-Indigenous and local community women are transmitters of the ancestral wisdom that keeps the last tropical forests of Mesoamerica alive.
-The real recognition of our territorial rights must be a priority in order to conserve the lungs of the earth.
Defending our territories, reforesting, rescuing native seeds, planting with ancestral agroecology techniques, singing spiritually, mixing herbs to heal: Mesoamerican territorial women are leading processes to rescue ancestral good practices that are part of the solutions to climate change.
The leaders of the Coordinadora de Mujeres Líderes Territoriales de Mesoamérica (Mesoamerican Coordinating Committee of Territorial Women Leaders) are joining together in the First Summit of Mesoamerican Indigenous Women to discuss, reflect and create resilience strategies based on a joint climate advocacy agenda. The main result of this summit will be the construction of the first Regional Gender and Climate Change Plan, developed by indigenous and local community women in the world.
The summit will be held May 8-11 on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua and will be attended by women territorial leaders from the Guna, Emberá, Bribri, Cabécar, Miskitu and Mayangna peoples, as well as organized local communities: FEPROAH in Honduras, ACOFOP and ANOFG in Guatemala and Red MOCAF in Mexico.
Socio-environmental context
Indigenous peoples and local communities, who inhabit and care for the last forests on the planet, receive less than 1% of the so-called Green Funds and continue to be excluded from the "high-level" spaces where environmental decisions that directly affect our territories are made.
The future of humanity depends on the forests we inhabit, as they are the last sources of water and pure oxygen. The global climate crisis, which could end life on earth, is the result of centuries of invasions and destruction of our territories by large industries, who - without our free, prior and informed consent - have polluted the waters and destroyed native ecosystems. That is why today, protecting and regenerating forests is a global emergency, a task in which we must all take part.
