Although 2024 brought significant challenges for the climate movement worldwide\u2014ranging from the rise of the global far right to devastating forest fires from California to Patagonia and rising global temperatures\u2014Indigenous and frontline communities remained resilient and unwavering, continuing to lead the movement for climate justice. A key pillar of RAN\u2019s work over the past forty years has been supporting those at the frontline of the environmental and human rights movement and creating broad coalitions of resistance to corporate power and environmental destruction through our Community Action Grants Program, designed to channel funds quickly and efficiently to Indigenous and local communities who may otherwise not have access to more traditional forms of funding.<\/p>\n
2024 was no different. Last year, RAN distributed over $850,000 in Community Action Grants (CAG), with over 80 grants in 15 countries across five continents. CAG grants supported land rights strategies in Asia, BIPOC communities in the U.S. Gulf South, Amazonian and coastal communities in Peru, Afro-descendent and Indigenous communities in Colombia, and broad alliances in Brazil. 2024 showed that the struggles that unite communities can overcome the barriers put in place by those in power to divide them, a theme that will continue to inform our strategy in 2025.<\/p>\n
The #NoFerrogr\u00e3o Alliance in Brazil is a prime example of how RAN\u2019s Community Action Grants unite communities around a common goal: protecting our environment. The Alliance, which brings together various organizations, including the Association of Brazil\u2019s Indigenous Peoples (APIB), the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), the Munduruku Pariri Association, and the Kayapo Kabu Institute, seeks to stop the construction of the EF-170 railway project, also known as the Ferrogr\u00e3o. The project, which would connect to Cargill\u2019s Abaetetuba port, would cut 600 miles through the Amazon and lead to 1,200 square miles of deforestation in 16 Indigenous territories, causing insurmountable damage to the rainforest and Indigenous peoples\u2019 livelihoods and traditions in the area.<\/p>\n In March 2024, with funding from RAN\u2019s Community Action Grants program, the Alliance was able to organize a week-long tour of the communities impacted by the project, conducting workshops on the adverse effects of the project on the community. The tour also included a strategic planning assembly, where 80 members of the organizations came up with ideas for coalition building, advocacy, and strategy to put political pressure on those behind the railway.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.ran.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoFerrograo-Alliance-photo-credit-Felipe-Beltrame-1020x680.jpg\")