To Save a Forest, Look to the Women: W4C featured in Yes! Magazine

“Women often suffer the most from environmental degradation. A nonprofit in Colombia is trying to make their needs central to conservation.” – Yes! Magazine

Women for Conservation is thrilled to be featured in Yes! magazine by environmental journalist Veronika Perková. “To Save a Forest, Look to the Women”,  follows the story of Women for Conservation founder and President Sara Inés Lara through her journey of becoming a leading voice for conservation in Colombia, and how she landed on women’s empowerment initiatives as a leading conservation solution.  

This article covers the stories of Ninfa Carinialli, Women for Conservation’s first female forest guard, commentary from project coordinator Kelly Julio Donado, and quotes from girls who have recently been part of our family planning programs.  

The article also covers how ProAves and Women for Conservation partnered to bring the critically endangered Yellow-eared Parrot back from the brink of extinction.

“It was a huge win, and it taught Lara an important lesson: Women are instrumental in conservation. Women often feel the adverse effects of environmental degradation hardest, and their participation in ProAves’ work quickly demonstrated that they were essential to the success of community-based conservation projects. In many rural communities in Colombia, women are responsible for meeting their families’ most basic needs from nature, including water, firewood, and food—all of which become increasingly difficult as the environment suffers. But the women she encountered needed support, too.”

Yes! Magazine is a non-profit and independent publisher of solutions journalism.