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Biodiversity And Forest Protection

/Biodiversity And Forest Protection

 

6 05, 2024

Destruction of Customary Forests in Papua Constitutes Ecocide, INFID Says

2024-09-16T09:30:34-04:00Tags: |

Iwan Misthohizzaman, the Executive Director of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), asserted that clearing customary forests in Papua through the abuse of state permits is an act of ecocide and a violation of human rights. Misthohizzaman stated that ecocide is a systematic, aggressive, massive, and planned attack on the environment. The first element of an ecocide is that the exploitation of the environment leads to the extermination of nature. Second, the extermination is related to the erasure of people’s right to life, and third, the exploitation of natural resources leads to threats on human life now and in the future. Regarding Papua, all three elements were met as the forests are a source of livelihood for Indigenous people. The INFID urges the government to revoke the permits of palm oil companies and to return the forest to the protection of the Indigenous groups.

25 04, 2023

From Farm Workers To Land Healers

2023-07-30T13:28:25-04:00Tags: |

  Former immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers have been using their cultural knowledge of sustainable fire practices to control wildfires and reclaim work in natural spaces. The workers previously faced hazardous and unhealthy conditions while being employed on vineyards, including exposure to toxic fumes and smoke, especially when harvesting through active fires. There was little financial compensation or support for their safety. Now, the workers are spearheading ecological restoration programs in wildfire prone areas. They are positioning themselves as leaders and educators in order to gain self-determination over their relationship to the land, reclaim former cultural practices, and have an active role in healing. The programs are offered in Spanish and local Indigenous languages and ensure that land workers are well-paid, safe, respected, and have autonomy in their work. These efforts mark an ongoing transition in climate mitigation efforts, centered on the intention to heal and grow both the environment and frontline communities. Photo credit: Brooke Anderson/YES! Magazine

24 04, 2023

“Green Nobel” winner is reclaiming Indonesian forest land

2024-09-13T14:50:07-04:00Tags: |

Indonesia’s deforestation and peatland clearing has made the nation one of the leading greenhouse gas emitters. In an effort to protect forests, the Indonesian government granted over 17,000 acres of forest land rights to Indigenous Indonesian communities. Delima Silalahi, a Batak woman from North Sumatra, is a leading figure in this movement. As the executive director of Kelompok Studi dan Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (the Community Initiative Study and Development Group), Silalahi has been working to protect these carbon-rich, biodiverse lands from industrial exploitation since 1999. Her work and dedication won her a Goldman Environmental Prize, or “Green Nobel,” in 2023. As a woman in the public eye, however, Silalahi faces stigma and gender-based discrimination from her community– a result of longstanding gender-based issues. Silalahi hopes not only to restore her land, but also to create more space for women to share their opinions.

3 10, 2022

Vandana Shiva on the wisdom of biodiversity

2023-03-29T13:32:22-04:00Tags: |

Vandana Shiva is an activist and author who grew up in the Himalayan forests, where biodiversity was her teacher. Shiva weaves quantum science and the teachings of the forest to demonstrate the deep interconnection between all living beings. Biodiversity is the interconnected web of life through which all things flow. Colonialism and capitalism has sowed division between humans and non-human beings, leading us towards the loss of biodiversity which threatens our planet and existence. Shiva teaches us that by honoring the wisdom of biodiversity, by regenerating and conserving biodiversity, we may cultivate a liveable future in harmony with all other living beings. Photo credit: Ashish Shah/Atmos

28 09, 2022

Women fighting fire with fire

2023-03-29T13:30:11-04:00Tags: |

The scale and intensity of wildfires has dramatically increased due to drier conditions from climate change and the suppression of natural fires. Women like Lenya Quinn-Davidson, fire advisor to the University of California, Margo Robbins, executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, and Katie Sauerbrey, fire programmer for the Nature Conservancy, are part of a larger movement of women and gender non-conforming people working in the field of prescribed burning, the intentional practice of setting fires to maintain the health of forests. Prescribing burning comes from the traditional knowledge and practice of Indigenous Peoples in North America. This practice was disrupted by colonialism when settlers suppressed natural fire. The return to prescribed burning comes at a time when people are desperate for a solution to the catastrophic wildfires raging across the continent. For prescribed burning to be successfully practiced and integrated in fire management plans, Indigenous Peoples, women, and gender non-conforming people must be included and become leaders in the fire industry. Photo credit: Jennifer Osborne/Atmos

9 08, 2022

Meet 3 Indigenous Women Fighting For The Future Of The Amazon

2023-04-16T16:12:25-04:00Tags: |

Kiley Price highlights the work of three Indigenous women -- Evelin Garcia, Katty Guatatoca, and Carmenza Yucuna -- whose work has been supported by the Amazonia Indigenous Women’s Fellowship Program, a program that provides funding and resources to Indigenous women for conservation projects in their respective regions/countries. Garcia, a member of the Monkox Indigenous community located in the Chiquitania region of eastern Bolivia, noted the importance of recovering ancestral knowledge and practices of endemic plants to the feeding and healing of her community during the pandemic. In particular, kutuki is an important herb which has traditionally been used to treat illnesses ranging from colds and fevers to respiratory issues; this became an important resource for COVID-19 symptom alleviation. With the help of the fellowship, Garcia, along with other women in her community, created a curriculum for schools and community centers in the area to pass on medicinal plant knowledge. Guatatoca, a Kichwa woman from the Amazon forest in central Ecuador, founded the Awana Collective, a group of Indigenous women who use inorganic materials (like plastics) and organic materials to make handmade items. Guatatoca highlights how this work helps Kichwa women obtain financial independence while also caring for the lands which they rely upon by recycling inorganic materials. The items and designs are created using traditional Kichwa culture. Yucuna, a member of the Yucuna community from Mirití-Paraná in southern Colombia, focuses her efforts on preserving the traditional knowledge of the Melipona bee, a stingless bee whose honey has important medicinal properties, both antimicrobial and antifungal. The honey has been traditionally used for centuries for wound and infection treatment. Through the fellowship, Yucuna has completed research on the bees, which is now being used for their conservation and management, along with the ancestral knowledge of her community. Yucuna is also working alongside older women in the community to sell excess honey to help fund conservation efforts. 

3 07, 2022

The Tiger Widows of India Conserving the Mangrove Forest

2023-03-29T13:46:33-04:00Tags: |

Geeta Mridha is among a group of tiger widows who are working to conserve India’s Sundarbans, the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest. Although this forest is home to the tigers responsible for killing their husbands, this forest is also a natural ecological barrier from storm surges and has become a lifeline for these women. The women work to save the Sundari trees from extinction, and consequently, work to save themselves and their communities from cyclones and other severe weather events. Mridha expresses that she finds the work rewarding, with each planted seed potentially a life saved. Photo credit: Noah Klein

27 06, 2022

Redefining Gender In The Amazon

2023-02-01T23:05:45-05:00Tags: |

This article shares the story of Uýra Sodoma, the spirit of Indigenous trans nonbinary artist and biologist Emerson Pontes (she/they). Uýra speaks through Pontes in order to highlight the importance of protecting the Brazilian Amazon. A new documentary, Uýra: The Rising Forest, shows Emerson’s journey driving collective and educational experiences that engage communities in environmental justice activism. She has faced challenges not only from the mass deforestation of the Amazon, but also from Brazil’s homophobic and transphobic government policies. However, they have continued to use performances to bridge the movements for conservation and LGBTQ+ rights. They emphasize that the concept of the gender binary is a concept imposed by colonizers, using drag to connect with nature and the queer community. Photo Credit: Uýra: The Rising Forest    

3 06, 2022

An Indigenous Basket-Weaving Traditions Keeps a Philippine Forest Alive

2024-01-23T18:34:21-05:00Tags: |

Upland one of the Philippines key biodiversity areas, the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, sits the village of Kamantian, home to 65 traditional basketry cultural bearers. This article highlights the Pala'wan people who create traditional Indigenous baskets, or tingkep, using non-timber forest products. One basket weaver, Labin Tiblak, began basket weaving at eight years old and once taught young girls the practice on a weekly basis, before the pandemic. Not only does Tingkep serve functional, artistic, and cultural purposes, but this practice supports the conservation of the Pala'wan peoples ancestral Mantalingham forests. The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, however, disproportionately affect the Pala'wan people by degrading Pala’wan land and resources, and disrupting traditional Pala'wan practices, like the ability to gather for basket weaving, putting the culture and the craft of Tingkep at risk. The article provides perspectives for the future, including insight from Minnie Degawan, an Indigenous Kankanaey-Igorot and the director of the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples Program, who advocates for the government to fully recognize the right of the Pal’awan people to their territories and self-determination. Photo credit: Keith Anthony Fabro

6 05, 2022

“Indigenous People Are Fighting To Protect A Natural Equilibrium”: Q&A With Patricia Gualinga

2023-04-16T16:49:32-04:00Tags: |

Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa leader in Ecuador and member of Amazonian Women (Mujeres Amazónicas), shares her experiences of fighting back against extractive forces that threaten the Amazon rainforest and its surrounding Indigenous communities. Alongside oil drilling, logging, and hydroelectric projects, both formal and illegal mining have become an increasing threat over recent years. Under the guise of “for the good of the country,” the Ecuadorian government continues to prioritize the economy in lieu of the rights of Indigenous peoples. Gualinga clarifies that there is no such thing as a “middle ground” or opportunity for compromise with the extractive industries that Ecuador has become so dependent upon. She points to the history of social neglect and continued marginalization of Indigenous groups that have severed the relationship between peoples and the state. Although there has been an international acknowledgment of the fact that Indigenous people are the best protectors and defenders of the natural world, racist rhetoric persists in framing them as “helpless” or without resolve for solutions that are not inherently economically based. Gualinga challenges these colonial bureaucratic frameworks and the emergence of the carbon credit system by illuminating the global scale of the catastrophe that awaits all people. To be an Indigenous leader, especially an Indigenous woman leader, bears many threats in the name of speaking the truth. However, Gualinga and so many alongside her persist as this work is vital and central to protecting territory as all-encompassing of the ancestry and future of Indigenous peoples. Photo Credit: Jonathan Rosas  

23 03, 2022

The Keeper of Sacred Bees Who Took on a Giant

2023-03-29T13:42:15-04:00Tags: |

In Mexico’s Yucatàn Peninsula, traditional Mayan beekeepers still care for Melipon beecheii, a bee species important to Mayan culture and tradition. In 2012, the Mexican government approved the Monsanto program to plant genetically modified soybeans without consulting local communities and shortly, the bees started dying in large numbers. Leydy Pech, a traditional Mayan beekeeper who has long advocated for sustainable agricultural practices and the integration of Indigenous knowledge into practice, led the campaign against the Monsanto program on multiple fronts: legally, academically and publicly. The court case resulted in the government revoking the Monsanto program and has inspired Indigenous communities facing similar challenges to use Pech’s playbook. Lech explains the fight against the use of the soybeans is not just to protect the sacred bee, but to protect ecosystems, communities and a way of life threatened by industrial agriculture, climate change and deforestation. Photo credit: Natasha Donovan/Atlas Obscura

22 03, 2022

The Wildlife Scientist Finding Innovation in Ancient Ideas

2024-08-26T10:53:59-04:00Tags: |

A wildlife biologist and member of Laguna Pueblo, a west-central New Mexican tribe, Serra Hoagland, is bridging her experiences to help manage forest fires and threatened species. As the first Native American woman with a Ph.D. to work for U.S Forest and Wildlife services, she sees herself connecting tribal knowledge and management practices with scientific research. Her field site, located in a forest belonging to the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, has no phone service and is difficult to access. Hoagland and a research team use sound to monitor the Mexican spotted owl, a species whose habitat has been affected by wildfires and climate change. Her studies focus on Mescalero Apache tribal management of forests, including the controlled use of fire, which has not shown negative effects on the animal. Her work highlights the holistic approach many tribes utilize to manage their forests, through consideration of species, watershed health, and forest resiliency.

2 02, 2022

Tukupu: The women of the Kariña community, guardians of Venezuela’s forests

2023-03-29T13:40:05-04:00Tags: |

Cecilia Rivas is an Indigenous woman from the Kariña community and leader of the Tukupu, Venezuela’s first Indigenous Forest business. The Kariña people proposed the creation of the Tukupu project in 2016 to protect the Imataca Forest Reserve from destruction and to use its resources sustainably to benefit local Indigenous communities. Tukupu is composed mainly of women who work to restore and manage the forest and commercialize resources sustainably to benefit local industries. The work of Tukupu has resulted in the prevention of more than 23 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Rivas explains that the co-management agreement incorporated an Indigenous worldview to the benefit of the forest, local communities and the world. The children of Kariña are involved in Tukupu so they may learn and become the future guardians of the Imataca Forest Reserve. Photo credit: FAO Venezuela

6 01, 2022

Indonesia’s Womangrove Collective Reclaims The Coast From Shrimp Farms

2023-07-02T00:09:27-04:00Tags: |

Indonesia is home to the most mangroves in the world, however mangrove ecosystems are at risk to be cleared for development, a situation exacerbated by a poor economic state. Mangroves are locally and globally significant carbon sinks that provide many ecological services to coastal communities such as land protection from erosion and big tidal waves, increased biodiversity, and aquaculture. This article highlights the many ways the Womangrove collective are influential in combating mangrove deforestation. Womangrove was founded in 2015 by women in the Tanakeke Islands of Indonesia, and originally started as a business-orientated group aiming to plant and protect mangroves for sustainable aquaculture farming. Over the years Womangrove has developed into an ecological restoration program with a focus on addressing the deforestation of mangrove trees (replanting more than 110,000 mangrove seedlings!) and improving gender equality by providing local women educational courses and skill building.  Photo credit: Wahyu Chandra/Mongabay-Indonesia

13 12, 2021

Voices From The Frontlines: Rose’s Story

2021-12-13T20:55:11-05:00Tags: |

Rose Whipple from the Santee Dakota and Ho-Chunk nations is protecting her ancestral lands from pipelines in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. Whipple describes her recent community organizing against the Line 3 pipeline which would be the largest in North America and run through rare Wild Rice beds in Anishinaabe and Dakota territory. Inspired by the solidarity of Indigenous communities at Standing Rock, Whipple has learned to use the strength of her voice as a youth leader to stand against the corporate greed of fossil fuel companies which harms the health of people and our planet. She continues to fight for community resilience and a full transition to renewable energy. Photo credit: Jaida L. Grey Eagle

7 12, 2021

In Mexico, Rebellion Seeds Revival of a Forest — and a Community

2023-03-29T13:36:33-04:00Tags: |

Adelaida Cucué Rivera, an Indigenous woman from the Purépecha community, recounts the story of four women of Perán that planned a rebellion against cartels who were illegally logging the forests of Perán. The loggers devastated the forest to the point the climate was changing in the region. The women-led rebellion lasted more than a year, but resulted in the people of Perán re-establishing their legal autonomy of their territory. A community-led vivero (tree-nursery) and replanting effort consisting mostly of women is growing back the forest, with the climate returning almost to normal and native plants and wildlife populations thriving again. Rivera warns that although the region has experienced a peaceful decade following the rebellion, the threat of the cartels returning looms, with the fight continuing to protect the forests and community of Perán. Photo credit: Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

4 05, 2021

Finding the Mother Tree

2023-03-29T13:34:11-04:00Tags: |

Willow Defebaugh and Suzanne Simard discuss Simard’s new book “Finding the Mother Tree”. Simard’s book weaves together her personal story and scientific journey and findings. Simard scientifically proves that forests are interconnected communities, communicating and supporting one another through an intricate root and fungal system. Mother trees, the oldest trees, are integral to these communities by sharing energy and passing wisdom to the younger trees. Her research challenges the Western idea of competition in nature. Rather, both competition and cooperation exist together in these complex communities. Simard’s research supports knowledge long-held by Indigenous Peoples: that we are all connected, we are all one. Simard looked to the spirituality of the forests to try to understand their complexity. Photo credit: Colin Dodgson/Atmos

1 05, 2021

Janet Gibson, 1990 Goldman Prize Recipient, South and Central America

2022-05-14T17:04:29-04:00Tags: |

Biologist and zoologist Janet Gibson was instrumental in the creation of the Holy Chan Marine Reserve to protect Belize’s precious coral forests and marine life from development, sewage dumping, and tourism. Since the 1980s, Gibson has been campaigning for long-term sustainable management of coastal resources, helping bring coalitions of fisherfolk, businesspeople, and government officials to the table to establish Belize’s integrated Coastal Zone Management program. She currently serves as the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Belize program director. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

9 04, 2021

‘What’s At Stake Is The Life Of Every Being’: Saving The Brazilian Cerrado

2021-04-09T13:14:50-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous communities in the Cerrado region of Brazil are organizing to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of agribusiness and deforestation on their native lands. The region is even richer in biodiversity than the Amazon, playing a critical role in global carbon sequestration. Diana Aguiar, political advisor to the National Campaign in Defense of the Cerrado, describes the devastation that has been caused in recent decades due to agribusiness and cattle ranching, compromising the headwaters of major rivers and the livelihoods of Indigenous communities. Local communities and partner NGOs are working to bring greater attention to the importance of this vast savanna and to increase pressure to protect the region as a dedicated world heritage site.  Photo Credit: Elvis Marques / CPT Nacional

1 10, 2020

‘Dramatic’ Global Rise In Laws Defending Rights Of Nature

2023-02-06T00:21:26-05:00Tags: |

Carey Biron overviews the recent global spike in legislation that has ruled in favor of the rights of nature. Rights of Nature laws – which provide citizens the opportunity to sue on behalf of damaged lands and waters – have become more common over the last decade, and ecosystems and waterways have won protection under the law in at least 14 countries. These cases set an important precedent for other nations that are in the process of establishing their own legal frameworks to accommodate rights of nature principles, especially following the United Nations’ first biodiversity summit, where more than 60 leaders signed a Pledge for Nature. The UN’s goal is to protect 30 percent of the planet’s lands and waters by 2030 by cracking down on major environmental issues like pollution and deforestation.

9 09, 2020

Wildfires And Weather Extremes: It’s Not Coincidence, It’s Climate Change

2020-09-09T22:16:53-04:00Tags: |

The acceleration of forest fires in the West has made fire season 2 to 3 months longer than it was just a few decades ago. Climate change and wildfires are linked by mechanisms like higher temperatures, increased aridity, invasive species, earlier melting of snowpack etc. Climate change is not the single responsible factor for these fires and the natural ecosystem drivers of fire should be recognized.

9 09, 2020

Wildfire Smoke Threatens Air Quality Across The West

2020-09-09T22:13:58-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Bonnie Holmes-Gen, chief of the health and exposure assessment branch in the research division of the California Air Resources Board shares the links between health problems and wildfire smoke. During the COVID-19 pandemic, unhealthy air quality is a serious public health emergency. This summer, as California’s coronavirus cases continue to surge and the state struggles to implement safety measures, wildfire season is worsening air quality, complicating evacuation plans, perpetuating unjust impacts on Black, Brown, and Native communities, and further endanger those already at greatest risk of COVID-19.    

8 09, 2020

California Wildfires: Intersecting Crises & How To Respond

2020-09-09T22:23:23-04:00Tags: |

During a public health crisis centered around a respiratory disease, the last thing we need is more pollution that worsens respiratory problems and deepens already disproportionately higher risks of COVID-19 for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities. While getting real about the root issues is urgently important, millions of Californians are being forced to deal with the immediate task of safety and survival. Greenpeace created a California Wildfire Crisis Emergency Response Guide to help communities stay safe and healthy during these uncertain times. Photo Credit: David McNew / Greenpeace

6 09, 2020

In California Wine Country, Undocumented Grape Pickers Forced To Work In Fire Evacuation Zones

2020-10-05T16:49:57-04:00Tags: |

Amid pandemic economic impact, many Latin American Indigenous immigrants have no choice but to do farm work in hazardous conditions during wildfires, increasing their vulnerability to COVID-19 due to their exposure to smoke. Movimiento Cultural de la Unión Indígena, an Indigenous workers’ group, is pushing for appropriate working regulations, in addition to providing economic and social assistance, especially to the undocumented suspicious of federal support. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

3 09, 2020

What Should We Know About Wildfires In California

2020-09-09T22:57:12-04:00Tags: |

This Greenpeace article lists trends impacting the occurrence of both forest and wildland fires today and solutions to those trends. The climate crisis is fueling extreme weather events, including an exceptionally dry winter and record-breaking heat waves which leave more dried up wildland vegetation to kindle the fires.  Despite this, the Trump Administration and the logging industry regularly use wildfires as opportunities to make the case for more logging under the guise of fuels reduction and fire prevention. Photo Credit: 2016 Erskine Fire in Central California, © US Forest Service

30 08, 2020

Indigenous Activists Brace For Worsening Wildfires Under Climate Change

2020-11-20T17:37:27-05:00Tags: |

The Three Sisters Collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico is leading local efforts to address climate change impacts in Indigenous communities. Carrie Wood, member of the Navajo Nation, and Christina M. Castro, member of the Taos and Jemez pueblos, are two of the women who have been supporting critical local responses such as making air purifiers for elders in the Nambé, Tesuque and Pojoaque pueblos who have dealt with excessive smoke from the Medio Fire combined with other wildfires in the western US. Their support stems from long-held mutual aid traditions led by Indigenous women, stressing the importance of investing in Indigenous knowledge and tribal fire management techniques for community resilience. Photo credit: Cody Nelson/NM Political Report

24 08, 2020

Women Are More At Risk Due To The Pandemic And Climate Crisis. These Feminists Are Working To Change That.

2020-09-24T19:33:05-04:00Tags: |

Women activists around the world are standing up. To challenge the ways in which the global pandemic and climate change exacerbate inequalities, five young women share their stories about the intersections of environmental and social justice. Journey with Betty Barkha (Fiji), Meera Ghani (Pakistan), Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (Chad), Maggie H. Mapondera (Zimbabwe), and Majandra Rodriguez Acha (Peru) to learn about their work and the ways that they are engaging in their local communities.

13 08, 2020

The Women Battling Wildfires And Breaking Barriers In The American Wilderness

2020-09-09T19:33:02-04:00Tags: |

Hannah Gross is one of 10,000 female wild land firefighters in the United States. In this historically male-dominated field women often face implicit bias, sexism, and gatekeepers who didn’t make them welcome.  Various initiatives have been created to increase the number of women in fire, foster their leadership capabilities, and improve their operational confidence in the field. Thanks to some of these initiatives women are  present in every facet of the wildland fire world. Photo Credit: Alex Potter

31 07, 2020

Isabella Tree On Rewilding England & Regenerative Agriculture

2023-01-25T11:52:57-05:00Tags: |

Isabella Tree is a farmer in Britain who advocates for ‘rewilding’. Rewilding advocates believe that minimal management of green spaces kickstarts natural processes for flora and fauna to thrive and for nature to heal itself. This approach enabled the soil and forested area in her farm to heal and provided a space for endangered species to inhabit. Tree’s farm is one of Britain’s most significant areas for nature. Tree’s farm offers a model of self-sufficiency for other farmers, as she has been able to profit with an organic meat business, renting their barn for office space, and eco-tourism. Women like Tree are leading by example by providing models of farming that restores a healthier relationship with the Earth. Photo credit: Charlie Burrell/Atmos

3 05, 2020

Fierce Life: Maria do Socorro Silva

2023-01-25T11:40:52-05:00Tags: |

Maria do Socorro Silva is a descendant of enslaved Africans, and an Indigenous woman of the Amazon forest, in the region of Barcarena. Like her ancestors, Maria has resisted and rebelled against colonial, capitalist forces, who see the land and women’s bodies as property for the taking. Norst Hyrdo is a Norwegian company that extracts raw materials from Barcarena. High levels of aluminum, iron, copper, arsenic, mercury and lead have been found in the Murucupi River in Barcarena, contaminating the river that Indigenous communities depend on, leading to illness and death. Maria, herself fighting cancer caused by the contamination, also fights by sharing her story to young climate activists, explaining to them the connection between the health of Indigenous Peoples to the health of the environment. Like her ancestors, Maria resists and fights for the next generation. Photo credit: Liliana Merizalde/Atmos

18 03, 2020

‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

2020-03-22T21:14:12-04:00Tags: |

Research suggests that humanity’s destruction of biodiversity creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19, or the coronavirus, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise. According to disease ecologists viruses and other pathogens are also likely to be transmitted from animals to humans in the many informal meat markets that have sprung up in urban populations around the world. This article focuses on the increasingly visible connections between the wellbeing of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems. Additionally, it also argues that zoonotic diseases and viral infections are linked to environmental change caused by human behavior. Photo Credit: National Institutes of Health/AFP via Getty Images

15 11, 2019

A Force Of Nature: Protecting Mongolia’s Elusive Snow Leopards

2020-11-20T17:44:50-05:00Tags: |

Bayarjargal Agvaantseren is a Mongolian activist and conservationist who has created the first snow leopard sanctuary in the world. Raised by a family of teachers, she grew up in northern Mongolia with her own educational path shifting toward conservation as she engaged with rural herders who wanted to protect their livestock from the leopards. Her tireless efforts led to her starting the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation with a focus on community-driven programs that protect both the herders’ livestock as well as the snow leopard population.  Agvaantseren has also held the Mongolian government accountable by successfully pressuring them to cancel 37 mining licenses of companies who have played a major role in threatening the habitat of the native snow leopard. The Tost Tosonbumba nature reserve in the south Gobi Desert encompasses 1.8 million acres that now protect the snow leopard population and is primarily managed by local communities. Photo credit: Positive.News

28 04, 2019

The Amazon is a Woman

2023-01-25T12:23:37-05:00Tags: |

In Brazil, Indigenous women are fighting against the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest in more ways than one. To protect the Amazon, women are on the frontlines of marches, publicly sharing their stories, leading public meetings, physically preventing access to the forest, relearning their language and culture, teaching children how to resist and act collectively, filing lawsuits against foreign companies exploiting the Amazon, and cultivating alliances with young European activists to jointly protect the Amazon. This does not go without risk. These women withstand threats to and attempts on their lives. These Amazonian women persist because the survival of the Earth and future generations depend upon it. Photo credit: Liliana Merizalde/Atmos

27 04, 2019

How The Tree-Hugging Movement Got Started In A Small Indian Village

2021-01-27T20:32:06-05:00Tags: |

  On March 26, 1973, a young girl spotted loggers heading towards Gopeshwar forest near the small village of Reni, in Uttarakhand. The village advisor, Gaura Devi, recruited 300 village women to hug trees in the forest and physically prevent their deforestation. As large corporations attempted to log near other rural villages, the local women hugged the trees, drawing inspiration from the events at Reni. The movement soon earned the title of the “Chipko andolan,” meaning the “stick-to movement.” Finding its roots in the 1730 Indian tree revolt, and using guiding principles from the Gandhian philosophy of self-sufficiency and self-sustenance, the woman-led Chipko Movement serves as a precursor for modern environmentalism. Photo Credit: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty

16 10, 2018

Gender Equality In The Cocoa Trade: Two Female Farmers From Cote d’Ivoire Readdress The Balance

2020-10-06T23:33:28-04:00Tags: |

Aminata Bamba and Traore Awa are two women leading the charge on gender equality in the cocoa industry in Western Africa. Both with senior positions in their cocoa cooperatives, Ecookim and CAYAT cocoa cooperative respectively, and having returned from a Fairtrade Conference, they defy the traditional gender roles prevalent in their country and help lift the taboo on women leadership. In a community where unpaid labour often mean that women working throughout the production chain are often not recognised and gender expectations result in a male-dominated industry, the Fairtrade Women’s School of Leadership is working to empower women to take the lead and has trained 413 women in Awa’s community. Their program provides guidance and business support and last year’s conference tackled the future of trade and systemic issues in supply chains. Photo credit: Tony Myers.

4 08, 2018

Trees Fight Female Feticide

2023-03-29T13:49:46-04:00Tags: |

In the Northern Indian village of Piplantri, parents have been planting 111 trees every time a female is born since 2007. A way to fight against sex-selective abortion, this action makes a statement on female equality while simultaneously benefiting the local community with a fortified ecosystem. In turn, the trees are treated like children themselves, as they are cared for and nurtured by villagers. Photo Credit: Gizmodo Earth And Science

21 07, 2018

‘A Hitman Could Come And Kill Me’: The Fight For Indigenous Land Rights In Mexico

2020-10-10T20:29:50-04:00Tags: |

Isela Gonzalez, director of Alianza Sierra Madre, uses civic activism to fight for political change as a way to confront the vested economic interests of not only big corporations, but also narco-gangs and corrupt politicians, that violate indigenous land rights. In a country that is painted in violence, with assassinations as an answer to those who have a different vision than governmental or corporate agendas, standing up for environmental and social causes come with serious risks. Often facing threats to her life, which has resulted in armed guards, panic buttons and crisis training, Gonzalez is staunch in her battle to defend the Tarahumara’s rights. The three tribes who live among the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre have a worldview that sees themselves as part of the land and it was this, as well as their way of life, that inspired her to refocus the direction of Alianza Sierra Madre on indigenous rights as the frontline for environmental protection. Photo credit: Thom Pierce for The Guardian.

12 07, 2018

Recognising The Contributions Of Women And Local Communities Is Required To Achieve The SDGs In Nepal

2018-07-12T17:06:05-04:00Tags: |

This report uplifts the contributions, concerns, and needs of rural women’s collectives and local community groups in achieving Nepal’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were excluded from the national activities and progress reports on the SDGs. Women’s leadership has been essential in cultivating inclusive and participatory systems for natural resource management.  Specifically, women are playing a critical role in community forest user groups—which include both on-the-land work and strategic discussions of women entrepreneurship and gender mainstreaming- to help protect forests, watersheds, wetlands, and cultural resources across rural Nepal. The report thus concludes that women’s groups play a critical role, now more than ever, in achieving the SDGs and strengthening social welfare systems. Photo Credit: FECOFUN

1 05, 2018

Where Women Lead On Climate Change

2019-01-14T18:06:24-05:00Tags: |

Most of the Guatemalan population financially depends on farming. Facing destructive landslides, strong winds and volcanic peaks, the women of Guatemala came forward to find the coping strategies for water and forest conservation. Eulia de Leon Juarez, founder of a women’s rights group in Guatemala’s western highlands, says that climate change has changed the pattern of seasons. To address these micro problems at a macro level, women’s non-profit organizations like Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) are working rigorously to develop women’s leadership. Climate change has amplified the inevitable process of migration, increasing the number of female-headed households in rural areas as more men move to cities. Solange Bandiaky-Badji, Africa program director for Rights and Resources Initiative, sees this as an opportunity for more women to take greater responsibility in their communities. Therefore, women should be seen as active participant preventing and coping with climate change and not merely as victim of it. Photo Credit: Sara Schonhardt

28 04, 2018

Preserving Arizona’s Aspens: U.S. Forest Service Partners To Treat Infested Aspen Groves In Northern Arizona

2021-04-09T13:09:34-04:00Tags: |

In Williams, Arizona, the Kaibab National Forest, the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection, Northern Arizona University, and the Arizona Elk Society are working together to treat Aspen trees that have been infested by Oystershell scale, tiny insects that are threatening the Aspen tree species. The research on this project is primarily led by Dr. Kristen Waring, professor of silviculture at Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry. Photo Credit: Wendy Howell/WGCN

16 04, 2018

Cooperative Agro-Forestry Empowers Indigenous Women In Honduras

2020-04-24T15:47:48-04:00Tags: |

The community of Lenca women, Indigenous to Honduras, has been practicing agroforestry for millennia as a sustainable farming method in their dry region. They are keeping this traditional knowledge alive by growing organic, fair trade crops like coffee in worker-owned cooperatives. Farmers like Eva Alvarado helped to create an all-female growers’ cooperative in 2014, as part of the Cosagual coffee growers’ organization. Their coffee is now sold around the world, and the women bring home a larger share of the profits than before. The Lenca group is known for radical work: Berta Cáceres, the famous Indigenous activist murdered in 2016, also belonged to the community. The idea of this cooperative was seeded at a gender equality workshop with the Association of NGOs. Agroforestry, which involves planting fruit and timber trees in the shade, is an effective way to combat food insecurity, erosion and acts as a carbon sink. Women in Honduras are coping with climate change using agroforestry, a method that can provide a sustainable livelihood to many communities. Photo Credit: Monica Pelliccia

14 03, 2018

Ecuador: Indigenous Women Protest Lack Of ‘Consultation,’ Environmental Damage Caused By Mineral, Oil Extraction In Amazon

2020-12-02T20:03:36-05:00Tags: |

Ecuador’s National Assembly recently passed a law intended to benefit regional development and expand social services for the most impoverished; however, dozens of Indigenous Amazonian women are protesting the law’s support for continued mining activities and oil extraction, which are responsible for environmental contamination and human displacement threatening the indigenous way of life. These activists are camping outside the presidential office until president Lenin Moreno meets with them and hears their mandate to reject extractive industries, ensure food sovereignty, and deliver intercultural education, among other concerns. Photo credit: CONFENIAE  

7 03, 2018

Guardians of the Amazon Rainforest – Women Rising Radio

2019-04-13T15:59:20-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous land and rights defenders, Gloria Ushigua of Ecuador and Aura Tegria of Colombia, share the heart moving victories and struggles of their people against mega extraction projects on their land, weaving in significant moments from their personal stories. Gloria Ushigua is President of Sapara Women’s Association in Ecuador. She was publicly mocked on television by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa after protests in 2001 and violently persecuted after organizing significant mobilizations against oil drilling in 2015. Aura Tegria is an indigenous U’wa lawyer on the Legal Counsel to the U’wa people of Colombia. The childhood memories of her people organizing to protect their land inspired to become the U’Wa defender she is today. After intense protests, campaigns and legal action in 2014 and 2015, they successfully kicked out Occidental Petroleum followed by the successful dismantling of the large Magallanes gas well from their land. Part of the U’Wa resistance has also been against the Catholic and Evangelical church that historically promoted cultural extermination through their boarding schools for indigenous children and other oppressive practices. Both women share the history of their people’s resistance since colonization, their personal stories linked to that resistance, the recent struggles of their people and the inspiring victories.Photo Credit: Amazon Watch

5 03, 2018

More Than One Thousand Women Take Over Suzano Pulp And Paper Mill To Protest Genetically Engineered Trees And Eucalyptus Plantations

2018-07-13T17:01:17-04:00Tags: |

On March 5, 2018, over one thousand women from the Rural Landless Workers Movement (MST) took a stand against the creation and sale of genetically engineered (GE) trees from industrial eucalyptus plantations. Motivated by the negative impacts these plantations have on water – leading to the depletion of fresh water and the contamination of critical water reserves - these women strongly oppose the Brazilian government’s 2015 legalization of these plantations. Citing the precautionary recommendations given by the UN Convention on Biodiversity in 2008, the women of the MST and other social movements in Brazil stand firm on their stance to do everything in their power to expel GE trees from being planted on a large-scale in Brazil. Photo Credit: MST Communication

16 02, 2018

Environmental Defender Guadalupe Campanur Tapia Murdered In Mexico

2018-03-02T13:07:51-05:00Tags: |

Purépecha activist Guadalupe Campanur Tapia was a courageous Indigenous woman human rights and Earth defender of Cherán, Michocán, Mexico. Her bravery and leadership helped mobilize local Indigenous communities to protect regional forests against illegal logging, and to claim independence against a corrupt government. However, her activism resulted in threats of violence from organized crime groups, and she was murdered in January 2018. Campanur is among an increasing number of defenders across the globe who have been killed in recent years, especially women. This article recounts Guadalupes death in the context of the 312 defenders across 27 countries who were murdered in 2017. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

3 02, 2018

Colombian Environmentalist Murdered Amid Rising Violence

2018-02-22T20:17:06-05:00Tags: |

Yolanda Maturana dedicated her life to defending Colombia’s wildlife and forests, and was an opponent of illegal mining and water contamination in the central and north western Colombian departments of Risaralda and Choco. Because of her activism she was brutally assassinated in her home, in the village of Santa Cecilia. Across the country, violence is escalating towards environmental activists, a trend congruent with global patterns, but also influenced by Colombia’s brutal and continuing war. Photo credit: @yolandamaturana

27 12, 2017

In Rural Indonesia, Women Spearhead The Fight To Protect Nature

2018-03-02T13:11:54-05:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun, Eva Susanti Hanafi Bande, and Rusmedia Lumban Gaol are just a few of the fierce grassroots leaders fighting against Indigenous cultural and environmental destruction in Indonesia’s rural areas. In July 2017, they gathered with some 50 defenders, most of them women, to share their stories and celebrate their courageous activism in the face of a socio-ecological crisis in their homeland. Timber, mining, palm oil, and other extractive industries have exhausted the country’s natural resources and defenders like Aleta, Eva, and Rusmedia have bravely opposed their efforts in the face of violence, internal persecution, and imprisonment. Photo credit: Lusia Arumingtyas/Mongabay-Indonesia

21 12, 2017

How a Pioneering Botanist Broke Down Japan’s Gender Barriers

2021-01-27T20:38:26-05:00Tags: |

In this article, writer Leila McNeill offers a portrait of scientist Kono Yasui, a Japanese woman who broke grounds in academia, research and teaching. Aged 47, she was the first Japanese woman to earn a PhD in science (Tokyo Imperial University, 1927). This was an achievement in a cultural context in which women’s roles were restricted to being ‘good wives’ and ‘wise mothers’, rather than leaders of scientific inquiry. She was the first Japanese woman to publish in an academic journal, ‘Weber’s Organ of Carp Fish’ in Zoological Science; and the first to publish in a foreign (British) journal, Annals of Botany, ‘On the Life History of Salvinia Natans’ from her study of plant cells. Dedicating her life to research and committing to never marry, Yasui received ministerial funding to research abroad, in the US. In 1949, she contributed to the establishment of TWHNS, a national research university for women. Photo Credit: Ochanomizu University archive

14 12, 2017

Photos: It’s Been 20 Years Since Julia Butterfly Fought Big Logging – By Living In A Tree

2018-02-14T22:19:59-05:00Tags: |

On December 10, 1997, environmentalist Julia “Butterfly” Hill, a member of Earth First! advocacy group, climbed to the top of a 200-foot-tall redwood tree in Northern California. Hill was protesting the destruction of nearby redwood forests by the Pacific Lumber Company. She slept on a 8 x 8 ft plywood platform in the 600-year-old tree named “Luna” for 738 days, withstanding El Niño storms and cold, wet winters. While her “tree-sitting” received criticism from Humboldt and lumberjacks, her nonviolent protest grabbed the attention of the press, and she was able to save the tree while simultaneously shedding light on the work of fellow environmental activists, and inspiring a generation of new young activists. Photo credit: Yann Gamblin/Paris Match via Getty Images

7 12, 2017

Aliens In The Mist

2018-07-13T15:07:17-04:00Tags: |

This interview highlights the incredible work of Dian Fossey, a female pioneer in the fields of primatology and conservation. Fossey’s studies introduced the world to the kind nature of gorillas, and changed the public perception of them from aggressive creatures to the gentle giants they’re known as today. Fossey gave her life to save the gorillas, which remain among the world’s most endangered animals. To carry on her legacy, Tara Stoinski setup, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, an non-profit dedicated to the conservation, protection and study of gorillas. Today, Tara primarily works in Rwanda and Congo leading Karisoke, the world’s longest-running gorilla research center. Her holistic conservation efforts directly help people and communities, improving the health and livelihoods of people who live near the gorillas and helping to build the next generation of conservationists in Africa. Photo Credit: Robert I.M. Campbell

1 12, 2017

“Even If They Want To Kill Us, Let Them Kill Us Here. We Must Continue To Stay.” Sengwer Women Cry For Help In The Embobut Forest, Kenya

2018-07-13T15:11:33-04:00Tags: |

Since the British colonial rule, the Sengwer people of the Embobut forest in Kenya have been continuously evicted from their ancestral land in the Cherangani Hills. Now under the guise of conservation and forest preservation, the Sengwer continue to live in constant fear of evictions, a process that leads to loss of cultural vitality, peace, and food security. The effects of the evictions are especially harmful to women, as they have led to loss of ability to take care of children, loss of household property, and an increase in sexual abuse, harassment, and psychological distress. In response to these gendered pressures, the Sengwer women have decided to voice their concerns to government officials, writing a “call for help” on the Forest Peoples Programme’s website. Written by Milka Chepkorir, a Sengwer community member, this call tells of their suffering, concerns, hopes, and their ties to their ancestral land. Photo Credit: Forest Peoples Programme

13 11, 2017

Maldives Mangroves Forest To Be Converted To Airport

2017-12-13T12:52:18-05:00Tags: |

Women leaders of Uthema and Voice of Women speak out about plans to build an airport on Kulhudhuhfushi island in the northern region of the Maldives, which is made of over 1200 natural coral islands. The vital mangrove wetlands of Kulhudhuhfushi are some of the countries most important and biodiverse, and the airport development there threatens massive destruction of ecosystems which are the source of local economy, culture, traditions, food, environmental protection, and much more. The article and accompanying video note a particular impact on women who work work the wetlands for their livelihoods, and the inequities of an airport for just some people displacing a place of local support for countless. Photo credit: SixDegrees News

6 11, 2017

This Tribal Lady And Her Band Of Women Saved 50 Hectares Of Forests For 20 Years

2018-10-17T18:02:17-04:00Tags: |

Raksha Bandhan, a hindu festival celebrating the bond between brother and sister has inspired women in Muturkham, Jharkhand to protect their forests. In 1998, when Jamuna Tudu, also known as ‘Lady Tarzan’, noticed large areas of clearcut forest she began to speak out. She managed to organize Van Suraksha Samiti, a band of 25 women fortified with bows and arrows, bamboo sticks and spears to tackle the enemies of their forest. After driving out the mafia cutting down their forests, the women began tying the ‘knot of protection’, around the trees. Stemming from the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, the knot symbolizes the love between brothers and sisters, where a sister ties a rakhi (holy thread) on the wrist of her brother to ward off evil and in turn, he vows to protect her until death. The rakhi around the trees symbolizes that these women will protect their trees until death. Photo Credit: YouTube

26 10, 2017

Women In Odisha Village Take Charge To Fast Track Community Forest Rights

2018-08-24T17:23:18-04:00Tags: |

In October 2017, women of Kaptapally, Nayagarh district, Odisha opened a Forest Rights Information centre to spread awareness about the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The centre will support traditional forest dwellers and aid in the process of granting Community Forest Rights (CFR) in the district. Usharani, president of the committee, explains that the centre promotes self-sufficiency, substance economies, self-rule and local governance. Women in this area have a long history of protecting forests and a similar centre has opened in Dengajhari village of the Ranpur block, where women have fought to conserve their forests for 40 years. Photo credit: Forest Rights Information centre, Kaptapally

24 10, 2017

Ugandan Women Didn’t Cause Climate Change, But They’re Adapting to It

2018-01-24T11:19:42-05:00Tags: |

Constance Okollet is among the first women of Uganda taking bold action to fight climate change impact, through the formation of the Osukuru United Women Network. Over time, the network has evolved into an education platform about climate change, mitigation and adaptation strategies. Irene Barbara Amayo, another powerful woman, is the chairperson of a group in the Network which has taken action including creating a sustainable poultry operation and a small tree nursery. Even though the Network faces multiple infrastructural challenges which constitute barriers and challenges, the women involved in the project continue to be optimistic and stand for their beliefs. This article highlights that even though these women are not the ones responsible for climate change and massive global pollution, they are nonetheless rising as heroes to build solutions.  Photo credit: Edward Echwalu

10 10, 2017

Mother Nature’s Daughter

2020-12-15T21:52:39-05:00Tags: |

Authored by Erin Peterson, this article introduces us to St Olaf’s alumni Anne Christianson, a Minnesota native, feminist and environmental scientist. In 2016, along with 75 STEM women from around the world, Anne was selected to partake in the Homeward Bound leadership initiative, a 3-week expedition to Antarctica. For Anne, such an experience in an isolated and wild environment was both an impactful and powerful opportunity to build a significant network of allies, as it promoted collaboration, connection and support amongst the participants in meaningful ways. Interested in the intersection between politics and the environment, this expedition gave Anne a chance to consider new ways of bringing awareness to the troubling effects of climate change on women. The expedition provided these women scientists and leaders with coaching support for career and leadership strategies within their science and technology fields; and strategies for improved science communication and effective research disseminate world-wide. Photo Credit: Unknown

26 09, 2017

Indigenous Women’s Struggles To Oppose State-Sponsored Deforestation In Chhattisgarh, India

2017-12-26T16:23:45-05:00Tags: |

Koriya District situated in North West corner of Chhattisgarh, India is a historically densely forested area where the Indigenous population has always depended on the forest ecosystems to earn their livelihoods. Over the past decade, the natural forests have been replaced with teak plantations, and in response, AAS, an organization of local Indigenous women, has taken action to challenge the state to revoke policies of transforming natural forest into commercially cultivated forests, and to try and secure forest rights and justice for the Indigenous communities of the region. Photo Credit: Oxfam

15 09, 2017

In Riau, Indonesia, Women Organise For Environmental Justice

2018-02-15T12:16:42-05:00Tags: |

Women in Sungai Berbari, a village in Riau, Indonesia, have been organizing for representation in land use planning. Ever since the Indonesian government began opening local forests for agricultural operations, women without equal access to planning processes have been disproportionately impacted by the resulting environmental impacts. When companies burn carbon-rich peatland to develop plantations, for example, the resulting crisis-level haze becomes particularly burdensome for the women tasked with domestic duties and caring for their families. Women Research Institute has provided local women with access to forest change data and training on public speaking in order to develop advocacy strategies. Photo credit: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

15 08, 2017

Protecting The Forest Before It’s Too Late

2018-07-13T17:14:55-04:00Tags: |

Growing up in the Ratanakiri province of northern Cambodia, Veit Phumi spent her childhood living amongst the lush forests and biodiversity native to her region. However, the dispersal of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) to rubber tree and palm oil companies by the Cambodian government has threatened the vitality of these old-growth forests, in which 95% of local people depend upon. In response to the unequitable reallocation of 80,000 hectares of Phumni’s hometown’s land, Phumni and other community members have founded the O’Koki Community Protected Area. Now a Community Protected Area (CPA), the area has now been recognized with a decree from the Cambodian Ministry of Environment and operates as a community-led protection agency. Photo Credit: Savann Oeurm/Oxfam

1 08, 2017

Feminism, Forests And Food Security

2017-11-01T03:20:28-04:00Tags: |

At the forty-fourth Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS-44), the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation organized a side event to address the links between "Feminism, Forests and Food Security." Gender equality is a crucial component of sustainable forest management and food security, a point elegantly made by Marlène Elias, Gender Research Coordinator of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, and Gender Specialist at Biodiversity International. The event also addressed the critical role rural women play in conserving biodiversity and natural resources, despite the unique challenges they face, such as lack of access to technology and credit. Photo credit: Juan Carlos Huayllapuma/CIFOR

31 07, 2017

Snapshots From Kenya: Women Climate Defenders

2017-10-31T19:12:36-04:00Tags: |

Masaai women from the Enooretet community in Transmara, Kenya and the Naramam community of West Pokot, Kenya are combating deforestation and sustainably managing natural resources by growing tree nurseries and using energy-efficient stoves. MADRE and the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) brought the communities together to share knowledge and best practices of responding to climate change at a training with Lucy Mulenke (IIN) and Natalia Caruso (MADRE) in the summer of 2017. The women built skills in women's and human rights while building friendships and business smarts. Photo credit: MADRE

19 07, 2017

Mothers vs. Loggers: The Destruction Of Białowieża Forest Splits Poland

2018-12-19T17:29:01-05:00Tags: |

Matki Polki na wyrębie (“Polish Mothers at the Felling” in Polish) is a grassroots group of mothers who protested against the rampant logging practices near Warsaw. Logging tripled in 2016, especially in the region of the Białowieża forest. Jan Szyszko, the  Polish environmental minister of Białowieża, claimed that logging would save the trees from beetles. However, the authorities failed to consider the historical and environmental importance of the trees. Most of the animals are dependent on the lichens, mosses, and fungi and other parts of the Białowieża ecosystem for their survival. Thus, mothers are coming forward to save their great heritage. Photo credit: Tomasz Wiech.

2 07, 2017

Marlinja Activist Eleanor Dixon Is Against Fracking In The Northern Territory

2017-10-10T21:09:49-04:00Tags: |

Eleanor Dixon, a Marlinja woman and leader in the Stand up for Country Indigenous anti-fracking movement, discusses the impacts of fracking on her ancestral lands. Dixon criticizes the Australian government for attempting to turn this site into a gas field without consulting the Aboriginal people. She emphasizes the interconnected nature of the water system, land, people, food systems and cultural identity in her homeland, and argues for keeping all that is sacred beneath the ground. Photo credit: Eleanor Dixon/Facebook

27 06, 2017

Women Of The Cloud Forest Take On Mining Giants

2017-10-27T01:09:17-04:00Tags: |

The Intag cloud forest has been a hotspot for mining corporations for decades. A group of strong-willed women are taking a stance against these companies to protect the area’s biodiversity. Headed by Silvia Betancourt, The Coordination of Women, an umbrella group of 13 collectives, is fighting mining companies and ecological contamination. Marcia Ramirez, the leader of an anti-mining group, wants to prove that women too are capable of leading. She believes women dedicate more time to taking care of nature and are thus vulnerable to slight changes in the environment due to the nature of their daily errands. Photo credit: Naomi Renee Cohen

27 06, 2017

Gunmen Threaten Guatemalan Land And Territory Defender Aura Lolita Chávez

2017-11-01T23:26:16-04:00Tags: |

Members of the Council of Ki’che’ Peoples (CPK), including Aura Lolita Chávez Ixcaquic, identify unauthorized clear cutters in the protected forest area and take matters into their hand. They are confronted by a group of armed men who directly threaten Lolita and other members of the CPK, including children, causing them to flee in search of refuge. Photo credit: IM-Defensoras

15 06, 2017

This Is My Land: The Indigenous Women Chiefs Protecting The Amazon

2017-10-14T16:34:20-04:00Tags: |

The Kayapo tribe in Brazil is shifting traditional gender roles with the emergence of three new female chiefs across its many communities within the Amazon rainforest. Tuire, one of the first female chiefs of the Kapran-krere village, is using her position to unite the fractured communities against outside threats. Recent legislation has reassigned land rights from the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest to the Ministry of Justice, suspected to allow for private interests to use the land for logging, mining, and cattle ranching. Tuire and other female chiefs are working to regain the rights to own and conserve their ancestral land. Photo credit: Pinar Yolacan

6 06, 2017

Blackfeet Researcher Leads Her Tribe Back To Traditional Foods

2017-09-22T22:22:13-04:00Tags: |

Researcher Abaki Beck  published a report entitled “Ahwahsiin: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Food Sovereignty on the Blackfeet Reservation” (ahwahsiin translates to “the land where we get our food”), featuring oral history interviews with nine Blackfeet elders who discussed the nation’s traditional foods and the health issues connected to a modern American diet. Beck partnered with Saokio Heritage, a community-based and volunteer-run organization on Blackfeet. The report was funded by a $10,000 grant from the First Nations Development Institute and is available on the organization’s website. Photo credit: Yes! Magazine  

31 05, 2017

Alice Hinman And Natural Beekeeping At Apiopolis

2017-10-31T22:42:55-04:00Tags: |

Alice Hinman is the founder of a bee sanctuary and sustainable honey company in Raleigh, North Carolina. A natural beekeeper, she see the decline in pollinator and honeybee population worldwide as an opportunity to tackle a global challenge, to which she is responding by producing honey for Raleigh's network of local restaurants. She is passionate about supporting local food and creating green jobs rooted in sustainability and community. Photo credit: Johnny Gillette

30 05, 2017

To Save The World’s Forests, Protect Women’s Land Rights

2018-10-17T18:10:13-04:00Tags: |

Solange Bandiaky-Badji, the head of Gender Justice and Africa Programs at the Rights and Resources Initiative, comments on how Indigenous and rural women from low-to-middle income countries suffer from weak enforcement of land tenure security - and how this fails to meet international standards for fighting climate change and women’s rights. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, special rapporteur for Indigenous rights for the United Nations, states how land rights are essential for women’s security, well-being and presence at decision-making processes for resistance, resilience and development of their communities. Photo Credit: Joel Redman 

26 05, 2017

Unlocking The Power And Potential Of Indigenous And Rural Women

2017-10-26T22:39:37-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous and rural women make up more than half of the 2.5 billion people who use their lands, but they are still absent from discussions of women’s property rights. Only when women have equal rights and opportunities, their communities and Lands can benefit. This new report provides an unprecedented assessment of multiple legal frameworks regulating Indigenous and rural women’s community forest rights. Photo credit: If Not Us Then Who?

25 05, 2017

A Voice From The Forest In The Corporate Boardroom

2020-12-02T19:53:25-05:00Tags: |

Tribal attorney and Native advisor to Bernie Sanders, Tara Houska of Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe recounts her work of drawing attention to Indigenous rights issues in corporate boardrooms. She speaks specifically about the Indigenous-led resistances against large international financial corporations investing in fossil fuels. For Houska, the Paris Agreement and “sustainable action” plans do not hold corporations accountable for the environmental and social harm that they have caused. Now, Indiegnous resistance groups are rising up against these institutions, posing threats to Big Oil and its investors. Photo Credit: Tara Houska

16 05, 2017

Defending The Forests From Above With Ruddy Turnstone

2020-12-15T21:57:21-05:00Tags: |

The second installment of the Dogwood Alliance Forest Defender Series focuses on Ruddy Turnstone, an activist with the Global Justice Ecology Project and Everglades Earth First. Based in the Everglades, Ruddy describes her experiences climbing and living in trees during direct action campaigns against deforestation. Ruddy also trains fellow activists in these direct action strategies. Ruddy emphasises her individual connection with nature and the powerful bonds between humans and the nature surrounding them. Photo Credit: Global Justice Ecology Project

15 05, 2017

Women And The Right To Land: A Case Study Of Brazil

2020-09-02T22:37:55-04:00Tags: |

Ana Célia, Edite Rodrigues, and Odete Mendes are among many rural Brazilian women who are struggling to make a living off of sugarcane farming but face unhealthy working conditions and unfair wages—conditions being exacerbated by land monopolies and market speculation. In the case of women like Maria Souza and Lusiane dos Santos, these stories have repeated themselves throughout multiple generations, with mothers and daughters being forced to work in the fields to sustain their families. Despite small farmers being most responsible for food production and job creation in the countryside, they occupy less agricultural land and receive less state support than large landowners and corporations, causing food insecurity and displacement in rural communities and subjecting women workers with limited alternatives to degrading conditions. That is why leaders like Carlita da Costa, president of the Cosmópolis Rural Workers Union, is fighting for labor rights by organizing rural women and focusing on structural changes to ensure secure markets for women farmers, public resources and social services, accessible education in the countryside, and basic rights to land and food. Photo credit: Feminist Alliance for Rights

2 05, 2017

Female Eco-Activists Live in ‘Constant State of Fear’ in Latin America

2021-01-27T20:47:45-05:00Tags: |

This article addresses the issue of violence against female eco-activists in Latin America (intimidation, threats, illegal detention). We read about the scale of the issue, with Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, assassinated in March 2016 for campaigning against plans to build hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River (in which the Honduran government was implicated). And 41-y.o. Evani Lisboa, coordinator of the Biological Reserve of Gurupi (Brazil), responsible for protecting the area from illegal logging or wildlife poaching, and constantly threatened by criminal organisations attempting to exploit the reserve’s resources. And Valeria Brabata, Global Fund for Women’s program director for Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights, who tries to help through financing, advocacy and networking for grassroots organisations. A note of hope with young activist Itandehury Castaneda (30), who co-produced a documentary with Carolina Corral La Battaa de la Cacerolas to tell the stories of Mexican women taking a stand for nature. Photo Credit: ATP Orlando Sierra

1 05, 2017

Anne Lambert’s Fight To Protect Brazilian Rainforest Biodiversity

2017-10-31T21:54:50-04:00Tags: |

Anne Lambert, founding director of the International Conservation Fund of Canada, began her passionate work for the conservation of Brazil’s tropical rain forest after several trips to the country and her encounters with Brazil’s Kayapo people. In this compelling interview, Lambert explains how the severity of the loss of biodiversity in Brazil or any region in the world ultimately affects all nations on the Earth. Photo credit: Herald News/Anne Lambert

27 04, 2017

In Indonesia, Women Farmers Crushing Cement Mining and Production Factories

2017-10-27T01:15:37-04:00Tags: |

The Samin women of Indonesia are taking the lead to save Kendeng Karst mountains in Central Java from environmental destruction as cement companies consider expanding mining and production. The courageous Nine Kartinis of Kendeng from the Samin Community use non-violent resistance by planting their feet in cement to take a concrete stand against cement plants. Photo credit: Yes To Life No To Mining

26 04, 2017

Northbrook Activists Working To Save Monarch Butterflies In Northern Illinois

2017-10-26T13:35:24-04:00Tags: |

Sierra Club volunteers Dale Duda and Cindy Blue are making Northbrook, Illinois the “way station” for the resurgence of the monarch butterfly. They are encouraging the planting of milkweed, a food source for the butterflies by engaging with local residents, while working towards passing a bill that would revoke the “noxious weed” status given to the milkweed in many towns. The focus for Duda and Blue is on schools, students, staff, and parent organizations in spreading the good word on the plant and encouraging the revival of the monarch butterfly, through garden clubs, farmers markets, and various civilian and municipality-aided green initiatives. Photo credit: The Chicago Tribune

16 03, 2017

Helping China Rethink Its Approach To Conservation

2017-10-04T21:44:01-04:00Tags: |

Gretchen Daily, a Stanford University ecologist, is at the forefront of a joint effort with her Chinese colleagues to remap, rethink, and ameliorate China’s current protected areas, where biodiversity and natural resources are threatened. She used advanced mapping software to plan a major expansion of biodiversity havens and restore ecosystems to provide key services such as sandstorm prevention and flood control, and is actively working to develop a conservation strategy that centers community members as China prepares to implement its first national parks system. Photo credit: Stanford University

10 03, 2017

Grandmother Of The Jungle: Kerala Tribal Woman Can Prepare 500 Medicines From Memory

2017-10-05T17:39:02-04:00Tags: |

Lakshmikutty, “grandmother” of the Kallar jungle from Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, is a well-known healer, poet and teacher at the Kerala Folklore Academy. She has a vast knowledge of around 500 herbal and natural treatments which is now being recorded by the Kerala Forest Department in the form of a book. She has been awarded the Nattu Vaidya Rathna, an award for naturopathy in 1995 and from the Indian Biodiversity Congress 2016. Photo credit: Sreekesh Raveendran Nair

8 03, 2017

Seventy-Six Women On A Glacier Are Changing The World

2017-10-05T17:44:21-04:00Tags: |

Seventy-six women scientists focusing on climate change made their way to Antarctica for a year-long women’s leadership program called Homeward Bound in 2017.  The program’s aim is to groom future women leaders in STEM who will also be able to lead public policy. Heidi Steltzer, a polar ecologist, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, concur that women’s participation in high levels of science research and policy could be improved. After seeing the melting of Antarctica, the women returned to their jobs with a renewed desire to advocate for swift action on climate change. Photo credit: Anne Christianson

1 03, 2017

Challenging Corporate Power With Lindsey Allen

2017-11-01T03:27:38-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Lindsey Allen, Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network and woman climate leader, discusses the importance of corporate campaigning in fighting against the destructive extraction of palm oil. Millions of people in Indonesia, Congo and the Amazon, and countless species, are harmed by logging and deforestation in the pursuit of palm oil. She urges us to use our power, as consumers and activists, to support the preservation of Earth's rainforests. Photo credit: Well.org

26 02, 2017

Women for Forests Democratic Republic Of Congo – Winter 2017 Update

2017-10-26T13:31:28-04:00Tags: |

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network and SAFECO are working with women leaders to develop tree nurseries supporting reforestation efforts in the areas of Marunde, Rushasha, and Malanda of the Democratic Republic of Congo, impacting 1,500 people. The project’s focus is on rejuvenating the natural resources, protect the traditional life and knowledge of the Indigenous Pygmy people in the Itombwe Region, and collaboration with women leaders, such as Neema Namadamu, to work on climate change mitigation and women’s empowerment. Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

13 02, 2017

Biodiversity Here And Now

2018-10-19T19:02:03-04:00Tags: |

Gabrielle, an aspiring biologist and environmental scientist, is educating her community about the Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL). The Central Cebu Protected Landscape, home to various endemic and critically endangered species, is a forest reserve located in the mountains and drainage basins of central Cebu in the Philippines. After working for a local NGO, Gabrielle learned about the forest “dead zones”, areas where invasive species like Mahogany have taken over and inhibited native species from growing. Now her main objective is to educate the public and protect the CCPL’s unique biodiversity and water supply.  Photo Credit: Commundos

27 01, 2017

Stewards Of Culture And Biodiversity: Women’s Voices From The Northeast

2017-10-27T00:05:14-04:00Tags: |

The northeast region of India is wealthy when it comes to biodiversity. Women from the area are leading the way in the preservation of their agro-biodiverse lands. Seno Tsuhah, a project team leader who encourages environmental protection and human rights, and Mary Beth Sanate, an Indigenous woman who works on matters of gender, food, livelihood and customary rights, and other incredible women are doing their part for environmental justice. Photo credit: Rucha Chitnis

27 01, 2017

Malnad Mela, A Biodiversity Festival Founded By Women

2017-10-27T00:03:38-04:00Tags: |

Malnad Mela, an Indian biodiversity festival, started when Kamala, a farmer from the Malnad region, donated seeds to a seed exchange. The initiative started a community of women farmers called Vanastree, Kanada for “forest women.” A few years after that, their action grows into what became the biodiversity fair, where women exchange experiences and advice about seed conservation, biodiversity and sustainable farming. Photo credit: The Economic Times

1 01, 2017

Meet Mariamah Achmad, Indonesia

2017-10-25T23:05:11-04:00Tags: |

Mariamah Achmad, a native of the West Kalimantan, Indonesia, is a forest management graduate, a leader of Sekolah Lahan Gambut, or the Peatlands School, and the Palung Foundation’s Coordinator for Environment Awareness Education. She is working to end the exploitation of forest resources by multinational logging and palm oil companies who cut mangrove trees to make charcoal, overfish shrimp, burn forestlands and drain peat swamps to construct plantations. As a result of the indiscriminate exploitation of the forest resources, rural people have been affected by health issues such as asthma, bronchitis, heart disease and lung cancer. With Sekolah Lahan Gambut, Achmad focuses on creating awareness among rural people about these challenges. The organization focuses on the importance of forests, biodiversity, mangrove swamps, and wildlife through arts, communication, and education. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

1 01, 2017

Meet The Saik’uz Women, Canada

2017-10-25T23:02:05-04:00Tags: |

Chief Jackie of the Saik’uz First Nation turned away Enbridge after a thorough research on scientific and social impacts of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline with the help of the law in 2006. However, aware of the persistence of the company on carrying out the construction of the pipeline, Jackie and her cousin Geraldine created the Yinka Dene Alliance, an alliance of First Nations in the British Columbia region. The Alliance worked on several fronts with 160 First Nations representatives to publish the first Save the Fraser Declaration that banned tar sand pipelines through Fraser River watershed. The women also lobbied to gain support from other financial institutions, interacted with UN and EU officials, and spearheaded the civil disobedience action. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

1 12, 2016

“Our Forest Is Shedding Tears” — A Munduruku Woman Fights For Indigenous Rights

2017-11-01T03:32:14-04:00Tags: |

Vânia Alves is an Indigenous Munduruku leader from Brazil who is fighting the construction of mega-dams. With Greenpeace Brazil, Alves traveled from her home in the Amazon rainforest to Brasília to advocate to the Brazilian government for official recognition of the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land on the Tapajós River. The proposed dams would flood portions of the rainforest and threaten Alves' people's way of life. Photo credit: Otávio Almeda/Greenpeace

27 11, 2016

An Open Letter To And From Female Scientists

2017-10-27T02:58:40-04:00Tags: |

Following the recent 2016 United States presidential election, women scientists from around the country united to express their diversity, unity and unwavering commitment to strengthening their collective work for just and innovative solutions to the climate crisis and all manner of challenges faced by the global community. Photo credit: Sarah K. Wagner

29 10, 2016

National Ecosystems And Biodiversity Loss: A Gender Perspective

2017-10-31T13:34:15-04:00Tags: |

In response to the Sustainable Development Goals and the worrying loss of biodiversity and natural ecosystems, the Global Forest Coalition has launched the “Women 2030” initiative to integrate women in forests and biodiversity. Partnering with local organization BIOM, the Global Forest Coalition is working in southern Kyrgyzstan to support women’s leadership in forest preservation. For example, in the communities in question, women are central to bird breeding as well as soil conservation and the collection of traditional medicinal herbs, activities which promote biodiversity while simultaneously fighting poverty. Photo Credit: UN Women/Flickr

24 10, 2016

Brutal Attack Stiffens Cambodian Woman’s Resolve To Protect Forest

2018-02-22T20:25:23-05:00Tags: |

Phorn Sopheak is an environmental activist and member of Northern Rural Development (NRD) and Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN), a grassroot movement to protect Prey Lang Forest in Cambodia.  Sopheak started working with her parents in the field at very young age and observed the illegal deforestation and logging in her area, as well as the chemical factories which dumped waste into the river and killed many species of fishes. After raising her voice against illegal loggers, she was brutally slashed in the foot with ax in an act of intimidation. Following the attack, Phorn Sopheak declared that the attack only made her stronger to fight for environment. She was awarded with UN Equator Prize at the Paris Climate Summit in 2015 for her efforts to protect her regions ecosystems, and spread knowledge via the Women On Air radio program. Photo Credit: Savann Oeurm / Oxfam America

29 09, 2016

Gloria Ushigua Works To Defend Indigenous Territory In The Ecuadorian Amazon

2017-10-09T21:19:09-04:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, President of the Sápara Women's Association of Ecuador (Ashiñwaka) is actively working against state and privately-run oil companies’ efforts to develop the Pastaza Province of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Despite increased harassment, intimidation, and persistent threat of violence, Ushigua has persevered in her defense of Sápara land and right to a traditional way of life in the Amazon. Photo credit: Land is Life

27 09, 2016

Using Other People’s Water

2018-10-17T18:14:39-04:00Tags: |

In this 41-minute podcast of BBC's The Forum, Esther De Jong, who specializes in tropical engineering and gender in agriculture, discusses the use of water and its relation to women, specifically in developing countries. Esther is the Deputy Director of the Gender and Water Alliance. She highlights the struggles of women in poor countries who are mostly responsible for procuring and managing household water, and all of the safety concerns that come with this task. According to Esther, the role of women in getting the water is often forgotten due to the unequal way men and women are treated in the society. Photo Credit: BBC

4 08, 2016

Report Celebrates African Rural Women As The Custodians Of Seeds

2017-08-19T12:41:24-04:00Tags: |

In a new collaborative report, Liz Hosken and Theo Sowa highlight the vital role that rural African women play in enhancing the development of seeds and protecting biodiversity. Rural African women hold a wealth of knowledge about crops, wild foods, nutrition, medicinal plants and biodiversity that is on the verge of being lost, as seed monopoly laws and climate change restrict their ability to practice traditional agriculture. This report shares stories of resistance from the African women’s movement for food sovereignty. Photo credit: Seeds of Freedom

11 07, 2016

Unpacking Migration And Gender In Nepal’s Community Forests

2017-10-04T21:58:34-04:00Tags: |

Bimbika Sijapati Basnett, a research scientist for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), has unveiled some potentially harmful outcomes for rural women as the Nepalese government refuses to recognize the role of migration in its national forestry policies. In rural communities of Nepal, nearly 94% of men migrate abroad in search of work, leaving care of the community forests to the women left behind. This transfer of responsibility has been found to either empower or burden women, depending on other sociological pressures such as caste and age. By recognizing the role of migration in its forestry policy, Sijapati hopes that federal policies can be shaped to better the livelihoods of women across Nepal considering their differing economic and social backgrounds. Photo credit: Stephen Bugno

14 06, 2016

Breakthrough: Karyn Rode, Polar Bear Witness

2018-02-14T22:16:36-05:00Tags: |

Karyn Rode is a wildlife biologist for the United States Geological Survey who works in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in order to determine the effects of sea ice loss in the Arctic on polar bears. Rode flies helicopters over vast areas of arctic ice, finding bears and tranquilizing them in order to check vitals, collect fat biopsies and blood samples, as well as check if the bears have already been previously tagged. She uses this information to determine population trends and the overall health of bears in the areas. She is also able to ascertain how much time bears spend on land and what kinds of habitats are most conducive to survival. Rode has found that bears in the Beaufort Sea, which is experiencing ongoing sea ice loss, show declining body conditions, declining populations, and lower levels of cub survival. When there is less sea ice, she says, the bears have less access to hunting grounds and seals. Photo credit: Science Friday

5 06, 2016

Grassroots Communities’ Conservation Practices In Kenya Receive Award On World Environment Day

2017-09-13T11:05:40-04:00Tags: |

For the 2016 World Environmental Day, the Global Forest Coalition and the Indigenous Environment Network recognized Indigenous women's groups and primary schools in Nairobi, Kenya, for their work on the conservation of biodiversity and climate change adaptation. Among the awardees was the Engongu Entim women's group and two primary schools from Kenya, Narosura and Ereteti. Both institutions worked on planting different species of trees in Narok County, Kenya, where the famous Maasai Mara National Park is located. The work of the primary schools and the Engongu Entim women's group goes beyond local conservation, tackling the issue of environmental education and awareness for young people, with future plans to engage more female organizations in their efforts.  Photo credit: Isis Alvarez

1 06, 2016

Ecologist Suzanne Simard On How Trees Talk to Each Other

2023-03-19T08:12:12-04:00Tags: |

In this video, ecologist Suzanne Simard discusses the complex yet resilient systems that make up Earth’s diverse forests. Simard grew up in the forests of British Columbia, Canada, where she became enthralled with the old-growth trees which led her to become a forestry scientist. She soon realized her work in forestry was benefitting the unsustainable forest harvesting industry in Canada and conflicted with her values. She returned to school and authored groundbreaking research that proved there is a below-ground communications network between different species of trees that strengthens resilience to climate change and other disturbances. This network is a cooperative language shared between the trees rather than a competitive force as some scientists previously stated. Simard aims to spread this knowledge far and wide in order to change the unsustainable forestry practices in Canada and across the globe by advocating for protection of old-growth forests, diversity of species, and local-led forest protection. 

27 04, 2016

Women’s Rights In Protected Areas: Championing Gender Equality In Biodiversity Policy

2017-10-27T02:34:56-04:00Tags: |

The livelihoods of many women around the world depend on the conservation of protected areas. Pham Thi Kim Phuong, for example, bikes every morning to harvest clams and snails from mudflats in a protected areas. However, as Lorena Aguilar, Global Senior Gender Adviser at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), explains that the promotion of gender equality in protected area conservation is often overlooked. A study by the IUCN’s Environment and Gender Information (EGI) platform demonstrated that gender equality is rarely written into policy: only nine gender keywords were mentioned out of the 1,290 World Heritage Convention State of Conservation Reports analyzed. Aguilar notes the missed opportunities here, as protected areas should be engines not just for conservation, but also gender equality, and calls for gender mainstreaming in protected areas management. Photo credit: Peter Howard/IUCN

30 03, 2016

Women Seek More Influence To Protect Cambodia’s Community Forests

2017-07-11T17:09:15-04:00Tags: |

Men tend to dominate membership in community forest stewardship meetings in the Kratie Province of Cambodia - but women are slowly challenging the traditional social order. Ms. Khuon Doeurn has supported women in her community to join forest stewardship committees and engage in community decision-making processes. More and more women are using their Indigenous knowledge and skills to protect community forests. Photo credit: RECOFTC-Cambodia

25 03, 2016

Bengali Women March To Save Asia’s Largest Mangrove Forest

2017-07-11T18:06:58-04:00Tags: |

In Bangladesh, the Rampal Coal plant was slated to extend over almost 2000 acres of fertile farming land, fish ponds, and the fragile Sundarban mangrove forest, which protects this low-lying nation from rapid sea level rise. Umma Habiba Benojir, a student leader at Dhaka University, and hundreds of other people, many women, marched hundreds of kilometers to protest the coal plant. Photo credit: Mowdud Rahman

7 03, 2016

Suryamani Bhagat Was Supposed To Be A Teacher In India

2017-10-24T20:14:25-04:00Tags: |

Sanskrit teacher Suryamani Bhagat felt called to grassroots activism when she returned to fight for the forest near her home. She joined a group of Indigenous women to organize forest protection committees, and youth and women co-operatives, as well as launching the Jharkhand Save the Forest Movement. The women were able to persuade the government to implement a new Forest Rights Act, which allowed the Indigenous community to legally own and manage their forestlands. Now, forests in 45 villages are on the path of gradual rejuvenation. Photo credit: Global Greengrants

7 03, 2016

Women Of The Amazon Defend Their Homeland Against New Oil Contract On International Women’s Day

2017-12-15T13:25:31-05:00Tags: |

In response to January 2016 action by the government of Ecuador to sign a new contract with Chinese oil company Andes Petroleum, giving permission to explore and drill for oil in the country's pristine southeastern Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous women leaders from across the country are speaking out to denounce this latest cultural and ecologic violation. Gloria Ushigua (Sápara) and Patricia Gualinga and Ena Santi (Kichwa) share thoughts in advance of a historic gathering and march of women in Puyo, Ecuador, on International Women’s Day 2016. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

28 02, 2016

Recognizing The Rights Of Nature And The Living Forest

2018-10-17T18:17:15-04:00Tags: |

Mirian Cisneros, Ena Santi, Patricia Gualinga and Nina Gualinga are some of the women leaders of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, who are opposing continued oil extraction, and setting forth a vital proposal for the healthy and just future they envision for their community and the forest that they live in relationship with. The women shared their communities’ Kawsak Sacha, ‘Living Forest’ proposal at the International Rights of Nature Tribunal in Paris, France during the United Nations 2015 climate negotiations. This article shares background and analysis from Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, regarding the Living Forest proposal, Rights of Nature and the importance of Indigenous women’s leadership in these movements for deep systemic change in law, policy, and ways of living with the Earth. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN International

18 02, 2016

South Sudanese Women Find Salvation In Stoves

2017-10-25T22:54:39-04:00Tags: |

In the context of civil war, violence, and resource exploitation, South Sudanese women of the Yei region often battle sexual violence and rape on their way to collect firewood. This was challenged by the Forum for Community Change and Development, launched in 2013, which trains women to use improved cooking stoves that require less firewood, helping them avoid in taking up dangerous journeys in the forests. The forum encourages young girls to go back to school, who often drop out in order to make more time to gather firewood. The forum is educates women and young girls about the importance of forests and the need for protection to address soil erosion problems. Photo credit: Global Greengrants

11 02, 2016

Women in Science Daily: Kate Furbish

2018-10-17T18:20:25-04:00Tags: |

This video recounts the legacy of Kate Furbish, a botanical collector and painter born in New Hampshire in 1834. Bucking the conventions of her time, Kate roamed the forest all by herself to learn about the ecology. She collected nearly 5000 specimen, most of which are now housed in Harvard natural history collection. She was well regarded by other botanist for painting the endangered plants, Pedicularis Furbishiae which grows only in Maine and was extinct till 1976. Its rediscovery actually prevented to construction of 1.3 billion dollar dam. Photo Credit: Brilliant Botany

12 01, 2016

Sonia Guajajara: Reconnecting People With The Planet

2018-01-12T15:21:46-05:00Tags: |

Sonia Guajajara of the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil (AIPB) believes that to save the Earth, the rights and solutions of Indigenous peoples must be upheld. In this interview, she explains that destruction of environmental resources is having direct and devastating impacts on Indigenous culture, survival and livelihoods. She calls for Indigenous leadership at the forefront to fix these ills, drawing attention to Indigenous cultures’ prioritization of community well-being over individual well-being, and how this is a central reason why Indigenous people have emerged as the most adept environmental protectors on a global scale. Photo Credit: Alan Azevedo/Believe.Earth

6 01, 2016

South African Women Defend Biodiversity, Seeds

2017-07-17T17:16:53-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women of Dzomo La Mupo in South Africa are using traditional farming practices and ancestral knowledge to strengthen women’s leadership, fight against the destruction of their land and defend the remaining Indigenous forests from vanishing. Mphatheleini Makaulele, Director of Dzomo la Mupo and member of the African Biodiversity Network, shares vital reflections on the role of women as seed-savers and land stewards in this interview. Photo credit: Mphathe Makauele

25 12, 2015

For The Earth And Future Generations: Women Leading Solutions On The Frontlines Of Climate Change

2018-03-01T12:25:34-05:00Tags: |

At an event hosted by Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network during the COP 21 Paris negotiations in 2015, women leaders spoke about how women are the first and worst impacted by climate change. Indigenous women led the way, sharing their experiences fighting the dominant fossil fuel economy and forging a new way towards a sustainable, healthy and ecological communities. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

10 12, 2015

The Amazonian Tribespeople Who Sailed Down The Seine

2017-10-12T14:34:37-04:00Tags: |

The Kichwa tribe in the Sarayaku region of the Amazon in Ecuador believe in the “living forest,” where humans, animals and plants live in harmony. They are fighting the oil companies who wish to exploit their ancestral land. Indigenous women led their Amazonian tribespeople in sailing down the Seine to make their demands known to the world during protest events at Paris COP21. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

7 12, 2015

Nina Gualinga: We Were Born of the Land Lent to Us By Our Future Generations

2017-12-07T18:25:46-05:00Tags: |

Nina Gualinga, a young woman leader of the Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku, writes on her experience growing up deep within the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, and the consciousness and responsibility she has developed to take action to ensure that her ancestors are honored, and that future generation's have the opportunities to enjoy the rich, diverse Earth that has shaped her own worldview and life. She speaks directly to Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, calling him to see and act to respect the wishes of the country's Indigenous movement, which is ceaseless in its efforts to protect the land, waters, creatures, and their communities, customs and livelihoods. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

31 10, 2015

Jane Goodall Tells Of Shared Threat To Humans And Animals

2017-10-31T23:00:49-04:00Tags: |

Renown conservation biologist Jane Goodall spoke out at the Paris climate talks about the importance of preserving biodiversity in efforts to create a sustainable and healthy planet. With her seminal research on chimpanzees, Goodall has contributed invaluable knowledge about the importance of conserving non-human species of plants and animals. Azzedine Downes, head of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, agreed on the topic, adding insights from her work with elephants. Photo credit: Jens Schlueter/AFP/Getty Images

26 10, 2015

Josephine Pagalan, The Indigenous Manobo Leader Fighting For The Environment

2017-10-26T23:35:02-04:00Tags: |

Josephine Pagalan is a Lumad Indigenous woman leader fighting against the mining that affects her community in the Surigao del Sur province in the northeastern part of Mindanao, Philippines. Due to her advocacy, Josephine has been harassed and witnessed a friend being shot to death. In spite of all that, she continues to oppose logging and mining operations, including those of the  Lianga Bay logging company and the Semirara Coal Mining company, working to amplify her community’s voice in the media. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund  

26 10, 2015

Young Women Fight Against The Use Of Palm Oil In Girl Scout Cookies

2017-10-26T23:07:48-04:00Tags: |

At ages 10 and 11, now Brower Youth Award winners Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva began their fight against the use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies, founding Project ORANGS. They learned about how the rise in conventional palm oil has resulted in rainforest deforestation, the destruction of endangered species habitats, and widespread human rights abuses. During the 2012 Bioneers National Conference, the young women shared their story about working with the Rainforest Action Network to build an online campaign against conventional palm oil use in Girl Scouts cookies. Photo credit: Bioneers

26 10, 2015

Amazon Women On The Front Lines: The Waorani

2017-10-26T16:32:06-04:00Tags: |

The Waorani peoples, whose ancestral homeland encompass Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, are fighting for their forests, way of life and cultural survival in the face of expanding oil extraction. Alicia Cahuilla, Vice president of the National Waorani Federation, spoke out in Lima, Peru during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP20 climate negotiations to advocate against continued exploitation, and share the story of the Asociación de Mujeres Waorani del Ecuador. In the face of deforestation and oil drilling, the Association, now comprised of over 300 women, has developed an incredible land management and just development plan which stresses zero deforestation, wildlife and biodiversity protection, and holistic food production, hunting and wild harvesting. Photo credit: Caroline Bennett

9 09, 2015

The Black Mambas Win Top U.N. Environmental Award

2017-07-11T17:41:08-04:00Tags: |

Leitah Mkhabela is one of many brave women patrolling the Balule Private Game Reserve as part of South Africa's Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit. The work of the 27-member ranger unit has been honored by the United Nations with the Champions of the Earth Award for their work protecting rhinos, leopards, lions and other precious species. Photo credit: www.womenofgreen.com

19 07, 2015

Courageous Women Of Black Sea Resist Natural Degradation

2017-10-04T21:54:40-04:00Tags: |

Women have banded together along the Black Sea region of Turkey to protest the ongoing construction of hydroelectric power plants and mines, both of which have the potential to cause widespread environmental damage. Nazlı Demet Uyanık, from the town of Arhavi, helped form the resistance group of self-styled “sparrow-hawks” which stages protests, often without the approval of their male family members. Multiple generations of women stand together, determined to preserve nature even as corporations and their own government try to push forward. Photo credit: Hürriyet Daily News

21 05, 2015

Martha Davis: A Champion For The Queen Conch

2017-10-25T23:09:48-04:00Tags: |

Martha Davis established Community Conch in 2009, an organization that conducts surveys, raises awareness and works toward reversing the decline of the Caribbean queen conch population. Despite NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Services’ study which indicated that the queen conch population was stable and therefore did not require protection under the US Endangered Species Act, Martha and her organization demonstrated that there was a problem of inadequate densities of queen conch reproduction in the Bahamas, grave issue of illegal poaching of the conches, and sparse populations near human settlements. This continued work has allowed them to garner support from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and the Smithsonian field station along the Florida Coast. Photo credit: FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

30 04, 2015

Watch What Happens When Tribal Women Manage India’s Forests

2017-07-11T18:01:49-04:00Tags: |

35-year-old Kama Pradham works alongside other women from India's Gunduribadi tribal village to monitor and protect their land from illegal logging. Thanks to their efforts, India’s forests are experiencing a resurgence in growth and biodiversity while local people benefit from sustainable livelihoods. Photo credit: Manipadma Jena/ IPS

26 04, 2015

Mother Earth Rose In The Gambia

2017-10-26T13:33:48-04:00Tags: |

Dependent on artisanal fishing and small-scale agriculture, the Gambia is now witnessing droughts and floods that are pushing its inhabitants to turn to the forests to satisfy their basic needs. Unfortunately, widespread timber harvesting is leading to the clearing of virgin forest lands for agricultural purposes, while bushfires further aggravate deforestation. Young People Without Borders (YPWB) is working hard on reversing the impacts of climate change by implementing  reforestation projects using perennial plants, and promoting  the reuse and recycling plastics in building and homes. Photo credit: One Billion Rising

23 04, 2015

NAU Forester Looks For ‘Survival Gene’ In SW White Pine Trees

2021-04-09T13:12:00-04:00Tags: |

In eastern Arizona, a non-native fungus threatens the Southwestern White Pine Tree. The fungus, termed the “Blister Rust” fungus, is being combated through the work of NAU forestry professor Kristen Waring. To save the Southwestern White Pine Tree population, Waring searches for rare White Pine Tree genes that make the tree resilient to both climate change and the fungus. Photo Credit: NAU

5 03, 2015

Women Work To Save Native Bees Of Mexico

2023-02-06T00:16:33-05:00Tags: |

Gwen Pearson centers the work of the Co’oleel Caab Collective in Yucatan, Mexico. This women’s collective, led by Anselma Euan, practices meliponiculture, the care and keeping of native stingless bees. Stingless bees produce honey, and they do not sting or have venom; however, because they produce less honey than European honeybees, many (traditionally male) beekeepers no longer keep native bees. As a result, native stingless bees could possibly be endangered. The women of the Co’oleel Caab Collective have dedicated themselves to native bee conservation, and they have been empowered as entrepreneurs in the process.

25 02, 2015

Nepal’s Women Of The Terai Arc Become Forest Conservationists

2017-07-11T17:13:49-04:00Tags: |

Women in Nepal are increasingly taking charge of the conservation of forests on which their livelihoods and communities depend. The women work in community forest user groups, where they learn how to restore overused or otherwise threatened forests, and also sustainably harvest wood to use in their homes or to sell in markets. Photo credit: James Morgan for WWF  

22 01, 2015

A Lesson In Food Sovereignty: Women Lead The Way In Kuna Yala, Panama

2017-07-17T17:43:48-04:00Tags: |

Taina Hedman is an Indigenous Kuna woman and a key leader of the Kuna Youth Movement or MJK (Movimiento de La Juventud Kuna) and the Projecto de Mujeres (Women’s Project) in a remote area of Kuna Yala, Panama. She represents the rights and interests of Indigenous people throughout the country and supports local women to adopt agroecological methods of farming. Through their collective efforts, the women sustainably grow crops deep in the jungle to feed their communities. Photo credit: WhyHunger

8 12, 2014

Biruté Mary Galdikas: If Orangutans Go Extinct, It Will Be Because Of Palm Oil

2017-10-05T17:34:13-04:00Tags: |

In 1986, Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas helped to found the Orangutan Foundation International, an environmental conservation group to promote the rehabilitation and preservation of orangutans in Indonesia. Today, Galdikas continues her fight against the encroaching palm oil industry which threatens not only the orangutans, but much of the vast biodiversity present in Indonesia and southeastern Asia. Though palm oil may be considered an economic boon by some, Galdikas hopes our human connection to the large primates will inspire the passion to protect the rainforests of Borneo from human encroachment. Photo credit: HuffPost

7 12, 2014

Sônia Guajajara: A Voice For Biodiversity And Indigenous Rights In Brazil

2017-12-07T18:23:51-05:00Tags: |

Sônia Guajajara, Coordinator of the National Articulation of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB) is helping mobilize Indigenous communities across Brazil in defense of their rights, traditional lifeways and lands. As a voice for many thousands of constituents across the country, she has gone face-to-face with Brazils most powerful politicians to expose their hypocrisy, and demand real responses to the demands of the original peoples of the land. Corporate land grabs and violation of Indigenous land rights is a core area of Sônia’s advocacy with and for her people, alongside opposition to biodiversity protection, mining, and industrial farming, amongst other concerns. Photo credit: Vinícius Borba

28 11, 2014

Small Grants Help Frontline Women Promote Climate Solutions

2017-07-11T17:08:23-04:00Tags: |

Women are leading some of the most effective climate change projects and solutions across the world, however they receive disproportionately little attention and scant backing from funders and climate finance programs. Refusing to wait on anyone or anything in their often life-or-death struggles to protect the Earth and their communities, women such as Aleta Baun in West Timor are using small grants to protect their lands and implement solutions. Photo credit: Goldman Prize

28 11, 2014

Indigenous Women In West Timor Fight To Defend Their Land – And Win

2017-07-11T18:14:50-04:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun, an indigenous Mollo woman from West Timor, Indonesia risked her life to oppose the destruction of local forests by mining and palm oil companies. Despite facing death threats and beatings, she led a group of women to stage four sit-ins at the mines, which forced the mining corporation to close operations and saved 130 homes and local forests. Photo credit: Goldman Prize

28 10, 2014

Mama Aleta: One Woman’s Struggle To Save Indonesia’s Forests From Mining

2017-10-28T22:17:26-04:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun is an advocate for rights of the Earth and Indigenous peoples on Timor Island, Indonesia. Beginning in 1996 and for over a decade, Baun has assembled and helped lead hundreds of local people in peaceful resistance to the mining of marble and other minerals and resources. For a full year, Baun and over 150 women sat in non-violent protest at a mine’s entrance, opposing the growth of the mine through peaceful actions, including weaving traditional Indigenous fabrics. Baun’s grassroots activism, and work with her non-profit Pokja OAT for the protection of Timor’s forests and people’s has gained worldwide attention, including as a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

30 09, 2014

Women’s Movement For Access To Babassu Oil

2018-07-31T12:10:32-04:00Tags: |

The award winning short film, Brazil’s Warrior Women, tells the story of women in North Eastern Brazil and their hard battle to maintain their communities’ way of life. The coconut of the Babassu Palm Tree has been their decades-long source of livelihood; however, in recent years they have faced intimidation and threats from large-scale farmers. Babassu women have created a grassroots movement and established the ‘Free Babassu Law’ in seven states. The law gives landless coconut gatherers rights to collect from palm groves. These inspiring women are now able to plan for the long-term, diversify their business and secure their future. Photo Credit: If Not Us Then Who?

25 09, 2014

Women’s Voices: Mom To Mom – No More Conflict Palm Oil

2018-10-17T18:25:41-04:00Tags: |

The 2014 People's Climate March in New York City brought out over 400,000 people - an incredible showing of the grassroots momentum behind the climate movement. Shortly after the march, mothers Debra Mahony, Susan Rubin, and Harriet Shugarman wrote a letter to another mother, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico, to urge her to halt the use of conflict palm oil in her company's products. As part of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Snack Food 20 Campaign, the mothers delivered a powerful message about the harmful impacts of deforestation on people around the world and urged Pepsico to stop its destructive practice. Photo credit: Debra Mahony, Susan Rubin, Harriet Shugarman

20 08, 2014

Defending Forest Rights Is A Daily Task For This Indian Woman

2017-07-11T18:20:08-04:00Tags: |

Since the age of 20, Suryamani Bhagat has been fighting for the right of her Indigenous community to own and manage their forests. She has helped her community apply for land titles, and founded the Torang, a tribal rights and cultural centre in her village of Kotari, India. In response to unsafe conditions that women in rural areas face, she helped create a committee of 15 women that patrol the forests and support local residents to protect the biodiversity of their homeland. She now works with the Jharkhand Save the Forest Movement to put land back into the hands of local communities. Photo credit: Thomas Reuters Foundation  

29 03, 2014

Guatemalan Women Use Agro-Forestry To Combat Climate Change, Improve Food Security

2017-07-17T17:54:23-04:00Tags: |

Women farmers in Itzapa are employing agro-forestry to combat climate change by preventing soil erosion and improving crop yields and biodiversity. The method has seen 150,000 trees planted, reforesting the of mountain slopes of an entire region. As a result of the trees, community members are able to sequester carbon, clean the air, and prevent mudslides. Photo credit: AIRES

1 01, 2014

Leading The Way Against Illegal Mining For Indigenous Communities In The Philippines

2017-10-04T21:31:27-04:00Tags: |

Wilma Tero Mangila is a Subanen environmental activist from Midsalip, in the Zamboanga del Sur province of Philippines, who has devoted her life to fighting illegal logging and mining on Subanen ancestral lands and defending Indigenous peoples’ rights to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in order to protect their ancestral lands. She is also leading the way for women’s rights to  participate in decision making processes within her community. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund

7 12, 2013

Patricia Gualinga: Warrior For the Amazon

2017-12-15T13:25:43-05:00Tags: |

Amazon Watch profiles Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa woman leader of the community of Sarayaku in the Amazon Rainforests of Ecuador. Patricia was a key protagonist in the recent historic indigenous rights victory at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in which her community received support to their claims of violation by oil companies opening fossil fuel extraction sites in their traditional territories without consent. Through her vocal leadership, Patricia has helped to inspire and empower countless other Indigenous women leaders in her community, and across Ecuador and the Amazonia region, to stand up and speak out with strength to protect their homelands from fossil fuel and mining companies. Photo credit: Caroline Bennett

21 11, 2013

Korean Women’s Peasant Association: Saving And Sharing Native Seeds

2020-12-15T21:31:09-05:00Tags: |

The Korean Women’s Peasant Association (KWPA) promotes food and seed sovereignty among Korean communities by establishing an inter-Korean network dedicated to the saving and exchanging of native seeds. As 90% of these seeds are collected by women, the KWPA directly works with Korean women farmers to support them in their fight against globalisation, neoliberalism, and climate change. Photo Credit: Stuart Ramson/Insider Images for WhyHunger

10 09, 2013

A Message From Indigenous Women Forest Defenders Of Cambodia

2017-10-04T21:35:30-04:00Tags: |

Women leaders of the Kouy Indigenous people in Cambodia, who depend on their forests for their livelihoods collecting and selling tree resin, are taking action to protect their land against illegal logging. In the process, they have upset traditional gender roles and expanded women’s decision-making power. Photo credit: Asia Indigenous People’s Pact

9 01, 2013

Learn From This Activist’s Legacy: Rebecca Tarbotton Of Rainforest Action Network

2018-10-17T18:29:04-04:00Tags: |

This memorial of Rebecca Tarbotton, former Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN), explains how she left a powerful legacy of social activism and campaigning to the next generation of climate activists. Through RAN, she was well-known for convincing Disney to eliminate its use of paper connected with the destruction of forests and endangered wildlife in all their operations, from publications to theme parks and cruise ships. Her aim of promoting and preserving the environment was not just for addressing climate change but also for transforming everything about the way we live on this planet. Photo Credit: Flickr: EX_MAGICIAN

15 12, 2012

Naoya Sakam Group Of Women Plants Trees Collectively

2017-12-15T12:35:54-05:00Tags: |

The Naoya Sakam Gonogobeshona group Adarpara, Godagari of Rajshahi in Bangladesh has taken up collective efforts to re-orest the land in and around their communities, starting with their homes and public spaces such as roads sites and cemeteries. The women are also uniting for vital conversations about women’s relationship to the environment and role in helping balance the Earth’s systems, and the connections between gender and climate change. Work has been carried out in collaboration with Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) and Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA).  Photo credit: Research Initiatives Bangladesh

15 12, 2012

Puspo Murmu Is Keen To Preserve Environmental Biodiversity

2017-12-15T12:39:37-05:00Tags: |

Puspo Murmu is an Indigenous Santal woman of Saltola village, Bangladesh who has transformed what was once a degraded plot into a flourishing home ecosystem. Puspo notes how many of the biodiverse local trees that she has planted have distinct medicinal, cultural, survival and livelihood uses. Her and her community members also reflect on how Puspo’s work has brought diverse communities of birds and other animals back to the area. Photo credit: Research Initiatives Bangladesh

7 12, 2012

A Message from Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women

2017-12-07T19:00:21-05:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women, of the Sapara Nation in the Amazonian region of Ecuador, shares a powerful direct message from her community, about the strength of traditional medicines and associated knowledge systems, the need to protect and promote continues local use of them, especially in the face of the threats and devastation of oil extraction in their homelands. Her message was sent to members of the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA). Photo credit: Asociación de Mujeres Saparas

7 12, 2012

Asian Indigenous Women’s Strategy on Forest/Land Tenure and Climate Change

2017-12-07T18:00:04-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women from across Asia, such as Norairri Thoungmuengthong of the Karen community in Thailand, are leading and encouraging fellow women in efforts to manage and protect local forests, through the reclaiming of their voice in local politics, where they are pushing for policies and initiatives that support both sustainable traditional harvesting practices and economies, and regenerative forests for climate stability and generations to come. This report from Rights and Resources Initiative shares handful of case studies demonstrating how Asian Indigenous women are protecting their lands, forests and community rights through growing involvement in local and international politics. Photo credit: Rights + Resources

5 12, 2012

Vandana Shiva: Everything I Need To Know I Learned In The Forest

2017-06-20T07:37:11-04:00Tags: |

Vandana Shiva is an internationally-renowned activist for biodioversity and against corporate globalization. Vandana has been responding to deforestation and attacks on nature since the 1970s, when peasant women in her region of the Himalayas rose up together in defense of their forest. Logging in the area led to landslides, floods, and scarcity of water and fuel, with the burden falling heavily on local women. Since that time, Vandana says that biodiversity and biodiversity-based living economies became her life’s mission, acting as a documentarian and activist, spreading the message that the failure to understand biodiversity and its many functions is at the root of the impoverishment of nature and culture. Photo credit: Suzanne Lee

16 10, 2012

Stories From The Road: A Community Tale Of Climate Change And Industry

2017-10-25T22:56:46-04:00Tags: |

Climate change is impacting the women of Burns Lake, northern British Columbia: warmer winters have allowed the population of pine beetles to grow, creating a plague that has devastated 80% of the forest.  After an explosion and fire in the Babine Forest Products Mill in 2012, the community suffered acute economics hardships have led to an uptick in domestic violence. Now, the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is threatening to cut through the center of town. The women of Burns Lake are standing resolute in the face of these challenges. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

13 09, 2012

Cambodia: Detention Of Women Land Activists

2019-04-13T16:15:43-04:00Tags: |

Yorm Bopha and Tim Sakmony, are the latest targets of the Cambodian authorities’ attempt to intimidate Cambodia’s human rights defenders and social activists. Bopha and Sakmony, have protested against forced evictions in Phnom Penh and were both arrested in 2012 on false accusations. Both women have been detained before their trial, which is unwarranted under Cambodian law.  In view of the Cambodian authorities’ established record of abuse of the law and misuse of the courts to prosecute social activists and human rights defenders for their legitimate exercise of basic human rights. international organizations have stated that the legal actions against Bopha and Sakmony are motivated by their involvement in protests and campaigns on behalf of the land and housing rights of the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities.

16 05, 2012

Salvadoran Women Put Their Faith In Agroecology

2017-07-11T16:50:43-04:00Tags: |

Growing tired of losing their family harvests to scorching temperatures and flooding, women in Los Lagartos, El Salvador began to reforest local lands by planting an "energy forest." Over four dozen women now maintain mango, avocado, and nance (golden spoon) trees, in addition to plantains and trees that can be used for their firewood. With the help of an agroecology program run by the Association of Communities for Development, they are achieving food sovereignty and improving their energy security. These women are leading by example, exercising their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Photo credit: Claudia Ávalos/IPS

12 05, 2012

Rachel Carson And The Legacy Of Silent Spring

2018-01-12T14:01:28-05:00Tags: |

Rachel Carson was pioneer of ecofeminism and the modern sustainability movement in United States.her first book, “The Sea Around Us”, published in 1952, focused on her expertise in marine biology. In 1962, her book “Silent Spring” was released to worldwide acclaim. It warns Americans that if they did not start taking care of their environment, they will face massive contamination with dangerous and lethal impacts on the land, biodiversity, and people. Her book has become only more relevant in 21st century in the face of the climate crisis. Photo Credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

1 01, 2012

Evgenia Chirikova

2017-10-24T19:58:46-04:00Tags: |

Evgenia Chirikova, an engineer and a mother of two, moved her family from the heavily urbanized city of Moscow to its northern suburbs to be closer to the Khimki forests, known as the green lungs of Moscow. However, the Russian government’s plans to construct a highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg became public, a proposal which would greatly affect the Khimki forests, Chirikova began her career as a grassroots activist. She successfully gathered a crowd of 5,000 people and garnered 50,000 signatures to protect the forest. Despite the highly volatile political reaction as a consequence of Chirikova’s activism, Chirikova and her colleagues managed to convince the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank, major financiers of the highway, to withdraw their support from the project. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

1 11, 2011

Silent Forests And Famine In East Africa

2017-11-01T03:22:23-04:00Tags: |

In this piece, Nobel Prize winner, Green Belt Movement leader and feminist Wangari Maathai discusses the tendency of the REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative to promote the planting of exotic trees at the expense of indigenous varieties. Maathai argues that as indigenous forests regulate climate and rainfall patterns, and as the destruction of the world's indigenous forests is responsible for emitting about 17% of climate-warming carbon dioxide, governments should take more care to promote the conservation of indigenous forests to properly respond to climate change. This action is crucial not just maintaining indigenous forests, but also to preserving the livelihoods of rural and forest-dependent people around the world. Photo credit: Ken Oloo/Red Cross and Red Crescent/HO/EPA

29 10, 2011

Women In The Philippines’ Cordillera Region Respond To Climate Change, Mining Threats

2017-10-29T01:22:13-04:00Tags: |

This report by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development explores how Indigenous women farmers in the mountainous Cordillera region of the Philippines are feeling the impacts of climate change and extractive industries. Their livelihoods are threatened by typhoons, soil erosion and sea level rise, in addition to nearby extractive industries: 60% of the Cordillera region is occupied by gold-bearing ore and copper mining operations. However, women have mobilized to prevent the use of destructive fishing practices and promote reforestation, multi-cropping, crop diversification, and the community pooling of labor.

27 10, 2010

Women From Mining Affected Communities Speak Out: Defending Land, Life And Dignity

2017-10-27T01:59:49-04:00Tags: |

In this book, the International Women and Mining Network/Red Internacional Mujeres y Mineria (RIMM) is the voice for the millions of women affected by mining activities worldwide. It is a compilation of informative and inspiring case studies from different campaigns put together through the hard work and dedication of Sunita Dubey and Tanya Roberts-Davis. The book is divided into four regions: Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas with a list of resources for action. Photo credit: International Women and Mining Network/Red Internacional Mujeres y Mineria

27 08, 2010

Complex Answers To Complex Problems

2017-10-05T17:31:02-04:00Tags: |

Frances Seymour, the Center for International Forestry Research Director-General, and Emily Ostrom, the 2009 Nobel Prize winner for Economics, spoke on the complex nature of solving forestry issues at the 2010 International Union of Forest Research Organizations World Congress. Ostrom advocated for the formation and use of interdisciplinary teams in forest monitoring and management, as well as the important role of community forestry. She asserts that the complex issues of forestry will require a complex response, and a united front in community activism is necessary for effective forest conservation. Photo credit: Forests News

12 01, 2010

Wangari Maathai And The Green Belt Movement

2018-01-12T14:45:20-05:00Tags: |

Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize Winner, Kenyan environmentalist and political activist founded Maathai Foundation in 1970s. Challenges like governance didn’t deter her. She started with changing and collaborating with decision making bodies to successful build the momentum of environmental conservation and reducing poverty. The Green Belt Movement she helped to develop trains rural women to grow tree seedlings for reforestation efforts. Gakanga Tree Planting site, Central Province, Kenya is one such example where the barren land was turned into lush green valley due to the efforts of the Green Belt Movement. Not only has this movement increased the amount of greenery and biodiversity, but it has also helped the people to generate income by planting and living in relationship with the trees. Photo Credit: Strides in Development

1 11, 2008

Taking Root The Vision Of Wangari Maathai

2017-11-01T03:24:13-04:00Tags: |

In this video by Taking Root, Wangari Maathai explains her inspiration to found the Green Belt movement in East Africa, in which women began to plant trees to promote their rights to the land, water security and local forests. Even after she faced political persecution and the President of Kenya Daniel Arap Moi made misogynistic comments about Maathai, the Green Belt movement succeeded in defending Kenya's democracy, promoting human rights, and advocating for gender equality. Photo credit: Nyumbani

1 01, 2007

Sophia Rabliauskas

2017-10-24T20:05:07-04:00Tags: |

Sophia Rabliauskas, leader of the Poplar River First Nation, led a movement with community members and elders to protect two million acres of undisturbed boreal forest (a huge carbon sink) in the territory of the Poplar River First Nation on Winnipeg Lake, Manitoba. She played a key role in gaining interim protection of the forest and developing a land management plan which acted as a blueprint for all future land use management actions. The blueprint focuses on respecting traditional knowledge, using environmental analysis, providing economic opportunities, including protection of traditional hunting, trapping and fishing activities, and creating sustainable tourism opportunities. Rabliauskas is drawing attention to the reality that First Nations territory, being public lands, legally can be granted to industries for logging, timber, and hydropower developmental activities, without prior consultation with the First Nations. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

15 02, 2005

Indonesia: Women’s Group Helping To Restore Mangroves In Sulawesi

2017-10-20T22:53:09-04:00Tags: |

Persatuan Perempuan Sama (Women’s Union for Equality), or PPS, is at the forefront of helping women from Wangkolabou Village on Tobea Island in Sulawesi to initiate sustainable income-generating projects. Women from the fuel wood industry are trained on the ecological benefits of protecting mangroves and alternative livelihood practices. The initiative has reaped many income-generating and ecological benefits for the women and community over the years. Photo credit: Global Greengrants Fund

1 01, 2005

Stephanie Roth

2017-10-24T20:11:12-04:00Tags: |

Stephanie Roth created an international campaign to oppose the construction of an open cast gold mine at Rosia Montana, Apuseni Mountains of Romania. The Canadian company Gabriel Resources, apart from planning to relocate 2,000 people and tear down 900 homes and centuries-old churches, was also planning on using cyanide compounds in its mining process to separate gold and silver. A 185-meter-high waste rock dam would have been constructed in the Corna Valley, leading to massive human relocation. Because of Roth’s work, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, financier of the mining project, retracted its support. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

1 01, 2002

Fatima Jibrell

2017-10-24T19:56:01-04:00Tags: |

Fatima Jibrell was born and brought up in the grasslands of Somalia. After immigrating to the United States, she returned to Somalia to found African Development Solutions (ADESO), an NGO that has worked to ban mining and the export of charcoal made from trees already threatened by water scarcity and desertification. ADESO actively engages men, women, youth, elders and nomads to join in the political participation surrounding natural resources issues and fights for peace, in the context of years of civil unrest. Jibrell is one of the few to focus on Somalia’s marine environment and the indiscriminate use of ocean resources by foreign trawlers involving overfishing and illegal dumping of toxic waste. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

1 01, 1998

Anna Giordano

2017-10-24T20:02:06-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Anna Giordano, a trained ornithologist, is fighting to protecting Sicily’s birds from poachers. The straits of Messina off of the Italian mainland are known for their migratory birds and raptor species, including the Honey Buzzard, swallows, storks, oriels, and kestrels which are targeted by poachers for sport. After two violent incidents involving Anna and her young volunteer surveillance team in 1986, the local law enforcement department joined their efforts to reduce poaching in Messina. Due to persistent efforts by Giordano, the poaching of birds has reduced from 5,000 per year to hundreds. Giordano, now the director of Trapani and Paceco Nature Reserve for the World Wildlife Foundation, is continuing her protection efforts of the spring migratory birds and fighting against the strong lobby of poachers and the Italian government’s lenient laws against the poachers which are contradictory to both the national and European legislation. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

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