Roots July 2024: Uniting for Forests and Forest Peoples

 

Roots Newsletter: July 2024

Dear friends, members, allies and comrades,

As we stride into the second half of the year, take a moment to reflect on the work of the past few months in our enduring mission to advocate for the conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems through defending and promoting respect for the rights, territories, traditional knowledge and sustainable livelihoods of the Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women that co-exist with them.

In May, GFC welcomed Mary Louise Malig as the coalition’s new Policy Director. Mary Lou has been connected to the Global Forest Coalition for many years and has decades of experience in forestry policy and advocacy. Under this new stewardship, GFC and its members maintain our pursuit of rights and justice for communities, women, and environmental defenders, who continue to face human rights abuses. We’ve also been busy engaging with major international policy forums, including the UNFCCC, where GFC and members were busy at the SB60 conference in Bonn in June, as well as engaging with the Convention on Biological Diversity at the SBI4 in Nairobi in May. At both events, GFC and its members continued to push for the inclusion and voices of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women and other rightsholders whose voices remain unheard from discussions and policy decisions. We were also present at the XI FOSPA (Pan-Amazon Social Forum) conference and the People’s Mobilization for Earth and Climate, in Bolivia in June, where we held important conversations with activists and leaders from Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other land-based communities on coalition building and strategising in defence of nature and the people of the Amazon rainforest.

Forest policies, including those linked to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, continue to be plagued by false solutions that perpetuate the status quo and further endanger our fragile ecosystems, trampling on the rights of forest communities and others. Rather, we must promote real solutions built on gender justice, human rights, and ecological harmony.

With key global policy events coming later in the year, including CBD COP16 in Colombia in October and UNFCCC COP 29 in Azerbaijan in November, we are already engaging with members, communities and allies as we seek to strengthen our collective actions to ensure forest policies that truly reflect the rights and aspirations of us all, and can successfully navigate the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity and ecosystem loss. Together, we are rejecting false, market-based solutions and ensuring the centrality of real solutions to these crises. 

Please make sure to review our recent work and stay connected with our united efforts. If you are not already, please email the relevant campaigns below to subscribe to our listservs and remain updated and engaged on our work under each of the following GFC Campaigns:

Unsustainable Livestock Production

Forests and Climate Change

Extractive Industries, Tourism and Infrastructure

Gender Justice and Forests

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CBD SBI4 Nairobi

ECO Issue Article: Asymmetries in Resource Mobilization: Direct Access for Frontline Communities Still Overlooked

CBD SBI 4 Side event: Will biodiversity offsets and credits help us achieve the global biodiversity targets?

CBD SBI 4 Side event: Mainstreaming, resource mobilization and policy coherence for implementation

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SB60 Bonn

The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) and member organisations were in Bonn from June 3-13 where once again, we were pushing for an end to false climate solutions and a focus on real solutions. GFC took part in several press conferences and side events and held side meetings with GFC members and allies to strategize and share information on key issues.

Press Conference: REDD+ Alert: Will the UN fold REDD+ into the Article 6 global offset scheme?

Press Conference: True International Cooperation: Moving Beyond Carbon Markets

Press Conference: Finance and the Land Sector in the UNFCCC: What are the Problems and What Needs to Change?

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Research and Reports

Annual Report: GFC Annual Report 2023

Case Study: GALAXIAS UNICAM: Agroecological shelters for positive living

Briefing paper: Who Really Benefits? How REDD+ Fails Forests and Those Who Protect Them

White Paper: The Just Transition from Industrial Animal Production to equitable, humane and sustainable food systems

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Media and Public Advocacy

Joint open letter: Halt Imports of Avocados from Mexico that Cause Deforestation

Joint open letter and citizen petition: More than 150.000 citizens and 280 organizations call on World Bank to Stop Financing Factory Farming

Webpost and Video: International Mother Earth Day 2024: An Ode to Mother Earth

Media Mention: GFC report cited in Uganda carbon offsetting investigation

Media Mention: GFC points finger at South Korea for taking advantage of climate accounting loophole to expand biomass industry

Article: A River’s Rights: Indigenous Kukama Women Lead the Way with Landmark Legal Victory

Article: ¿A quién le sirve hablar “carbonés”?

Joint Statement: We condemn the violations of the right to protest and the attacks against human rights and water defenders in the Libres-Oriental Basin who were protesting against Carroll Farms

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Engagement

UNCBD Women’s Caucus Meeting with members of Colombia’s Delegation towards CBD COP 16 

CBD Alliance Action on Resource Mobilization – “Where is the money going?”

UNCBD Women’s Caucus Policy Recommendations on Resource Mobilization

Informal Dialogue on a new programme of work and institutional arrangements on Article 8(j) and other provisions of the Convention related to Indigenous peoples and local communities

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Webinars and Side Events

Webinar: Biodiversity Offsets and Credits: False solutions to a false problem

Webinar: How Can You Stop Financing Factory Farming? Industrial Livestock Campaigning 101

UNCBD Women’s Caucus side event: Enhancing Gender Responsiveness in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)

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Meetings, Workshops, and Training

Workshop with Gender Technical Partners of the Green Livelihood Alliance (GLA) programme, in partnership with Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) – Nairobi, Kenya 

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Thank you for reading this issue of Roots and for your important work and collective solidarity. We hope you’ll stay connected with GFC’s campaigns and network of members!

In Solidarity,

The GFC Team

22 Jul, 2024
Posted in Roots, [:en]1Campaigns[:], Gender Justice and Forests, Forests and Climate Change, Extractive industries, tourism and infrastructure, [:en]3Newsletters[:], Defending Rights, Resources and publications