Grassy Narrows Celebrates 10 Years of Historic Blockade

On December 2, 2002 the Indigenous youth of the Grassy Narrows First Nation lay down in the path of industrial logging machines—blocking access to their tribal homeland in Northern Ontario, Canada. The action, led by women and youth, sparked the longest standing Indigenous logging blockade in North America. Since 2004, RAN has worked closely with [...]

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KI Nation Paddles 300 km to Protect their Wild Watershed

Canada’s Boreal forest is part of the world’s largest land-based carbon storehouse. It is also the world’s greatest reservoir of fresh water, and is among the largest unlogged forests left on the planet. But the Boreal has been under threat for years, and, as is often the case, local Indigenous peoples who live in and [...]

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Deep in the Amazon, A Story is Waiting to be Told

Media technologies and professional skills are valuable tools that enable Indigenous communities living in rainforests around the world to communicate about the crisis of deforestation through sharing their stories, language, and art. Amazon Voice, a great new NGO that is working directly with the local Amazon communities based on a foundation of reciprocity and mutual [...]

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Bringing a Competitive Spirit to Rainforest Protection

Through our Protect-an-Acre program, RAN recently provided a small grant to Caura Futures. This lean, innovative organization supports the conservation of the 45,300 km² Caura River Basin in Venezuela, one of the few pristine tropical watersheds on Earth, by working with local Indigenous communities and providing training and tools to improve human health and promote [...]

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Earthdance And Critical Beats Release Album To Support Frontline Communities

Some of the world’s hottest DJs, including Govinda, Bluetech, and DJ Spooky, teamed up with Indigenous musicians from the Amazon to create some truly inspirational music. Now it’s your turn to inspire and be inspired by their beats. Earthdance International, Critical Beats for the Climate, and Rainforest Action Network are teaming up to promote the [...]

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U.S. Announces Support for UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights

With President Barack Obama’s announcement that the United States will “lend its support” to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the U.S. has at last joined the global consensus on this critical human rights issue. In a decision that reverses the position taken by the Bush administration in 2007, when the [...]

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U.S. Should Join World In Supporting Indigenous Rights

Canada has now formally endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), leaving the United States as the only country to remain opposed to the most comprehensive international statement on Indigenous rights to date. After its adoption in 2007 by the UN General Assembly, UNDRIP was heralded around the world by [...]

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Top 10 Ways To Celebrate World Rainforest Week

Happy World Rainforest Week! How will YOU celebrate rainforests from October 17-24? Please add your ideas, activities, and commitments as a comment to this blog to keep our thoughts and actions fresh with new ways to think global and act local. Here are some ideas from our staff, friends, and activist like YOU about how [...]

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The Latest Small Grants Supporting Frontline Communities

The below dozen grants distributed over the last few months through RAN’s Protect-an-Acre program and through our role as an advisor to Global Greengrant Fund supported frontline community efforts to defend their land and rights in forest regions in Africa, South & Central America, Southeast Asia and Appalachia. Protect-an-Acre KONTAK Rakyat Borneo $4,000 to carry [...]

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Grassy Narrows Seeks Justice After 4 Decades of Mercury Poisoning

RAN supported the community of Grassy Narrows in Ontario, Canada with a $3,000 grant facilitated through our role as an advisor to Global Greengrants Fund for 2 public events in Toronto on the 40th anniversary of when the community was poisoned by mercury from an upstream pulp mill (which continues to make people sick today). [...]

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