The Colombian environmental and peace activist has played a key role in establishing a protected area in the Amazon, providing small farmers with access to agricultural land and offering them an alternative to the war on drugs and violence, at great personal risk. Jani Silva was born in the heart of the Amazon. From birth,…

The campaign to safeguard the Vjosa River from a surge in hydropower dam projects led to its historic designation as the Vjosa Wild River National Park by the Albanian government in March 2023. The new national park is both Albania and Europe’s first to preserve a wild river. Often called “the Blue Heart of Europe,”…

Nigerian ecofeminist Adenike Titilope Oladosu is the founder of   I Lead Climate Action, an initiative aimed at empowering women and youth to combat climate change. Furthermore, she provides expertise on sustainable agriculture in areas where desertification directly impacts food security. We talked with her. She has represented Nigerian youth at numerous international conferences. She participated…

He helped lead a sophisticated, global campaign to prevent the construction of Fonsalía Port, a massive recreational boat and ferry terminal that threatened a biodiverse 170,000-acre marine protected area in the Canary Islands, Spain. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory in the Atlantic Ocean. Its southwestern waters are home to…

The river is sacred to the Kukama people, who believe that their ancestors reside on the river floor.  They are ready to protect the Marañón River.  They won the case in court. For the first time in the country’s history, a river was granted legal personhood, with the right to be free-flowing and free of…

She played a key role in a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia, resulting in the return of 6,000 tons of illegally exported household waste to Italy, its country of origin, in February 2022. In 2020, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated that wealthy nations illegally…

Determined to protect his homeland from mining, Batmunkh Luvsandash’s activism resulted in the creation of a 66,000-acre protected area in Dornogovi province in April 2022, abutting tens of thousands of acres already protected by Batmunkh and allies. Mongolia is a large and sparsely populated nation – with numerous nomadic and semi-nomadic communities – whose economy…

“We want to create a federation of international journalistic organisations that collaborate in this effort, starting from the global South,” says Filipino journalist and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa. Sixty-one years old, a former investigative television reporter for CNN from Southeast Asia, since 2011 she has been the soul of Rappler, a Philippine…

“Let’s stop the emissions of false and irresponsible promises, let’s put an end to the pollution of empty words and fight for a livable future and present.” Txai Suruí is 28 years old. She comes from a well-known and influential family of activists: her father is Chief Almir Suruí, who grew up in the Brazilian…

A recent morning, a group of refugees, mostly men and women from Sudan and Syria, filled the waiting room of a centre run by the Rouh Initiative in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in northern Egypt. By midday, around 60 patients with various medical needs have been seen. It is another busy day for 31-year-old…

In Burkina Faso, the ‘Mother of the Sahel’ brings education and hope to forcibly displaced children. As conflict forced thousands of children to flee to the safety of her hometown, Maimouna Ba rallied the community to provide support and education. Born and raised in Dori, in the far northeast of Burkina Faso, Maimouna Ba was…

“What we would like to achieve when we talk about peace. Peace means self-determination. Peace means biological conservation. Peace means revitalization of our culture and Indigenous knowledge: our way of life.”  Environmental activist Paul Sein Twa explains to us. Paul Sein Twa, a Karen environmental activist and executive director of the Karen Environmental and Social…