While organisers were delighted with the success of the conference that focused on the growing political force of Greens, the future success of green politics hinges how it deals with both the dilemmas of its success -- and the backlash of powerful political forces it seeks to challenge.

With more than 1,000 members in parliaments around the world -- including 250 in national parliaments -- Greens are becoming a major political force.

Some 350 delegates from 70 green parties around the world attended the Canberra conference, which ended Monday.

The embryonic network of green parties has been growing rapidly in recent years, leading to the development of regional federations.

Over the last decade, regional networks of green parties have evolved in Europe and the Americas. In 1998, the African Federation of Greens Parties was formed and followed last year by the Asia-Pacific Green Network.

While the conference dispelled the notion that Greens are mainly a political force in the traditional strongholds of the environmental movement -- such as in Europe -- the success of Greens becoming ministers in coalition governments is creating its own problems.

In Germany, the decision of the Green Minister for the Environment, Jurgen Tritten, to accept nuclear waste from a French reprocessing plant, dismayed the anti-nuclear movement he was once a part of.

While the growth and diversity have bolstered the political strength of the green parties, the main formal business of the conference was negotiating a Global Greens Charter -- part statement of vision and principles, part policy platform -- to give the network of parties greater coherence.

It also sought to create a global network of coordination among green parties on key issues like climate change, for instance.

However, the adoption of the charter was not without its tensions.

One African delegate suggested the proposal that Greens be bound to counter discrimination against homosexuals. But while was popular in Europe, it would damage prospects for winning votes in Africa.

Others argued the draft charter should commit green parties to the abolition of the World Trade Organisation, and not its reform.

The delegate of the Greens Party of Brazil, Antonio Melo Viana, felt the charter should be more ambitious. ''We should dream a little more. Perhaps the draft charter is a little too diagnostic, a little too timid,'' he told the conference.

While the charter adopts the protection of human rights as one of its central planks, green politicians were aware that the issue is not an abstract one. Indeed, delegates from many countries were under threat to their safety for advocating their views.

In response, the conference launched the formation of the 'Green Shield', with green activists from democratic countries assisting in the defence of green activists under threat in less tolerant countries.

Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Greenbelt movement in Kenya and candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, was recently imprisoned for opposing land clearing projects to protect Kenya's forests.

''The Greens have been put to the test and suffered in the cause of their environmental work. Greens in prison and under threat get a great source of encouragement when they know that fellow Greens from around the world are supporting them,'' she pointed out.

While the defence of human rights will be an essential ingredient in allowing green parties to flourish, the structure for broader cooperation among green parties has yet to be resolved.

Issues such as whether the Global Greens will establish a secretariat and how a global structure can improve political effectiveness without detracting from the role of the regional federations has yet to be resolved.

The freedom to speak out is not the only hurdle to the growth of green politics.

One of the biggest single barriers to increased green political representation are electoral systems that effectively prevent minor parties from either getting candidates on the ballot, or ever having the prospect of winning seats.

''Political reform is hugely important but you do not wait for political reform before you take action. The Greens believe in operating within the space that they have and creating more space around them and advocating for political reform at the same time,'' said Marian Coyne, the Scottish delegate and spokesperson for the European Federation of Greens parties.

For many delegates, especially those unsure whether they should develop a formal green party or continue as either independent politicians or extra-parliamentary activists, the conference was an inspiration on what green politics could achieve.

''I believe that what the Greens are doing all over the world should be replicated everywhere. I have been talking with some friends back home and we think that it is time for us to go green,'' said Nmimmo Bassey, director of the Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria.

For Bassey, the issues are simple: ''I believe my colour is green -- whether you are black or white the colour of life is green.''

''With globalisation we are concerned that we are becoming a global village not for people but a global village for transnational corporations who are using our environment as a place for the extraction of resources, our human rights are not respected,'' he said.

Can increased global coordination of green political parties achieve anything? Perhaps what is possible was no better seen in the request from a delegation of traditional chiefs of New Caledonia for support in protecting their coral reefs from proposed mining projects.

''The reefs campaign will be fought in New Caledonia by the Greens and the Kanak people and in France by the French Greens -- who are coalition partners in the French government and the environment minister who is a Green,'' the New Caledonian Greens spokesperson Didier Baron said at the conference here.

The traditional chiefs of New Caledonia, who were previously marginalised under French colonial rule, were elated. For many delegates, it was an illustration of the theme that ''green politics is a whole new kind of politics''.

Copyright 2001 IPS

###