Photos by: Kapyanga Women Association and Zamsof
Across forests, territories and rural communities in the Global South, women, in all their diversity, are sustaining life. They cultivate food, protect seeds, defend forests, and pass on ancestral knowledge that keeps our ecosystems and communities alive. Yet these same women continue to face systemic oppressions, violence, and exclusion from decision-making power that shape the future of their lands and livelihoods.
This International Women’s Day, the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) joins the voices of women in all their diversities—especially Indigenous, rural, peasant, and Afrodescendant women—who every day courageously defend their territories, bodies, knowledge systems, forests, and biodiversity.
Their struggles unfold in the face of mounting pressures: the expansion of colonial extractivism, land grabbing, industrial agriculture, unsustainable livestock production, large infrastructure projects, and the proliferation of false solutions to the climate crisis that deepen inequalities while threatening ecosystems.
As highlighted in “Ubuntu in Action,” a photo essay produced by GFC, Zamsof, and the Kapangya Women’s Association, women across the Global South are not only resisting these injustices—they are also building transformative solutions rooted in solidarity, collective care, and a deep relationship with nature. The philosophy of Ubuntu—“I am because we are”—reminds us that our well-being is inseparable from the well-being of our communities, our lands, and our forests.
On this 8 March, we celebrate the women who challenge patriarchal and colonial systems that perpetuate injustice, power imbalances, and environmental destruction. Their struggles show that forest protection, climate justice and biodiversity conservation cannot be achieved without gender justice and feminist emancipation.
At GFC, we reaffirm the urgent need to continue advancing women’s access to decision-making power, political participation, capacity building, and the equitable management of resources.
To honour these struggles and solutions, we spoke with Mutale Annie Katongo, a 65-year-old peasant farmer from Chionga Village in Central Zambia and a member of the Kapyanga Women’s Association. Through her work, she combines ancestral knowledge with agroecology to restore forests, strengthen food sovereignty, and nurture community resilience.
How does a regular day in your life look? What is your favourite thing to do?
A regular day in my life begins with preparing nutritious Indigenous and local food for my family. I spend a lot of time working in the fields, preserving food, and attending development meetings in the mornings. In the afternoon, many of these activities continue, and in the evening, I sit with my family to reflect on the work of the day and plan for the next one.
My favourite thing to do is to share ideas with other women so that together we can improve our livelihoods and strengthen our community.
What does nature mean to you?
As a small-scale woman farmer, I understand nature as the habitat of life, where plants, animals, water and soil interact in harmony. When these elements work together, they create a healthy environment that allows sustainable agriculture and life to flourish.
How was the Kawena Forest Reserve before restoration? How is it now?
The Kawena Forest Reserve, located in the Kapyanga Farm Block, was becoming almost a semi-desert because of the high rate of deforestation caused by charcoal production, timber cutting and hunting.
Today, the forest is recovering thanks to collective efforts from the community and some support from government interventions. We are seeing the land come back to life.
How do you address deforestation, food insecurity and the loss of Indigenous knowledge in your community?
To combat deforestation, we teach people in the community how to make and use homemade energy-efficient stoves that use briquettes. More than 800 households have already adopted these stoves.
To address food insecurity, we encourage farmers to diversify their crops and strengthen food preservation practices.
The loss of Indigenous knowledge is being addressed through agroecology. By practising agroecological farming, we are rediscovering the knowledge of our ancestors. Elderly community members play a key role in this process, sharing their wisdom during village meetings, food and seed fairs, agricultural shows, kitchen gatherings such as chilanga mulilo, traditional ceremonies, and many other community spaces.
What is needed to support women’s leadership and real solutions for forest conservation?
Women need more opportunities for capacity building and stronger support networks. We need sensitisation meetings that bring together community leaders, civil society organisations, government representatives, and other actors.
Workshops on forest conservation specifically designed for women are also very important to strengthen our knowledge and leadership.
What collective achievement makes you most proud?
I am most proud of mobilising other women to learn and practice agroecology. Many women have now become seed keepers, preserving and sharing Indigenous seeds and knowledge with the next generations.
How do you inspire younger women to engage in agroecology and collective farming?
We organise trainings and community meetings where we share the vision of agroecology—using natural resources responsibly to produce healthy food.
Through agroecology, we produce nutritious, medicinal and locally available foods that are affordable for our communities. Seeds are recycled and preserved. We also work hard to maintain healthy soils without using agrochemicals, which are harmful to health, degrade soil fertility and are very expensive. Hybrid seeds, for example, cannot normally be reused.
By showing these benefits in practice, young women begin to see that agroecology is not only possible but powerful.
What message would you like to share with women leaders and women’s groups across the Global South?
Women leaders and women’s groups in the Global South must continue strengthening our global networks. We need to stand together with one strong voice.
By working collectively, we can engage governments and civil society organisations to ensure that women gain access to decision-making spaces and to policy processes at international, regional and community levels.
Women cultivating forests, justice and collective futures
Across the Global South, women like Mutale Annie Katongo demonstrate that forest protection is not simply a technical challenge—it is a struggle for justice, dignity, emancipation and autonomy.
Their leadership shows that real solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises are already rooted in communities: in agroecology, collective care for forests, the defence of bodies and territories, and the revitalisation of Indigenous and traditional knowledge.
This International Women’s Day, the Global Forest Coalition celebrates these women and reaffirms its commitment to supporting feminist, community-led and decolonial pathways toward forest protection and climate justice.
