Dear friends,
With many of you still in lockdown and experiencing significant economic, emotional and health-related challenges, we’d like to reassert our message of solidarity to our members and allies. We wish you good health and hope that you are able to access the support you and your families and friends need in these uncertain times.
Despite the fact that many of us have been confined to our homes throughout much of the past four months, our campaigns and projects have managed to adapt to the new circumstances and continue to build momentum. During the (online) High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July 2020, our work over the past four years under the Women2030 programme culminated with the publication of two key reports. Coinciding with discussions on SDG5 on gender equality and “building back better” after COVID-19, we released a report on women’s rights in Latin America, based on gender assessments carried out by GFC member groups in five countries. This regional report fed directly into the Women2030 global report, which was published shortly afterwards during an HLPF side event and brought together the huge diversity of work and activism that has taken place under the programme.
Our climate campaign has also produced some key publications over the past few months, in particular Forest Cover 61 as part of the #OurNatureIsNotYourSolution campaign, that targeted the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) attempts to turn International Day for Biodiversity into a pro Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) greenwashing event. Soon after, the climate campaign also published a new case study with our member group FASE on climate finance for tree plantations, looking at how the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is supporting eucalyptus plantations for charcoal production in Brazil. The case study was launched ahead of a well-attended webinar that discussed our other recent climate finance investigations.
As fire season picks up again in South America with more devastating reports of the impacts of land clearance for livestock and feedstock production, our livestock campaign has launched a petition with allies Synergia Animal and Feedback calling for international development banks to stop financing the industrial livestock sector. Please help us to spread this petition far and wide! In addition, our livestock campaign held a successful webinar series on alternatives to industrial livestock production, with regional webinars in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and ending with a global webinar. A report was also published on International Day of Peasant Struggle based on the conclusions of three face-to-face dialogues on livestock that took place earlier this year and at the end of 2019.
You will also enjoy reading two more key publications, which are our 2019 Annual Report and a report on the Extractive Industries, Tourism and Infrastructure (ETI) campaign workshop that took place in Indonesia in February this year . In other ETI-related news, the campaign also hosted a webinar taking stock of recent Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) developments, and how countries globally are being affected.
We are pleased to announce that Wolfgang Kuhlmann (ARA, Germany) is our new board member for Europe and North America, and takes over from Rachel Smolker (Biofuelwatch, USA). On behalf of the whole coalition we’d like to say a big thank you to Rachel for the time and energy you have invested as a GFC board member over the past few years!
The coalition continues to grow in strength, and we welcome ten new member groups: Navrachna, India; Centro de Capacitación y Investigación de la Mujer Campesina de Tarija (CCIMCAT), Bolivia; Mulheres em Ação no Pantanal (Mupan), Brazil; Asociación Amazónicos por la Amazonía (AMPA), Peru; Karaganda Eco-center, Kazakhstan; Aleyne+, Kyrgyzstan; Green Regions, Georgia; Coordinadora Ecuatoriana de organizaciones para la Defensa de la Naturaleza y el Medio Ambiente (CEDENMA), Ecuador; Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Ottawa Valley Chapter (CPAWS-OV), Canada; and Front Commun pour la Protection de l’Environment et des Espaces Protégés (FCPEEP), DRC.
Finally, we share the sad news that our colleague Tesfaye Tola, who represented our member group MELCA in Ethiopia during GFC meetings and events in Paraguay, South Africa and Kenya, has suddenly passed away. The world has lost a passionate fighter for biodiversity and community rights. May his soul rest in peace, but may his wisdom and passion for protecting sacred sites and community conservation in Ethiopia live forever.
In solidarity,
The GFC team
We encourage all of our members to send us your news, whether it be an event, a blog, a testimony, a photo essay or your press releases. We can help to share your campaign materials!
Contact us: gfc@globalforestcoalition.org
