Global — On the third day of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond, experts and community leaders elevated women-led initiatives to protect and restore global forests and biodiverse ecosystems.

Living forests create and maintain the cycles of air, water, and soil that sustain the Earth and our communities. Forests globally are critical for sequestering carbon, mitigating climate impacts, and are one of the best defenses against climate disasters. Yet, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that each year, 10 million hectares of forest are cut down. In 2024, Brazil specifically accounted for 42% of all tropical primary forest loss that year.

Speakers from the panels on forest protection and reforestation at the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice stressed the importance of defending remaining forests, reforesting damaged lands, and the historic and contemporary role women across the planet have played in maintaining, protecting and restoring forests.

Experts on the panels included Forest Conservationist Farwiza Farhan, who works on the island of Sumatra which is the last place on earth that is home to endangered Sumatran megafauna, tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans; Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director at Amazon Watch on the threats of increasing oil production in the Amazon;  and Neema Namadamu, Founder and Executive Director of Hero Women Rising and WECAN Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the work of women in reforesting the second largest forest in the world.

FIND RECORDING OF ASSEMBLY DAY 3

In the United States, the current Trump Administration is seeking to rollback environmental protections for national forests and public lands across the country. On June 23, the first day of the Assembly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to strip Roadless Rule protections nationwide, including from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Eliminating the Roadless Rule would remove safeguards against industrial-scale logging and roadbuilding from over 9 million undeveloped acres within the 17-million-acre forest.

Assembly speaker Yolanda Fulmer (Tlingit), Native Rights Activist and Representative for the WECAN Tongass Hub stated, “We continue to fight for our sovereignty, rights, and protection of Haa Aaní, our ancestral homelands, here in the Tongass. We are in an ongoing battle to protect our most precious resource, our Mother Earth. But for Indigenous Peoples, this isn't a new fight. It is a continuation of the struggle our elders and ancestors have carried since the moment colonization began harming the balance we have with the earth.”

Additional speakers shared their own experiences fighting deforestation by corporations and governments in forest ecosystems in different continents across the globe.

Neema Namadamu, Founder and Executive Director of Hero Women Rising, and WECAN Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo discussed the current political landscape in her country and the impact of rebel forces and government-backed mining operations, “this is killing us— violence against the land, violence against women, and violence against everything.” Neema continued on the importance of the rainforest in her community and their actions to reforest damaged lands stating, “Congo is the second-largest rainforest after the Amazon rainforest and the Congo contains 60% of all African forests. It is being said that Congo is the future solution for climate change. Since 2013, we have planted half a million trees in traditional ways. In those forests are the people, our honor, and our identity.”

Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director at Amazon Watch, highlighted her work on protecting and defending the Amazon rainforest and global climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, including the growing threat of oil production in the Amazon, stating, “No government is going to tell us or threaten us to stop demanding and advancing climate justice. We are in the midst of many, many crises. In the Amazon rainforest, the Amazon is at a tipping point of ecological collapse if we do not turn things around. We need to stand with our Indigenous allies, once again, to prevent further harm and we need to pressure the government to listen to the demands of Indigenous peoples, women, and all the people who are demanding climate justice.”

Farwiza Farhan, Forest Conservationist on speaking about working with women forest protectors in Sumatra shared, “These women are an inspiration to me and to so many. For me, the way they live their life has become a space of groundedness, a space where we all need to come back to. Being with them, learning from them, have taught me that so much of our conservation movement in the past led to a lot of human rights violations, and that needs to change. If we were to think about mitigating climate change, adapting to the changing climate and changing situation, we need to make this movement even more inclusive than it has ever been.”

Devi Aggriani (Taluk), Member of the Indigenous Taluk Kuantan community & President, Indigenous Women's Association of the Archipelago (PEREMPUAN AMAN) in Indonesia stated, “Indigenous women are crucial for rainforest protection and reforestation efforts. All of the Indigenous women right now are a part of the forefront of combatting deforestation, promoting ecological restoration, and safeguarding their community life and culture. Their work is intrinsically linked to their livelihood, cultural preservation, and the fight against development.”