Feminism in Latin America: rituals, solidarity and the link with the environment
By
Tamara Mohr
At the end of November EFLAC, the most important gathering of feminists from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, took place in a park just outside Montevideo, Uruguay. Within Both ENDS, I coordinate the GAGGA programme, in which we promote cooperation between the environmental and women's movements. Our partners Mama Cash and FCAM persuaded me that this meeting was the perfect opportunity to find out whether and, if so, in which way women are interested in the environment. They had prepared me for a very intensive meeting, at which the whole spectrum of emotions would be aroused and expressed. I had no idea what to expect and set off with a completely open mind. And so it came that I spent four days among more than 2,000 women from across the continent.
What I noticed immediately was the diversity. A wonderful mix of women, indigenous, coloured and white, lesbian, transgender and hetero, disabled and non-disabled, young and old. There were expressive, bright colours everywhere: multicoloured hair and clothing, and shirts with texts and symbols, were the rule rather than the exception.
The link between environmental activism and feminism
Many of the issues that concern women seem to have nothing to do with the environment, but nothing is further from the truth. Legalising abortion, combatting sexual violence, threats against women and the murder of women, prove to have more to do with environmental problems than you would think at first glance. And yet, this was the first time that 'cuerpo y territorio' (body and land) had been on the agenda at EFLAC.
What was interesting was that there were so many women who fight to preserve the environment who have never thought of themselves as feminists, and ardent feminists who discovered for the first time that they are also environmental activists because they fight for access to land, clean water and healthy food. For them, all these issues are part of the same package.

"For the defense of our bodies and territory"
The sessions on environmental and women's rights were therefore well attended, especially by women – many of them indigenous – who fight against mining and large-scale agricultural and infrastructure projects. It is the women who feel the consequences of these activities first. A lack of food and clean water means serious problems for their families, for which the women are responsible. That is why women are the first to defend their communities and are found at the front of demonstrations, because the police or the army are less likely to use violence against them. But when it comes to negotiating, it is only men sitting around the table.
In the meantime, the situation in many Latin American countries is rapidly deteriorating. Critical organisations are unable to do their work, demonstrations are banned, and protest is branded as 'terrorism'. Violence against women, intimidation, disappearances, and murder of women are on the increase. At the meeting, much attention was consequently paid to female human rights defenders (Defensoras) and how they can better protect themselves.
Strong women and solidarity
Despite all this, it is unimaginable how strong and militant these women are. Take, for example, the woman from Guatemala who is fighting water pollution by large-scale agriculture. Since a few years ago, her community has been surrounded by sugarcane and palm oil plantations. The river is polluted, their access to clean water has been blocked, and their land taken way from them. And all without the community being consulted.
This Guatemalan woman who fights for her rights is not welcomed with open arms. Not by the large producers, who are often supported by the government and the army, but also not by her husband or a large part of her own community. She is intimidated and threatened, has had to go into hiding on several occasions, and is completely dependent on a social network of people who take her in and protect her. If she were to be raped and become pregnant, which is no exception, an abortion would be illegal.
Sometimes, the resistance from their own community is more difficult to deal with than the anonymous intimidation. Women are supposed to care for their families and should not express their opinions in public. One of the women from Bolivia told us that her own husband cut her traditional skirt short so that she could not attend public meetings.
In this context, it is so important that women work together. Collectively, they are stronger: the environmental and the feminist movements, urban en rural, young and adult, indigenous, coloured and/or lesbian.
And don't forget the men. The few men who were at EFLAC were there to run the barbecue or take care of the technical facilities. At the end of a meeting with GAGGA partners, one of the women said that it was important to see how we could also involve men. That sounds familiar to me. In the environmental movement, we often wonder at the end of a project "How can we incorporate gender here?"

"Women Human Rights Defenders are not alone"
Strength from creativity
Although the discussions were serious and really in-depth, not an hour passed without attention being devoted to rituals, singing, dancing, drumming, etc. Meetings often started with a ritual. One, for example, started with photographs of different positions of resistance, which we all had to copy. That was followed by examples of slogans called out during demonstrations and marches in various countries. Everyone could contribute and we joined in enthusiastically. It was a little strange for me, but for most women it was the order of the day and was an excellent way of getting rid of tensions. Their power was clearly visible during these rituals.
I became convinced of the importance of meetings like this. It is an opportunity for thousands of women to feel that they are not alone in their seemingly hopeless struggle against power, capitalism, neoliberalism and machismo. It is also a place where they can be themselves and feel safe for a while. To talk about what they have been going through to others who understand, have had similar experiences themselves and are interested in their stories, without being threatened or discriminated against. To be able to laugh, cry, scream and sing. To be free for a while.
I learned a lot and had much to think about, but I have come to the conclusion that, with GAGGA, we are going in the right direction. Helping to strengthen local women, who are fighting for a clean environment. Working with women to develop proposals that are based on their own needs and knowledge. Entering into alliances between the environmental and women's movements and making women's hard struggle visible. It was moving listening to these women's stories at first hand, but it also made me proud of the work we do.
Read more about this subject
-
Dossier /Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA)
GAGGA rallies the collective power of the women's rights and environmental justice movements to realize a world where women can and do access their rights to water, food security, and a clean, healthy and safe environment.
-
Environmentally Just Practice /Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)
About one in every six people, particularly women, directly rely on forests for their lives and livelihoods, especially for food. This shows how important non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and forests are to ensure community resilience. Not only as a source of food, water and income, but also because of their cultural and spiritual meaning.
-
News / 5 November 2025Interview: Both ENDS at COP30 for Climate Justice and Systemic Change
Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions and the mechanisms that facilitate this, including those for farmer-led restoration. Furthermore, the organisation participates to ensure the crucial connection between the climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.
Learn more about the Both ENDS team at COP30 below, and find all the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.
-
News / 5 November 2025Overview of Both ENDS events at COP30 in Belem, Brazil
Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions, and for the mechanisms that make these possible, including those supporting farmer-led restoration. The organisation also engages to highlight the crucial connection between climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.
Below is an overview of the Both ENDS team at COP30 and a detailed look at the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.
-
News / 16 July 2025Case Study: Women Advocating for Gender and Climate Justice in Burkina Faso
The Women Environmental Programme Burkina Faso (WEP BF or WEP) is leading the way in gender-just climate solutions, putting the power of advocacy directly into the hands of women farmers. “In Burkina Faso, women play a crucial role in food production and natural resource management, yet they continue to face systemic barriers to land ownership,” explains a WEP team member. “Despite legal provisions, deeply ingrained customary norms remain dominant, restricting women’s access to land as user rights only, which need to be mediated through male family members.” Without secure access to land, they face significant obstacles in sustaining their agricultural activities, improving local food security, and fully participating in their communities.
-
News / 16 July 2025Case Study: Fighting Environmental Transphobia and Social Fragmentation in Brazil
In the face of environmental transphobia, a form of discrimination where trans and gender-diverse communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation,excluded from climate policies, and often met with stigma and exclusion by environmental justice movements, Grupo Orgulho, Liberdade e Dignidade (GOLD) has emerged as a bold and visionary force for change in Brazil. At the heart of this movement is Débora Sabará ,GOLD’s leader, a travesti activist who has fought tirelessly to place the perspectives andneeds of LGBTIQAPN+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Asexual, Pansexual, Nonbinary and other identities), Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities at the center of environmental justice conversations.
-
News / 16 July 2025Case Study: Community Paralegals Defending Land Rights from Extractive Industries and Land Grabs in Mozambique
Across Mozambique, land represents more than just territory. It is the cornerstone of livelihoods, culture, and autonomy for many communities. When companies arrive, claiming large portions for mining, oil exploration or agribusiness, residents face significant challenges in asserting their rights. Mozambique’s Land Law (1997) grants communities user rights, ensuring they can occupy and use land for subsistence and cultural purposes.
-
News / 16 July 2025The challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and conflict
This FCDO-supported project, part of the GAGGA programme, brought together 6 women-led community-based organisations from around the world to explore how they navigate the combined challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and conflict. Through a Feminist Participatory Action Research approach, the organisations documented strategies ranging from land rights advocacy to climate-resilient agriculture, highlighting how extractive industries, militarisation, and patriarchal systems drive exclusion and insecurity. Their findings are now informing donors and policymakers on the need to support grassroots women’s leadership. In the following interview, the project lead shares more about the research, key insights, and its broader impact.
-
Blog / 2 July 2025Women at the frontlines of climate action: local power for global change
By Tamara MohrLast week, GAGGA, the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, with Both ENDS as one of the Alliance members, together with FCAM and Mama Cash, organised its Global Meeting in Indonesia. The goal of this meeting was to recognise, celebrate and look ahead at cross-movement and cross-regional connections, to strengthen the collective power of gender, climate and environmental justice movements.
-
Event / 12 March 2025, 09:30 - 11:15The Conflict, Gender, Climate Nexus: Localized understanding and policy recommendations
Across the world, women lead efforts to advance peace, gender and environmental justice. From the Philippines to Mozambique, Burkina Faso to Brazil, they face a deadly convergence of violence, environmental destruction, and extractivist land grabs. As corporate interests, state forces or other armed actors expand into their territories, entire communities are displaced, criminalized, or subjected to violent repression. At the same time, worsening climate disasters further erode their means of survival, exacerbating food insecurity, water shortages, forced migration and gendered inequalities.
-
Dossier /Small Grants Big Impacts
Small grants funds offer an effective, alternative way to channel big money from large donors and funds to local groups and organisations that are striving for a sustainable and just society everywhere around the world.
-
Event / 15 November 2024, 12:50 - 16:45#BothENDSatCOP29 Side Events
Both ENDS’ participation at COP29 includes three critical side events that will highlight gender-just climate finance, locally-led adaptation, and multilateral approaches to a just energy transition and industrialisation in the Global South.
-
News / 1 November 2024Both ENDS at COP29: advocating for gender just climate finance
On November 11th, the 29th UN Climate Conference will start in Baku, Azerbaijan. Just like previous years, Both ENDS will be there to advocate for local access to climate finance, and to support our partner organisations in their advocacy work. How do we do that, and what are our hopes (and worries) about this 29th edition of the UNFCCC COP? We asked Marius Troost, who will be joining COP29 together with Daan Robben.
-
External link / 2 July 2024 -
Blog / 4 April 2024If we women don't speak up, no one will speak for us
By Maaike Hendriks and Tamara MohrThis February women environmental defenders from around the world met each other in Indonesia. All these defenders face structural violence. GAGGA, the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, supports these women. This meeting in Indonesia provided a unique space for women, trans-, intersex and non-binary people who are often the subject of conversation but rarely have the opportunity to engage with each other and meet other defenders from around the world. For they are all amazingly knowledgeable, strong and resilient women whom we should take seriously.
-
Event / 12 March 2024From Policy To Practice: Funding Locally-led Gender-Just Climate Action
A discussion on the intersection of climate and gender justice - specifically on financing mechanisms for gender-just climate solutions!
-
Blog / 26 February 2024Brumadinho: 5 years without justice
On January 25, 2019, Brumadinho region witnessed a tragedy-crime that claimed 272 lives, including two unborn children, affectionately called "Jewels" in response to VALE’s declarations that the company, as a Brazilian jewel, should not be condemned for an accident. However, the investigations about B1 dam collapse, at Córrego do Feijão Mine, showed that the scar left on the community and environment was not an accident, but VALE negligence.
-
News / 29 November 2023An Urgent Call for Gender Just Climate Finance
The climate crisis continues to escalate, and the urgency for meaningful solutions has never been more palpable. As world leaders gather for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP28), it's crucial that grassroots voices are not just heard but leading on the solutions we craft. We must recognise the climate leadership of the self-led groups of women, girls, trans and intersex within the Indigenous, Afrodescendant and rural communities that have been structurally excluded and silenced as the world grapples with climate change.
-
Publication / 16 October 2023
-
External link / 24 June 2023Growing a global network of Analog Forestry promoters
The International Analog Forestry Network (IAFN), a long-term partner of Both ENDS, is inspiring and supporting women's leadership in their communities to restore local ecosystems using natural forests as a model. IAFN successfully built a network of local Analog Forestry Promoters during the pandemic years and consolidated the progress made over the previous two years in 2022.
