At Panta Rhea, we know that climate change affects everyone; yet, its impacts are not experienced equally. The inequalities that arose from colonialization and slavery continue today, affecting communities who steward our planet’s most bioculturally vibrant and climate-vulnerable places.
Thus we see solidarity funding in the Global South as essential to our mission. Frontline land and sea defenders – often Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities – need independent resources to self-govern and navigate the natural and political ecosystems for our collective survival.
This understanding informed the launch of our Global Roots Fund in late 2020. Through the fund, we support Global South communities and social movements towards their autonomous visions for a better world. Given our history, relationships, language capacity, and staffing, we currently prioritize efforts in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Global Roots funds primarily through values-aligned regional partners. Occasionally, where we see gaps, Panta Rhea may also initiate efforts. One example of is the Seaflower Resilience Fund, which the foundation launched in late 2020 in the Western Caribbean islands of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina.
Seaflower Resilience Fund supports the Raizal community’s agenda in the Caribbean islands of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. (Photo: Connie Malloy)
The CLIMA Fund supports grassroots movements to cool the planet and build resilience around the globe, through investing in on-the-ground leaders behind the most sustainable and effective solutions. (Image courtesy of CLIMA Fund.)