Helena Norberg-Hodge / Ladakh Ecological Development Group

The impact of development on Ladakh’s traditional culture

For over a thousand years, the Ladakhi people prospered, creating a rich, harmonious and sustainable culture from the sparse resources of their region. In 1975, traditional self-reliance and cultural pride were suddenly replaced by feelings of inferiority, dissatisfaction and competition when the area was opened to ‘development’, including tourism, media and advertisement, which brought with them highly idealised impressions of life in the West. Outside economic pressures began undermining the local economy and previously unknown problems such as pollution, crime, unemployment, family breakdown, rapid urbanisation and ethnic conflict began to take hold.

LEDeG’s promotion of sustainable technologies in Ladakh

LEDeG has promoted local manufacturing technologies that use solar energy for space heating, cooking, water heating, crop drying and greenhouses, and small-scale water power for grinding grain, producing electricity and pumping water. Today, one or more of these technologies can be found in virtually every Ladakhi village. Now an influential NGO, the respect that LEDeG is accorded was demonstrated when its two co-directors were elected to high positions in Ladakh’s new, semi-autonomous government. Significant developments for LEDeG in the new millennium include the large-scale dissemination of new technologies like parabolic dish cookers and photovoltaics, the building-up of a fund to become more independent from donors and the introduction of ecotourism and biodiversity programmes.

Helena Norberg-Hodge’s work with Local Futures

Helena Norberg-Hodge is now director, and founder, of Local Futures. Local Futures seeks to alert people to the threat economic globalisation poses to communities, democracy, and the natural world while actively promoting economic localisation through international campaigns and grassroots initiatives such as community-supported agriculture, local currencies, and eco-villages.

Local Future’s written and video materials, including Ancient Futures and The Future of Progress, have been translated into over 25 languages, demonstrating that this message strikes a chord with people worldwide. Local Future has produced The Economics of Happiness, a feature documentary that premiered in 2011 and screened worldwide. The Economics of Happiness project continued and included a series of annual conferences on globalisation and localisation issues.