On Saturday, November 6, at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, we joined the panel discussion organised by Euroclima+ on the protection of ecosystems from the perspectives of climate justice, gender and vulnerable groups.

The climate crisis hits the communities least responsible for it the hardest. In these communities, women are particularly affected, since they are generally entrusted with fetching water and looking after the shared assets on their lands.

Laura Leonelli Morey, the International Resources Coordinator at Fondo de Mujeres del Sur, joined the panel remotely, along with project director Lilian Gregorio from Fundación Plurales and the director of Colectivo CASA (CASA Collective), Ángela Cuenca.

“Given the expansion of mining and extraction and the climate crisis, we help bring into focus the indispensable role environmental defenders play in protecting water, their lands, their rights and those of their communities and families. We always discuss the importance of financing these women’s initiatives and furthering their agendas from a feminist perspective,” concludes Leonelli Morey.

Then she adds, “This became particularly important at a meeting where a good part of civil society was unable to take part. It was difficult for environmental defenders to join the summit given, among other issues, the limited access to vaccines among millions of people across the global south, the cost of traveling and staying in the UK and the uncertainty that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Additionally, the work of environmental defenders is often criminalised, posing a threat to these women’s lives and that of their families. Drawing attention to their voices, supporting their work and funding their agendas is our way of building climate justice from a feminist perspective.

We share the testimonies of Diana Campos (Taller Flotante [Movable Workshop], Entre Ríos, Argentina), Samanta Delgado (Chacha Warmi Network, Jujuy, Argentina) and Bernarda Pessoa (Qom Artisans Groups from Santa Rosa, Chaco, Paraguay) who joined the panel. Fondo de Mujeres del Sur supports these organisations through Strengthening Environmental Defenders, a program co-financed by the European Union. In Argentina, the program is implemented in conjunction with Fundación Plurales; and in Paraguay and Bolivia, with the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA).