Lifting Women’s Voices during The Climate Week of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities of Mesoamerica

By Daniela Bueso, Director of the Central America Program

Group photo during the “Reflections on Traditional Production Systems and the Relationship with Regenerative Agriculture” workshop

Trees, Water & People had the privilege to host 13 of our partners and community leaders from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador at the first Mesoamerican Indigenous People and Local Communities Climate Week, which took place in Panama City. Our goal for sponsoring the event was to give our partners the mic. One of those opportunities allowed various women leaders from different regions to share their personal experiences.

The Coordinadora de Mujeres Lideres Territoriales (CMLT) together with the Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques (AMPB) led a workshop called, “Reflections on Traditional Production Systems and the Relationship with Regenerative Agriculture” with a diverse group of indigenous producers and local community leaders. The goal was to promote a dialogue between 40 women and connect the vision of indigenous producers who contribute to the construction and the concept of Regenerative Agriculture in their local communities. These women shared successes, challenges, and innovations that they can put into practice in their communities.

Women leaders speaking on a panel about women’s leadership and involvement in their communities

During the week, we witnessed some powerful panel discussions and met some women leaders who shared their realities. Here are a few quotes from the women themselves:

“We believe that the outlet that has put us on the map for defending our forests are the social networks. I think our colleague from La Mosquitia (Honduras) mentioned the importance of using communication strategies to visualize all the work that people like the Indios Laborios of the Aldea of Suyapa have done for so long, and who have been practically ignored.” -Tania Erazo, volunteer-secretary, Comité Ecológico de la Aldea de Suyapa, COEAS (Honduras).

Tania Erazo sharing a handcraft necklace from the Aldea de Suyapa (COEAS)

“It is precisely how the voices of women continue to grow in various spaces. Today in Panamá we have Cacique women, which was very difficult to do 10-20 years ago, and today we have women leaders in the various organizations that are raising their voices, who are also trying to make their voice visible despite the great barriers that we face internally in our organizations and in our communities. Because when women are visible, when we want to be, they see us as enemies." - Sarah Omi, Emberá Defender, President of la Coordinadora de Mujeres Lideres Territoriales (Panamá).

Our partners presenting during their panel session: “Weaving networks: initiatives for alternative local economies, agroforestry and community conservation/defense of natural resources”

“Well, for me, the biggest challenge we have is the indifference. For example, today as the my female colleagues said, we are talking to ourselves, we only see the empty chairs, and that is a challenge for us as farmers, because little attention is paid to what agriculture is. A great challenge is ahead of us, and we have to be prepared to face it. But we see that agriculture is not very important. If we saw what happened during COVID, who were the ones who had a safe job? It was the farmers, because they were the ones who were bringing the vegetables and fruits and so that is a challenge for us.” - Veronica Hernández de León, President of the women’s group in La Bendición, Utz Che’ (Guatemala).