As we launch into 2019, here at Global Greengrants Fund we are taking a minute to look back before we look into the future.
Together, with our global network, we have built one of the most effective grassroots movements to eradicate environmental harm and social injustice. In recognition of 25 years of grantmaking and support for frontline defenders worldwide, here are 25 hard-fought wins celebrated by our grantees:
Africa
- Nigeria: Shell agreed to pay $84 million in reparations for two oil spills that devastated land, water, and health in the Niger Delta community of Bodo.
- Uganda: A group of women brought clean drinking water to their community by constructing bio-sand filters – which decreased instances of children’s disease and school absenteeism by nearly two thirds.
- South Africa: Thanks in part to testimonies from local activists, local polluters, including the mining giant Sasol, were told that they had to comply with new air quality standards by 2015.
- Kenya: Youth activists hosted a public forum in Nairobi and led a peaceful march to bring national attention to the environmental and social issues facing Kenya’s threatened lake.
- Tanzania: When the government planned to make way for a big game luxury hunting and safari company on ancestral Maasai land, local grassroots women organized. They celebrated when the Prime Minster announced that the tens of thousands of villagers would get to keep their land.
Asia
- Philippines: A group in Manila Bay worked to protect the last remaining mangrove forests by hosting clean up events and educating kids and communities about the importance of mangrove ecosystems.
- Myanmar: Six journalists traveled from Myanmar to Vietnam to visit areas affected by upstream dams, and gathered information on the impacts to water quality, fisheries, and wetlands to present to policymakers in Myanmar.
- India: A retired schoolteacher collected seeds from organic farms all over India and created a seed bank for local farmers to use. He also spoke with students at local schools about the importance of conservation and organic farming.
- Indonesia: Mama Aleta and over 200 activists peacefully protested a large mining project by sitting at the mine’s entrance weaving traditional cloth. After more than a decade of struggle and protest, their efforts helped push out the mining companies entirely.
- Malaysia: On the Island of Kalapaun, locals used funding to restore their endangered coral reef ecosystem, purchase and install Go Pro cameras to monitor traps used to catch sharks, and create a video to build support from the government for shark and coral reef protection in the area.
- Mongolia: A group of camel herders in the Gobi desert led efforts resulting in a landmark agreement with the operators of one of the world’s largest copper mines, protecting their way of life, their environment, their health, and their animals.
- Borneo: Indigenous communities who peacefully protested a mega-dam project on the Baram River celebrated their efforts when plans to build the dam were scrapped.
Latin America
- Chile: A group of activists created a documentary about the socio-environmental conflicts around extractive industries in the dunes and wetlands of Putú. Later that year, they learned that the wetlands were officially designated a protected nature sanctuary.
- Honduras: After a hurricane devastated the Moskitia coast of Central America, a group of subsistence farmers created three seed banks, building resilience against drought, floods, and other future environmental hazards.
- Peru: In La Oroya, one of the world’s most contaminated cities, the Peruvian government fined the U.S. based company, Doe Run, $234,000 for failing to clean up toxins from a poly-metallic smelter operating in the town.
- Ecuador: A national referendum was passed limiting oil development in Yasuni National Park – one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. This was largely the result of pressure from indigenous activists and civil society groups.
- Chile: For eight years, Chileans fought against a plan to build five dams in the Aysén region of Patagonia. In June of 2014 the government scrapped the project: the biggest environmental victory Chile has ever seen.
- Ecuador: When the Ecuadorian government allowed a foreign company to begin prospecting lands near the Indigenous Sarayaku community for oil, the community took action and turned to international law. Their efforts paid off when the Inter-American Court on Human Rights ruled that the government had violated the community’s right to free, prior, and informed consent.
- Colombia: The Colombian government announced it would stop fumigating coca plantations and subjecting rural Colombian communities to toxic glyphosate.
- Guatemala: For four years, villagers in La Puya maintained a 24/7 peaceful blockade to prevent the construction of a large-scale gold mine that would contaminate their land and water. As a result, the Guatemalan Supreme Court unanimously suspended the license for U.S-based Kappes Cassiday & Associates to build the El Tambor mine.
Northern Hemisphere
- Canada: The Canadian Court of Appeal overturned the approval of the highly controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline, siding unanimously with indigenous groups who have been fighting the project for years.
- Goldman Environmental Prize: 65 Global Greengrants Fund grantees and affiliates have been awarded the highly prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize to date, calling international attention to the incredible work these activists are doing worldwide to protect their ways of life and the environment.
- Poland: The Polish government illegally tripled logging limits in the Białowieża Puszcza – Europe’s last remaining old growth forest. Grassroots activists had reason to celebrate when the EU Court of Justice ruled that the increased logging was in violation of EU law, protecting the forest.
- United States: A group of Indigenous youth in Alaska, whose community voted to relocate to escape rising sea levels, created a video to demonstrate the impact of climate change on their town.
Pacific Islands
- Vanuatu: Women created a strategy to serve their community as resource monitors, safeguarding their natural resources and measuring the impact of climate change on their island.
For even more powerful success stories, click here.
There is still much to be done. Now more than ever, we must continue to support activists around the world who are addressing environmental issues that affect their lives, and ours.
The work is far from over, and we look forward to keeping the momentum going. To offer your support, make a donation today.