“I feel that the Continental School, and maybe other schools that have been carried out across the continent, are going to empower women, especially peasant women, who do a lot.” This was a reflection by Susan Owiti about the initiatives conducted by peasant women who have, in 2024, held for the first time a coordinated series of Continental Schools of…
The United Nations Civil Society Conference, taking place this Wednesday and Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, ahead of the Summit of the Future to be held in September in New York (United States), ‘seeks to reinstate a corporate-driven agenda rejected by States and social organisations in the Summit process.’ ‘It is a crude attempt by the Office of the Secretary General…
More than 3000 people from 26 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean gathered in the city of Foz de Iguazú, just a few steps from the triple border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, to participate in the Conference for the Integration of the Peoples. From 22-23 February, organisations and grassroots movements of the region: peasants, trade unions, students, feminists,…
What is the relationship between climate change and agrarian struggles? As world leaders, and fossil fuel lobbyists, convene for climate negotiations at COP28 (the Conference of the Parties) in Dubai, we talk with Kirtana Chandrasekaran from Friends of the Earth International (India/Scotland) and Emilinah Namaganda of Utrecht University (Uganda/Netherlands) about their work on the political economy of global climate responses.…
June 30th marks the full circle of the first year under Philippine president Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., son of previously deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Philippines is both a globally critical hotspot of biodiversity and natural resources, and a historic beacon of democracy and people power in Asia. But the environmental and human rights situation has deteriorated over the…
The Philippines has 421 principal rivers spread across 119 proclaimed watersheds. Aside from providing water to drink for 110 million Filipinos, these are also the source of irrigation for almost a million hectares of agricultural lands across the nation, and a significant source of electricity, comprising 10% of the current power mix. But the Philippine government’s emphasis on big dam…
In a context where scientists state that the natural world is in a dire situation and that “human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before,” the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is taking place in Montreal, Canada, from 7-19 December. There, governments will seek to agree…
30 years after the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 27th Conference of the Parties to this Convention opened on Sunday, to negotiate potential solutions to the climate crisis. Better known as the COP27, this year’s event is held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. Friends of the Earth International, the world’s largest grassroots…
Starting on Monday 10 October through to Thursday, the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) will hold its 50th session, in Rome, Italy. This year, it faces the challenge of the third massive hunger crisis to hit the world in the past 15 years. But, will it be able to put in motion the structural changes needed to…
Agrcommodities have been ravaging forests across Malaysia and East Asia for decades. Since the 1990s, monoculture plantations have replaced logging, yet they are no less destructive on the environment or communities. “You can see the movement of the transnational logging industry first in the Philippines, then after the forest is gone, Thailand and then Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.…
