She is a leading voice among Brazil’s Indigenous youth. Her message is simple: Indigenous people must be involved in decision-making processes relating to the measures that must be taken to deal with environmental issues. The importance of social media. Samela is part of a lineage of women that has been forged in the fight for…

She is the leader of a cooperative of artisanal miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “Our story is also about resilience, empowerment and our fight for survival for ourselves and our families.” My story is not easy to tell. It is full of pain, one shared by countless women who work in…

The Congolese activist and jurist Yvette Mushigo is the coordinator of the Synergie des Femmes pour la Paix et la Réconciliation (SPR), a network of associations operating in Bukavu (DRC) for women to know and claim their rights. “There are many types of violence that are perpetrated against women. From discrimination in employment and sexual…

To save biodiversity, we must save human diversity. Many Indigenous languages are ‘dying out’. What is not often discussed, however, is the fact that the languages in question do not just disappear naturally. Rather, their speakers are often wiped out – by outsiders. Even today, where Indigenous people survive, their languages can still be ‘lost’.…

She shows no signs of slowing down in her long-standing fight to end the death penalty. At 84, she is writing her fourth book while directing her advocacy organization, Ministry Against the Death Penalty, in New Orleans. She spends a fair amount of time on the road as she continues to give talks, especially on…

Cop 27 is over. A first step in climate justice, but zero progress on the central issue of CO2 emissions. The principle of a new fund to respond to loss and damage suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable countries on earth in the face of climate change was introduced. But there was zero progress…

In harmony with Pope Francis’ call in Laudato Si’ to “care for our common home”, the Sisters of the Holy Cross have a long-standing commitment to ecological sustainability and systemic change across the globe. Among the Congregation’s initiatives to care for creation and God’s people is SOAR (Sisters Organizing and Advancing Recycling), a project launched…

Two projects, systems of agroforestry, are helping bring life back to the land  in Central America Rainforests are the most productive ecosystems on the planet, and yet we take the opposite approach when growing food. We slash and burn vast areas of forest to make way for cattle and monoculture crops that require billions of…

About thirty members of the Comboni Family (Lay, Secular, Religious, men and women, from Africa, America and Europe), met  from July 27 to August 3, 2022, in Belém, capital of Pará, Brazil, on the occasion of the X Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (X FOSPA) and the Comboni Meeting on Integral Ecology. Here the Letter they sent…

The yearly UN climate summit or Conference of the Parties (COP) produces international agreements that guide countries in their response to the climate crisis. At least, it should. Instead, the climate pacts so far have largely played into the already inaccessible climate discourse. High-minded rhetoric excludes the people most impacted by the climate crisis by…

In the Philippines, the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) are committing to plant 100,000 seedlings of Bamboo by 2022. With an ambitious goal for planting 1 billion bamboos by 2030, collaborating with the local churches of parishes and dioceses in the Philippines. But why Bamboo? The first reason is climate change.…

Indeed, the Pygmies have always been the caretakers of the forest, truly forest advocates. Messok Dja, an area of Congo rainforest especially rich in biodiversity, is the ancestral land of the Baka people who have managed the forest since time immemorial. The Baka are one of the many Pygmy groups living in the forest spreading…