Environmental justice: when the defense of Mother Earth rises from our own voices
Every October 24 marks the International Day Against Climate Change. On this occasion, from the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI), we share the “Environmental Justice from the Perspective of Indigenous Women” research report. This work delves into how, from our territories and ancestral knowledge, Indigenous Women have upheld the defense of our collective rights in the face of the climate crisis affecting the planet.
For generations, we have cared for water, seeds, forests, and the knowledge that sustains the well-being of our peoples. Yet we are the ones who face the harshest consequences of climate change: ecosystem loss, displacement, pollution, and the constant threat to our territories and bodies. Despite this, we continue weaving alternatives born anchored in mutual care, spirituality, and our connection with Mother Earth.
Our vision for environmental justice
We understand environmental justice as a collective and human right. It is not only about distributing resources or mitigating damage, but about recognizing our spiritual, cultural, and community relationship with the land, territories, and natural resources.
When we speak of environmental justice, we also speak of repairing a historical debt: centuries of plunder, extractivism, and environmental violence that have directly affected our ways of life and the transmission of ancestral knowledge.
For us, environmental justice is rooted in the land. It cannot be understood solely from a technical or economic perspective, but from a holistic understanding of territory as a source of life, identity, health, generational continuity, and spiritual balance.
Climate change: inequality and resistance
In our communities, Indigenous Women are on the front lines: water scarcity, deforestation, and soil degradation directly affect our daily responsibilities of care, food production, and knowledge preservation.
Even in the face of this reality, we do not see ourselves as victims. We are agents of change, healing, and regeneration. Across our territories, we promote agroecological practices, reforestation networks, seed banks, and spaces of collective healing that intertwine the spiritual and the political.
Strategies that heal and transform
On our path toward environmental justice, we have built diverse strategies rooted in ancestral practices, community organization, and advocacy:
- Social mobilization and articulation. We organize in networks, from local territories to regional and international spaces, to ensure that our voices are heard and considered in decisions about climate and biodiversity.
- Integral healing. Through self-care, traditional medicine, and spirituality, we restore balance between our bodies, communities, and Mother Earth.
- Revitalization of traditional productive systems. We promote food sovereignty, protect native crops, and strengthen reciprocity with the land as the foundation for fair and sustainable economies.
- Political and legal advocacy. We advance the recognition of our collective rights and the rights of nature, linking our knowledge with human rights frameworks.
Weaving justice through care
For us, environmental justice is deeply connected to gender, cultural, and spiritual justice. It means transforming the structures that have placed life at the service of capital, and once again placing care, reciprocity, and interdependence at the heart of collective decision-making.
“The defense of the territory and the pursuit of environmental justice cannot be separated from the struggle for the recognition and respect of collective rights.”
Weaving justice for Mother Earth
On this International Day Against Climate Change, we reaffirm our commitment to continue weaving justice for Mother Earth — to strengthen our voices and, together with our allies and donor community, build paths toward a life in balance and harmony.
In the coming weeks, we will participate in COP30 in Belém do Pará, alongside our sister spokeswomen and allied organizations, to bring these reflections and demands to the global climate and biodiversity table.
From there, we will continue insisting that there can be no climate justice without environmental justice — and no environmental justice without the leadership and full participation of Indigenous Women.
Because caring for the planet is not only an ecological act: it is an act of justice, of memory, and of continuity for our cultures.
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