Coalition and Strategic Networks
RRI’s Coalition and Strategic Networks Program leverages the power of the coalition to amplify the voices of local peoples and ensure its healthy functioning by keeping partners, collaborators, fellows, and Board members engaged with our ongoing advocacy and processes. Importantly, we support the participation of coalition members in global fora, ensuring Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities—especially the women and youth within them—are collaborating strategically across geographies. The program facilitates communication, collective learning, and information sharing to ensure the creation of strong bonds among coalition members.
In 2023, we organized two in-person events, the first in the United States in January for our annual Governance Meeting, and the second in the DRC in October for our Global Strategy Meeting. More than 40 people from 21 countries attended these meetings, demonstrating the coalition’s global reach. We also interviewed more than 40 partners and collaborators about their work, priorities, and achievements to develop a unique coalition mapping project, and revitalized MegaFlorestais, RRI’s network of public forest agency leaders.
Here are some of our key achievements in 2023.
- 2023 marked the first in-person convening of the MegaFlorestais network since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting brought together top forest agency leaders from eight countries across five continents in Lake Tahoe, California, United States. The convening was key to revitalizing the network and strengthening our relationship with these leaders from around the world. Following the event, the core planning team of MegaFlorestais was awarded the 2023 US Forest Service Chief’s Honor Award, which recognizes outstanding leadership in the forest sector in the United States.
"We have been living in harmony with nature and biodiversity since time immemorial, as an open living museum that needs to be protected for our next generations."
— Nima Lama Chairperson of Tsum Nubri Rural Municipality, Nepal
- In 2023, we initiated work on a comprehensive coalition mapping tool. This unique online platform helps coalition members, donors, and allies gain a better understanding of our wide-ranging network and documents how each member contributes to the collective mission of advancing Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ land, territory, freshwater, and resource rights. The tool, launched in early 2024, showcases the power and impact of the coalition to donors and allies in the international land rights, climate, and conservation spaces.