Nature Footprints
Launched in 2023, Nature Footprints is a collection of art from around the world bringing together community stories of climate, conflict, and peace. It contains 18 artists’ voices from communities directly affected by climate-related conflict, as well as those involved in environmental peacebuilding efforts. I had the absolute pleasure of art directing the collection, working with the 18 artists involved, helping them finalise their pieces, designing the online storybook, and writing the prologue. It was extraordinary to watch the artists use their art to bear witness to both the violence of what is happening in their communities, and the possibility of something better: protest, marginalisation, mediation, collective action. Industrial extraction, armed conflict, Indigenous wisdom, solidarity … and much more.
Here are a few snapshots from the online book. You can browse the full collection – in English, Spanish, French and Arabic – at www.naturefootprints.org.
The collection was launched in 2023 at the UN Climate Convention’s COP28 in Dubai, emphasizing the critical need to put issues of peace and conflict in the spotlight during climate change negotiations. Nature Footprints is an ongoing partnership between several actors working at the intersections of environment, conflict and peace, and is coordinated by the community organisers based at the Environmental Peacebuilding Association-led Community of Practice on the Environment, Climate, Conflict and Peace (ECCP). Find out more at: www.ecosystemforpeace.org
You can also find out more about each of the 18 artists at: www.naturefootprints.org/artists