This collection highlights just a few stories about our work in this area. To find out more about how AJWS supports organizations that work to defend the natural resource rights of communities, visit our Land, Water and Climate Justice issue page.
Land, Water and Climate Justice: Story Collection
We aid communities and movements organizing to protect the land, water and natural resources that people depend on for their survival.
Love born in the protests: The story of Pramote and Tai
AJWS grantee Isaan Land Reform Network (ILRN) is the epitome of ‘grassroots’ — a coalition…
The anti-dam movement goes global
While hydroelectric dams can seem like a clean and renewable energy source, they cause greenhouse…
How a dozen Thai women fought the coal industry — and saved their tropical home
Guardians of Zoka: Inside the Fight to Save a Ugandan Rainforest
In the Adjumani district of Northern Uganda stands the Zoka Forest Reserve, one of the…
Legal Aid, Spiritual Healing: Meet Guatemala’s Indigenous Law Firm
The Guatemala City office of AJWS grantee Bufete para Pueblas Indígenas (BPI), or the Indigenous…
In Thailand, Indigenous fishing communities prepare their return to sacred waters
For decades, Aon Changnam has dreamt of the open waters of his childhood. Aon was…
For Indigenous Guatemalans, Mother Earth is not just a concept
Isabel Chen Ical and her husband, Agustín Chocooj, live with their two children and members…
Kenyan court shuts down proposed coal plant — a win for environmental justice!
Amidst so many devastating headlines around the world, I’m writing from Nairobi about an important…
Nourishing stories for World Food Day
Today marks World Food Day, when people across the globe celebrate the foods that are…
Kenya’s Indigenous Women’s Council celebrates its first decade
Paradise is all around us: Indigenous Peoples’ fight for clean water in Guatemala
Advocating for human rights, while responding to natural disasters in Haiti
In Haiti, the struggles of the capital, Port-au-Prince, radiate outwards. Though the city is the…
A victory for villagers in Thailand, years in the making
I am so happy to write you today with exciting news from Thailand. Just last…
Inspiration from Kenya on World Indigenous Peoples Day
This week, leading up to World Day for Indigenous Peoples, representatives from 14 AJWS partner…
Indigenous Kenyan activists successfully fend off evictions from their ancestral lands
The Embobut forest in Kenya is misty during the rainy season, filled with fresh, sweet…
Women to the front: Gender equality in the fight for Indigenous land in Guatemala
For nearly two decades, AJWS grantee the Association of Communities for the Development, Defense of…
What “accompaniment” really means: A letter from our climate justice expert in Kenya
For more than a decade, I have been working in Kenya as one of AJWS’s…
A win for Indigenous rights in Mexico with a major constitutional reform
When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, there were many different groups living on…
The long, slow march for justice after a genocide in Guatemala
Suffer Together, Celebrate Together: How Farmers Fight for Survival in Thailand
Girls and Young Women Take the Lead on Climate Action in Rural Kenya
Ten-year old Magret lives in coastal Kenya, a rural region currently devastated by drought and…
“That’s not the world I want to live in”: Slow and steady, El Salvador’s climate monitors take action
Lucy Medina Serrano grew up with nine siblings in El Castaño, a tiny village along…
What it means to fight for Indigenous people’s rights in Kenya
This letter was written by Loolasho, a coordinator at AJWS grantee partner Kenya Indigneous Youth…
“Journalist, Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer”: Planting the seeds of possibility for girls in India
AJWS Grantee UNIR Fights Exploitative Gold Mining in Haiti by Building Bridges across Latin America
After a brutal civil war, a nation of organic farmers is growing in El Salvador
On the edge of a field of banana trees outside the village of Linares, deep…
A national movement against fossil fuels ignites across Kenya
When a massive power company proposed a coal-fired power plant to accompany a damaging new…
After fleeing South Sudan, refugees begin again in Uganda — with the help of RICE West Nile
After Keji lost her parents to the violent, ongoing conflict in South Sudan, she and…
Supporting a persecuted Sri Lankan community through crisis after crisis
The Sri Lankan economic crisis that began in 2019 was so severe that, at one…
Everything we have comes from this land: How an Indigenous Kenyan community is fighting for their future
It’s a relentlessly sunny day in Isiolo County, Kenya, and a few hundred villagers are…
Village vs. Coal Mine: Defending a sacred forest in Thailand
In the verdant, mountainous Omkoi district of Thailand, the Indigenous Karen community is gripped in…
During Kenya’s Longest Drought in Living Memory, A Lifeline for Struggling Families
Mohamad Mohamud lives in Garissa County — a remote, arid region of Kenya that spans…
Unity is Our Strength: Inside Kenya’s Growing Movement of Indigenous Leaders
Myriad challenges plague Kenya’s Indigenous communities. The effects of climate change have hit them hard.
Activists Up Close: Meet Misael, a Water Defender in Mexico
Misael was born into a family of Indigenous farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico — his connection…
Shuttering a Major Corporate Project in Mexico, ProDESC Scores a Victory for Indigenous Communities
After a five-year struggle, AJWS grantee Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ProDESC) secured a…
To end global hunger, we need climate justice
Every day, I hear from grantees about the increasing challenges of the climate crisis —…
A 13-year legal battle culminates in an historic victory for the Ogiek People
“Our food is in the forest. Our medicine is in the forest. The forest takes…
Creating their own path: building a gender-equal family and a more just world
In the bustling metropolis of Bangalore, India—home to over 13 million people and known as…
A Global Hunger Emergency
Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine as they continue to endure unspeakable suffering…
I saw COP26 fail firsthand—here’s what we need for climate justice
Late last year, I flew from my home in Uganda to Scotland to attend the…
Remembering Carmen Santiago Alonso: Advocate for Indigenous Rights and Mother Earth
Medicine, Tents, Tarps and Seeds: How Activists Took Action to Save Lives After Haiti’s Earthquake
At 8:30 a.m. on August 14, 2021, a massive, 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti,…
A Year After Dual Disasters Hit Guatemala, Communities on the Road to Repair
In early November 2020, Hurricane Eta tore through Guatemala’s Caribbean coast and on to the north-central region of Ixcán,…