I envision a future where everyone’s voice is represented and heard and where everyone's perspective is acknowledged. Marginalized communities have the least say when environmental decisions are made, but are affected the most by these decisions. This needs to change. I believe change can be made if every marginalized community elects one representative that they trust will pass on their true ideas and beliefs. Then, this elected representative will become a member of the decision making committee without any intervention or say from the majority. This will solely be a decision within the community. This somewhat ensures that these voices are accounted for when making environmental decisions, not only in areas that directly affect the community but decisions at a larger scale as well. These marginalized/indigenous communities have abundant valuable knowledge regarding nature and the environment that can help the planet as a whole and their opinion should be taken into consideration for both small and large scale environmental issues. At the least, this will ensure that these communities will be informed of these decisions as soon as they are made. I do still think that this does not solve everything since the voices of the more “powerful” majority communities might overshadow them, but it is a step towards justice that we should be willing to take.
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Hey Ari! Found your idea about having each affected community elect one representative to be thought-provoking. Could you explain a bit more about how this would work? Would a different representative be selected for different types of decisions (e.g. environmental assessments, food security protections, wildlife management)? Would this one person have to consult with their community when making decisions?
Your post also reminded me of the section on Free and Prior Informed Consent in our reading this week. I still don't quite understand what FPIC means. Does it mean that if a community is completely opposed to a project on its territory, after all parties involved have a had a good faith discussion, the project cannot go ahead? In your case, if one elected representative from one community supports a project, and another elected representative from another community does not, how would that be resolved?
I agree that inclusion and representation is super important when it comes to environmental decisions that will affect different people. Interesting ideas for how to promote representation!