junho, 26 2024

By WWF-Brasil

The Voices for Climate Action (VCA) program, in partnership with the Casa Socioambiental Fund, launched the call "Environmental Defenders: Voices for Climate Action - Strengthening communities, organizations, and support networks that act as defenders of human rights in environmental issues affected by the climate emergency." The goal is to promote projects that enhance the voice and leadership of local and regional organizations that defend human and environmental rights in the Legal Amazon. The call will support 18 projects with up to BRL 50,000 each. 

In the Legal Amazon, Indigenous peoples, Quilombola’s communities, artisanal fishers, and other traditional communities play a crucial role in maintaining the forests. These environmental defenders, alongside urban peripheral communities, are the most affected by the climate emergency. Within this forest and city context, Amazonian peoples hold a significant role in resisting socio-environmental setbacks. However, they face challenges in accessing discussion forums, influencing decision-making spaces, and obtaining climate financing resources for local solutions. 

It is within this context that the VCA Alliance in Brazil - comprising WWF-Brasil, Fundación Avina, Hivos, Instituto Internacional de Educação do Brasil (IEB), and Casa Socioambiental Fund - opened the call for projects "Environmental Defenders: Voices for Climate Action." This call aims to strengthen communities, organizations, and support networks that act as human rights defenders on environmental issues affected by the climate emergency. The initiative focuses on several pillars: access to decision-making spaces, generation of evidence, complaints and data on the impacts of climate change, communication and awareness campaigns, capacity building and development, and legal protection. 

The priority audience includes local and traditional communities, urban peripheral communities, local activist collectives, youth collectives, organizations, and support networks working with human rights defenders on environmental issues in the Legal Amazon territory. Applications was opened from April 11 to May 10, 2024.  

About VCA 

The VCA Alliance brings together global and local voices by connecting various civil society organizations representing women, youth, Indigenous peoples, urban poor communities, digital activists, among others. The program is implemented by an alliance led by four strong institutions from the Global South: Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), Fundación Avina, Slum Dwellers International (SDI), and SouthSouthNorth (SSN), and two global entities: Hivos and WWF-Netherlands, within a five-year strategic partnership program of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Power of Voices." 

In Brazil, the VCA Alliance partners include WWF-Brasil, Fundación Avina, Hivos, Instituto Internacional de Educação do Brasil (IEB), and Casa Socioambiental Fund. The strategic objective of the VCA Program is to help various groups and sectors of local civil society take a central role as innovators, facilitators, and advocates for climate solutions by 2025. Climate justice is a core aspect of this program, recognizing that climate change is a social issue with ethical and human rights implications.