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Nature For Justice Blog
Insights, Plans & Initiatives, Results
Vision & Approach

Taking Partnerships to the Next Level,
the N4J Way
The Four-Legged Stool Theory is in essence the institutional capacity approach for program scaling: creating enduring impact versus implementing a ‘project’. There is frequent reference

Our Program for BIPOC Farmers: 1st Update
In spring 2021, Nature For Justice (N4J) launched its Inclusive Climate Resource Network (ICRNet) program for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) farmers in

Interview with Micheal O’Brien-Onyeka: Capacity Building – Thoughts from a Builder
We are very pleased to have Michael O’Brien-Onyeka join our team at Nature For Justice. Micheal comes with an impressive set of skills and significant

Biodiversity Loss Threatens Social Justice
WWF’s 2020 Living Planet Report reported that: “The world has seen an average 68% drop in mammal, bird, fish, reptile, and amphibian populations since 1970.

A Social Justice Metric: Dignity-Days
As a social justice organization, Nature For Justice (N4J) is committed to helping local people impacted by the climate crisis have dignity in their lives.

A Culture of Earth Centeredness, Mother Earth Day, April 22, 2022
Nature For Justice’s mission (N4J) is to use nature to address the social justice needs of vulnerable populations confronting the climate crisis around the world.

ILI Leader Steven Nitah Joins Nature For Justice
Steven Nitah For nearly a decade, Steven Nitah has been an active member of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), helping to advise Indigenous Nations and

A Visit to Our South Africa Project
Last week I was in South Africa with our corporate partner and the local team as our nature-based project in the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve

Irrecoverable Carbon: Let’s Protect The Boreal
Nature For Justice Indigenous Advisor Steve Nitah and I have been talking a lot about how to protect the Boreal forests of Canada given the

Senegal’s Mighty Mangroves – Livelihoods and Carbon
Mangroves: Buffer, Economic Engine, and Carbon Store In Senegal, mangroves dominate the coastal regions and for good reason. The mighty Senegalise mangrove provides one of

Missed Opportunity: Greenpeace on ENI in Zambia
Greenpeace Report In May 2021, Greenpeace Italy issued a report entitled “The Luangwa Community Forests Project (LCFP) in Zambia, A review of the biggest REDD+

Carbon Offset Investments? De-Risk Them.
Commitments to carbon neutrality are leading many companies to invest in carbon offset projects. How do you manage the risk associated with these long-term, high

Measure, Compare, Modify
Post COP26 View Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are emerging as a powerful, integrated approach for mitigating and adapting to climate change while protecting biodiversity and promoting

Investing in Nature to Reduce Human Migration
Investing $1 in nature-based solutions now will save at least $4 in future costs of climate-related migration. Where on earth did I get that figure?

Interview with Flynn Bucy, Ph.D: Nature For Justice’s Advisory Network Leader
Flynn Bucy, Ph.D. is a well-known senior specialist in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Futures Studies. He has been a senior

Carbon Offsetting 101
Currently, next to “Nature Based Solutions” (NBS), “carbon offsetting” is one of the big buzzwords in the environmental community – and there are as many

Accelerating Nature Based Solutions (NBS)
NBS carbon projects? Too few places, too long in set up, and unfair to local communities. Nature based solutions (NBS) can make a considerable contribution

N4J: One Year In – Progress!
September 15, 2021 is the one-year anniversary for the creation of Nature For Justice (N4J). On our first anniversary let me begin by thanking those

Interview with Zakiya H. Leggett, Ph.D: Nature Based Solutions – Centered on Soil Science
Dr. Zakiya Leggett is an assistant professor at North Carolina State University in the College of Natural Resources. She currently teaches Introduction to Environmental Science

Interview with Missy Rosen: Nurturing Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity
Melissa (Missy) Rosen Bio: Chief People Advisor for Nature For Justice. Results driven HR professional in leading tactical and strategic consulting to create organizational development
Partner Voices

Interview with Rita Botha, Project Manager at the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR)
Rita Botha is the project manager at the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR) for the Goukou Resilient Rivers Projects and the Gouritz Ecological Corridor Project.

Achieving Landscape-scale Ecological Restoration
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. African proverb We need to go a long way,

NatureBank: New N4J Partner
Interview with Cornelia Rindt Lisa Cloete (LC): 1. Thank you for joining us today Cornelia. Can you tell us a bit more about the work

Interview with Kristine Zeigler: Climate Leadership — Gender Balance Matters
To cap our month of featuring women leaders, we interviewed Kristine Zeigler, CEO of the new organization Planet Women. This is the second article featuring

Interview with April Jones: Women Led Engagement with BIPOC Farmers
Farming for the Future: April Jones Faced with a changing climate, the need has never been greater to adopt farming practices that care for the

Commercializing Indigenous Plants in a Climate Impacted World
My passion is the sustainable commercialisation of Southern African indigenous plant resources to generate positive social, economic and environmental benefits. When the Southern African Natural

Cloud Forest Organics — Restorative Approach to Agribusiness: Part II
This project is about white spectacled bears. And pure high Amazon water. And about Porotón: a protein rich leguminous tree that is native to Andes

Radically Changing Business in Vulnerable Andean Cloud Forests: Part I
“We strongly believe that the protection of forests, the lives of local families, and their connection to the outside world are not separate but are

Nature For Justice and Cultivo:
A Common Vision
We aspire to be a leader in using nature-based solutions to achieve social justice for communities affected by the climate crisis. The Nature For Justice

Sustainable Solutions Come From Those On The Ground
“At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize

Looking to the Past to Inspire the Future of Cocoa Agroforestry
There are few places on earth where I feel more relaxed, refreshed and joyful than when walking through cocoa farms in Ghana. While many people
Vulnerable Voices

What is Regenerative Farming? A South African Example.
Jurgen Johannes Streichter is a grain farmer in South Africa’s southern Cape and which lies within the Gouritz Biosphere Region where we are currently engaged

Climate Change, India, and the Price of Onions.
In India, onions are everything.” “In India, onions are everything,” my roommate Apurva told me as we waited outside our local vegetable stand. That summer,

It’s Time to Put Women in Charge of Saving This Planet
Today, we face four catastrophes at once: 1) the COVID-19 pandemic, 2) climate change, 3) institutional racism, and 4) political polarization and attacks on democracy.
Origin Stories

Destroying Nature Undermines Equity and Justice
My Nature For Justice colleague, Kevin Bryan, posted a blog and video last week on equity and justice and it reminded me of my ‘aha’

Help People Where They Are
Early in my career I had the good fortune to be offered a life-defining experience by working in the refugee camps in Somalia. Ali Matan