In the heart of the coastal community of Tsokomey, in Ghana, Beatrice Nutekpor wades into the brackish water, her skilled hands planting young mangroves. Her gesture is an act of resistance. Beatrice farms oysters, which find safe refuge among the mangroves; but those same mangroves, vital for biodiversity and coastal protection, are being decimated by climate change and land exploitation.
Oyster farming is a family tradition that Beatrice has carried on since she was 15. Now 45, she is fighting to keep it alive and pass it on to her daughter: “Just as my mother taught me this craft, I want to teach it to her, so that one day she can teach it to her daughter”. Along Ghana’s coastal mangroves, oyster farming has always been a crucial livelihood led by women: hundreds have been trained in eco-friendly methods. Thanks to their acts of resistance, oysters are once again clinging to mangrove roots, and fish are returning to the coastline.
Thousands of kilometers away, among the bushes and savannas of South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park, the Black Mambas patrol the trails with silent determination. Theirs is the world’s first all-female anti-poaching unit. Founded in 2013 to protect the area hardest hit by rhino poaching, they have managed to reduce the phenomenon by 70%. In an environment traditionally dominated by men, unarmed but supported by distant patrol units, they walk 20 kilometers day and night, scanning the land for traps and traces of poachers. “I am not afraid, I know what I’m doing and I know why I’m doing it”, says ranger Leitah Mkhabela. “I want my son to see a rhino. If you meet the poachers, tell them not to try anything, that we are here, and that they are the ones in danger”.
This is not only about protecting rhinos: it is a daily battle to safeguard the balance of entire ecosystems essential to local communities’ survival. Yet it is precisely from those communities that many poachers come. For this reason, the Black Mambas also work to build a new culture starting with children, through an awareness program in schools.
In Senegal too, groups of women march together through the streets of downtown Dakar. They carry banners and raise their voices. They are protesting gas extraction in the Sangomar fields, denouncing the climate injustice that strikes Africa: responsible for less than 4% of global emissions, yet forced to endure floods, droughts, and famine. Their march is a political act, demanding that those most affected by climate change also have a say in its future.
The same call rises from the Sahel, where Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an activist from Chad’s nomadic Mbororo community, combines Indigenous knowledge and technology: through 3D mapping, she shows how traditional practices can protect vulnerable lands and ensure food security and clean water. Founder of the Association of Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad and president of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Hindou has a clear mission: to include women from local communities in decision-making processes and recognize their central role in environmental protection.
For women in the rural Sahel and across Africa, the climate crisis hits disproportionately hard – while they are traditionally excluded from decision-making. Yet they are the ones playing a crucial role in protecting and restoring ecosystems. And some have had an extraordinary impact in the struggle against gender inequality and the effects of the climate crisis.
The main source of inspiration for all is Wangari Maathai, “the woman of the trees,” the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In her country, Kenya, she sought to end the devastation of forests and lands and fought for democracy and women’s rights. In 1977, she launched the Green Belt Movement to enable rural village women to plant trees and provide them with tools to improve the environment. Thanks to her movement, over 51 million trees have been planted in Kenya, and more than 30,000 women have received training in natural resource management.
Wangari Maathai passed away in 2011, at the age of 71, but her legacy lives on through the work of the foundation that bears her name. “It doesn’t take a large number of people to make real change”, she said. “When so many things seem to go wrong, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, but you don’t need an ‘army’; each of us can be an agent of change”. She left an indelible mark, teaching that environmental protection and the defense of women’s rights can go hand in hand.
This is the path followed by the new generations of feminist environmental activists, such as Nourhene Ghanmi, 23, deputy treasurer of the Youth For Climate Tunisia movement. “It is crucial for our survival”, she explains, “that we, as young leaders, push our governments to declare a climate emergency. It is important to raise awareness while maintaining hope that we can save the planet”.
Vanessa Nakate, 29, is Ugandan. She began fighting for climate justice in 2019, protesting in the streets of Kampala, following in the footsteps of Greta Thunberg. Like her, she protested every week, becoming a face of the global youth climate movement. Paradoxically, her fame surged the day someone decided to erase her: in 2020, in Davos, she was cropped out of a photo by an international news agency, which later apologized, where she had appeared alongside Greta Thunberg and other climate activists – all white. “It was the first time in my life I understood the meaning of the word ‘racism’”, Vanessa said in a video posted on social media. “You didn’t just erase a photo; you erased an entire continent”. “This is completely unacceptable, period”, Greta echoed on Twitter. A year later, Vanessa reclaimed much more than what had been taken from her: Time magazine featured her on the cover and included her in the 100 “Next”, the most influential young people.
Having become a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Vanessa Nakate recalled: “As a young African woman, I had to fight to be heard by the media and policymakers”, and she pledged to “continue fighting for others, especially the children who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis”. For this reason, she founded the Rise Up Movement, a platform that gives a voice to African climate activists and aims to “eradicate poverty, gender-based violence, human trafficking, and child abuse”. She also launched a project to install solar panels in rural Ugandan schools.
Inna Modja, Malian-French, fights her battle through art. A singer-songwriter, actress, and activist, she is a Earth Ambassador for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. She is also the protagonist of the documentary Great Green Wall, which tells the story of the Green Wall dream, conceived in 2007 by the Pan-African Union and now supported by the United Nations and the World Bank: an “8000-kilometer wall” of trees from Dakar to Djibouti, acting as a barrier against desertification and famine. Inna, who wrote the soundtrack for the film and traveled across Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, and Ethiopia, says: “Women are the backbone of the Great Green Wall and the heart of the communities. They are the ones leading the projects. I have seen extraordinary women do work that, starting with their families, will transform communities, Countries, and the continent”.
From all these stories, a common thread emerges: sustainability is not an optional choice but a daily and necessary commitment. African women are not only victims of climate change; they are the protagonists of solutions, guardians of the land, narrators of a possible future where caring for the earth also means caring for the community and for justice. These women show that the fight for the earth takes many forms: it can be a quiet gesture, like planting a tree or tending an orchard; it can be a loud march through capitals or a nighttime patrol in a nature reserve. Organizations like the Network of African Women Environmentalists and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance support and amplify their actions, but the heart of change remains in the hands of these women who, day by day, turn caring for the earth into an act of leadership and resistance.
by Federica Re David
