Webinar synthesis: "Finding the connection: what we eat, what we wear and climate change".

Host: Laetitia EL HADDAD, Coordinator of the Jeunesses Med network, REF

Moderator: Chaden MOATAZ (Egypt)

Speakers:  Esraa AHMED (Egypt); Adham KRAJA (Palestine); Victoria DOMINGO (Spain)

For about 8/9 years Esraa has been active in the field of social development in Egypt. In recent years, she has been particularly interested in environmental impact and works as a teaching manager at the German environmental organization " You think green" in Cairo.  When looking at environmental issues, Esraa found that the data she found was mostly international or European, not from the North African region or Egypt. For her, the solutions are not international, but local and adapt according to the country or region. She has thus started to develop a local Egyptian and North African approach to climate change by translating the "Climate Fresco" manuals into Arabic to make them accessible to people in the region or around a project with local communities on climate change and its impacts in Egypt. She has also committed to sustainable fashion by joining Fashion Revolution Egypt , which works to promote sustainable fashion in Asia and North Africa, particularly through workshops. COP27 in Cairo was a mobilizing element in that it opened the doors to dialogue on the subject.  

 

Adham is a member of an agricultural cooperative in the village of "Safa" west of Ramallah. He started his project in 2017 and has been working on it for 5 years now. Originally, his project was mainly agricultural before being environmental, but given climate change, his project is also environmental today. The approach to environmental issues and climate change takes on a completely different and particular dimension in the Palestinian context. Indeed, because of the Israeli occupation, the separation wall, the reduction of freedom, access to natural resources (water, electricity) for Adham and the inhabitants of his village is an almost impossible mission. The Israelis control and confiscate all access to the most important resources for agriculture: land, water and even infrastructure. 

 

Noting that after 30 years of peacefully fighting climate change, public policy was not evolving, Victoria co-founded Futuro Vegetal. Based on non-violent civil disobedience, Futuro Vegetal's activities include highway blockades and actions in museums. The collective's demands are directed at the Spanish government, but it also wants to mobilize citizens on the issue of climate change. One of the collective's biggest causes is the drastic decline in animal farming. In fact, Spain is the farm of Europe, and this livestock requires a very high consumption of natural resources: water, land (70% of the land used for agriculture in Spain is intended for animal breeding), animal feed (Spain imports a lot of soybeans to Brazil and other countries to be able to feed the animals). Through their "shocking" actions, Futuro Vegetal wishes to draw the attention of the media and public authorities to the issue of climate change.