As we gather to explore, learn, and find new ways to face the environmental challenges that have impacted our communities, this workshop on resilience and economic solidarity has now more than ever become a powerful platform for reconnecting with our strengths and learning skills that will empower us and our communities.
As we know, deforestation and industrial plantation expansion in our communities have impacted every aspect of life. The once lush forests that have provided resources for us are disappearing, taking away that which has sustained us for generations. We face challenges in providing for our families, accessing clean water, and holding onto traditions rooted in the land. These are not just environmental losses; but also social, economic, and gender in dimensions. However, as history and experience have shown us, even in the face of significant challenges, we have the power to resist, to mobilize, and to transform.
Resilience and the Power of Economic Solidarity
In the face of environmental challenges orchestrated by industrial expansion that alters the landscape, lives, and livelihoods of community people, there is a need to build strong resilience. By resilience, we mean making purposeful changes in our lives and empowering ourselves through knowledge, skills, and collaboration. As we’ll learn today, by adopting skills like snail farming, mushroom cultivation, and soap making, we will empower ourselves to build livelihoods that are both environmentally friendly and economically supportive
On the other hand, economic solidarity means standing together as one and supporting each other in building sustainable and equitable economic practices. When we talk about a solidarity economy, we’re talking about an approach that values people over profit, is rooted in justice, and promotes cooperative and sustainable practices. By sharing knowledge and resources, we become stronger as a community and can create economic systems that work for all of us.
Supporting one another, buying from each other, exchanging skills, and forming cooperatives are all ways to ensure that our local economy thrives. Through these practices, we reduce our reliance on large, external systems that may not prioritize our well-being. Instead, we create networks that uplift women and families, sustain our natural resources, and keep our economic power within our communities. Every purchase, every exchange, and every act of solidarity brings us closer to a sustainable and self-sufficient future.
Building Towards a Sustainable Future
The one-day workshop helped to empower and support women from Edo State through a structured learning and healing program that equipped them with information on environmental issues, their rights, and their struggles with support for alternative livelihood options.
The event provided a safe space for emotional healing, resilience building, and a collective solidarity economy for women impacted by deforestation and land grabs for industrial plantation expansion in Edo State.
Thirty women from fifteen communities from across 6 Local Government Areas were part of the workshop. Women in these communities are particularly vulnerable, facing violence, disruptions to their livelihoods, health hazards, displacement, and increased gender inequalities. This workshop addresses these challenges by providing a supportive learning, healing, and empowerment environment.
Amid systemic violations in community territories, our path as Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria is to build a solidarity economy where every impacted community woman has skills, resources, and a support network that values her contributions and ensures her sustainability. This workshop represents a step in that direction, empowering with practical skills that align with regenerative agricultural practice that is centered on agroecology
The training on snail farming, mushroom cultivation, and soap making has the potential to grow into a thriving local economy powered by women. As we move the sessions, we remind ourselves that resilience is within us, and our strength lies in solidarity. We have the power to transform adversity into opportunity, to rebuild what has been lost, and to create a future that honors our communities and our environment. Together, we can rise, thrive, and build a lasting legacy of resilience and economic empowerment as we collectively resist, mobilize, and transform for social, environmental, and gender Justice.
At the end of the training workshop, a modest grant from Environmental Rights Action was given to all 30 impacted women by Environmental Rights Action
Welcome words by Rita Uwaka, Interim Administrator ERA/FoEN