Calls to Action Towards Environmental Justice
For WHAT, by WHO, and HOW?
Voices of participants at the Third Environmental Justice Forum
Facilitate relationships and build trust
How to better support relationships of trust and reciprocity between marginalised communities and nature agencies, NGOs, and researchers?
Funders and Policymakers
Genuine Co-Design Process and Authentic Collaboration
• ‘Involve communities in agenda setting’
• ‘Maximise the range of people who can engage’
• ‘Demonstrate the co‑benefits to all’
• ‘Co-authorship, and co-hosting of outputs’
• ‘Consistency in engagement’
Value Continuity and Long-Term support
• ‘Recognise and allow for the time it takes to build trusting relationships’
• ‘Create the conditions where relationships can continue’
• ‘Long-term engagement via longitudinal type research’
• ‘Facilitate a transitionary period’ and ‘enable continuation funding’
Facilitate Communication and Education
• ‘Reduce gatekeeping by intermediary organisations and reliance on single sources of information’
• ‘Act as the go-between for people and communities and government/policy makers/politicians’
• ‘Ensure clarity of expectations and accessibility of information’
• ‘Support improved messaging/education on the value of the environment/nature to society’
• ‘Engage with small groups, and identify and communicating issues that are relevant to them’
Funders and Organisations
Fair Payment and Recognition
• ‘Need much greater flexibility in terms of WHO we pay, HOW we pay, and WHAT we pay for’
• ‘Pay people for their time as consultants and experts by experience throughout the co-production process from design to realisation’
• ‘Understand what form of compensation is acceptable to participants – is a free lunch or public plaque of recognition good enough?’
• ‘Communities and individuals should be consulted on what meaningful remuneration looks like for them’
• ‘Be clear from the beginning of the project, so it’s built into the budget and discussed openly’
Engage Farmers meaningfully and Integrate Local Knowledge
• ‘Recognise that their (local/experiential) knowledge can make a valuable contribution to tackling research problems – and be integrated with scientific knowledge’
• ‘Genuinely listen to and understand the practical and informational barriers to change’
• ‘Engage with individuals and not just assume unions represent majorities’
• ‘Meet farmers where they’re at’; ‘Understand the life and practices, and speak from a place of empathy’
• ‘Work with trusted messengers and groups that already have established relationships with farmers’
Address Power Inequality
and Celebrate Diversity & Inclusion
Funders and Policymakers
Support EDI in Funding Agenda and Decision Making
• ‘Funders could, at the outset, call for the integration and fair representation of different evidences and knowledges, and re-balance power’
• ‘Funders should require evidence of ongoing work with excluded groups as part of their criteria’
• ‘Embed nature-centric governance mechanisms in decision making fora, which have the ability to empower marginalised voices (human and non-human)’
• ‘Align/synergise environmental and social justice objectives to meet multiple policy targets’
Organisations
Ensure Accountability of Diversity
• ‘Tracking and reporting’; ‘Ensuring effective data collection and monitoring’; ‘Being accountable internally and to funders for progress’
• ‘Recognise that a diversity of perspectives leads to better decisions’; ‘Demonstrate the benefits (value for money, efficiency, effectiveness) and align with organisational priorities’
• ‘Normalise deliberative democracy methods in organisational and partnership/coalition decision making’
Educate Leaders
• ‘Ensure a genuine commitment of CEOs to “be in the room”‘
• ‘Build the capacity of leaders to better understand the reality of lived experience and power dynamics’ and ‘to engage confidently with members of excluded groups’
• ‘If unique local-level or individual contributions, needs, and ideas could be recognised as actionable evidence, then leaders would turn into listeners’
Facilitate a Diverse Workforce
• ‘Greater flexibility for workforce’
• ‘Build trusted relationships so that members of diverse groups are confident to voice their needs and wishes’
Organisations and Communities
Improve Discourse and Cultivate Empathy
• ‘Encourage narratives of co-existence and co-flourishing, founded in diversity’
• ‘Empathy should not necessarily be limited to imagining ourselves at the place of others or merely seeing the world from their standpoint – it is also about recognising and celebrating our differences’
• ‘Never stop telling the stories; don’t feel it has all been said before’
Individuals
Recognise Power Dynamics and Contribute to Diversity and Inclusion
• ‘Build up their own skills in multicultural work’
• ‘Recognise their own power and privilege and actively look to inform themselves through deep listening, reflection, challenging one own biases and sitting in discomfort’
• ‘Think about the language we use – try to use justice-based language’
Appreciate Various Types of Evidence
and promote Knowledge translation
Funders and policymakers
Recognise Evidence Beyond Quantitative Data
• ‘The value of qualitative data must be recognised – quantitative research is really helpful in allowing us to take the perspective of the others, while at the same time understanding how that perspective is shaped by more general forces.’
• ‘Champion the idea that non-quantitative evidence – e.g., lived experience, art, etc – can and should be used (is good enough) to inform/prioritise intervention and policy’
• ‘Centre and value lived experience; look at co-design and co-production models where the existing power imbalance is addressed’
• ‘Devise policies on the basis of the integration of local/experiential and scientific knowledge’
Academics, NGOs, communities…
Produce Engaging Evidence to Inform Policy
• ‘Long-term and intergenerational evidence for health/social/economic benefits is needed to support continued interventions and policy drivers’
• ‘Give a picture with data of who is included and not included at different levels’
• ‘In addition to traditional forms of data, impactful personalised case studies, creative approaches, film, photography, poetry, etc – No fixed approach but rather an effort to make information more understandable’
Bridge and Translate Stories into Changes
• ‘Share personal stories of people of their barriers to nature and how they feel the barriers can be overcome’
• ‘Empower marginalised voices and activists to present evidence to APPGs’; ‘Support activistists with presenting their calls to action to changemakers’
• ‘Co-benefits (combined value of health, social, economic, environmental impacts) need to be able to be quantified and communicated’
Image source: Photos by Bingshu Zhao