Manila, Philippines (AFP) – The Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women joined the Philippine counterpart of the Global Climate Strike on November 12 at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani to protest the negative impact of climate injustice on agricultural lands, food security, lives, and livelihoods of Filipino farmers, peasant women, and fishermen.

“We join various sectors in the country and around the world to demand climate justice and put an end to climate imperialism committed by monopoly bureaucrat capitalists in collusion with the government,” Amihan National Chairperson Zen Soriano exclaimed.

According to Soriano, the peasant women’s group in the country holds them accountable for facilitating and promoting super-profit-oriented economic activities such as corporate mining, logging, and plantation operations; reclamation and conversion of bay areas, commercial overfishing; land use and crop conversions; and promotion of massive use of poisonous agrochemical inputs in farming, among other things.

Women bear an additional burden, particularly during times of calamity and crisis, such as drought, because they are expected to meet the daily needs of the family on a very limited income.

The group also stated that the costs of all these man-made activities that abuse or “rape” mother nature disproportionately impacted the marginalised sectors, particularly farmers, peasant women, and fisherfolk. These projects were the root causes of widespread flooding and prolonged drought, which primarily affects the crops and livelihoods of farmers and women farmers; food scarcity; threats to people’s lives, safety, and health; and environmental destruction.

Finally, Amihan stated that the people of the country and the world must band together to overthrow imperialism, which is at the root of the global climate crisis.