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Dear Friends and Allies,
Dire calls for real action on climate change are growing louder - and around the world, women continue to rise to lead their communities and answer this call
for justice for the Earth and all her inhabitants.
Among many
extraordinary events
of the past month are the ongoing
actions
by the Standing Rock Sioux and allies to protect water and block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline; and
the work of frontline land and community defenders in Louisiana, USA, who are taking action to demand an end to environmental sacrifice zones and new oil leases in the face of record-breaking flooding and climate disasters. Please see our recent
WECAN Special Update for more on these
actions and campaigns,
and links for direct support to groups on the frontlines.
We are living in times of great destruction and
disruptio
n -
and simultaneous resistance, re-visioning and regeneration.
Explore our WECAN International September 2016 newsletter to learn more about recent and upcoming Women's Earth and Climate Action Network actions, events, delegations, campaigns and other ways to join the movement.
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 Tongass Rainforest, Alaska Delegation
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Women of WECAN and For the Wild documenting clear-cut logging of old growth forest in Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Photo by Emily Arasim.
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A Women's Earth and Climate Action Network delegation, in collaboration with emerging California organization, For the Wild, has recently returned from the Tongass Rainforest in southeastern Alaska, the traditional homeland of the Haida, Tsimshian and Tlingit peoples.
The Tongass, the largest remaining temperate rainforest on Earth, encompasses the largest national forest in the US,
and acts as one of the country's greatest sources of carbon sequestration. Despite it's extraordinary cultural and ecologic beauty, and critical role in maintaining and healing our global climate, the Tongass has been opened to decades more of devastating old growth logging through the Tongass National Forest Plan.
This August 2016, WECAN had the honor of meeting with local Haida and Tlingit women to learn about their longtime and ongoing struggles to protect the forest, t
heir cultures, and their food system
s and Indigenous economies. We are grateful to also be learning from organizations such as Earthjustice and SEACC, who have been working to protect the Tongass for decades.
Please look for updates in the months to come on these unfolding
collaborative ef
forts to stop further old growth logging in the irreplaceable ecosystem of the Tongass.
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Women Act for Climate Justice:
10 Days of Global Mobilization
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'Women Act for Climate Justice - Ten Days of Global Mobilization' is an opportunity for global women and girls to organize together to show our resistance to environmental and social degradation; demand drastic change away from our unjust neoliberal economic and development systems; highlight the climate impacts our communities are facing; and demonstrate the many effective, just and safe climate solutions, strategies and political calls that are being implemented by women and girls around the world on a daily basis.
Participants are asked to submit a photo and statement and/or organize a local action or event on the ground in their community.
In the days proceeding United Nations COP22 climate talks, global action submissions will be woven together and shared via social media, shared images and videos, print and digital news outlets, and at events during COP22.
The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network is thrilled to be co-sponsoring this campaign with our allies at the Women's Global Call for Climate Justice
. If your organization is interested in becoming a 'Women Act For Climate Justice' partner - please email WECAN Communications at:
[email protected]
.
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WECAN at the
World Social Forum, Mon
treal
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In collaboration with the
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, WECAN International took part in and held several sessions on the Rights of Nature, exposing violations of the Earth and our communities, while simultaneously creating a new legal framework that respects and defends the inherent rights of
Mother Earth.
We also partnered with Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Global Forest Coalition for a roundtable on 'Women for Climate Justice' - featuring Melina Laboucan Massimo (Lubicon Cree First Nation, Lubicon Solar), Jacqui Patterson (NAACP), Mary Louise Malig (Global Forest Coalition) and Jill Mangaliman (Grassroots Global Justice Alliance) - who shared analysis, experience, struggles and solutions for climate justice.
Included in the discussion were vital topics including Indigenous rights, and the intersectionality of gender, environment, colonialism and racism, placed upon our bodies and the land through institutionalized patriarchy all across the globe.
W
e give deep thanks to all our allies, and for this important time to gather our strength and continue to build together in solidarity, resistance and hope.
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WECAN Middle East/North Africa Women Mobilize In Advance of COP22 Marakkesh
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The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network will be on the ground in Marrakech, Morocco this November, working inside of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and outside in the streets and public halls during the UN COP22 climate talks.
Organization and strategy building with allies across the Middle East region and African continent is well underway. If your organization is interested in working with WECAN on the ground in Morocco, please contact WECAN Communications at: [email protected].
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WECAN At The IUCN World Conservation Congress - Sept 2016
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Patricia Gualinga (right) presents the Living Forests proposal and speaks out against oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon - Photo by Emily Arasim
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This week, the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network is speaking for climate justice, women's leadership, Rights of Nature, Indigenous rights and deep systemic change at the 2016 International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 'World Conservation Congress'.
IUCN is the worlds largest environmental organization, comprised of both governmental and civil society representatives. This year's 'Planet at the Crossroads' conference will focus specifically on action to fulfill the Paris Climate Agreement, adopted by 195 world governments in 2015.
It is essential that strong
voices of resistance and hope of frontline and Indigenous women are heard within such spaces. Patricia Gualinga (longtime WECAN ally and Director of International Relations for the People of Sarayaku, Ecuadorian Amazon) and Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN Executive Director) will join together to present during the IUCN session 'A Deep Dive on Gender and Environment: Exploring the Policy Landscape, Strategies in Action, and Women's Frontlines Solutions', a joint session with the IUCN Gender Program.
WECAN is honored to also be collaborating with Amazon Watch and diverse Indigenous peoples and allies gat
hered at IUCN through the
Sacred Lands Film
network.
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Celebrating the WECAN Women Speak Research Intern Team
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We are thrilled to introduce the newest members of our team! Please join us in welcoming Minji Seo (South Korea), Adriana Sierra (Honduras), Lilian Abuga (Nigeria) and Nissa Toledo (Philippines), our fantastic new Women Speak research interns. These four women will be working alongside Elaine Colligan (USA), our Women Speak project editor, and Emma Smith (based in Spain), who has supported us as a researcher since spring 2016.
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Top: WECAN strategizing with Tlingit women allies on Tongass rainforest protection. Bottom: WECAN and For the Wild in action near an old-growth logging operation, southeast Alaska, USA. Photos by Emily Arasim.
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Standing with
No Dakota Access Pipeline
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Top: Indigenous women leaders on the frontlines of direct actions in Bismark, North Dakota - Bottom: WECAN Executive Director in solidarity with Honor the Earth.
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Since early April 2016, Indigenous peoples and allies, led by the Standing Rock Sioux, have set up camp and have been holding space near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to block attempts to build the Dakota Access pipeline by Texas-based corporation Energy Transfer Partners. Thousands have gathered from across the country and world to join the Standing Rock Sioux in their call for respect for Indigenous Rights, sacred lands and waters, and care for our common home.
WECAN International Executive Director, Osprey Orielle Lake, has just returned from several days on the ground in solidarity - learning and conducting interviews with Indigenous women allies who are central to this vital action.
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Soil Not Oil Conference -
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WECAN International was honored to serve on the conference Steering Committee for the 2016 Soil Not Oil Coalition Conference;
to co-host a dynamic panel with the
Women's Earth Alliance
, INOCHI and
Earthseed Consulting
on women and climate, environmental violence, and women leading sustainability solutions in agriculture, permaculture and beyond; and to stand with allies at Movement Rights for a main plenary session
on Rights of Nature as a tool to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
We look forward to continuing to work within this vital coalition, and to growing WECAN programs on women, agriculture and climate justice over coming years.
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Top: WECAN and allies present 'Women Leading Sustainability Solutions' at Soil Not Oil - Middle: Audience members of the Soil Not Oil women and climate session recount stories of women ancestors who supports them in their work for Earth and community. - Bottom: Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN) speaks on Rights of Nature with colleague Shannon Biggs (Movement Rights) during a Soil Not Oil main plenary talk.
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to support WECAN's work for climate justice, women's leadership, and the Rights of the Earth and generations to come.
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