ICA Plenary and Seminar – Cancun, Mexico

It is with a lot of satisfaction that we have welcomed the largest ever attendance during our Cancun meetings.The ICA Housing Board of Directors sees this as the confirmation that our work is valuable and serves the needs of our members.

ICA Housing Plenary

The Plenary meeting is the official gathering to carry out ICA Housing business.The president reviewed our accomplishments since the last Plenary in 2009. Download the presentation here.  Amendments to the Rules were adopted by the members on the recommendation of the Board.These amendments were proposed to clarify and standardize the membership provisions included in all the ICA sectoral organizations (SO) Rules and ICA Global.You can find the revised version of the Rules here.

The Plenary is also the moment to elect the new board.Before the election, the president David Rodgers thanked the retiring board member Roy Berg Pedersen, from NBBL Norway, for his committed and constant participation and wished him all the best for the future.

Nicholas Gazzard, ICA Housing vice-president led the election as chair of our election committee.Eight positions were filled.

The new board is as follows:

David Rodgers, president/CDS Co-operatives, UK

Nicholas Gazzard, vice-president/Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada

Alexandra Wilson, treasurer/Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada

Anders Lago, HSB, Sweden

Errum Bhaiji, Karachi Co-operative Housing Societies Union, Pakistan

Herbert Ludl, GBV, Austria

Luciano Caffini, Legacoop Abitanti, Italy

Mehmet Aksoy, TURRKENT, Turkey

Muhammad Sharif Bhaiji, Karachi Co-operative Housing Societies Union, Pakistan

Tomasz Jordeczka, Auditing Union of Housing Co-operatives, Poland

Thor Eek, NBBL, Norway

Vit Vanicek, Union of Czech and Moravian Housing Co-operatives, Czech Republic

Our Polish member, the Auditing Union of Housing Co-operatives, took the opportunity presented by our plenary meeting to publicly thank ICA Housing president Mr. David Rodgers for his help in their successful appeal to the Polish government to stop the adoption of detrimental bills for co-operatives which would have had the effect of totally dismantling the housing co-operative sector in Poland.This is a perfect example demonstrating what support from the ICA can achieve and how important it is to work together.

Our Plenary concluded with a very informative presentation on a housing co-operative project in Mexico by Professor Rodolfo Rios Baez.Professor Baez works at the Faculty of social and political sciences at the University of Mexico.He is a member of the board of directors of the Confederacion Nacional Cooperativa de Actividades Diversas de la Republica Mexicana.The presentation generated a lot of interest and several questions and comments were raised by the participants.Professor Baez also indicated the housing co-ops’ intention to create a national federation of housing co-operatives.ICA Housing has offered its support and hope to count on the participation of the Mexican housing co-operatives in the future.Professor Baez’s presentation is here – Spanish and English.

An excellent response to our Seminar: Environment Sustainability and Climate Change: Sustainable Sources of Timber and Forest Products

To further our commitment toward sustainable sources of timber and forest products and to provide to co-operators more information on the certification programmes and successful sustainable initiatives, ICA Housing organized a seminar during our Cancun meetings.

Close to 100 participants attended this very informative and inspiring seminar.Mr Rodgers, ICA Housing president, explained our initiative.He noted that the housing industry is a large consumer of natural resources and that housing co-operatives with over 20 million dwellings around the world, can make a difference by the choices they make to operate in an environmentally sustainable and responsible way.

ICA Housing is most grateful to the excellent presentations we received from our speakers.

Sergio Madrid, Executive Director of Consejo Civil Mexicano Para La Silvicultura Sostenabile

What’s up there?

Sergio Madrid, author of several publications on community forestry, deforestation and forest policy and representative of the Forests Stewardship Council (FSC) in Mexico, gave the participants an overview of the FSC certification scheme and the work accomplished by this international network.He called participants to “think FSC” and provided several suggestions.

Dr Alfredo Arana Velasco, Executive Chairman of COOMEVA, Colombia

COOMEVA Project Production of timber for housing

Dr. Alfredo Arana Velasco, presented Induguada SA, the Industria Columbiana de la Guadua S.A. born from a solidarity campaign called “Today for You, Tomorrow for Me”.The company processes bamboo, an excellent renewable source fast-growing, easy to use providing economic, social and environmental benefits to rural communities of Columbia.

Linn Matic, Social Policy Manager, HSB Sweden

HSB, Environmental Policy

Linn Matic, presented HSB’s environmental policy and shared with the participants the experience of HSB of building with environmental principles.HSB, one of the two large co-op housing federations in Sweden, is an important co-operative housing developer.The use of certified timber is already included in their environmental policy that guides their construction work.

Clemente Augusto Jaimes Puentes, President of CONFECOOP and Executive President of La Equidad, Colombia

Pacto Verde Cooperativo from ICA Americas and ECOOP Forest Project (presentation not available)

Clemente Augusto Jaimes Puentes, economist with long-term professional experience in the co-operative financial and farming sectors, presented the ICA Americas Pacto Verde Cooperativo adopted in September 2009 by ICA Americas members.The resolution asked members to take actions to preserve the environment.Mr Puentes also presented a forest project called ECOOP implemented in Columbia that promotes activities, implements and manages environmental projects, agro-industry and business.

A sample sustainable timber and forest product procurement policy provided by FSC Netherlands was also distributed to participants to assist them in the implementation of such initiative. Click here for a copy of the policy.

Click here to download the full report of the ICA Housing proceedings at the ICA General Assembly in Cancun.

Click here to download the resolution on the Promotion of Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability: The use of Sustainable Timber and Forest Products agreed at the ICA General Assembly in Cancun.

Click here to download a factsheet The housing co-operative sector – using timber for sustainable development for more information on the resolution.

Click here to download Bulletin 8 for more information on the ICA General Assembly and housing initiatives for IYC 2012.