Puerto Rico

 

18 09, 2023

Madres de la Tierra: Women Leading Environmental Justice Movements in Puerto Rico

2026-05-10T13:20:45-04:00Tags: |

In Puerto Rico, women are at the forefront of the fight for environmental justice. In fact, 70% of environmental volunteers, activists, and advocates in the archipelago are estimated to be women. ‘Madres de la Tierra,’ which translates to ‘Mothers of the Earth,’ is a series shining light on some of these women, including the following. Vanessa Uriarte is the director of Amigxs del Mar, an organization advocating for a moratorium on coastal construction in Puerto Rico. Mariolga Reyes Cruz is the executive director of the Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible (FiTiCAS), a land trust helping to secure land and capital for generations of Puerto Rican farmers. Camille Padilla Dalmau is the founder of 9 Millones, an independent news network amplifying the voices of Puerto Rican communities. Anabela Fuentes is a local Loiza community leader building a school to teach children about sustainable fishing practices. Marisel Robles Gutierrez is part of Comedores Sociales, an organization addressing food insecurity through community dining halls, social centers, and mutual aid programs. These women believe in a sustainable future where all women, Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, migrants, rural peoples, and LGBTQ+ communities can thrive.

12 05, 2023

Meet the women working to grow local food systems on US island territories

2025-04-18T21:23:32-04:00Tags: , |

Women across U.S. island territories have come together to enhance their local food systems and reduce impacts of climate change. In different areas, such as Guam and Puerto Rico, women have traditionally been community leaders and have been responsible for the food supply. However, today these territories heavily rely on imports—between 95 and 80 percent of food is imported by the US or other countries which makes them vulnerable to extreme weather events that impact international supply chains. In order to reconnect with traditionally grown vegetables and fruits and reclaim a cultural connection to food, Sibilly Brown—an elementary school teacher in St. Croix and the founder of the Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition—developed a project with her class to reintroduce local food into the school cafeteria. Crystal Díaz, a Puertorican resident, has co-founded an app called PRoduc where restaurants and residents can reach local small farmers on the island. Through their actions and efforts, these women hope to raise the visibility of the needs of territories and their communities while leading the way towards more grounded, connected futures. 

10 05, 2023

Climate Change is devastating Puerto Rico. Its women environmentalists are fighting back

2025-04-19T17:33:35-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights key female figures in Puerto Rico’s environmental movement, who are working to ensure cleaner, stronger communities and protect vulnerable ecosystems. It presents a photo essay and oral history project by women activists and the 9 Millones group. These women have been leading community and environmental rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane María, which ravaged Puerto Rico in late 2017. Their projects span agroecology, sustainable food production, marine education, and fighting beach privatization. Anabela Fuentes García, for example, teaches sustainable fishing and beach management to local children in her coastal town. Mariangelie Ortiz organized her community after Hurricane María and now fights bureaucracy to allow for local activism and change. Her design lab, La Maraña facilitates community participation in the rebuilding efforts. “Food liberates people," says Marissa Reyes, who is using agroecology to push for nutrition, education and greater food sovereignty for Puerto Ricans through the Güakiá Agroecological Collective. Ada Ramona Miranda is promoting health, clean energy, and ecotourism through her Hacienda Las Malcriá project. Yvette Nuñez, with a background in anthropology and urban planning, founded the Coalición Restauración Ecosistemas Santurcinos (CRES) which restores local ecosystems and creates healthy community spaces. Mariolga Reyes Cruz works to uplift communities and foster agency through actions that build food sovereignty, aiming to “decolonize our relationship with the land” through her initiative, Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible. Vanessa Uriarte uses education and advocacy to engage the local community through building Playas pa’l Pueblo (beaches for the people); coastal community forests and spaces. Collectively, these women have helped reconstruct and revitalize both their environment and communities while enhancing citizen participation in design, activism, and rehabilitation projects.

26 12, 2022

Puerto Rico’s agriculture solution to climate change

2025-07-29T18:02:29-04:00Tags: |

Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, and storms are wreaking havoc on Puerto Rico — particularly its food production — worsening an already vulnerable economic situation. 40% of Puerto Ricans experience food scarcity, highlighting the need for more robust agricultural solutions that tackle climate and poverty. Local communities are embracing agroecology, small scale and climate resilient farming practices. This movement is improving food sovereignty for communities who rely on imported foods that vary in accessibility as trade and distribution infrastructure are destroyed. Agroecology practices increase organic matter in the soil composition, which beside healthier crops, lead to better soil structure and water absorption properties that are more resilient in both flood and drought conditions. Agroecology teaching programs and farms employ social and environmental justice frameworks and are expanding agroecology into agricultural and political realms. These forms of climate mitigation and adaptation are critical as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe. Estimates find that agroecology farms could serve up to two thirds of Puerto Rico’s food needs for its 3.2 million citizens in the future.

19 10, 2022

How Hurricane Maria Spurred A Young Puerto Rican Climate Activist To Action

2025-03-06T00:54:30-05:00Tags: |

Isabel Valentín is a young Puerto Rican climate activist who is bringing attention to the impacts of climate change and the need for adequate mitigation efforts after natural disasters, particularly for distressed communities. Valentín was attending high school in Puerto Rico at the time of both Hurricane Maria and Irma, which led to thousands of deaths across the island, with poorer areas suffering the worst of this. After receiving inadequate help from the government, Valentín joined an 11-day long protest commanding the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, to resign. While Valentín always planned to focus her career on the environment, this experience inspired her to pursue environmental and legal studies relating to the Caribbean to help make a positive change for her community. As of now, she is majoring in environmental studies at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York, after which she plans to complete a law degree and return to San Juan for a doctorate in Caribbean studies.

7 05, 2018

Hurricane Maria Made Me a Climate Refugee

2025-03-27T16:56:47-04:00Tags: |

Agnes M. Torres Rivera was one of thousands of Puerto Ricans who were displaced by Hurricane Maria in 2017. She is now displaced in Connecticut, USA alongside 2,200 other Puerto Ricans. As a graduate student, Torres Rivera couldn’t rely on the electricity or internet to assist her in her degree, and the island is facing extreme economic turmoil. Climate change has torn apart her life and the lives of so many others, including Yara Vazquez, a mother of three, and Merelys Torres who had to climb to the second story of her mother’s home to escape the flooding that eviscerated her neighborhood. Increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes is not the only signifier that climate change has arrived. Puerto Rican fishermen report that fish have become scarcer each year. Torres Rivera blames the Trump Administration and the former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, for putting Puerto Ricans and Americans at further risk of climate change impacts due to their consistent roll backs and disinterest in environmental protections. Six months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico continued to suffer from the second largest power outage in the world on record, which caused $90 billion in damages, a lack of safe water, and thousands displaced.

9 02, 2018

Women’s Needs Must Be Accommodated In Disaster Relief Measures For Puerto Rico

2020-04-24T16:21:51-04:00Tags: |

Puerto Rico is in need of disaster relief that adequately addresses the disproportional impacts Hurricane Irma and Maria have had on Puerto Rican women. Women across the world are already more likely to experience higher rates of sexual violence, familial responsibilities, and restricted access to reproductive healthcare in the aftermath of climate disasters. Puerto Rican women in particular are at very high risk for intimate partner violence in the world without stressors such as natural emergencies. Given these statistics and the causal relationship between poverty and violence toward women, upcoming policies such as the new year budget must support women appropriately. Photo Credit: Mario Tama  

9 02, 2018

Disaster Relief For Puerto Rico Must Accommodate Women’s Needs

2023-02-02T16:04:51-05:00Tags: |

In the aftermath of hurricanes Maria and Irma, Puerto Rico has struggled to recover both physically and economically. Among the most impacted by the crises are Puerto Rican women, who already faced higher levels of poverty than men prior to the natural disasters alongside some of the highest rates of intimate partner violence in the world. The risk of domestic and gender-based violence is heightened after natural disasters, as women often are forced into precarious living situations. This danger is intensified by limited access to reproductive healthcare and menstrual products as well as additional burdens from caregiving duties. In this article, Anusha Ravi shares her research at the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress. She analyzes the unique challenges women face during disaster recovery and the ways a gender perspective must be incorporated into relief policies. Photo credit: Getty/Mario Tama

6 11, 2017

Following Hurricanes, Women Leaders In Puerto Rico To Demand Community-Owned Solar Power

2017-12-06T14:38:49-05:00Tags: |

Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo, woman leader and head of UTIER, the electrical workers’ union in Puerto Rico, speaks with Democracy Now! following intense 2017 hurricanes, calling for a community owned, just renewable energy transition as the island looks to rebuild and find health and justice following intensive 2017 hurricanes. The community-centered plans she puts forth contrast with proposals by international entrepreneur Elon Musk, to provide centralized and privatized solar systems. Tisha Pastor, owner of a 100% renewable bed and breakfast hotel, also adds into the report, demonstrating the resiliency of her business in standing through recent climate disasters, to be a place of refuge for the surrounding area. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

10 10, 2017

Nurses Returning From Puerto Rico Accuse The Federal Government Of Leaving People To Die

2017-10-31T22:56:11-04:00Tags: |

Nurses such as Kathy Kennedy expressed their frustration with the dire situation in a Puerto Rico left to recover without much support after Hurricane Maria hit the Island. National Nurses United, a union of nurse practitioners, advocated to Democratic members of Congress after a two-week humanitarian mission to Puerto Rico to urge the United States government to provide disaster relief funding. The nurses said the conditions they witnessed were worse than they had seen on other humanitarian missions, including after Hurricane Katrina and the recent earthquake in Haiti. Photo credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

25 08, 2017

Puerto Rico: Resistance To Coal-Fired Power Plant And Toxic Coal Ash Dumping Spreads Across Island

2017-10-12T18:11:46-04:00Tags: |

Juan Carlos Davila and Laura Gottesdiener of Democracy Now! report on the growing movement in Puerto Rico of residents who are demanding that the island’s only coal-fired power plant be closed. Wearing hazardous waste suits, demonstrators dumped buckets of toxic coal ash onto the steps of the government’s capitol building in San Juan to draw attention to Applied Energy Systems, a private company, is polluting natural resources. Activists Jocelyn Velasquez and Yanina Moreno spoke about the risks posed by the poisonous ash to their health and the environment, which led community members to attempt to stop the dumping via blockade, which was broken up by government forces. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

26 10, 2008

Meet Rosa Hilda Ramos Of Puerto Rico’s Communities United Against Contamination

2017-10-26T13:42:19-04:00Tags: |

Goldman Environmental Prize recipient Rosa Hilda Ramos is an original founder of Communities United Against Contamination (CUCCo) and a movement leader against toxic pollution and environmental degradation in Cataño, Puerto Rico. Through persistent appeals to the state and federal government, Ramos and CUCCo successfully pressured the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to curb its emissions and drove the local acquisition and state protection of the Las Cucharillas Marsh, which supports immense ecological diversity and offers flood protection for nearby Cataño communities. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

Copyright © 2017-2026 Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, International. | All Rights Reserved
FacebookX
Go to Top