Dear Community,

Approaching the winter solstice, marking the longest night and shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, we are offered a moment to pause and reflect. Across cultures and traditions, this time has uplifted the turning of the seasons and the promise of renewal as the light begins to return. It is a powerful reminder of the cyclical nature of life and the resilience found in embracing periods of stillness and transformation. As we close the year, the season invites us to honor, personally and collectively, the vital work and advocacy of the past year, reconnect with our intentions, and prepare to step into a new chapter with clarity and purpose. 


2024 has been a year of profound challenges and opportunities, underscoring the need for transformative and bold action across the globe. Communities have faced escalating climate crises, economic inequities, staggering violence, and geopolitical tensions, yet they have also come together in extraordinary ways to demand justice, equity, and a thriving future. It has been a time to continue uplifting the voices of those on the frontlines—particularly Indigenous peoples, Black and Brown communities, women in all of their diversity, and youth—whose leadership has illuminated pathways toward systemic change.


As we look ahead to 2025, we carry forward the momentum of our growing collective power, preparing for challenges and growing threats to communities and ecosystems. We want you to know that WECAN is ready to take action and continue our work to uplift climate justice solutions globally. We are standing strong and clear-eyed about defining our future and caring for all that we love and hold dear.


In this moment, it is essential that women in all of their diversity continue to gather from around the world to strategize and mobilize together. In light of this, in 2025, WECAN welcomes all you, our amazing community, to join us in June for a pivotal virtual event: The Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond!

During the Global Women’s Assembly, grassroots Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women and gender diverse leaders, global advocates, government leaders, and policy-makers will join together in solidarity to speak out against environmental and social injustice, draw attention to root causes of multiple interlocking crises, and present the diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks and strategies with which they are working to shape a healthy and equitable world. The virtual Assembly also serves as a convening to support collective calls to action in the lead-up to COP30 and beyond, and is designed to generate ongoing networks of action regionally and by campaign focus for the years to come. We will tie these networks into existing women's and feminist formations as our collective movement for women’s climate leadership is growing—despite many interlocking challenges! The Assembly is an inclusive space across identities and the gender spectrum.


Our hope is rooted in the strength of collectivity and the possibilities for systemic transformation. The work ahead requires courage, collaboration, care, and creativity. Whether through amplifying frontline leadership, advancing ambitious climate policies, implementing on the ground restoration projects, or reinvigorating our relationship with the Earth, each step taken has the potential to bring us closer to a world where people and the planet thrive together. 


For now, as we close this year and look forward to the next, please join us in reflecting on several highlights from WECAN's 2024 activities, featured below.


If you are able, please also consider donating and supporting WECAN's work for the years to come. Any support is most welcome! 

Donate and Support WECAN Here! 

2024 Program & Campaign Highlights

WECAN is honored to work with a global community of women leaders for climate justice! Please see below a selection of program and campaign highlights from 2024. If you want to catch up on all of WECAN's work in 2024, please review our previous newsletters.


Thank you to all the amazing organizers, coordinators, and community leaders for your support in this work! A gentle reminder that WECAN's offices will be closed from December 21 through January 7. We look forward to reconnecting with you in the new year!

Indigenous Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon

Reforestation and Forest Protection Project

This year, WECAN has been thrilled to launch the Indigenous Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon Reforestation and Restoration Project, spearheaded by WECAN Ecuador Coordinator Patricia Gualinga (Kichwa) along with Sabine Bouchat and the Women’s Association of Sarayaku. Housed within our Women for Forests Program, this vital initiative focuses on protecting the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest by recovering endangered tree species and restoring forest ecosystems.


By engaging women from seven communities within Sarayaku, this WECAN initiative aims to recover endemic tree species currently facing extinction and regenerate forest ecosystems. Implemented as a network system, the women have travelled great distances into remote areas meticulously locating and collecting a diverse range of tree species essential to the forest's overall integrity and the well-being of its inhabitants (pictured below). 


The initiative not only safeguards the Amazon rainforest and traditional knowledge and practices, but also ensures access to essential resources for community well-being and resilience. Please visit our website to stay connected and learn more about this exciting new project!

WECAN Okla Hina Ikhish Holo Food Sovereignty Program

Okla Hina Ikhish Holo (OHIH), which translates as People of the Sacred Medicine Trail, is a network of Indigenous women, nonbinary, and femme gardeners who span across the United States Gulf South working to re-establish old trade routes while adapting and co-designing new future paths for tradeways that strengthen decentralized systems of support, build circular economies, and support local biodiversity, food sovereignty, and stewardship of their traditional territories. This project is housed within WECAN's Women for Food Sovereignty and Food Security program, and stewarded by Monique Verdin (Houma Nation), WECAN Program Coordinator in the Gulf South.


In 2024, OHIH members have been actively engaged in various initiatives to support Indigenous communities and preserve cultural heritage in the Gulf South region. They contributed to the opening of Nanih Bvlbancha, one of the few public Indigenous sites in New Orleans, which serves as a gathering place for learning about Indigenous peoples, plants, and the architecture of Mississippian cultures. At Hummingbird Springs Farm—stewarded by OHIH member Angela Comeaux— over 8,000 plant starts have been distributed to the community as mutual aid.


Additionally, they have coordinated workshops on several topics including, honey harvesting, ethical goat harvesting, and weaving practices with traditional fibers (pictured below). Learn more about the many aspects of Okla Hina Okhish Holo here. The work of the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo network continues to grow, nurturing communities, lands, and our planet for future generations! 

Stop Line 5 Advocacy Campaign

Since 2022, WECAN has been very honored to organize and 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.


Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline was originally built in 1953, and continues to operate nearly 20 years past its engineered lifespan, transporting 22 million gallons of crude oil each day through northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and under the Straits of Mackinac. This poses a grave danger to the Great Lakes region. Enbridge’s planned expansion and operation not only diverts us from our climate targets outlined in the Paris Agreement but also significantly worsens the escalating impacts of the climate crisis.


This year, The Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance and environmental groups, including WECAN, traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with Congressional leaders and representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers and delivered a petition with 9,000+ signatures calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a robust environmental review of the Line 5 crude oil pipeline reroute (pictured above). 


In May, members of the Indigenous Women's Treaty Alliance participated in a public hearing by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the newly released draft Environmental Assessment of Enbridge’s Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation project (pictured below left).


In October, an international Indigenous delegation that included two leaders of the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, met with Canadian consular officials to discuss the imminent threat that an Enbridge Line 5 oil spill poses to the Great Lakes and Tribal sovereignty (pictured below right). 


We are positioned for strong advocacy in the year ahead, and will continue to call for the immediate shutdown of Line 5 to protect local aquifers, waterways, Treaty rights, and the climate. Learn more and stay up to date here!

Advocacy at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)

In April, the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network participated and advocated at the 2024 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) Twenty-Third Session in New York City. Our delegation called for the implementation of Indigenous rights, and the protection of forests, water, communities, and the global climate. In addition to participating in and organizing many UNPFII strategy meetings and forums, WECAN was honored to organize in-person and virtual events uplifting the knowledge, expertise, and solutions of global Indigenous women leaders. 


We spoke out against false climate solutions, colonization, Indigenous rights violations, and harms to frontlines communities due to government policies and financial institutions. We also advocated for implementing solutions with a climate justice framework, practicing traditional knowledge systems, upholding Indigenous rights, promoting the right to self determination, implementing Rights of Nature, and advancing policies and practices of care and climate justice. Find a full report back of our advocacy and events at UNPFII in this newsletter.

Toolkit Launch: Escazú Agreement Toolkit for Women Land Defenders and Frontline Communities

In April, during the Third Conference of Parties on the Escazú Agreement in Santiago, Chile, WECAN released the "Escazú Agreement Toolkit for Women Land Defenders and Frontline Communities," a resource designed to help women land defenders navigate the domestic laws of their country to achieve the protections of the Escazú Agreement.


The Escazú Agreement, formally known as the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation, and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, represents a landmark achievement in the pursuit of environmental justice, transparency, and sustainable development across the Latin American and Caribbean region. However, the journey to accessing these rights can be fraught with legal complexities and barriers, particularly for women who are at the forefront of defending their land and communities.


These toolkits are a timely resource for land defenders, policymakers, advocates and others at a critical moment for the global community. The toolkits aim to support the transformative potential of this historic Agreement to build a thriving and equitable future for all, including those courageous individuals defending land and ecosystems. The toolkit was developed by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) with support from the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.


This year we released toolkits for Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Antigua and Barbuda, and Brazil. in 2025, we will be releasing additional toolkits for more countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Find the toolkits and other Escazú Agreement resources on our website.

Advocacy Workshops and Engagement with Financial Institutions

For more than 7 years, WECAN has been organizing high-level engagements with financial institutions to advocate for a rapid transition off of fossil fuel financing, while advocating for policies that uphold human and Indigenous rights frameworks, and advancing a Just Transition and community-led solutions and investments. This includes providing in-depth workshops for international financial institutions that focus on policies and practices regarding due diligence on human and Indigenous rights implementation, deforestation, fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure, and how financial institutions can align with the 1.5C target of the Paris Climate Agreement.


In March, we hosted a series of workshops examining the problems of market-based carbon schemes and their lack of effectiveness in achieving climate goals and inherent injustices. We also organized for frontline leaders from impacted communities to meet with banks to interrogate due diligence gaps and provide paths forward.


Additionally, WECAN coordinated a high-level engagement between civil society and financial institution representatives during the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 in Cali, Colombia to discuss how best to address the biodiversity crisis and bolster biodiversity protection through strengthening risk management, adherence to Indigenous rights, effective due diligence processes, developing grievance mechanisms, and financing a Just Transition (pictured above right).

Democratic Republic of Congo Women for Forests Program

Starting in 2014, women in South Kivu Province have been organizing through the WECAN Women for Forest program to raise awareness about women’s rights and leadership; the long-term harms of extractive industries and ongoing conflict; the protection of the Itombwe rainforest in relation to climate change solutions; the importance of learning hands-on reforestation techniques; defending the rights of Indigenous Pygmy women and the local communities living in and around forest areas; renewing cultural practices connected to land respect; and promoting food security and sovereignty. This program addresses the immediate needs for ecosystem restoration, food security, and protection from gender-based violence while also strengthening the resilience and autonomy of communities in the South Kivu Province.


We are elated to announce that we are close to planting 1 million trees in the DRC next year! In the last year alone, over 100,000 native trees, which have medicinal, food, and reforestation purposes, were planted to regenerate clear-cut and slash and burn areas. 25% of the new growth is for human use and 75% of the planted trees are for re-wilding damaged lands. Each year, the new trees decrease the local community’s use of the Itombwe old-growth forest, which is essential for carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection. Through our program, we are protecting over 1.6 million acres of old-growth forest in the Congo Basin.


There has been an 91% tree survival rate because of the dedicated work of the women reforesters. As the women continue to plant trees and ensure their survival, “wild nurseries” are emerging, meaning that native trees are regenerating themselves naturally as biome conditions stabilize due to all the trees that have been planted. The wild nursery groves are burgeoning because the trees that have been planted are reviving the moist, rain-filled biome that encourages tremendous growth. With the rains returning, the reforestation efforts are addressing drought and natural forest regeneration. Additionally, the women are monitoring and patrolling the forest protected areas to ensure no illegal logging occurs. Learn more about this program here.

Advocacy to Shut Down the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

It has been eight years since the sustained actions at Standing Rock, and the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) continues to operate illegally. Despite years of protest and legal battles, DAPL operations persist, threatening Tribal treaty-protected lands and water sources, and fueling the climate crisis.


This year, efforts to shut down DAPL continued with ongoing determination from Indigenous leadership. At the UNPFII in April, WECAN delegates participated in an action led by Indigenous youth to bring attention to the efforts to shut down DAPL. 


In June, WECAN joined youth, grassroots, and Tribal leadership from Cheyenne River and Standing Rock for a rally in Washington D.C. to demand the Army Corps of Engineers shut down the Dakota Access pipeline, highlighting the urgent need for environmental justice and the recognition and implementation of Indigenous rights, including Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in decision-making processes.


Additionally, as we close 2024, please join us in urging the Biden Administration to take action against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) during this critical Lame Duck period! President Biden and the Army Corps of Engineers can deny the Lake Oahe easement and permanently shut down DAPL. Please share this post calling for action!

Report Launch: The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry

On September 12, WECAN released our annual report, "The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions (Fourth Edition).” Read the report here!


From rising cancer rates to escalating violence, the report details the numerous disproportionate health and safety risks and impacts women are experiencing due to fossil fuel extraction, which is also perpetuating Indigenous and human rights violations. The report highlights regional case studies from Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income communities in North America, and the corresponding financial institutions that are contributing to these egregious harms. The report outlines recommendations for the banks to move toward accountability and a Just Transition. It is time to end the era of fossil fuels!


As part of the report release, WECAN hosted an online report launch where we heard from frontline women leaders, health experts, and advocates who are demanding accountability from financial institutions to take action for the health of our communities, ecosystems, and the climate. Click the image below to watch a recording of the online event.

Advocacy During Climate Week 2024

In September, WECAN participated in Climate Week 2024 held during the UN Summit of the Future and the UN General Assembly. Amidst the dialogues and discussions, WECAN presented our strategies, solutions, and policy analysis, pushing forward the message to end the era of fossil fuels and advance a Just Transition!


As part of our advocacy efforts in New York, WECAN hosted and co-hosted many events to amplify the climate solutions of women in all their diversity worldwide. We released policy briefs and reports on climate justice and the NDC's; met with government leaders; participated in marches and actions to end the era of fossil fuels; held strategy sessions with frontline leaders and colleagues in preparation for international forums; accelerated the movement to implement Rights of Nature and Indigenous Rights globally; contributed to the collective movement for climate justice; and announced the WECAN 2025 Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: On the Path to COP30 and Beyond. Read WECAN's report back and analysis from Climate Week here.

Advocacy at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16

From October 19 - 27, the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) participated in the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Cali, Colombia. WECAN was honored to advocate with a distinguished delegation of frontline and Indigenous women demanding world governments take significant and transformative action for biodiversity protection, which is also essential for addressing the worsening climate crisis. As part of our advocacy at COP16, WECAN presented policy interventions, on-the-ground biodiversity protection programs, reforestation projects, climate justice programs, and system change frameworks. We highlighted the root causes of interconnected crises and advocated for just solutions that foster a healthy and equitable world.


In addition to participation in and organizing many CBD COP16 interventions and strategy meetings, WECAN coordinated events for policy interventions and to uplift the solutions and strategies of global women leaders. We spoke out against biodiversity credits, corporate influence, false solutions, colonization, Indigenous rights violations, and harms to biodiversity and frontline communities due to government policies and financial institutions. We also advocated for implementing solutions with a rights-based approach, Indigenous rights, the Rights of Nature, defending land defenders and supporting the Escazu Agreement, fossil fuel phaseout, durable biodiversity protection, the nexus of biodiversity and climate justice, forest protection and reforestation, and the advancement of gender-responsive implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Learn more by reading our full report back at the button below!

Read the WECAN CBD COP16 Report Back Here!

Advocacy at the UNFCCC COP29 Baku

In November, WECAN participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. 


To demonstrate alignment with the 1.5°C target and the systemic changes that are at the core of the climate justice movement, WECAN organized and facilitated a Frontline Women's Delegation to COP29; advocated in the negotiations with the Women and Gender Constituency; organized, co-hosted, and participated in 10 events; engaged in actions daily during the negotiations; held high-level press conferences; produced and delivered policy briefs to elected leaders; advocated in sessions with US Congressional staff; and more!


Along with global allies and partners, we advocated for: robust and transformative climate finance commitments for the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG); government commitments to loss and damage; an equitable fair, fast, and funded fossil fuel phaseout; gender-responsive and gender just climate policies; Indigenous rights and sovereignty as a climate solution; just transition and feminist and beyond growth economic models; rights of nature; forest and biodiversity protection, and defending land defenders; denouncing carbon offsets and false solutions; holding corporations and financial institutions accountable; progressive NDCs; and international multilateral cooperation.


Please click the button below for our in-depth analysis and coverage of COP29 outcomes and WECAN advocacy efforts, events, actions, policy briefs, and media coverage.

Read the WECAN COP29 Report Back Here!

December Media Highlights

Please enjoy several recent articles featuring WECAN down below. To see a selection of media hits from the full year, please visit our website.

“We don't claim that we are the owners of this place. We’re a part of the whole ecosystem.” Wanda Culp, Tlingit, WECAN Tongass Coordinator


“One of the key solutions to the climate crisis [and] the biodiversity crisis is Indigenous peoples, Indigenous rights, period.” Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director


For over 5 years Indigenous leaders, local communities and businesses and environmental groups, including WECAN, fought hard to restore the Roadless Rule in the Tongass Forest, one of the largest remaining intact temperate rainforests in the world, and home to the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Peoples.


And, we won!!


The Roadless Rule prohibits road construction and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of roadless areas in forests throughout the United States. However, since the rule’s inception in 2001, the Alaska state government has pushed to remove these protections for the Tongass. As we prepare for the incoming Administration, we remain committed to protecting sacred forest ecosystems from further destruction and supporting the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous communities who have been stewarding these forests for generations. 


Learn more in this article about our victory to protect the Tongass.


WECAN was honored to organize and facilitate the Tongass Indigenous Women’s Delegations as part of our work to protect the Tongass. We give gratitude to the amazing Indigenous women leaders who are essential to protecting the forest. Thank you to Nicole Javorsky for covering this vital campaign victory! Please learn more about WECAN’s Women for Forests Program in the Tongass on our website here: https://www.wecaninternational.org/take-action-tongass

“Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up, the more we take action and do the work, the more hope we generate. If people are sitting back and thinking this is hopeless or too big, we're writing the future of it failing. Instead of writing the future that we want."


"Osprey Orielle Lake is harnessing the power of our planet’s hidden healers. As founder of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), she's proving that empowering women isn't just about equality—it's our best shot at solving the climate crisis." Thank you to The Climate Tribe for covering the work of WECAN in this article! 


Read the full article here.

Please consider supporting WECAN as we continue to uplift the leadership and solutions of women worldwide fighting for climate justice and the defense of the planet for current and future generations.

Donate to WECAN Today!
For the Earth and All Generations,

Women's Earth and Climate Action Network
(WECAN) International Team
S T A Y C O N N E C T E D
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