AJWS Grantee UNIR Fights Exploitative Gold Mining in Haiti by Building Bridges across Latin America
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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 care of us, and we protect it. The forest is our home.” Wilson Memusi, an elder of the Ogiek community in the Rift valley of Kenya, is describing his community’s deep connection to the Mau Forest—the land his ancestors have …
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Enduring Clashes and COVID-19, the Ogiek People Find Hope in the Soil
For Daniel Kobei and other leaders of his indigenous community in Kenya, May 26, 2017 marked the victory of a lifetime. Everything they’d worked tirelessly to achieve finally materialized, as they won the legal rights to their land after years of struggle. Daniel is a member of Kenya’s Ogiek people—a small community of just over …
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Investors in, poor out: junta’s land policy after 3 years in power
After three years of the junta’s ‘returning happiness’ mission, the country’s poor and ethnic minorities are still suffering from the junta’s ‘return the forest’ policy while the junta opens up more land for investors and cuts environmental regulations for big business. “In the next 10 years, the suspension of land rights will be a big …
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The High Costs of an Unjust Food System
Food sovereignty—people’s right to define their own food and agricultural systems—can be a matter of life and death.
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Saving El Salvador’s Mangroves
In El Salvador, local rural communities depend on the mangroves and the creatures that thrive in them for food and their livelihood. Mangroves also act as buffers against the threats posed by climate change by bolstering shorelines from rising seawaters and trapping carbon emissions.[1] La Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña (UNES)—an organization supported by AJWS—is protecting endangered …
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