Environmental Defenders launched Radio Terra, a community media network, to address the pressing need for reliable human rights and environmental information in the Albertine Rift region of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Broadcasting on 95 FM and 97 FM, Radio Terra reaches over 5 million listeners, providing rural and indigenous communities with critical information, advocacy platforms, and a space for connection.
The important role of indigenous peoples in the protection and conservation of the environment is well established and should be advanced.
The purpose of Radio Terra FM is to unfold the complexities of the Albertine Region and to inform people about relevant issues, from health and food security to conflict management. To do so, the strategy is to use environmental education, promote basic rights, and propagate Indigenous culture.
The objectives will be considered achieved when all Indigenous and local community groups in the different territories understand the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in defense of their ancestral land, when everyone understands they can exercise their food sovereignty in continuity with the Indigenous culture, and when the communities resume their role as custodians of common lands, water, and forests, we will consider the objectives accomplished. The long-term vision involves using community radio as a laboratory to enable a community-based development model that encompasses the direct rights and needs of civil society. The principles complied with are those of ecofeminism.
Radio Terra FM identifies environmental and human rights defenders, as Earth Defenders, above all by what they do. They are not necessarily only members of big, well-known environmental NGOs. They may work as journalists, activists, or lawyers who expose and oppose environmental destruction or land grabbing, or they may simply be ordinary people living in remote villages or forests, unaware that they are acting as environmental human rights defenders. They may be small-scale farmers with no land deeds, fisherwomen, teachers in remote rural communities, and, in some cases, even government officials. In many other cases, they are Indigenous leaders or community members who defend their native lands against the harms of large-scale projects from the extractive industry. Many become environmental human rights defenders by accident or necessity, taking a stand against injustice or harm to their environment. Radio Terra FM brings together the peaceful voices of those living amidst armed conflict in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Radio Terra FM amplifies the voices of communities who have been evicted from their native lands, either without or with unfair compensation, to make way for extractive industry projects or conservation projects, despite their inability to exercise their rights to free, prior, and informed consent. Radio Terra FM serves to make marginalized rural communities less vulnerable through access to information, communication, and network support.
However, despite having contributed the least to climate change, indigenous peoples are among the first to face its effects. They are also increasingly negatively impacted by climate action and green investments in their lands and territories, are increasingly negatively impacted by climate change mitigation initiatives on their customary lands such as the establishment of conservation areas and national parks, renewable energy projects, etc. The loss of land and natural resources contributes to the loss of traditional livelihood practice, valuable indigenous knowledge, and to food insecurity. It also entails risks of hampering mitigations efforts more broadly as indigenous peoples are not only the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change but also stewards of most of the remaining biodiversity, with important contributions to adaptation and mitigation efforts, e.g. in regards to nature-based solutions.
Through Radio Terra, Environmental Defenders envisions empowered, informed communities actively engaging in sustainable development, peacebuilding, and environmental stewardship.
The growing demand for land and natural resources make indigenous peoples’ land a target for increased exploitation, illicit acquisitions, and land-grabbing.
Indigenous women experience multiple forms of discrimination due to their indigenous identity, their gender, and poverty.
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