In the patriarchal, extractivist capitalist model, there are cultural and symbolic patterns that naturalize the domination and exploitation of the land, animals and women.
In contrast, we ecofeminists recognize, respect and value life in its diversity in all its forms: every soil organism, plant and animal, every form of human community, every culture that has evolved, in the words of Vandana Shiva, the Indian ecofeminist physicist and philosopher.
To meet the basic needs of a growing population within the limits of the Earth’s finite resources, we need to devise a more sustainable model for production, consumption and the economy as a whole. Without a change of model, without respect for the rights of Nature, or at least without restoring harmony with Nature, the full realization of human rights for everyone will not be possible.
In Latin America, several forms of collective discrimination take shape in a flagrant, systematic and sustained way in access to a healthy environment, to housing and to care infrastructure. They affect different groups and are sometimes compounded when people belong to two or three of these groups at once (living in poverty, living on the street, being women or trans people, migrants, children, adolescents, older people or persons with disabilities, the neighborhood where they live or their location, among others).
It is the powers of the State themselves, through their omissions and sometimes through laws and public policies, and even through court rulings, that arbitrarily prevent, obstruct or restrict the full and equal exercise of the rights to a decent living environment and a healthy environment. In doing so, they undermine the rural and urban Buen vivir (good living) of many people, of collectives and of future generations, and also disregard the bodies and procedures of participatory democracy.
The care we propose for life on our planet requires guaranteeing human rights and the integrity of ecosystems, and guaranteeing the universal rights of access to water and sanitation. It means investing in resilient, gender-transformative education for climate justice; promoting health—including sexual health and sexual and reproductive rights; guaranteeing women’s collective rights to land; and giving special protection to the oceans, the cryosphere, coastal ecosystems and their local communities.
Today we ecofeminists are defenders in our territories and guardians of life on the planet. We don’t want to do it alone.
