About the Diverse Voices

'Diverse Voices' is a collaborative project bringing together young people from Tanzania, Sri Lanka and UK in a collaborative project which explores ideas about Environmental Justice in cross-national perspective.

Through the use of sharing images, these workshops encourage participants to collectively explore their thoughts, feelings, concerns and ideas about how we can ensure that environments, ecosystems, species, and indigenous communities are respected in human decision-making.

Below you can see some of the images brought to the conversation by the participants along with their thoughts and some video extracts from the workshops.

Workshop 1: Monday 13 March 2023

It was the first of our Diverse Voices exchanges today and we had the most fascinating conversations between students in Tanzania and UK. A huge thank you to Victor & Jones from Tanzania, and Bethan & Annie Sheen, Arts and Culture Programme Manager in the UK for taking part.

Impossible to convey the incredible range and depth of the discussions, but here is a taster of some of the themes and topics that people brought to the table.

Watch and read some of the highlights below.

Workshop 2: Tuesday 14 March

Another fantastic workshop with even more diverse views upon Environmental Justice today. We could have kept talking for hours, the conversations were so absorbing and rich! Here is a little taster, and watch out for the upcoming short film about the project, which Professor Clare Saunders will be producing in the coming months from these conversations.

Below you can see some of the images brought to the conversation by the participants along with their thoughts.

Misan: UK

Climate change cannot be reversed, its effects can only be mitigated. Misan made a powerful case for the role of law/legal frameworks in addressing Environmental Justice issues and helping local communities to develop resilience. His research explores why the law is not currently playing this key role in ensuring that local people and local knowledge is involved and consulted in key decisions such as the granting of licenses for mining, fishing quotas, access to resources etc. The meaningful involvement of local people was critical to the process of Environmental Justice.

Kamala: Sri Lanka

Kamala spoke eloquently about balance: how each ecosystem has its own balance and how human activity disturbs those balances. This results in some species being destroyed and some growing rapidly. She gave the example of water use in Sri Lanka where local people gathered water from wells. Today electric motors pump water from the bottom of wells resulting in the salinisation of water. She asked 'is there a limit to growth?'

Her question was: Should Western nations take greater responsibility for cleaning up the environment given their higher levels of pollution? China and India are the main polluters in the East today she answered, and the global south needs funds to access cleaner technology. In the past the Western world was the main polluter. It is moving towards greener energy and should take greater responsibility by supporting the global south with cleaner technologies. Every country has the right to live in a clean environment.

Workshop 3: Wednesday 15 March

Despite a few technical hitches with Zoom we had another set of wonderfully rich conversations today bringing together Winnic in Tanzania, Priya in Sri Lanka, and Rebecca and Yasmin in the UK.

Winnic, Tanzania

Winnic spoke about the trees in her neighbourhood being cut down and disappearing from the landscape. She argued that people need to plant a tree before they cut one down. When trees are cut down the water cycle changes. Water is a key priority in Sub-Saharan Africa; if the rains don’t come all of life is affected. Water is life she emphasised. If the environment is not safe, there is no food for humans and the animals die. We need an environment that supports life.

We do not treat mother nature with love she stated. Winnic’s big questions about the environment were: What about tomorrow? Who is responsible for action? She encouraged young people to: Say I CAN and don’t wait for others! It is time for action, not talking.

Priya

Priya was concerned about changing rainfall patterns in Sri Lanka, particularly unusually heavy rains. Rebecca pointed out that although the UK has also had heavy rains recently, the impact is much harsher for Sri Lankan communities because they don’t have the same resources and technologies.

Both Priya and Winnic spoke about their disappointment that young people in their countries do not recycle plastics and throw away their rubbish. They were surprised at the lack of care for the environment that many young people exhibited in their countries.