By The below 8 grants distributed over the last few months through RAN’s Protect-an-Acre program and through our role as an advisor to Global Greengrant Fund support frontline community efforts to defend their land and rights in forest regions in Africa, South America and Canada and at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen.
Protect-an-Acre
La Fundacion de Proteccion Ambiental Waira Samay Yawayry
$3,000 to support the Kichwa community of Rucullacta’s campaign to stop oil exploration on their territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon, through workshops to raise awareness, legal actions and non violent direct action.
Traditional U’wa Authority
$2,500 to support a grassroots mobilization of U’wa community members in defense of their territory in the cloud forests of northeastern Colombia against imminent gas extraction activities, also facilitating a delegation of civil society allies, civilian government officials, and international media.
Read the press release.
Rainforest Action Network Ghana
$3,000 to support a project to build the capacity of Pokuase communities in southern Ghana to help protect the imperiled Gua Koo Forest Reserve, 50 acres of intact forest that is part of a larger forest ecosystem in the region.
Global Greengrants Fund
Indigenous Environmental Network
$5,000 to support an Indigenous delegation to Copenhagen for the UN COP 15 climate negotiations to strategically and forcefully ensure that the rights and perspectives of Indigenous peoples on climate change are reflected in the eventual climate agreement.
See video of IEN members’ participation in Copenhagen (scroll down the page).
Defenders of the Land
$4,000 to support the 2nd annual Defenders of the Land gathering to forge a new Canadian First Nations network to build a movement for self-determination and control of traditional lands and resources.
Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia
$5,000 to support Secoya and Cofan communities to help address immediate health needs brought about by pollution caused by Chevron in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Fundacion Shiwiar Sin Fronteras
$3,000 to support the Shiwiar-led Ikiam Expedition ecotourism project, which seeks to raise funds and increase international awareness towards the goal of legalizing an additional 100,000 hectares of traditional territory, while generating hope and self-reliance.
Learn more about the project.
Green Concern for Development
$3,000 to mobilize 7 communities in opposition to a Cameroun-based palm oil company’s plan to develop plantations on the Bakassi Peninsula, recently transferred from Nigerian to Cameroon control after a UN-brokered agreement, that would deforest 3,000 hectares of land occupied by Indigenous peoples and negatively impact mangroves critical to the local fishing economy.