The Vermont Conservation Strategy Initiative (VCSI) is underway - and it is important that we use our voice to influence it! Act 59 was passed in 2023 with a goal to conserve 30% of Vermont’s total area by 2030 and 50% by 2050.

As Vermont is developing a new conservation plan - its policies and regulations more broadly - must protect and support food sovereignty, and the rights of people and communities articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas:

“Peasants and other people living in rural areas have the right to land, individually and/or collectively (...), including the right to have access to, sustainably use and manage land and the water bodies, coastal seas, fisheries, pastures, and forests therein, to achieve an adequate standard of living, to have a place to live in security, peace and dignity and to develop their cultures.”  - Article 17 UNDROP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, 2018)

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