By Angela Easby | North America Regional Program Coordinator
This winter in the North American program, we focus our attention on supporting biocultural landscape revitalization in northwestern Mexico. Across Mexico and North America more generally, revitalizing landscapes requires thoughtful and conscious engagement with the Indigenous communities for whom these lands are traditional territories. At Global Diversity Foundation we understand that people are embedded within, and are not separate from the landscape. Revitalizing biocultural landscapes therefore means working to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous communities who are the caretakers of these lands.
This February, we are organizing a North American Community Environmental Exchange (NACELE) in Sonora, Mexico, on the theme “Collaborating for Change: Strategies for the Protection of Biocultural Landscapes.” This event will provide a training, networking and discussion space for Indigenous community leaders, in a context of rapid climate change and at a moment when adaptive community capacity to confront biocultural threats is crucial. Land and water grabs and extractive industry projects currently threaten the health of Indigenous territories in northwestern Mexico. This in turn threatens the well-being of Indigenous communities. NACELE 2017 will offer workshops from expert facilitators on a range of topics relevant to the protection of biocultural landscapes, including community organizing, coalition building, Indigenous rights, food and water sovereignty, and more. NACELE 2017 will be a space for participants to share stories of struggle and resistance, and will lead to media outputs that will highlight the work of Indigenous communities to care for their territories.
Participants in this event will gain membership into the Global Environments Network, comprised of a growing number of dynamic environmental changemakers working to solve socio-environmental problems around the world. As GEN members, Indigenous community leaders will have access to a strong network of support and diverse expertise that they can mobilize to enhance the impact their work in their communities and globally.
NACELE 2017 is one event in a larger landscape of ongoing actions for territory defense and Indigenous sovereignty in Mexico. For example, the Yaqui community of Loma de Bácum, Sonora is currently engaged in a struggle to protect their territory from the construction of an unwanted gas pipeline. GDF friend and NACELE collaborator Anabela is a Yaqui human rights lawyer who has been a strong community leader in this struggle. In December, Anabela and her husband were kidnapped for their community organizing work and vocal opposition to the project. They have since been released but remain in danger, along with others in the community who are working to stop the pipeline's route through their territory.
Loma de Bácum is struggling to gain international attention for their situation, and Anabela has asked for GDF's support. We are working to bring a solidarity delegation of Standing Rock water protectors to Loma de Bácum, to raise awareness, build relationships, and strengthen the bonds of Indigenous solidarity across North America. Water protectors have voiced interest in travelling to Loma de Bácum and lending a hand to maintain the momentum of Indigenous self-determination generated at Standing Rock. Donations received for this project via GlobalGiving over the coming three months will be directed to covering travel costs incurred for the solidarity delegation, and supporting Loma de Bácum with costs associated with hosting. You can read our detailed statement on this initiative here.
With your support, we continue our work to increase the capacity of environmental changemakers in northwestern Mexico and beyond.
By Angela Easby | GDF North American Regional Program Coordinator
By Emily Caruso | Regional Programmes Director, GDF
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
