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107-472: At the end of 2022, Better Cotton had over 2,563 members – 325 retailer and brand members, 2,171 supplier and manufacturer members, 17 producer organisation members, 34 civil society members and 16 associate members. Better Cotton contributes towards the UN's goals to achieve better global water sustainability and sustainable agriculture . Better Cotton farmers receive training on how to use water efficiently, care for

214-548: A natural disaster occurred or food was scarce, people willingly chose debt bondage as a means to a secure life. In the early 20th century in Asia, most laborers tied to debt bondage had been born into it. In certain regions, such as in Burma , debt bondage was far more common than slavery. Many went into bondage to pay off interest on a loan or to pay taxes, and as they worked, often on farms, lodging , meals, and clothing fees were added to

321-543: A sustainability transition or sustainability transformation . Some barriers arise from nature and its complexity while others are extrinsic to the concept of sustainability. For example, they can result from the dominant institutional frameworks in countries. Global issues of sustainability are difficult to tackle as they need global solutions. Existing global organizations such as the UN and WTO are seen as inefficient in enforcing current global regulations. One reason for this

428-420: A Chinese manufacturer accused with using forced labor, citing Better Cotton's decision to stop licensing Xinjiang cotton. People's Daily named New Balance , Burberry and all Better Cotton members in online posts, calling for Chinese consumers to boycott these brands. Chinese celebrities terminated endorsements of the companies mentioned. Amid the boycotts, Chinese sportswear company Anta Sports announced it

535-403: A conservation and replanting of timber that there can be a continuous, ongoing and sustainable use". The shift in use of "sustainability" from preservation of forests (for future wood production) to broader preservation of environmental resources (to sustain the world for future generations) traces to a 1972 book by Ernst Basler, based on a series of lectures at M.I.T. The idea itself goes back

642-829: A debtor defaulted. While serfdom under feudalism was the predominant political and economic system in Europe in the High Middle Ages , persisting in the Austrian Empire till 1848 and the Russian Empire until 1861 ( details ), debt bondage (and slavery) provided other forms of unfree labour. Throughout the reign of Tsar Alexander II , Russia was dominated by reforms ; Serfdom was abolished in 1861 after decades of subjection, granting over 23 million serfs their freedom as well as obtaining citizenship, marriage without permission, property rights along with business ownership. This

749-546: A difference. The fair trade industry is estimated to exceed $ 1.2 billion annually (Davenport & Low 2012). Unfortunately, this is barely a dent into the global economy. International labor laws need to be created by various authorities such as the International Labor Organization , World Trade Organization , Interpol and the United Nations that have teeth to adequately punish the wrongdoers. In many of

856-573: A high degree of social sustainability would lead to livable communities with a good quality of life (being fair, diverse, connected and democratic). Indigenous communities might have a focus on particular aspects of sustainability, for example spiritual aspects, community-based governance and an emphasis on place and locality. Some experts have proposed further dimensions. These could cover institutional, cultural, political, and technical dimensions. Debt bondage Debt bondage , also known as debt slavery , bonded labour , or peonage ,

963-489: A new development path was required, one that sustained human progress not just in a few pieces for a few years, but for the entire planet into the distant future. Thus 'sustainable development' becomes a goal not just for the 'developing' nations, but for industrial ones as well. The Rio Declaration from 1992 is seen as "the foundational instrument in the move towards sustainability". It includes specific references to ecosystem integrity. The plan associated with carrying out

1070-422: A process similar to other industries in Asia. The wages given to servants are often so poor that loans are taken when servants are in need of more money, making it impossible to escape. The hours of working for domestic servants are unpredictable, and because many servants are women, their young children are often left under the care of older children or other family members. Moreover, these women can work up to

1177-502: A rate commensurate with the value of labor performed are not in debt bondage . Important to both East and West Africa, pawnship, defined by Wilks as "the use of people in transferring their rights for settlement of debt," was common during the 17th century. The system of pawnship occurred simultaneously with the slave trade in Africa. Though the export of slaves from Africa to the Americas

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1284-518: A result. Despite that, peasants were enabled to purchase private property, and therefore begin soil cultivation for their own behalf, although this was also somewhat reduced by former tenants being forced to provide land redemption payments for the next several decades, whilst simultaneously being restricted to purchasing less fertile and profitable land without nobility interests. Furthermore, peasants were often overcharged for land beyond market value , often varying from every location, with almost all

1391-668: A similar act in 1992 and Nepal passed the Kamaiya Labour (Prohibition) Act in 2002. Despite the fact that these laws are in place, debt bondage in South Asia is still widespread. According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment of the Government of India, there are over 300,000 bonded laborers in India, with a majority of them in the states of Tamil Nadu , Karnataka , and Odisha . In India ,

1498-426: A single specific definition of sustainability may never be possible. But the concept is still useful. There have been attempts to define it, for example: Some definitions focus on the environmental dimension. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines sustainability as: "the property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding

1605-402: A very long time: Communities have always worried about the capacity of their environment to sustain them in the long term. Many ancient cultures, traditional societies , and indigenous peoples have restricted the use of natural resources. The terms sustainability and sustainable development are closely related. In fact, they are often used to mean the same thing. Both terms are linked with

1712-468: Is a major barrier to development in these countries. For example, entrepreneurs do not dare to take risks and cannot get credit because they hold no collateral and may burden families for generations to come. India was the first country to pass legislation directly prohibiting debt bondage through the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act, 1976 . Less than two decades later, Pakistan also passed

1819-484: Is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): environmental, economic, and social. Many definitions emphasize the environmental dimension. This can include addressing key environmental problems , including climate change and biodiversity loss . The idea of sustainability can guide decisions at

1926-450: Is bad for the environment. Others focus more on the trade-offs between environmental conservation and achieving welfare goals for basic needs (food, water, health, and shelter). Economic development can indeed reduce hunger or energy poverty . This is especially the case in the least developed countries . That is why Sustainable Development Goal 8 calls for economic growth to drive social progress and well-being. Its first target

2033-422: Is distinct. Debt bondage differs from forced labour and human trafficking in that a person consciously pledges to work as a means of repayment of debt without being placed into labor against will. Debt bondage only applies to individuals who have no hopes of leaving the labor due to inability to ever pay debt back. Those who offer their services to repay a debt and the employer reduces the debt accordingly at

2140-480: Is estimated by Kara to be $ 13.3 to $ 15.2 billion. Many of the brick kiln workers are migrants and travel between brick kiln locations every few months. Kiln workers often live in extreme poverty and many began work at kilns through repayment of a starting loan averaging $ 150 to $ 200. Kiln owners offer laborers "friendly loans" to avoid being criminalized in breaking bonded labor laws. Bonded brick kiln laborers, including children, work in harsh and unsafe conditions as

2247-520: Is for: "at least 7 per cent GDP growth per annum in the least developed countries". However, the challenge is to expand economic activities while reducing their environmental impact. In other words, humanity will have to find ways how societal progress (potentially by economic development) can be reached without excess strain on the environment. The Brundtland report says poverty causes environmental problems. Poverty also results from them. So addressing environmental problems requires understanding

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2354-412: Is known through scientific study to applications in pursuit of what people want for the future." The 1983 UN Commission on Environment and Development ( Brundtland Commission ) had a big influence on the use of the term sustainability today. The commission's 1987 Brundtland Report provided a definition of sustainable development . The report, Our Common Future , defines it as development that "meets

2461-411: Is not a new phenomenon. But it has been only a local or regional concern for most of human history. Awareness of global environmental issues increased in the 20th century. The harmful effects and global spread of pesticides like DDT came under scrutiny in the 1960s. In the 1970s it emerged that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were depleting the ozone layer . This led to the de facto ban of CFCs with

2568-553: Is often analyzed, slavery was rampant internally as well. Development of plantations like those in Zanzibar in East Africa reflected the need for internal slaves. Furthermore, many of the slaves that were exported were male as brutal and labor-intensive conditions favored the male body build. This created gender implications for individuals in the pawnship system as more women were pawned than men and often sexually exploited. After

2675-418: Is the lack of suitable sanctioning mechanisms . Governments are not the only sources of action for sustainability. For example, business groups have tried to integrate ecological concerns with economic activity, seeking sustainable business . Religious leaders have stressed the need for caring for nature and environmental stability. Individuals can also live more sustainably . Some people have criticized

2782-409: Is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, or where the debt is excessively large the person who holds the debt has thus some control over the laborer, whose freedom depends on the undefined or excessive debt repayment. The services required to repay the debt may be undefined, and

2889-541: The Better Cotton Initiative ( BCI ), the organisation changed its name to Better Cotton in 2021. Levi Strauss has released figures that donations to Better Cotton between 2009 and 2011 were approximately $ 600,000. In March 2020, Better Cotton suspended licensing and assurance activities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China due to "persistent allegations" of forced labor in

2996-530: The Global Slavery Index estimates the total number of those enslaved in this region is 6.25 million. In countries like Ghana , it is estimated that 85% of people enslaved are tied to labor. Additionally, this region includes Mauritania , the country with the highest proportion of slavery in the world as an estimated 20% of its population is enslaved through methods like debt bondage. The Environmental Justice Foundation found human rights violations in

3103-453: The Hellenistic period , the limited evidence indicates that debt bondage had replaced outright enslavement for debt. The most onerous debt bondage was various forms of paramonē , " indentured labor ." As a matter of law, a person subjected to paramonē was categorically free, and not a slave, but in practice his freedom was severely constrained by his servitude. Solon's reforms occurred in

3210-601: The Human Rights Watch in 1999 are drastically higher estimating 40 million workers, composed mainly of children, are tied to labor through debt bondage in India alone. Kara estimates that 84 to 88% of the bonded laborers in the world are in South Asia. Research by Kara estimates there to be between 55,000 and 65,000 brick kiln workers in South Asia with 70% of them in India. Other research estimates 6,000 kilns in Pakistan alone. Total revenue from brick kilns in South Asia

3317-699: The Montreal Protocol in 1987. In the early 20th century, Arrhenius discussed the effect of greenhouse gases on the climate (see also: history of climate change science ). Climate change due to human activity became an academic and political topic several decades later. This led to the establishment of the IPCC in 1988 and the UNFCCC in 1992. In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment took place. It

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3424-550: The Peruvian Amazon , debt peonage is an important aspect of contemporary Urarina society. Severe personal debt was widespread in the ancient Near East . Debtors who did not pay up could become their creditors' chattel, as could other members of their families. The problem of debt bondage, in conjunction with the state's ability to levy serfs for labour, led many to flee their homes. Some of these fugitives formed bands of roving warriors called ' habiru -men', especially in

3531-519: The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery in 1956. The convention in 1956 defined debt bondage under Article 1, section (a): Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards

3638-518: The United Nations as a form of " modern day slavery ", and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery seeks to abolish the practice. The practice is still prevalent primarily in South Asia and parts of Western and Southern Africa , although most countries in these regions are parties to the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery . It is estimated that 84 to 88% of

3745-564: The colonial history of the United States , persons bonded themselves to an owner who paid their passage to the New World. They worked until the debt of passage was paid off, often for years. Debt peonage was practiced as "an illegal form of contemporary slavery... well into the 1950s" in "Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and other parts of the Deep South." Civil authorities would arrest "colored men off

3852-416: The fisheries on the coasts of South and West Africa including labor exploitation. Exporter fish companies drive smaller businesses and individuals to lower profits, causing bankruptcy. In many cases, recruitment to these companies occurs by luring small business owners and migrant workers through debt bondage. In recruiting individual fishers, fees are sometimes charged by a broker to use ports which opens

3959-531: The natural resources and ecosystem services needed for economies and society. The concept of sustainable development has come to focus on economic development , social development and environmental protection for future generations. Scholars usually distinguish three different areas of sustainability. These are the environmental, the social, and the economic. Several terms are in use for this concept. Authors may speak of three pillars, dimensions, components, aspects, perspectives, factors, or goals. All mean

4066-523: The slave or social outcast . Cicero considered the abolition of nexum primarily a political maneuver to appease the common people ( plebs ) : the law was passed during the Conflict of the Orders , when plebeians were struggling to establish their rights in relation to the hereditary privileges of the patricians . Although nexum was abolished as a way to secure a loan, debt bondage might still result after

4173-512: The "integrity of the earth's life-support systems" was essential for sustainability. The authors said that "the SDGs fail to recognize that planetary, people and prosperity concerns are all part of one earth system, and that the protection of planetary integrity should not be a means to an end, but an end in itself". The aspect of environmental protection is not an explicit priority for the SDGs. This causes problems as it could encourage countries to give

4280-441: The "three dimensions of sustainability" concept. One distinction is that sustainability is a general concept, while sustainable development can be a policy or organizing principle. Scholars say sustainability is a broader concept because sustainable development focuses mainly on human well-being. Sustainable development has two linked goals. It aims to meet human development goals. It also aims to enable natural systems to provide

4387-400: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their 169 targets as balancing "the three dimensions of sustainable development, the economic, social and environmental". Scholars have discussed how to rank the three dimensions of sustainability. Many publications state that the environmental dimension is the most important. ( Planetary integrity or ecological integrity are other terms for

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4494-510: The 1950s. One estate in Peru that existed from the late 16th century until it ended had up to 1,700 people employed and had a prison. They were expected to work for their landlord a minimum of three days a week and more if necessary to complete assigned work. Workers were paid a symbolic two cents per year. Workers were unable to travel outside their assigned lands without permission and were not allowed to organise any independent community activity. In

4601-458: The 1960s and 1970s. This led to discussions on sustainability and sustainable development. This process began in the 1970s with concern for environmental issues. These included natural ecosystems or natural resources and the human environment. It later extended to all systems that support life on Earth, including human society. Reducing these negative impacts on the environment would improve environmental sustainability. Environmental pollution

4708-437: The 2014-17 cotton seasons (used as a three-season average) and the 2021/2022 season. Better Cotton is currently the only notable sustainability standard in the cotton sector that allows farmers to grow genetically modified cotton. Some similar conservation efforts for cotton farming practices include Bayer's CropScience’s e3 sustainable cotton program. Better Cotton's "global definition" describes "better cotton" in terms of

4815-569: The Brundtland Report, the environment and development are inseparable and go together in the search for sustainability. It described sustainable development as a global concept linking environmental and social issues. It added sustainable development is important for both developing countries and industrialized countries : The 'environment' is where we all live; and 'development' is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable. [...] We came to see that

4922-499: The International Labour Organization Convention, this cycle was labeled as the "Worst Forms of Child Labor." Researchers like Basu and Chau link the occurrence of child labor through debt bondage with factors like labor rights and the stage of development of an economy. Although minimum age labor laws are present in many regions with child debt bondage, the laws are not enforced especially with regard to

5029-734: The Jesuits during the famine in 1872. Thomas M. McKenna reported that he was told by Datu Adil that Moro Maguidanaons would send their slaves to schools instead of their own children in Cotabato when the Americans opened up schools so these slaves later became bureaucrats and teachers for the Magindanaons. In South Sulawesi in the Dutch East Indies , elite Toraja would also not send their own children to school and instead send their slaves. Debt bondage

5136-611: The Levant of the late second millennium. (Although not himself a fugitive from debt bondage, the story of Idrimi suggests that these groups could be a considerable threat.) The consequences of widespread debt bondage caused many kings to annul debts on ascending to the throne. In the 19th century, people in Asia were bonded to labor due to a variety of reasons ranging from farmers mortgaging harvests to drug addicts in need for opium in China . When

5243-565: The Moros in exchange for marine products like shark fins, shells and pearls. The native Moros also took out loans from the Chinese creditors and with the Moros putting their women and guns up as collateral for the debts. Moro Muslim parents from Cotabato in mainland Mindanao sold their children and slaves to Chinese merchants so the Chinese could later sell them in the Sulu Sultanate after Cotabato

5350-492: The Rio Declaration also discusses sustainability in this way. The plan, Agenda 21 , talks about economic, social, and environmental dimensions: Countries could develop systems for monitoring and evaluation of progress towards achieving sustainable development by adopting indicators that measure changes across economic, social and environmental dimensions. Agenda 2030 from 2015 also viewed sustainability in this way. It sees

5457-439: The SDGs. It should also show how to address the trade-offs between ecological footprint and economic development. The social dimension of sustainability is not well defined. One definition states that a society is sustainable in social terms if people do not face structural obstacles in key areas. These key areas are health, influence, competence, impartiality and meaning-making . Some scholars place social issues at

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5564-634: The Tsar's intentions, some have argued that the emancipation enactment merely benefitted the landowners as an extension of the nobility , in that dedicated compensation secured for the aforementioned greatly overestimated market value of their property. They also determined what they would surrender, with partial remains distributed between the serfs. Extortionately priced land meant that peasants only bought narrow areas difficult to preserve with barely any food or revenue. Landowners received additional financial compensation for land plots they yielded to serfs, contrary to

5671-713: The UN launched eight Millennium Development Goals . The aim was for the global community to achieve them by 2015. Goal 7 was to "ensure environmental sustainability". But this goal did not mention the concepts of social or economic sustainability. Specific problems often dominate public discussion of the environmental dimension of sustainability: In the 21st century these problems have included climate change , biodiversity and pollution. Other global problems are loss of ecosystem services , land degradation , environmental impacts of animal agriculture and air and water pollution , including marine plastic pollution and ocean acidification . Many people worry about human impacts on

5778-634: The Uighur women as concubines , this was accepted since Chinese officials in Xinjiang took Uighur Muslim women as concubines, unlike Russian officials in Russian Central Asia , where the Sindhi Hindu merchants did not marry local women. Chinese-Moro mestizo historian Samuel Kong Tan wrote that on his home island of Siasi , the native Moro Muslims and Chinese had good relations. The Chinese sold guns to

5885-428: The abolition of slavery in many countries in the 19th century, Europeans still needed laborers. Moreover, conditions for emancipated slaves were harsh. Discrimination was rampant within the labor market, making attainment of a sustainable income for former slaves tough. Because of these conditions, many freed slaves lived through slavery-like contracts with their masters in a manner parallel to debt bondage. During

5992-441: The age of 75 and their daughters are likely to be servants in the same households. In the context of prostitution , traffickers often exploit women by forcing them into sex work to pay off an unlawful debt. This debt is usually incurred through their transportation, recruitment, or even their crude "sale". The debt is often inflated with additional costs such as housing, food, and medical care, making it nearly impossible for

6099-533: The agrarian economy. Debt bondage has been described by the United Nations as a form of "modern day slavery" and is prohibited by international law . It is specifically dealt with by article 1(a) of the United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery . It persists nonetheless especially in developing countries, which have few mechanisms for credit security or bankruptcy , and where fewer people hold formal title to land or possessions. According to some economists, like Hernando de Soto , this

6206-625: The behaviours of Better Cotton farmers: Better Cotton started in a roundtable discussion by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2005. It exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future. Implementation of practices began in 2010 including regions and countries in Africa, as well as Brazil , India , and Pakistan . The initiative expanded to several other new countries in 2013 including China , Tajikistan , Turkey , and Mozambique . Initially named

6313-603: The bonded labourers in the world are in South Asia . Lack of prosecution or insufficient punishment of this crime are the leading causes of the practice as it exists at this scale today. Though the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 by the International Labour Organization , which included 187 parties, sought to bring organised attention to eradicating slavery through forms of forced labor , formal opposition to debt bondage in particular came at

6420-497: The ceasing of field-level activities in Xinjiang. Better Cotton advertises that it encourages fair work practices and reduction of child labor in countries such as India by raising public awareness. The company has also worked with an independent consultancy, Ergon Associates in 2012 in a study to create formal policies, training partnerships, and research on farmer incomes, safety, and labor. In 2018 Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh),

6527-514: The context of democratic politics at Athens that required clearer distinctions between "free" and "slave"; as a perverse consequence, chattel slavery increased. The selling of one's own child into slavery is likely in most cases to have resulted from extreme poverty or debt, but strictly speaking is a form of chattel slavery, not debt bondage. The exact legal circumstances in Greece, however, are more poorly documented than in ancient Rome. Nexum

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6634-540: The debt cycle. After countries began to formally abolish slavery, unemployment was rampant for black people in South Africa and Nigeria pushing black women to work as domestic workers, largely to other black people. Currently, estimates from the International Labour Organization state that between 800,000 and 1.1 million domestic workers are in South Africa. Many of these domestic servants become bonded to labor in

6741-478: The economic dimension of sustainability are controversial. Scholars have discussed this under the concept of weak and strong sustainability . For example, there will always be tension between the ideas of "welfare and prosperity for all" and environmental conservation , so trade-offs are necessary. It would be desirable to find ways that separate economic growth from harming the environment . This means using fewer resources per unit of output even while growing

6848-453: The economy but there is no fixed definition of sustainability indicators . The metrics are evolving and include indicators , benchmarks and audits. They include sustainability standards and certification systems like Fairtrade and Organic . They also involve indices and accounting systems such as corporate sustainability reporting and Triple Bottom Line accounting . It is necessary to address many barriers to sustainability to achieve

6955-399: The economy. This decoupling reduces the environmental impact of economic growth, such as pollution . Doing this is difficult. Some experts say there is no evidence that such a decoupling is happening at the required scale. It is challenging to measure sustainability as the concept is complex, contextual, and dynamic. Indicators have been developed to cover the environment, society, or

7062-584: The environment . These include impacts on the atmosphere, land, and water resources . Human activities now have an impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems . This led Paul Crutzen to call the current geological epoch the Anthropocene . The economic dimension of sustainability is controversial. This is because the term development within sustainable development can be interpreted in different ways. Some may take it to mean only economic development and growth . This can promote an economic system that

7169-528: The environment includes society, and society includes economic conditions. Thus it stresses a hierarchy. Another model shows the three dimensions in a similar way: In this SDG wedding cake model , the economy is a smaller subset of the societal system. And the societal system in turn is a smaller subset of the biosphere system. In 2022 an assessment examined the political impacts of the Sustainable Development Goals. The assessment found that

7276-495: The environment less weight in their developmental plans. The authors state that "sustainability on a planetary scale is only achievable under an overarching Planetary Integrity Goal that recognizes the biophysical limits of the planet". Other frameworks bypass the compartmentalization of sustainability into separate dimensions completely. The environmental dimension is central to the overall concept of sustainability. People became more and more aware of environmental pollution in

7383-426: The environmental dimension.) Protecting ecological integrity is the core of sustainability according to many experts. If this is the case then its environmental dimension sets limits to economic and social development. The diagram with three nested ellipses is one way of showing the three dimensions of sustainability together with a hierarchy: It gives the environmental dimension a special status. In this diagram,

7490-661: The existing debt causing overall debt and interest to increase. These continued added loan values made leaving servitude unattainable. Moreover, after the development of the international economy , more workers were needed for the pre-industrial economies of Asia during the 19th century. A greater demand for labor was needed in Asia to power exports to growing industrial countries like the United States and Germany . Cultivation of cash crops like coffee , cocoa, and sugar and exploitation of minerals like gold and tin led farm owners to search for individuals in need of loans for

7597-527: The factors behind world poverty and inequality. The report demands a new development path for sustained human progress. It highlights that this is a goal for both developing and industrialized nations. UNEP and UNDP launched the Poverty-Environment Initiative in 2005 which has three goals. These are reducing extreme poverty, greenhouse gas emissions, and net natural asset loss. This guide to structural reform will enable countries to achieve

7704-412: The global, national, organizational, and individual levels. A related concept is that of sustainable development , and the terms are often used to mean the same thing. UNESCO distinguishes the two like this: " Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it." Details around

7811-508: The health of the soil and natural habitats, minimise the impact of harmful crop protection practices, preserve fibre quality and apply decent work principles. Better Cotton also promotes the use of better irrigation practices with farmers, as well as reducing the use of fertilizers. Some examples point to a 40% reduction in water use by farmers in Pakistan , and a 53% decrease in overall pesticide use among Better Cotton farmers in India between

7918-613: The heat from the kiln may cause heat stroke and a number of other medical conditions. Laborers are discouraged from defaulting on loans through fear of violence and death from brick kiln owners. An essential grain to the South Asian diet, rice is harvested throughout India and Nepal in particular. In India, more than 20% of agricultural land is used to grow rice. Rice mill owners often employ workers who live in harsh conditions on farms. Workers receive such low wages that they must borrow money from their employers causing them to be tied to

8025-492: The idea of sustainability. One point of criticism is that the concept is vague and only a buzzword . Another is that sustainability might be an impossible goal. Some experts have pointed out that "no country is delivering what its citizens need without transgressing the biophysical planetary boundaries". Sustainability is regarded as a " normative concept ". This means it is based on what people value or find desirable: "The quest for sustainability involves connecting what

8132-607: The individuals to repay it. As a result, they remain trapped in a cycle of exploitation and abuse. It is a severe violation of human rights and a significant issue in the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery. A 1994 report of Burmese prostitutes in Thailand reports compulsory indebtedness is common for girls in forced prostitution , especially those transported across the border. They are forced to work off their debt, often with 100 percent interest, and to pay for their room, food and other items. In addition to debt bondage,

8239-411: The industries in which debt bondage is common like brick kilns or fisheries, entire families are often involved in paying of the debt of one individual, including children. These children generally do not have access to education thus making it impossible to get out of poverty. Moreover, if a relative who still is in debt dies, the bondage is passed on to another family member, usually the children. At

8346-561: The intersection of economics, the environment, and the social. There are many broad strategies for more sustainable social systems. They include improved education and the political empowerment of women . This is especially the case in developing countries. They include greater regard for social justice . This involves equity between rich and poor both within and between countries. And it includes intergenerational equity . Providing more social safety nets to vulnerable populations would contribute to social sustainability. A society with

8453-423: The landlord, as peasants with government loans were required to redeem allotments from landlords, although redemption payment durations were almost half a century. Within the first 20 years of emancipation, almost all of their peasants had received their land, leading to redemptions becoming mandatory, although allotments were adequate enough. Notwithstanding of this, the domestic population explosion that occurred for

8560-650: The leading Swiss organisation for children’s aid, partnered with the Better Cotton to support cotton farmers, to address and prevent the risks of child labour and to promote decent work in cotton farming. Partners may use unannounced spot checks for work environments and conduct worker interviews to assess levels of child labor and bonded labor . The International Resources for Fairer Trade (IRFT) also organizes training sessions for work environments and topics on agronomics. In 2017, independent studies and journalistic investigations sought to demonstrate that Better Cotton

8667-536: The liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined; When a pledge to provide services to pay off debt is made by an individual, the employer often illegally inflates interest rates at an unreasonable amount, making it impossible for the individual to leave bonded labour. When the bonded labourer dies, debts are often passed on to children. Although debt bondage, forced labour , and human trafficking are all defined as forms or variations of slavery , each term

8774-477: The long term. The concept of sustainability, or Nachhaltigkeit in German, goes back to Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714), and applied to forestry . The term for this now would be sustainable forest management . He used this term to mean the long-term responsible use of a natural resource. In his 1713 work Silvicultura oeconomica, he wrote that "the highest art/science/industriousness [...] will consist in such

8881-474: The long-term depletion of natural resources". The term sustainability is derived from the Latin word sustinere . "To sustain" can mean to maintain, support, uphold, or endure. So sustainability is the ability to continue over a long period of time. In the past, sustainability referred to environmental sustainability. It meant using natural resources so that people in the future could continue to rely on them in

8988-442: The needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The report helped bring sustainability into the mainstream of policy discussions. It also popularized the concept of sustainable development . Some other key concepts to illustrate the meaning of sustainability include: In everyday usage, sustainability often focuses on the environmental dimension. Scholars say that

9095-523: The peasantry whom obtained greater land amounts being within the Congress Poland , in order to weaken the dominant Polish nobility power structure . It has also been documented that many serfs remained heavily indebted, bound by their superior landlords, having acquired no significant liberty irrespective of the abolition reforms that were recently introduced. Nobility privileges were not affected, and, if anything, debatably strengthened. Regardless of

9202-515: The peasants having to pay for their own plots of land. This led to serfs having to borrow loans as well as mortgages off the State Bank and their landlords, the vast majority of which originating from the former issuer. In order to alleviate the heavy burden, they were tied towards labouring until their debts repaid; Debt consolidation was entirely absent. Land inventories were seized with allotments and payments calculated, since it legally belonged to

9309-560: The pervasive practice of slavery , which included enslavement as a result of defaulting on debt. Many forms of debt bondage existed in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome . Debt bondage was widespread in ancient Greece. The only city-state known to have abolished it is Athens , as early as the Archaic period under the debt reform legislation of Solon . Both enslavement for debt and debt bondage were practiced in Ptolemaic Egypt . By

9416-522: The profitability of this practice. Global supply chains that deliver goods throughout the world are most likely tainted with slave labor . The reason for this includes convoluted supply chain management that crosses many international borders, ineffective labor laws, corporates claiming plausible deniability, global political-economic restructuring and well-intended consumers. This effort to eradicate modern day slavery resonates with well meaning individuals who purchase fair-trade items, hoping they are making

9523-504: The region. In October 2020, Better Cotton ceased all field-level activities in Xinjiang, citing "sustained allegations of forced labour and other human rights abuses" in the region leading to "an increasingly untenable operating environment". In March 2021, the Chinese consumers start to boycott companies who have vowed against using cotton in Xinjiang. Chinese consumers criticized H&M , which in September 2020 announced it would stop using

9630-608: The remainder of the 19th century exposed peasants to increased economic difficulties. Though the figures differ from those of the International Labour Organization , researcher Siddharth Kara has calculated the number of slaves in the world by type, and determined that at the end of 2011 there were 18 to 20.5 million bonded laborers. Bonded laborers work in industries today that produce goods including but not limited to frozen shrimp, bricks, tea, coffee, diamonds, marble, and apparel. Although India , Pakistan , Nepal and Bangladesh all have laws prohibiting debt bondage, figures by

9737-721: The rice mill through debt. For example, in India, the average pay rate per day was $ 0.55 American dollars as recorded in 2006. Though some workers may be able to survive minimally from their compensation, uncontrollable life events such as an illness require loans. Families, including children, work day and night to prepare the rice for export by boiling it, drying it in the sun, and sifting through it for purification. Furthermore, families who live on rice mill production sites are often excluded from access to hospitals and schools. Though there are not reliable estimates of bonded laborers in Western and Southern Africa to date from credible sources,

9844-517: The rise of Dalit activism, government legislation starting as early as 1949, as well as ongoing work by NGOs and government offices to enforce labour laws and rehabilitate those in debt, appears to have contributed to the reduction of bonded labour there. However, according to research papers presented by the International Labour Organization, there are still many obstacles to the eradication of bonded labour in India. In many of

9951-560: The sake of keeping laborers permanently. In particular, the Indian indenture system was based on debt bondage by which an estimated two million Indians were transported to various colonies of European powers to provide labor for plantations. It started from the end of slavery in 1833 and continued until 1920. Poor Uighur peasants gave their own women as collateral to Sindhi Hindu bankers from Shikarpur when taking out loans since they were too poor to pay in anything else. The Sindhi Hindus used

10058-411: The same thing in this context. The three dimensions paradigm has few theoretical foundations. The popular three intersecting circles, or Venn diagram , representing sustainability first appeared in a 1987 article by the economist Edward Barbier . Scholars rarely question the distinction itself. The idea of sustainability with three dimensions is a dominant interpretation in the literature. In

10165-406: The services' duration may be undefined, thus allowing the person supposedly owed the debt to demand services indefinitely. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation. In 2005, debt bondage was the most common method of enslavement, with an estimated 8.1 million people bonded to labour illegally as cited by the International Labour Organization . Debt bondage has been described by

10272-418: The street and in their homes if they were caught not working," charge them with vagrancy , assess fines equal to several weeks of pickers' pay, and compel them "to pick fruit or cut sugarcane to work off the debt.... Those captured were hauled to remote plantations ..., held by force, and beaten or shot if they tried to escape." In Peru , a peonage system existed from the 16th century until land reform in

10379-425: The very center of discussions. They suggest that all the domains of sustainability are social. These include ecological , economic, political, and cultural sustainability. These domains all depend on the relationship between the social and the natural. The ecological domain is defined as human embeddedness in the environment. From this perspective, social sustainability encompasses all human activities. It goes beyond

10486-448: The women and girls face a wide range of abuses, including illegal confinement; forced labor ; rape ; physical abuse ; and more. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that $ 51.2 billion is made annually in the exploitation of workers through debt bondage. Though the employers actively take part in accruing the debt of laborers, buyers of products and services in the country of manufacturing and abroad also contribute to

10593-400: The youth had gone into debt to pay for his father's funeral; in others, he had been handed over by his father. In all versions, he is presented as a model of virtue. Historical or not, the cautionary tale highlighted the incongruities of subjecting one free citizen to another's use, and the legal response was aimed at establishing the citizen's right to liberty (libertas) , as distinguished from

10700-521: Was "quite normal" in classical antiquity . The poor or those who had fallen irredeemably in debt might place themselves into bondage "voluntarily"—or more precisely, might be compelled by circumstances to choose debt bondage as a way to anticipate and avoid worse terms that their creditors might impose on them. In the Greco-Roman world , debt bondage was a distinct legal category into which a free person might fall, in theory temporarily, distinguished from

10807-502: Was a debt bondage contract in the early Roman Republic . Within the Roman legal system , it was a form of mancipatio . Though the terms of the contract would vary, essentially a free man pledged himself as a bond slave ( nexus ) as surety for a loan. He might also hand over his son as collateral. Although the bondsman might be subjected to humiliation and abuse, as a legal citizen he was supposed to be exempt from corporal punishment . Nexum

10914-464: Was abolished by the Lex Poetelia Papiria in 326 BC, in part to prevent abuses to the physical integrity of citizens who had fallen into debt bondage. Roman historians illuminated the abolition of nexum with a traditional story that varied in its particulars; basically, a nexus who was a handsome but upstanding youth suffered sexual harassment by the holder of the debt. In one version,

11021-545: Was exiting Better Cotton, citing their statement on Xinjiang as "seriously concerning". On March 26, 2021, the Better Cotton Shanghai representative office said it found no evidence of forced labor in Xinjiang. The office stated that since 2012, the Xinjiang project site has performed second-party credibility audits and third-party verifications over the years, to reach their findings. Better Cotton subsequently removed its October 2020 statement from its website regarding

11128-521: Was hit by famine and smallpox in 1872. Jesuits stepped in by buying the children from the Chinese. The Cotabato-based Jesuit mission lasted from 1862 until Spanish rule in Cotabato ended and during famine and disease epidemics they bought children from Muslim parents themselves or from Chinese merchants who had bought the children from the Muslim parents and placed them into a "ransomed slave children" orphanage. The Muslim datus sold their child slaves to

11235-558: Was offering greenwashing solutions to firms or intermediate producers that are systematically resorting to child labour , forced labour , intensive irrigation or massive pesticide spraying. They have accused Better Cotton of providing a marketable 'one-size-fits-all' consumer label to clothing firms that does not offer any information or guarantee in terms of social and environmental responsibility. Better Cotton responded to these allegations as an unjustified representation of its activity. Water sustainability Sustainability

11342-446: Was the first UN conference on environmental issues. It stated it was important to protect and improve the human environment. It emphasized the need to protect wildlife and natural habitats: The natural resources of the earth, including the air, water, land, flora and fauna and [...] natural ecosystems must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning or management, as appropriate. In 2000,

11449-541: Was well received amongst the peasantry, whom labelled Alexander "the Liberator". This act was the first and most paramount of major reforms enacted during his reign. However, serfs became obligated towards labouring on the land in order to gain private ownership, thus rendering them heavily indebted. Moreover, the outward urban migration of the population from rural areas only made this more difficult to achieve, with peasants enduring similar, albeit greatly reduced, hardship as

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