Women’s declaration against REDD and carbon markets!

WRM Bulletin 277 15 December 2025
More than 50 organizations, movements and communities from around the world have come together to endorse the Declaration of Women Against REDD and Carbon Markets.
Issues: Seeds of Hope / Women in Resistance
Languages:
notoredd

More than 50 organizations, movements and communities from around the world have come together to endorse the Declaration of Women Against REDD and Carbon Markets. The text of the declaration was collectively drafted by indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendent women from different Latin American countries, who came together at the "Gathering of women resisting carbon markets and fighting to defend their territories," held in the Alto Turiaçu Ka'apor Territory, in the Brazilian Amazon, in September 2025.

Below, we share the full declaration and the list of signatory organizations.

NO to REDD+:
Declaration from the Gathering of Women Resisting Carbon Markets and Fighting to Defend their Territories 

Alto Turiaçu Territory of the Ka´apor, Brazil, September 2025

Women who raise their voices, who sow courage and water the earth with resistance.
We are strong roots that sustain life, guardians of memory and hope.
Each step is a cry for freedom. May the bond between us always be the greatest weapon against injustice.
We continue side by side, with our fists raised high, defending the land, water, life, and dignity of our peoples.


We, women defenders of collective territories from different countries in Latin America, gathered in the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous territory – in Ararorenda village of the Ka'apor people – in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, from September 9-12, 2025, hereby state our position on carbon markets and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanisms, which threaten our territories. 

Whereas:

    1. Our territories and forests have been cared for and protected since ancient times by our grandfathers and grandmothers, and we continue to protect them from all threats imposed on us by governments and private companies.

    2. Governments are now opening the door to the carbon credit business, putting a price on our territories and forests.

    3. Our territories are sacred, and we do not put a price on that which gives us life.   

    4. Governments and companies that claim to protect forests and reduce contamination through carbon credits and REDD+ are actually, under the logic of offsets, allowing for the expansion and legitimization of the plunder associated with mining, hydrocarbon exploitation, agribusiness (such as livestock and plantations), infrastructure projects, logging, and other industries. They sign long-term contracts that take away our access to our territories, water, food and medicine for our families and communities. 

Therefore, if they truly want to reduce contamination, deforestation and forest degradation, we reiterate what we have been repeatedly demanding from our governments and from companies: 

    1. Stop polluting rivers for mining, stop cutting down forests for your extractive activities in our territories and protected areas, and stop blaming us as if we were a threat and cause of deforestation.

    2. Allow forests degraded by extractive activities to be restored naturally, thereby truly reducing pollution.

    3. Guarantee fair compensation, restoration and reparation processes for our peoples, communities and territories that have historically been affected by extractivism – whether driven by capitalists or developmentalist governments that present themselves as leftist.

    4. Stop putting a price on nature and profiting from the lives of our peoples and all living beings that need forests and water to live; because without free forests, we cannot live. 

    5. Stop deceiving us with contracts, REDD+ policies and projects, carbon credits and other "green solutions," nature-based solutions, etc. Stop saying that you are protecting what we are already protecting, while you continue to contaminate, deforest and commodify our territories around the world. 

    6. Comply with Free, Prior, and Informed Consultation in good faith, respecting our own consultation procedures, without dividing us or corrupting organizations in order to advance projects that are foreign to our communities. 

    7. Guarantee territorial rights for those who effectively protect territories. Promote land regularization in all of our territories, through demarcation and homologation of indigenous lands; land titles for quilombola communities; (1) agrarian reform for peasants living in collective settlements; and recognition of common use territories – among other necessary measures to respect our rights. 

    8. Strengthen territories that have already been titled but which, nonetheless, still face conflicts with agroindustrial, oil and mining companies. Ensure the withdrawal of these activities and guarantee access to other basic rights that fully allow for people to remain, produce and reproduce life in the territory.

Finally, we maintain that REDD+ is not a solution. It is a false and illusory proposal because it is a business that puts a price on nature – in which intermediaries profit, and companies and governments continue to pollute. Meanwhile we are stripped of our territories, which are our life. 

For all these reasons, we, women defenders of territories, express our categorical rejection of all forms of REDD+, and we declare ourselves ready to fight to defend our lives!

NO MORE REDD+!


(1) Quilombola communities are black communities made up of an ethnic-racial group, with their own cultural identity and a particular historical trajectory that comes from their resistance to slavery and oppression.

SIGNATORIES:
- Tuxa Ta Pame - Conselho de Gestão Ka'apor, Brazil
- Jumu'eha Renda Keruhu - Centro de Formação Saberes Ka'apor, Brazil
- Coordinadora Nacional de Defensa de Territorios Indígenas Originarios Campesinos y Áreas Protegidas (CONTIOCAP) - Bolivia
- Comité Defensor de la Vida Amazónica en la cuenca del Río Madera (COMVIDA) - Bolivia
- Organización Comunal de la Mujer Amazónica (OCMA) - Bolivia
- Associação das Mulheres Munduruku Wakoborun - Brazil
- Tejido Unuma De La Orinoquia - Colombia
- Red de Mujeres Indígenas Tejiendo Resistencias - Peru
- Associação dos moradores do Baixo Riozinho e Entorno (ASMOBRI) - Brazil
- Aty Ñeychyrõ - Argentina
- Associação dos Moradores Agroextrativistas do Assentamento Acutipereira (ASMOGA) - Brazil
- Associacao dos Moradores Agroextrativistas do Assentamento Peaex Acangata - (ASMOGAC) - Brazil
- Associação Indígena Extrativista Da Aldeia Akamassyron Surui Aikewara- Brazil
- Associação dos Pescadores São José de Icatu Quilombola - Brazil
- Coletivo de Mulheres Flor da Roça, Quilombo São José de Icatu - Brazil

Signatures in support:

  1. Palm Oil Detectives, Aotearoa – New Zealand

  2. ECOFAMAR, Argentina

  3. BIOS Argentina, Argentina

  4. ATTAC - Argentina - Cadtm, Argentina

  5. Coletivo Campesino Amazônico de Pesquisadores e Pesquisadoras, Brasil

  6. Instituto Conviva, Brasil

  7. GeoEduQa, Brasil

  8. Marcha Mundial das Mulheres, Brasil

  9. Arandu - Rede Colaborativa de Pesquisa Povos Indígenas, Gênero e Sexualidade, Brasil

  10. Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Socioambiental, Brasil

  11. Centro de Estudos e Defesa do Negro do Pará - CEDENPA, Brasil

  12. Conselho Indigenista Missionário (CIMI), Brasil

  13. Associação de Favelas SJCampos SP, Brasil

  14. Frade Capuchinho, Brasil

  15. Articulação das Oraganizações e Povos Indígenas do Amazonas- APIAM, Brasil

  16. Movimento Mulheres pela Paz na Palestina, Brasil 

  17. Aliança RECOs - Aliança de Redes de Cooperação Comunitária desde o Sul Global, Brasil 

  18. Comité Defensor de la Vida Amazonica en la Cuenca del Rio Madeira (COMVIDA), Brasil y Bolivia

  19. Struggle to Economize Future Environment (SEFE), Cameroon 

  20. Réseau des Acteurs du Développement Durable (RADD), Cameroun

  21. IxofijMogen por Bosque Ancestral- Wekufe Forestales, Chile

  22. COECOCEIBA - Amigos de la Tierra Costa Rica, Costa Rica

  23. Acción Ecológica, Ecuador

  24. Maiouri Nature Guyane, French Guiana

  25. Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren, Germany

  26. Forum Ökologie & Papier, Germany

  27. Kaffeegarten-Ruhr / Essen, Germany

  28. Carbone Guinée, Guinea 

  29. Mama Aleta Foundation, Indonesia

  30. Lembaga Bentang Alam Hijau, Indonesia

  31. Jaringan JAGA DECA, Indonesia

  32. Grail international, Kenya

  33. Oilwatch Africa, Kenya

  34. PUIC-UNAM oficina Oaxaca, México

  35. Red de Acción sobre Plaguicidas y Alternativas en México (RAPAM) A.C., México

  36. Otros Mundos Chiapas/Amigos de la Tierra México, México

  37. Look Green Care Foundation (LGCF), Nigeria

  38. No REDD in Africa Network, Nigeria 

  39. Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria 

  40. Association pour la Conservation et la Protection des Écosystèmes des Lacs et l’Agriculture Durable, RD Congo

  41. Forêts Communautaires Pour Le Développement Rural en Abrégé (FOCODER), RD Congo

  42. Association Paysanne pour la Réhabilitation et Protection des Pygmées (PREPPYG), RD Congo

  43. WLTP, South Africa

  44. The South African Food Sovereignty Campaign, South Africa

  45. Mouvement Pour le Socialisme, Suisse

  46. Ecopaper, Switzerland

  47. HEKS Swiss Church Aid, Switzerland

  48. Centre for Strategic Litigation, Tanzania

  49. Sustainable Holistic Development Foundation (SUHODE), Tanzania

  50. EcoNexus, UK

  51. The Corner House, UK

  52. Winnemem Wintu Tribe, United States

  53. North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE), United States 

  54. Colectivo Raíces y Saberes, Venezuela

  55. World Rainforest Movement, International