Guardian and Observer charity appeal 2021: support the fight for climate justice | Climate crisis
Climate justice is the theme of the Guardian and Observer’s 2021 charity appeal. We’re supporting 4 charities that fight to guard the rights and livelihoods of communities hit by excessive climate occasions attributable to the climate emergency.
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Sensible Motion
Massive change begins small is Practical Action’s method to tackling the influence of the climate emergency and environmental degradation. As its identify suggests, this UK-based charity specialises in hands-on, pragmatic methods of serving to communities adapt to the problem of maximum climate.
It really works with folks in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to develop ingenious, lasting and domestically owned options for these whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated by the climate crisis, serving to to extend resilience by climate-smart, regenerative agriculture, waste administration and entry to scrub vitality.
These options embrace introducing know-how and mobilising communities to assist native volunteers present early warning of imminent flooding; offering irrigation and tree-planting to restore harm to forest and pastureland, and serving to farmers adapt to the altering climate by supplying climate-resilient seeds and creating new practices.
Sensible Motion was established in 1966, after an article was revealed in the Observer by the radical inexperienced economist EF Schumacher (of Small Is Beautiful fame). He argued that financial growth must be primarily based round the holistic wants, abilities and assets of native communities.
“Our work stays grounded in the realities of individuals residing in poverty, who face much more challenges from the devastating impacts of climate change, though they’ve been the lowest contributors to the drawback. We support communities in order that they will thrive, slightly than simply survive. And we work with governments and companies to make sure these adjustments are sustained and scaled,” mentioned Sarah Roberts, chief govt of Sensible Motion.
Environmental Justice Basis
At the core of Environmental Justice Foundation’s mission is the perception that the climate crisis is a human rights concern, and that defending the pure world is not only a query of “high quality of life” however, for too many individuals, a matter of life and loss of life.
The UK-based charity has pioneered campaigning for climate refugees, giving voice to a few of the planet’s most weak folks, and working to safe authorized safety for communities for whom the climate crisis has destroyed their properties and livelihoods.
Its investigative movies and studies have highlighted a variety of climate injustices and prompted native coverage adjustments in areas from defending marine environments and tackling unlawful fishing, to uncovering the ruinous influence of rising world demand for soy, palm oil and beef.
“Whether or not working with native peoples to boost the alarm over damaging wildfires and unlawful logging in Brazil; empowering coastal communities to rid their waters of unlawful fishing in Liberia; or telling the tales of those that have misplaced their properties to the climate crisis in Bangladesh, our objective is the identical: we take native fights for environmental justice and make them world; reaching the centre of governments and enterprise, to drive motion for folks and planet,” mentioned Steve Trent, its chief govt.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar is one among the world’s biodiversity hotspots, famed for its pure wonders and but dealing with acute challenges. Its distinctive vegetation, animals and fungi, and the 28 million individuals who stay there, are more and more threatened by drought and wildfires, famine and deforestation, pushed by the climate crisis.
Madagascar’s plight was highlighted at the latest Cop26 climate convention in Glasgow, which heard how climate-induced famine in the south of the island had compelled folks to maneuver west and north, placing pure assets there below pressure.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew), a UK-based science and conservation charity identified for its well-known gardens in south-west London, helps sort out this. It has had a large research presence on the island for almost 40 years, and is at the forefront of initiatives there and globally to catalogue, perceive and defend biodiversity.
With many Malagasy folks depending on pure assets corresponding to rosewood, yams, rice and vanilla for their livelihoods, the Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre has been working with native communities to develop resilient agricultural techniques, restore denuded land, and defend the island’s considerable biodiversity.
“Utilizing our distinctive experience in halting biodiversity loss and defending valuable habitats in Madagascar, we’ll use funding from the Guardian and Observer appeal to support and improve the advantages of biodiversity to rural folks, by tasks deliberate and delivered in partnership with native communities,” mentioned Paul Wilkin, head of ecosystem stewardship at RBG Kew. “We consider these tasks have the potential to remodel lives while defending the nation’s valuable range.”
World Greengrants Fund UK
The method efficiently championed by Global Greengrants Fund UK is to assist folks and communities at the sharp finish of the climate crisis to search out their very own options to the challenges of maximum climate and environmental degradation.
Utilizing its share of donations to this yr’s Guardian and Observer appeal, World Greengrants Fund UK will work in collaboration with the US-based non-profit CLIMA Fund to establish and award monetary micro-grants to grassroots climate tasks throughout Africa, Asia and South America.
These will embrace tasks that develop community-led resilience to climate impacts, defend the human rights of indigenous teams, deal with climate injustice and promote environmental initiatives, together with water seize, tree-planting and the sustainable strategies of agriculture.
World Greengrants Fund UK was a accomplice in the Guardian and Observer 2019 charitable appeal, when it regranted its £250,000 share of donations to support native rainforest safety teams in the Amazon basin.
“Solutions to the climate crisis exist. They’re led by those that are most impacted by however least accountable for climate change: Indigenous peoples, ladies, youth, and rural communities. Along with our companions in the CLIMA Fund and our donors we’re supporting these forces for change to guard our shared planet and name for climate justice,” mentioned Eva Rehse, the UK govt director of World Greengrants Fund.
