Unsustainable patterns of development and consumption and the increasing rate of climate change are, in many regions, combining to exacerbate inequity, threaten local cultures and degrade vital environmental resources. To equip local communities to address these issues, our work focuses on the interdependence of human well-being and the health of the environment.
In many places, the most vulnerable, marginalized and poor households are concentrated in rural communities that rely on natural resources for food, livelihoods, housing and health. But low-income people often lack a voice in the management of vital natural resources and, at the same time, are disproportionately exposed to toxic pollutants and other environmental hazards.
We work to support natural resource management and environmental justice strategies that help poor communities overcome these challenges, as well as the economic exclusion and social marginalization that underlie them. Our grantees promote integrated approaches that combine environmental protection, sustainable resource use, enforcement of legal rights and the creation of environment-friendly rural enterprises.
We work to support natural resource management and environmental justice strategies that help poor communities overcome environment and development challenges, as well as the economic exclusion and social marginalization that underlie them.
Key Strategies
We support policies and practices that benefit vulnerable rural communities through:
- Increasing local control and the exercise of rights over natural resources
- Participating in territorial and resource-use planning, decision making and promotion of indigenous cultural values
- Generating and sustaining livelihoods by creating environmental and other rural enterprises
- Leveraging markets and international conservation and development organizations to encourage global equity and environmentally sound public policies and business practices