governments in a pursuit for agribusiness have been escalating during the last decade. Huge acquisitions of farmland have led to violent displacements of rural populations. Although reports of the practice are not as recurrent in the media, the problem is far from over.

Palm oil companies are detrimentally impacting rural livelihoods and biodiversity in northwestern Ecuador by extracting resources and polluting ancestral lands and rivers. Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and health hazards posed by these companies. As an act of resistance, the communities, supported by the organisation Roots & Routes IC, have filed the world’s first constitutionally-based Rights of Nature Lawsuit to demand justice.

The paradox of hunger, food loss and waste is a global issue. All around the world, a third of all produced food never reaches the consumer. Claire van Enk has created Farm to Feed Kenya to bring about change in these issues, while striving for a healthier planet.

FUF Lund Magazine has interviewed Birgitta Göransson Liste, the chairperson of the Swallows India Bangladesh to hear about work, civil society and the role of rural- and community development. The organisation has been working with rural development in India and Bangladesh for the last 60 years. One area of focus has been small-scale organic agriculture.

Since 2006, Instituto Agroecologico Latinoamericano, IALA, has trained campesinos, small-scale farmers, in agroecology in Latin America through popular education. This institution plays an important role in resisting industrial agriculture all over the region and provides a different perspective on rural development.

The effects of climate change endanger humans all over the world. Nonetheless, indigenous people – who contributed the least – are doubled affected. As countries are increasingly implementing adaptation strategies, renewable energy is often raised as the solution – with large projects being constructed in rural areas. This however overlooks the interests of indigenous peoples living in these areas.