Ecosystem Restoration Mexico Project #50191

Empower environmental defenders in Mexico

by Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental

Empower environmental defenders in Mexico

Project Report | Mar 19, 2022
Helping communities to access the right to water

By Margarita Campuzano | CEMDA's Communications Director

Interview with inhabitant in Cuetzalan

Thanks to your help, we continue working with indigenous and rural communities in different regions of Mexico, helping them exercise their human rights, such as the right to a healthy environment, the right to drinkable water and the right to take care of nature in the territories they inhabit.

One of the regions we work is the Gulf of Mexico, and one of our challenges there is to collaborate with indigenous groups and organized peasant communities in the management of water.

The intense pressure of unplanned urbanization, population growth and mismanagement degrades the biological diversity of watersheds and water basins located in these regions. Most of the water consumed in urban areas comes from overexploited and highly contaminated aquifers, threatening the human right to water of the local communities. On top of that, the extraction of clean drinking water from indigenous and peasant communities occurs more frequently and with more intensity than ever before; and extractive projects, such as mining, dams and hydroelectric projects, impact directly on their human rights.

In order to change this situation it is necessary to articulate collective and intercultural dialogues based on the recognition of diversity and different forms of knowledge to adequate the legal and public policy framework and enable a community based management of watersheds and water basins in México. This will allow us to comprehend the issues surrounding the degradation of watersheds and the community practices that contributed to their conservation, as well as increase the possibilities to construct sustainable solutions to revert the process of deterioration.

Our project has focused on generating awareness among the communities, through workshops and accompaniment of defense processes against megaprojects such as mining activities and dams, which affect their access to water sources.

We also work on capacity building to exercise environmental human rights, such as access to information, public participation and access to justice. This implies to help the communities to get a broad understanding of the current regulatory framework and the ways in which it facilitates or hinders a community based management of water resources.

We are convinced that the best way to help communities and protect our environment is to bring them tools so that they know how to defend their rights through the legal framework. We invite you to keep supporting our effort!

Landscape in Cuetzalan, Puebla

Children in Cuetzalan, Puebla

Links:

Visit CEMDA's web site for more information

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Nov 19, 2021
Strengthening capacities of grass root communities

By Margarita Campuzano | CEMDA's Communications Director

Indigenous women at workshops

Climate change and the destruction of the environment due to the advancement of megaprojects does not rest; neither do people in grass roots communities who are working hard every day to preserve their territory and natural heritage.

Thanks to your contribution, at the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) we continue working to make their efforts visible and strengthening their capacities as environmental defenders.

Last summer we gave a series of workshops in the state of Veracruz to indigenous and rural communities with whom we shared legal tools so that they can present lawsuits and make requests for information to the authority in the cases of projects that violate their human rights and their way of living.

In these workshops, we talked about human rights that are protected by the Mexican Constitution, such as the right to a healthy environment, the right to clean and sufficient water and the right to receive proper information and to be consulted, seeking to obtain their consent in regards to projects that are planned to be developed in their territories.

We shared with the workshops´ participants guides and training materials so that they can self-prepare and present complaints against acts of pollution or destruction against their biocultural heritage.

Now that the world’s Climate Change Summit (COP26) is over, in which not big accomplishments were made, it is more important than ever to act locally in order to achieve global benefits.

Every person on the planet must be a defender of the environment and be aware of what is happening around them in order to stop the destruction of ecosystems. Empowering people in local communities is the best way to stop violations of the law and the destruction of our natural heritage.

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Jul 23, 2021
To defend the environment and not to die in the attempt

By Margarita Campuzano | CEMDA's Communications Director

Photo by Ricardo Maria Garibay. Identidad.

Thanks to your generous help, we continue working to make visible the efforts carried out by people who defend the environment. In Mexico this is one of the most dangerous activities, that can even cost you your life.

Last March we presented our 2020 edition of the Report on the situation of environmental human rights defenders, where we informed about 90 attacks committed against environmental defenders in our country. These attacks range from threats, harassment, stigmatization, physical violence, and even murder. In 2020 alone, 18 environmental defenders were assassinated in Mexico.

In addition to documenting these attacks in the above mentioned Report, we also carried out a campaign named Look at us! (¡Miranos!) through social networks and media outlets with the purpose of raising awareness on these results. We also intend to attract the attention of local and national authorities to the importance of providing material and human resources for the protection of environmental defenders.

We continue to generate guides and training materials. The most recent is a guide aimed for people to know how to defend their water, forests and jungles. In this guide we explain that they have the legal right to be previously consulted on projects that affect their territories and natural resources. Also, we offer them legal tools so that they can self-prepare and present complaints against acts of pollution or destruction of their biocultural heritage.

At CEMDA we believe in continuing to strengthen people's capacities to generate local changes with great potential for global transformation. We invite you to continue supporting us!

Tomas Rojo, member of the yaqui indigenous people

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