Support 50 Global South Environmental Leaders

By Nessie, Global Environments Network (GEN) Director

We are facing an ecological and climate crisis like never before. Biological annihilation of wildlife is currently leading us into a sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history and globally, the past 4 years have been the hottest on record, and the 20 warmest have occurred in the past 22 years. According to Oxfam, in 2017, 26 people owned the same as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. The list of environmental, political and social injustices, and crises, goes on but I shall stop here! Instead, I ask: what about the individuals and groups fighting to change this? What about those working to rewrite the story of our mutual, interdependent belonging in the web of life; those actively seeking solutions to ecological and social injustice? Well, some of them are part of GEN!

According to advocacy group Global Witness, those on the forefront of climate change impacts and campaigns are being killed in increasing numbers. Since 2002, the group has registered 57 killings of environmental activists in Peru alone, and these crimes often go unpunished. For the past few months, I have been asking myself how GEN can offer support mechanisms—including training, mentoring and capacity-building—to help those on the frontlines of environmental and social-change activism, and campaigning? Many face 'burn-out' and exhaustion from the highly pressurised systems they are operating in.

I feel it is one of GEN’s chief responsibilities to address this need and as a response we are developing and introducing two exciting features for our members: GEN Partnerships and GEN Project Packages. Through our ‘GEN Project Packages’, we will support our members—and those interested in GEN— to help steward their visions into a reality by offering opportunities to get project ideas off the ground, aided with an injection of seed funding, as well as support and mentoring from GEN Resource People and staff members. An example of this includes supporting and helping promote the Good Food March, in October 2019, with the Land Workers Alliance.

‘GEN Partnerships’ will build on the existing work of Global Diversity Foundation and GEN staff members in supporting and mentoring GEN members, tailored to their specific needs and aims. This will also include a focused approach on networking and linking relevant members together for collaborations, as well as advocacy support when needed. We have many other ideas in the pipeline for better serving and supporting our members, so watch this space! 

In other news, I am really excited to share that we have recently been awarded funds to cover three full scholarahips for GEN's Latin-American School for Food Systems Resilience (ALLSA), for those participants whom might not normally be able to attend, due to financial constraints.