Program on the Environment

Defend Lumad Struggles, a campaign supporting the Lumad (Indigenous) people of the Philippines against logging and mining on their ancestral land, could benefit from broader support from environmental groups in the US. However, many US environmental groups lack knowledge of the Lumad struggle and/or understanding of how to connect their own work to such a complex geopolitical manifestation of environmental issues.

I investigated the existing understandings of “environmental issues” by US environmental groups and individuals, both locally and nationally. To do this, I reviewed research on varying conceptions of environmental issues, then applied the findings to the various environmental groups in the Seattle area based on their actions and discourse. Additionally, I developed visual tools to elevate individual and organizational understanding towards the goal of active solidarity with the DLS campaign and other environmental struggles in the Global South with political-economic roots. For this, I reviewed research on effective storytelling and motivational psychology, paired it with previous investigation on beliefs of environmental groups as compared to DLS analysis, and created illustrations intended to bridge the gap in an accessible way.
The resulting deliverables were a list of local environmental groups with points of unity between their perception of environmental issues and DLS analysis; as well as illustrations conveying information and sparking discussion about the Lumad struggle. This toolkit can potentially aid similar groups in raising understanding and concrete support among individuals and groups who care about environmental issues, but who currently have limited understanding of their root causes.