About Us

What differentiates Global Justice Ecology Project from most groups is our holistic approach to organizing. We believe that the compartmentalization of issues is enabling corporations and conservative forces to keep movements for change divided and powerless. GJEP's mission is to explore and expose the intertwined root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction and economic domination with the aim of building bridges between social justice, environmental justice and ecological justice groups to strengthen their collective efforts. Within this framework, our programs focus on Indigenous Peoples' rights, protection of native forests and climate justice. We use the issue of climate change to demonstrate these interconnections.

Our Programs:

STOP GE Trees Campaign: The goal of this campaign is a global ban on the release of genetically engineered trees (also called GM trees or GMO trees) into the environment. For more information about the dangers of GE trees and about the campaign, click here

Climate Connections Program and Strategic Media: To read our statement on climate change and climate justice, click here.

For more information on our Media Programs, click here

Chiapas-California Climate Justice Program (2011-2012): The U.S. state of California is attempting to purchase forest carbon offsets from the Mexican state of Chiapas. This plan is threatening the well-being of some of the Indigenous communities that live in the Lacandon Jungle.

The carbon offset provisions of this REDD deal (touted as a model for climate legislation worldwide) will allow ongoing industrial pollution of poor California communities, and are already causing forced relocations of Indigenous communities in Chiapas for expansion of "protected areas" and agrofuel plantations.

Our project started in Chiapas in 2011 where we traveled to Chiapas and to the Lacandon Jungle to interview human rights activists, officials, Indigenous leaders, and indigenous communities members. We used this documentation to write articles and produce print, radio and online media to expose the problem; and to inform and mobilize impacted communities in Chiapas and California. Late in 2011 we produced a documentary film on the Indigenous Peoples resistance to REDD, featuring the interviews we made in Chiapas. You can view the film by clicking here. To view Orin Langelle's photo essay from Amador Hernandez, click here.

For more on the issue, click here.

Fiscally Sponsored Projects:

Langelle Photography: GJEP Board Chair Orin Langelle directs this new endeavor that chronicles four decades of his concerned photography.

The point of the Langelle Photography project is to place his photographs into the context of social struggle--the struggle for societal transformation toward justice, equity and ecological balance.

He documents a wide range of topics, cultures, ecosystems and geographies. Topics include the struggles of communities, activists, workers and Indigenous Peoples--against racism, war, ecological devastation, climatic disruption, economic domination, human rights abuses and oppression of women.

Langelle approaches his role as concerned photographer by not merely documenting the struggle for social and ecological justice, but by being an active part of it. This has enabled him to garner the trust of many of the subjects he has documented, allowing him access that would not have been possible otherwise. In this way, he have been able to expose the truth that is so often hidden by the powers of injustice.

Langelle's work is an historical look at social movements, struggle and everyday life. It is designed to counter the societal amnesia from which we collectively suffer--especially with regard to the history of social and ecological struggles. This is not merely a chronicling of history, but a call out to inspire new generations to participate in the making of a new history. For there has been no time when such a call has been so badly needed.

Photographer's Statement: "I attempt to capture, what noted photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson describes as 'the decisive moment.' To me this decisive moment is the instant a visual image is recorded--when light, composition and the subject unite. As a concerned photographer, that image should be of a social value that documents the political essence of the subject; which then inspires the viewer to take action. My goal is to document and expose the reality of injustice--much of which is linked with the struggle for the land--using photographs to educate and change the world, not just to record it."

BiofuelWatch, an organization with offices in the U.S. and the UK that is dedicated to exposing the social and ecological impacts of bioenergy schemes including agrofuels (industrial-scale biofuels), biomass-based electricity generation and biochar.