Joan Carling struggles to find the right words to convey how she feels about the fires raging across the Amazon, the world’s biggest rainforest and a vital piece in the complex ecological puzzle that sustains life on earth.
“It really… it just makes me angry,” the renowned indigenous rights activist said.
Carling, a member of the Kankanaey tribe in the Philippines, has spent more than two decades fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples and it distresses her to see what is happening to people who have long sought to protect nature in the Amazon.
“Even if the numbers are low, they are the ones who protect the Amazon,” she said. “It gives you a sense of helplessness.”
Carling has worked tirelessly to ensure the voices of some of the world’s most marginalized and isolated people are heard. In 2018, she received the UN Environment Programme’s Champion of the Earth lifetime achievement award, which she dedicated to her fellow activists across the world. Read more>>
