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Support the Land Defenders Working to Save their Homes and Livelihoods

Dear friend,

With your help, this year we launched a land-defenders legal fund that’s already making a critical difference for brave activists around the world fighting to stay on their land and in their homes.

Pastor Omot Agwa, credit: Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas/WG Film

Among others, we’re working to free Pastor Omot Agwa who’s been detained for nearly 8 months for attempting to attend a food security workshop on indigenous communities in Ethiopia.

In the twisted world of the Ethiopian government, talking about food security for indigenous people is punishable under draconian anti-terrorism laws. So even though Pastor Omot Agwa has done nothing illegal he is sitting in a jail cell.

The Oakland Institute plays a critical role in bringing pressure to help communities from Africa to Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and beyond… speak up for land rights.

As our allies like Pastor Omot Agwa get bullied and imprisoned for speaking up, we know we must amplify his words louder — in opposition to those who keep pushing for fast profits at the expense of depleting resources and forcibly displacing people.

Publicizing the plight of land defenders is only part of our work related to research and advocacy.

We don’t do research to sit on a shelf or to exist as a link on the internet. We do investigations — together with the footwork and calls needed — to get our findings into the right hands and have an impact.

Policymakers and the press take our calls — so we can keep the stories and plight of displaced and jailed activists and local people in the public arena.

It’s a much needed counterbalance to agroindustrial projects that cause more destruction than promised food and development.

Will you please take this opportunity to contribute to our Land Defenders Legal Fund today?

I promise that your support will make a real difference in the lives of so many people. Because of you, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people stay on their land, moved court cases for land defenders, made visible the heart-breaking story of Sri Lankans, taken on illegal logging and shown the world how agroecology can help improve lives while shifting climate degradation.

Please support this vital work again in 2016 by sending your tax-deductible Year-End Gift without delay.

Less than a year ago we launched our Land Defenders Fund and now we need to boost that starter fund to do more.

Our work together is not nearly done. But we are making progress.

Please be as generous as you can in supporting our work in 2016.

Thank you so much.

Anuradha's Picture

Anuradha Mittal

Executive Director