Small Scale, Big Impact: Sustainability Leaders Making A Difference In Their Communities
by Eduardo Garcia · ForbesThese activists are working to make their homes more resilient in a variety of ways, from protecting wildlife to planting trees.
By Eduardo Garcia, Forbes Staff
The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced. The Forbes 2024 Sustainability Leaders List highlights the entrepreneurs, policymakers, and philanthropists working on the frontlines to battle it. But while compiling it we discovered a number of climate warriors working away from the limelight, helping their own communities in the frontlines of climate change become more resilient. Some of these local activists are empowering coastal communities in the U.S. ravaged by extreme weather events; others are working with Indigenous groups in the Global South to protect biodiversity and access to fresh water. The impact of their work may not be global, but it’s making a difference for some of the people who need the most help.
Purnima Devi Barman, Founder, Hargila Army, India
Dr. Purnima Devi Barman is the founder of Hargila Army, a grassroots movement of 10,000 rural women fighting to protect the endangered Greater Adjutant Stork (Hargila) in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. The bird’s population had been threatened by loss of habitat, hunting and egg collection so the wildlife biologist began training local women in conservation and habitat restoration in 2007. She soon realized science wasn’t enough. Hargila Army needed to change people’s perceptions of storks, which are viewed as bad omens. So her team began integrating cultural practices into their conservation efforts by mentioning storks in prayer and folk songs, and adding Hargila motifs to traditional garments. “By empowering Indigenous women, we can help them save species and biodiversity through their culture, folk songs, and sustainable practices, all while generating passion for conservation,” Dr. Barman told Forbes.
The group also planted trees to create nesting hubs, and rescued hundreds of baby birds. Its efforts have paid off: there are now around 1,800 storks in Assam, up from around 400 in 2007. Dr. Barman is now collaborating with researchers who want to replicate the Hargila Army model to help preserve storks in Cambodia and Kenya.
Colette Pichon Battle, Partner for Vision and Initiatives, Taproot Earth, United States
In 2005, Colette Pichon Battle witnessed the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, which killed over 1,800 people, left over $100 billion in infrastructure damages and forced entire communities to relocate. In a 2019 TED Talk that has been viewed nearly 3.7 million times, she said that the storm foretold a bigger disaster for bayou communities in South Louisiana, which are predominantly Black, poor, and Indigenous. “We thought we were just bound by temporary disaster recovery but we found that we were now bound by the impossible task of ensuring that our communities will not be erased by sea level rise due to climate change,” she said.
Preventing that from happening inspired Pichon Battle to found the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP) in 2005, which sought to provide legal services to communities of color to make them more resilient to natural disasters. GCCLP later evolved into Taproot Earth, which seeks to advance climate justice through Black Liberation and democracy. Pichon Battle is also the architect of the 2019 “Gulf South for the Green New Deal,” a comprehensive policy platform to tackle the root causes of the climate crisis. In recent years, Taproot Earth has organized meetings, workshops and assemblies across 17 states to engage local communities in a more just climate transition.
Letícia Benavalli, CEO and Founder, Pró-Onça Institute, Brazil
When she saw a jaguar for the first time at age 18, Letícia Benavalli became obsessed with the largest cats in the Americas. “I was impressed by how small I was in comparison to the jaguar. At that very moment I knew I wanted to learn everything about them,” she told Forbes. That passion inspired her to found the Pró-Onça Institute, a non-profit group that aims to strike a balance between conservation and sustainable development in the grasslands of the southern Cerrado region in Brazil. Cerrado is the world's most biodiverse savanna, home to 5% of the planet's animals and plants, South America's second-largest biome after the Amazon and a key source of freshwater for most of the continent.
The conservation biologist said she chose to focus on the Cerrado because authorities are turning a blind eye on deforestation there, one of the main threats to jaguar populations. On the one hand, Pró-Onça enlists locals in efforts to protect large mammals, like jaguars, anteaters and armadillos—for instance, it is installing corrals to protect cattle from jaguar attacks, which in turns helps reduce retaliatory killings by ranchers. On the other, it encourages communities to avoid using toxic herbicides and pesticides, utilize sustainable farming techniques and restore local habitats.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President, Indigenous Women and Peoples Association of Chad, Chad
Since the 1960s, central Africa’s Lake Chad has lost 90% of its water because of climate change and other factors. This is a devastating blow to the Mbororo, a nomadic community of herders who have lived on the lake’s shores for centuries. Entire communities have been displaced as the water vanished, said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, a Mbororo woman who leads the Association of Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) to champion the rights of pastoral communities and promote traditional knowledge that enables them to adapt to extreme weather and water scarcity. “I have grown up seeing the fast climate change impact, the loss of biodiversity and the advancement of the desert,” the 41-year-old told Forbes.
Ibrahim formed AFPAT in 1999, when she was just a teenager. Since then, the group has implemented land restoration, reforestation and agroecology projects for approximately 800 Indigenous communities in Chad and Niger. AFPAT runs a cartography project to ensure equitable access to water and plant resources among nomadic communities and facilitate the movement of livestock, and empowers women by teaching them how to produce and market dairy products. When she was appointed Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in April 2024, Ibrahim called for more funding for Indigenous groups, who play a key role in protecting biodiversity. “I fight everyday for the recognition of the Indigenous Peoples, their knowledge and superpower to help us save our Mother Earth as we are the guardians of our planet,” she told Forbes.
Elizabeth Wathuti, Founder and Chairperson, Green Generation Initiative, Kenya
In a viral speech at COP26, Kenya’s Elizabeth Wathuti urged global leaders to “open your hearts” to the misery caused by droughts in sub-Saharan Africa, saying that decisions made at the 2021 UN climate change summit would determine whether the trees planted by her youth-led non-profit group “will live or perish.” The Green Generation Initiative she founded in 2016 has planted more than 1 million trees in schools, urban green spaces and rural community farms. These trees sequester some 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and help restore biodiversity. They include drought-resistant trees that bear fruit, like guavas, providing local communities suffering from a lack of rainfall with much-needed nutrients.
In recent years, Wathuti has focused on mentoring dozens of African climate activists to help elevate their voices to the global stage while continuing to organize educational programs in over 150 Kenyan schools. “My ultimate goal is to inspire and empower others to join the movement towards a greener, more equitable planet. Together, we can create lasting change for generations to come,” she told Forbes.