10 Women Fighting To Curb Climate Change In Puerto Rico - Refinery29

10 Women Fighting To Curb Climate Change In Puerto Rico

sustainable fishing practices to children in

Loíza, Puerto Rico. The structure was an abandoned, white-walled building. Piles of dry leaves filled its interior because there was no roof to protect it from the wind or rain. Surrounded by deterioration, all Fuentes saw was potential, a resource to nurture the next generation of

marine biologists, lifeguards, divers, fishermen, and captains.

Hurricane María, which caused destruction in Puerto Rico in September 2017, the wheels started turning. The eyesore she had walked by so many times could house

Taller Escuela Pescantil(Fishery School and Workshop), a project she started developing with her daughter, to rescue the

fishing trade in Loíza.

coastal erosion. Loíza has a

population of about 22,657 people and a

higher poverty level than the average for all of Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

environmental justice initiatives around the world. For example, according to Oxfam,

58 million women in Latin America live in the countryside; however, only 30% of them own agricultural land, and only 5% have access to technical assistance.

racial discrimination creates another layer of

economic inequality in these environmental protection and conservation projects.

Green 2.0, a nonprofit organization that advocates for increasing

racial diversity in environmental groups' leadership, states that typically, in the United States, “foundations are funding white-led organizations at nearly 40% more annually than POC-led organizations.” The discrepancy is even higher for operational budgets, which cover staffing and unrestricted operating costs. The Green 2.0 report found that organizations with executives who identify as non-Latine white receive nearly twice as much operational funding as organizations led by people of color, which the report described as including Black, Latin American, Asian, Native American, Hawaiian, and Middle Eastern communities.

501(c)(3) status, so they could not seek help from municipalities or other organizations who asked them to register as tax-exempt organizations. As the community liaison at

La Maraña, a local nonprofit that financially supports communities in designing the spaces they inhabit, Ortiz sees their frustration first-hand.

Community-based groups in Puerto Rico denounce the lack of government support in

post-disaster recovery. La Maraña's work to strengthen community participation is not something the local government assumes as public policy. Instead, the government continues to perpetuate colonial practices through its lack of autonomy and its unwillingness to make room for citizen participation.

Taller Escuela Pescantil and 20 other Puerto Rican communities. Fuentes indicates that the funds will not only help renovate the space but also make it possible to expand and include a community kitchen and a gastronomic tour to promote economic development. The second floor of the building will be a tsunami escape tower, given its proximity to the coast.

1.3% of all nonprofits, and as the archipelago faces the

disproportionate effects of climate change, these groups are necessary. Through her work, Ortiz has met many women who are leading

climate justice solutions. "This very powerful movement that is now emerging around climate change represents women, and certainly represents poor women [and] Black women, who live in the areas that are being affected right now, such as the coasts," she emphasizes.

Marissa Reyes, Finca Güakiá

Güakiá Agroecological Collective built.

"Agroecology came to rescue what was already ours."

resumed farming, but other problems soon arose. Unknown people began to dispose the cars they used for illicit activities at the site. On one occasion, the farmers discovered a corpse inside one of the vehicles. The collective built a gate, but it quickly came down and a burning car greeted the group. The situation had escalated so much that the collective decided to relocate. While Güakiá found a new home, the founders are now turning to partner organizations to purchase it.

ancestral practice of agriculture has been arduous, especially in a society that values profit more than sustainability. "It is a life project to be a farmer and produce food,” Reyes says. “And large corporations and industrialization have separated us from this [way of] remaining and being part of the ecosystem. Agroecology came to rescue what was already ours.”

Ada Ramona Miranda, Finca la Malcría

ood security because they

had a garden and raised chickens and pigs. She also had a school and movie theater within walking distance. Yet, the Aguirre of recent years is very different. The school and theater have closed. Many houses sit abandoned. And a huge decaying iron structure remains, a reminder of the inequities that Puerto Rico’s sugar production past brought.

U.S. invaded Puerto Rico.

Hacienda Las Malcriá.

"We are coming out of being poorly raised… of being poorly raised by the patriarchy."

Yvette Nuñez, Coalición Restauración Ecosistemas Santurcinos (CRES)

"We were pruning the [trees] that are not native, and we realized that [Hurricane María] took them away, and the native ones were the ones that survived."

Coalition to Restore Santurce’s Ecosystem(CRES, in Spanish) with marine biologist Juan David Murcia Eslava. CRES dedicates itself to restoring dunes and coral reefs in Santurce — once known as San Mateo de Cangrejos. The group has taken care of the forest, created trails, and planted native and endemic tree species. "We were pruning the [trees] that are not native, and we realized that [Hurricane María] took them away, and the native ones were the ones that survived," she says.

Mariolga Reyes Cruz, Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible

food sovereignty in Puerto Rico. That’s why she wanted her photo taken in front of a mural in Plaza del Mercado de Río Piedras, which alludes to Ramón Frade’s “Our Daily Bread” painting, where a jíbaro holds a banana bunch. In the mural, the abundance of the harvest surrounds the farmer. Lyrics from Rafael Hernández’s song “Lamento borincano” frame the mural. While she says the image romanticizes the hard work of farming, “it also speaks to us of possible futures where there are other types of economy, based on our relationships with the land.”

"In my family, for generations, we have had to leave and return, leave and return, always looking for the material conditions to stay. But to grow roots, you need fertile soil. That is what we are doing, protecting and tending the soil, so we can stay in our land and grow roots."

JuanMa Pagán Teitelbaum to document the lives of agroecological farmers in Puerto Rico. Behind the scenes, they learned more about the farmers’ struggles. That personal discovery of national and

colonial history led them to produce the award-winning film

Serán las Dueñas de la Tierra, which premiered in theaters in 2022.

Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible(FiTiCAS), the first community land trust dedicated to ecological agriculture in Puerto Rico. In May 2023, FiTiCAS received its first land donation: a 32-acre farm in Ciales. They are currently working on establishing the best ways to support farmers on common lands and integrating more farms. Part of the work, according to Reyes, is having conversations that deconstruct and decolonize our relationship with the land. “In my family, for generations, we have had to leave and return, leave and return, always looking for the material conditions to stay,” she says. “But to grow roots, you need fertile soil. That is what we are doing, protecting and tending the soil, so we can stay in our land and grow roots.”

Vanessa Uriarte, Amigxs del M.A.R (Movimiento Ambiental Revolucionario)

Amigxs del M.A.R., an organization that fights to protect Puerto Rico’s ecosystems and communities through education and advocacy.

"We sowed this coastal forest and [restored] all of this ecosystem as a counterproposal of how our beaches should look to [not only] defend ourselves from climate change but also so we can see that there are other alternatives."

professor Érika Fontánez, demonstrated at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, which owns the only private beach that the government recognizes. However, there are several beaches in Puerto Rico that, for all practical purposes, businesses have privatized, contrary to the archipelago’s law that all beaches are public spaces.

9 Millones and made possible thanks to the support of the

Economic Hardship Reporting Project. To read all of the profiles, visit

madresdelatierrapr.com. Para leer en español,

visite TodasPR.