Please join WECAN in celebrating International Women's Day and Women's History Month — connect with us this month, and every month, as we uplift and honor women in all their diversity and feminists around the world!

For long-lasting, structural change, it is essential to collectively recognize, understand, and transform the dominant social constructs that are at the root of environmental degradation and interconnected injustices. Women are leading the way in this effort for transformation.

Despite the interlocking systems of patriarchy, racism, colonization and extractive economies that are fueling conflicts and harming communities, there is an abundance of power and solutions flourishing globally from women, feminists, and gender diverse leaders rising for climate action and justice, and organizing for people and planet.

Women are often presented as victims of the climate crisis, and it is absolutely critical that we continue to center the disproportionate impact on women, however it is also necessary to highlight that women are key drivers and leaders of just climate solutions and effective resistance efforts to social and environmental degradation.

Just as one example, research shows that a 1-unit increase in a country’s score on the Women’s Political Empowerment Index (WPEI) results in an average 11.51% drop in that country’s emissions, even when controlling for other factors. 

To spotlight the plethora of incredible women who are working for a better future every day, please see WECAN's Women Speak story-telling database, which features over 2,000 examples of women-led climate solutions, from biodiversity and forest and water protection to advocating for Rights of Nature and Indigenous rights. Check out the Women Speak database here. Please also see this article featuring a few of the many women leaders, including Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director.

Specifically this International Women's Day we are highlighting the flourishing of women's leadership in Brazil, a testament to the power of our communities and the power of women leaders from the frontlines to the halls of governments fighting for a healthy and just future. See below for more information and how you can share with your communities. 

We also ask that you join us today in particularly honoring women land defenders who put their bodies on the line everyday for human rights, forests, rivers, wildlife, traditional territories, the global climate, and the lives and futures of us all. We stand with women globally to simultaneously challenge oppressive government and corporate systems, while working fiercely and passionately together for justice, and a thriving and healthy planet.

Please explore our newsletter for more details on how you can participate in, support, and amplify the global movement of women for climate justice!

For Women's History Month, please be welcome to join us on Thursday, March 23 at 2:00pm Eastern Time USA for WECAN's, "Women for Climate Justice Leading Protection of Water," a formal side event for the UN Water conference.

Today on International Women's Day, we are celebrating the wave of women's leadership in Brazil, calling for Indigenous rights, racial justice, social change, and environmental protections for the Amazon and all ecosystems in Brazil.

Under the previous Brazilian Bolsonaro regime, anti-Indigenous and anti-environmental policies and sentiment proliferated, leading to a rise in deforestation and violations of Indigenous sovereignty and rights.

Despite worsening conditions, women continued to lead powerful resistance to Bolsonaro’s regime, including building Indigenous Women's political power; and in November 2022, Lula da Silva defeated Bolsonaro to become the President of Brazil promising to reinstate critical socio-environmental protections and support Indigenous rights and sovereignty.

Since his inauguration in January, Lula has appointed 11 women to his cabinet — more than any previous administration.

From the conservative Congress to the large agribusiness industry – there are still many threats facing the Amazon and Indigenous peoples in Brazil. Yet, we remain hopeful, buoyed by the many women leaders taking action in Brazil.

On International Women’s day we want to celebrate their leadership, as a testament to the power of our communities and the power of women leaders from the frontlines to the halls of governments fighting for a healthy and just future. Remarkable women are leading the way!

Since 2013 Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva / Amazonian Women Defenders of the Jungle have been organizing and fighting for their territories, cultures, languages, rights and way of life in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

This year, Mujeres Amazonicas is hosting several activities and events for International Women's Day, including a march to uplift women land defenders fighting for greater social and environmental protections. WECAN is honored to support their activities and stand with Mujeres Amazonicas in solidarity.

Learn more about their work in this press conference, and follow them at the links below to support and uplift their organizing work!

Please see below several actions you can take to support frontline communities across the United States to stop extractive projects that will further harm communities and accelerate the climate crisis.

The pressure is ramping up to demand President Biden stop the Willow Project in the Arctic!

On Friday, March 4, WECAN was on the ground with Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA), Alaska Wilderness League, and People vs Fossil Fuels in Washington D.C. for a rally to pressure President Biden and the Department of Interior to deny the Willow Master Development Project – a massive oil drilling development in Alaska’s western Arctic that threatens local communities and wildlife, and the global climate. Watch the livestream of the speakers here.

Willow is the single largest oil extractive project currently proposed on public lands. During the rally we heard from powerful Indigenous leaders about the severe impacts of the climate crisis and oil extraction already harming arctic communities and ecosystems.

Take action with frontline organizers by signing this petition!

If approved, Willow would lock us into another 30+ years of fossil fuel extraction at a time when we need to immediately phaseout fossil fuels. Willow would emit 278 million metric tons of climate pollution over the next 30 years. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions from 74 coal plants — one-third of all remaining U.S. plants. It is far past time to stop extraction and protect communities and ecosystems.

To learn more about the Willow project see the links below:

In addition to the action, WECAN joined several organizations to endorse an ad in the Sunday print edition of the Wilmington News Journal, which is delivered to and read by President Biden, calling on his administration to stop the Willow project.

The Biden administration should be making a decision on Willow Project in the coming days, so please stay tuned for ways to support frontline organizers and take action!

Since 2022, WECAN has been very honored to facilitate the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, a group of Indigenous women leaders from the Great Lakes region, to resist the advancement of the Line 5 pipeline.

Please learn more and stay connected to the work of these Indigenous women leaders on the new webpage here!

In March, WECAN is collaborating with BankTrack to host a series of workshops for the Equator Principles Association (EPA) focused on deforestation, fossil fuels, human rights, divestment from harmful projects and investment in a Just Transition.

The EPA promotes and encourages the adoption and implementation of the Equator Principles, which provide a framework for financial institutions to identify, assess and manage environmental and social risks when financing Projects. 128 financial institutions in 38 countries have officially adopted the Equator Principles and are part of this consortium.

The upcoming workshops are designed to create open discussion to further progress useful knowledge exchange, enabling civil society organizations to articulate their expectations from EPA financial institutions based on the Equator Principles as the climate crisis escalates.

These workshops are a continuation of ongoing workshops and dialogue with the EPA facilitated by WECAN and BankTrack since 2021. WECAN is organizing frontline women to participate directly in these workshops to speak about their impacted communities and frameworks for a Just Transition.

Join us on March 21 for a National Day of Action to #StopDirtyBanks. We’re banding together with organizations and individuals across the country to tell Chase, CitiBank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo that if they don’t move out of fossil fuels, we’ll move our money out of their banks.

Sign up for an event or submit your own here: https://thirdact.org/national-day-of-action/

The Rights of Nature Tribunal will be holding its eighth local hearing in Yucatan, Mexico from March 9-12, 2023, for the case of the Tren Maya, a rail transportation mega project that puts Mexican ecosystems and communities at serious risk of destruction.

The case will be presented by impacted local communities and experts from around the world, and will be heard by a panel of world-renowned judges, who will examine and rule from a Rights of Nature perspective.

WECAN is honored to a part of the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature Steering Committee, and looks forward to continued advocacy for the Rights of Nature!

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) is hiring for several positions, seeking folks to join our dynamic team working for climate justice, systemic change, and women’s and feminist leadership in global climate solutions. Please see below for position descriptions and how to apply!

The Policy Coordinator will work remotely, with the guidance of WECAN’s Executive Director, to coordinate ongoing policy campaigns. This will include conducting research, analyzing policy strategies, writing reports and educational materials, and supporting WECAN campaigns and coalition building to push forward progressive policies within a climate justice framework.

This role will include work within WECAN’s fossil fuel resistance and divestment campaigns,

advocating for governments and financial institutions to stop fossil fuel expansion and deforestation. This work will also include advocating for policies that implement human rights and Indigenous rights, and supporting ongoing policy work through various coalitions uplifting feminist climate policies. Learn how to apply and read the full description here.

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) is seeking a part-time Forest Event Coordinator in a contracted position to develop a Global Women for Forests Network and carry out WECAN’s upcoming Global Forests Women’s Assembly, a public forum to take place virtually in 2023.

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The Forest Event Coordinator will work remotely, under the guidance of WECAN’s Executive Director, and staff (as needed), to develop, produce, and implement the Assembly, which includes tech production. In addition, the coordinator will also work alongside WECAN’s Executive Director to organize and convene strategic, ongoing meetings following the Assembly with women forest protectors from across the world. Learn how to apply and read the full description here.

The Program Associate will work remotely, under the guidance of WECAN’s Executive Director, and will contribute to WECAN's Women for Food Sovereignty Program. Our program works with Indigenous and frontline women to secure and grow food and medicinal herbs for their communities and support a sustainable path toward community resiliency during cascading crises of climate and colonization. Through garden and farming networks and tree nurseries, women are working to preserve and propagate plant knowledge and build community and local economies by returning to practices rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and inspiring climate resiliency solutions. Food sovereignty is climate justice in action.

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The Food Sovereignty Program Associate will support the growth of this program, working to support Indigenous and frontline women seeking to develop food sovereignty and food security programs in their communities and regions. Learn how to apply and read the full description here.