Best greetings and welcome to our February newsletter where you will find information on recent victories, ways to take action for climate justice, and more.

Also, we are exciting to announce that WECAN is hiring for several positions, please see below for more details.

On January 25, the US Forest Service formally restored critical Roadless Rule protections to the Tongass forest in Alaska! WECAN has been deeply engaged in this fight since 2016 with Indigenous women from the Tongass, and we are celebrating this major victory.

In this win for Southeast Alaska communities, wildlife, and the climate, the U.S. Forest Service reinstated Roadless Rule protections across the Tongass rainforest in Southeast Alaska. Tribal and Indigenous leaders, recreational small-business owners, commercial fishing operators, and conservationists are celebrating the agency’s restoration of this critical safeguard, which supports the ecological, economic and cultural values of Southeastern Alaska.

The move restores federal protection — from industrial logging and damaging road-building — to over 9 million undeveloped acres in America’s largest national forest. More details available here.

Find statements from WECAN and coalition partners featured on the White House webpage here.

Please save the date and join us on Thursday, March 23 at 1pm Eastern Time for WECAN's, "Women for Climate Justice Leading Protection of Water," a formal side event for the UN Water conference.

At this official virtual UN Side Event, grassroots women leaders, water protectors, and international policy experts, will address the impacts of climate change and destructive projects on global water, and share ongoing solutions and strategies for the protection of oceans, freshwater, rivers, and aquatic ecosystems based in a climate justice framework. Confirmed speakers include:

Since it's founding, 38 years ago, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) has elected a woman as General Coordinator for the first time!

Fany Kuiru Castro, an Indigenous woman from the Uitoto people of the Colombian Amazon, was elected to lead the current board. This exciting achievement is the result of a two-decade process by COICA to uplift women's leadership in the Amazon basin and ensure fair and equal treatment and political representation that respects their right to exercise positions in the decision-making of the organization. Learn more about Fanny and COICA's work to protect women's rights here.

We are honored to work with Indigenous women leaders in the Amazon, and will continue to stand in solidarity with their work to protect the Amazon rainforest!

Please see below several actions you can take to support frontline communities across the United States to stop extractive projects that will further harm communities and accelerate the climate crisis.

Our movements continue to strengthen, just this month, we celebrated the victory to stop the Pebble Mine in Alaska! After over a decade of organizing by local tribes and Indigenous leaders, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is effectively killing the controversial Pebble mine project in Southwest Alaska. Our continued efforts to demand justice are working, so please consider supporting the ongoing fights below!

The movement to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline continues in 2023! The US Forest Service (USFS) has extended the comment period on their new Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to allow the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a proposed 303-mile-long fracked gas pipeline running through Appalachia.

The MVP is years behind schedule, billions of dollars over budget, and missing multiple federal authorizations. The pipeline has already brought destruction to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and communities impacted by the proposed pipeline are continuing to unite and call for solidarity and support. Please read through the resources below and submit a public comment. Together, we can stop MVP!

Now is a critical time to drive messages to President Biden and his agencies protesting the Willow Project in the Arctic before the administration issues its final decision. The recent release of the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) kicks off a 30-day waiting period until the administration issues its final permitting decision (as soon as March 6th).

Willow is the single largest oil extractive project currently proposed on public lands. If approved, Willow would lock us into another 30+ years of fossil fuel extraction at a time when we need to immediately phaseout fossil fuels. The proposed Willow development would be a disaster for local Arctic ecosystems and our global climate and must be stopped.

Please visit, support, and follow on Twitter & Instagram Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA), who are leading the fight to stop this project and protect the artic: https://www.silainuat.org/

The fight to stop Formosa Plastics from building a mega-polluting petrochemical plant in St. James Parish, Louisiana is moving to the White House. After a lot of hard work — through the leadership of RISE St. James, the power of the people, and robust legal opposition — construction has been delayed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended the project's federal permit and is now reevaluating it. Any meaningful analysis will make it clear that the permit should be revoked entirely. The plant would pollute a predominantly Black community, disturb unmarked burial sites of formerly enslaved people, degrade wetlands, and deepen the plastic pollution crisis.

As the President of the United States and the Commander in Chief, President Biden can direct the Army Corps to revoke the federal permits. If President Biden is committed to his campaign promises of prioritizing environmental justice and fighting the climate crisis - stopping this project must be a top priority.

Urge President Biden to stay true to his commitment to environmental justice and revoke Formosa Plastics' permits. Sign the petition today!

Please join WECAN in celebrating and welcoming Michaela Anang, Research Associate and the newest Women Speak Researchers to the team! We are honored and excited for Michaela to join WECAN as we continue our work to accelerate the global women's climate justice movement. Learn more about Michaela and the Women Speak Researchers below!

Michaela (she/they) is of Greek and Ghanaian descent. Michaela grew up in West Texas, and has since been immersed in research and evaluation, education, activism, and poetry, with a community-centered focus on anti-oppression, accessibility, justice, and healing. She is pursuing a JD-PhD in law and geography.

Please join us in welcoming WECAN's Women Speak Researchers: Alyssa Orozco, Tatianna Sitounis, Andrea Rosales, Maria Nembo, Juliana Chong, and Gift Orimolade. They join our current researchers, Ilinca Drondoe and Britt Wilson. Read everyone's bio's here!

As Researchers they will support the ongoing efforts of the WECAN Women Speak Database, documenting the many struggles and solutions of women worldwide for climate justice. Learn more about Women Speak here.

We send gratitude and appreciation to our outgoing Women Speak researchers Dilisha Gunawardena, and Emily Miller, and ongoing social media intern Juyeon Shin. Thank you!

If you are interested in learning more about WECAN intern and volunteer opportunities, please see our website.

This month, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) is hosting a virtual State of the Public Health Union address on the theme of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all policies, including prevention, reproductive rights, environmental justice, and occupational safety and health.

Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director, will be joining a powerful panel of guest speakers who will elaborate on some of their expectations for public health workers and policymakers in the coming years to protect and improve our nation’s health.

Roishetta Ozane, Founder, Director, CEO of Vessel Project, and Monique Verdin (Houma Nation), WECAN Food Sovereignty Program Coordinator in the Gulf South join Osprey during an intervention to share further about what is happening on the frontlines in the Gulf South. The intervention focuses on WECAN's report, "The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions," which addresses the disproportionate gender and race-specific health and safety impacts as well as human and Indigenous rights issues of fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure. Read the report here!

The event is on February 17 from 3:30 - 5:00pm ET, registration is free and available here.

From February 9-11, WECAN as part of the Feminist Green New Deal coalition co-organized and participated in the Feminist Green New Deal (FemGND) in-person convening, held at Rutgers University.

The convening brought together individuals and organizations working towards climate justice at the intersections of migrant justice, racial justice, economic justice, labor justice, reproductive justice, and gender justice to discuss how we can work together collectively to advance a feminist anti-racist climate justice agenda.

In early 2019, WECAN was a part of kickstarting the Feminist Green New Deal Coalition, which recognizes that feminist analysis must be part of our discourse on a Green New Deal. In a conversation focused on envisioning a healthy planet and communities, these groups knew that gender equality was—and is—key. A feminist intervention was necessary. The Feminist Agenda for a Green New Deal, thus, was borne from collective generation. Please learn more about our principles and work to date on the FemGND Coalition website here.

We look forward to sharing more details and outcomes from the convening in a future newsletter!

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) is hiring for several positions, seeking folks to join our dynamic team working for climate justice, systemic change, and women’s and feminist leadership in global climate solutions. Please see below for position descriptions and how to apply!

The Policy Coordinator will work remotely, with the guidance of WECAN’s Executive Director, to coordinate ongoing policy campaigns. This will include conducting research, analyzing policy strategies, writing reports and educational materials, and supporting WECAN campaigns and coalition building to push forward progressive policies within a climate justice framework.

This role will include work within WECAN’s fossil fuel resistance and divestment campaigns,

advocating for governments and financial institutions to stop fossil fuel expansion and deforestation. This work will also include advocating for policies that implement human rights and Indigenous rights, and supporting ongoing policy work through various coalitions uplifting feminist climate policies. Learn how to apply and read the full description here.

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) is seeking a part-time Forest Event Coordinator in a contracted position to develop a Global Women for Forests Network and carry out WECAN’s upcoming Global Forests Women’s Assembly, a public forum to take place virtually in 2023.

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The Forest Event Coordinator will work remotely, under the guidance of WECAN’s Executive Director, and staff (as needed), to develop, produce, and implement the Assembly, which includes tech production. In addition, the coordinator will also work alongside WECAN’s Executive Director to organize and convene strategic, ongoing meetings following the Assembly with women forest protectors from across the world. Learn how to apply and read the full description here.

The Program Associate will work remotely, under the guidance of WECAN’s Executive Director, and will contribute to WECAN's Women for Food Sovereignty Program. Our program works with Indigenous and frontline women to secure and grow food and medicinal herbs for their communities and support a sustainable path toward community resiliency during cascading crises of climate and colonization. Through garden and farming networks and tree nurseries, women are working to preserve and propagate plant knowledge and build community and local economies by returning to practices rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and inspiring climate resiliency solutions. Food sovereignty is climate justice in action.

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The Food Sovereignty Program Associate will support the growth of this program, working to support Indigenous and frontline women seeking to develop food sovereignty and food security programs in their communities and regions. Learn how to apply and read the full description here.