- The implementation of the energy transition is unfolding at the expense of biodiversity and communities — particularly Indigenous women, says Galina Angarova and Daniela De León, members of the SIRGE Coalition.
- They say Indigenous women stand at the frontlines of the energy transition as defenders of their lands and waters and as visionaries shaping alternative pathways rooted in balance, reciprocity and care.
- “A just and sustainable future cannot be achieved without the full participation, leadership and consent of Indigenous women,” they write in this opinion piece.
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces focusing on their lived experiences, land stewardship and visions for environmental justice. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation.
Indigenous women hold a profound understanding of the world as an interwoven web of relationships among people, land, water and all living beings. In many Indigenous worldviews, well-being is collective, and the health of one element sustains the health of all. This perspective defies dominant Western paradigms that often separate humans from nature.
As the world rushes toward a new economic era shaped by the energy and digital transitions, Indigenous women are reminding humanity that no technological progress can substitute for a broken relationship with the Earth. Their voices and leadership are essential to envisioning a future that is not only low-carbon but truly life-affirming.
Through this commentary, we take the opportunity to reflect on the intersection of Indigenous women and the ongoing energy and digital transitions, exploring what these shifts mean for Indigenous peoples, and especially for Indigenous women, in relation to their rights, livelihoods and cultural continuity.
Across the globe, Indigenous women stand at the frontlines of the energy transition as defenders of their lands and waters and visionaries shaping alternative pathways rooted in balance, reciprocity and care. From the lithium-rich salt flats of the Andes to the nickel mines of Indonesia, they are confronting extractive practices driving the so-called “green economy.”
Drawing from ancestral knowledge systems and lived experience, Indigenous women are not only leading through resistance, but also guiding communities toward models of energy and food sovereignty that restore ecosystems, strengthen cultural identity and ensure that future generations inherit a livable planet.
The statistics
Indigenous peoples (including women) steward a large share of the remaining global biodiversity through their traditional knowledge and land management practices, even though Indigenous peoples themselves are a small minority of the global population. Yet, despite their immense cultural, ecological and economic contributions, Indigenous women remain among the most marginalized groups globally, disproportionately affected by poverty, environmental degradation, gender-based violence and climate change impacts.
In the context of the energy transition, it is important to pay attention to a different set of statistics. A 2022 Nature Sustainability study conducted by the University of Queensland found that, among 5,097 mining projects globally involving some 30 minerals used in renewable energy technologies, 54% are located on or near Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories.
Data from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre add further urgency: Their 2025 Transition Minerals Tracker reports 835 allegations of human rights abuses linked to mining for “transition” minerals between 2010 and 2024. Indigenous peoples were disproportionately impacted: Across all years, there have been 77 allegations affecting Indigenous peoples’ rights.
The gendered dimension is also evident: There are 27 reported cases affecting women across all years, and these are cases concerning livelihoods, health, economic participation and instances of gender-based violence. These vulnerabilities sharply increase when Indigenous women act as defenders.
On extractive paradigm and patterns
As Indigenous women from two distinct biocultural regions, one from Siberia and the other from Guatemala, we have observed a troubling and recurring pattern: The implementation of the energy transition is unfolding at the expense of Indigenous communities and biodiversity. This compels us to reflect on the worldwide burdens such patterns place on Indigenous women, who already endure multiple and intersecting forms of systemic oppression.
As the climate crisis forces humanity to rethink economic models and energy systems, Indigenous women stand at the intersection of two realities: subjected to bearing the costs of expanded extractivism and being the stewards of ancestral knowledge that can guide us toward healing the planet.
As the world seeks to transition toward new ways of existing on this planet, we must not repeat the same extractive patterns that have brought us to the current crisis. Shifting to a “green economy” demands a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels and a dramatic expansion of renewable energy to power societies. At the U.N. climate conference, COP28, for example, more than 100 countries pledged to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030, marking a historic step.
The result has been a new mining boom, a global rush to secure these metals and minerals deemed essential for green technologies. The prevailing narrative positions large-scale mining as the only way to ensure the energy transition. However, this global ambition comes with complex challenges. Technologies driving the energy transition, from solar panels and wind turbines to batteries and electric vehicles, depend heavily on extracting minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper. These minerals are often located on or near Indigenous territories, biodiverse ecosystems and fragile watersheds.
Without a profound shift, pursuing a “green” future risks reproducing the same injustices of the fossil fuel era, only this time under the banner of sustainability. The reality is that we cannot mine our way out of the climate crisis. Real solutions lie in reducing overall energy demand, investing in efficient and accessible public transportation, recycling minerals already in circulation, building circular economies, localizing and closing food system loops, redesigning our cities to work with natural systems and supporting Indigenous-led land-based climate solutions.
Moreover, when mining projects arrive in Indigenous territories, they rarely look “green.” This is where and when old extractive paradigms resurface full force. Mining companies target Indigenous territories because, compared with regulations in the countries where these corporations are headquartered, Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories, especially in resource-rich countries, often have weaker protections. To both corporations and states granting them licenses, these lands are too often viewed as commodities rather than living homelands.
This mindset reveals the colonial relationship that continues shaping interactions between states and Indigenous peoples. Colonialism sees land as property, something to be owned and valued for its productive potential. In contrast, many Indigenous worldviews understand the land as a living being, a nonhuman relative that breathes, gives, receives and remembers. It is never empty, for it is home to countless other lives, from microorganisms to towering redwoods.
The importance of this reframing cannot be overstated. Once we understand that we belong to the land and nature in the same way we belong to our human families, not apart from them, we will walk differently upon this planet. We will collectively hurt when mountains are torn open, when lakes and rivers are polluted and when entire forests are cut down. Indigenous women are key actors in reshaping this relationship into balance and renewal.
Indigenous women face unique challenges
In Indigenous communities, Indigenous women play a fundamental role in preserving our cultures and all forms of life in our territories. From safeguarding ancestral knowledge about Indigenous lands, resources and sustainable practices to passing down Indigenous languages, cultures and knowledge. However, our sisters still face systemic oppression not for one reason but for many: based on gender, ethnic origin, age, disabilities and geographic location.
These intersecting forms of oppression point to a critical issue with the increased pressure for critical minerals: The consequences of extractivism are not evenly distributed; they are imposed on Indigenous women. We can draw a parallel between the exploitation of the land by extractivism, driven by colonialism, and the exploitation of Indigenous women’s bodies by patriarchy. This is better illustrated by the relationship of cuerpo-territorio (body-territory), a concept that emerged from Indigenous women’s movements in Guatemala and Bolivia. Cuerpo-territorio refers to the gendered interconnections between Indigenous bodies and lands as “territories” of colonial control, extraction and exploitation.
Just as colonialism exploits, pollutes and takes Indigenous lands, patriarchy aims to control, exploit and violate Indigenous women’s bodies. Beyond harming biodiversity, mining also comes with various social impacts, including drug use, alcoholism and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, MMIW. Thus, for Indigenous women, the struggle to defend the land and the struggle to defend their bodies are inseparable because they are the same.
The opportunity
Indigenous women are not only guardians of their communities’ ancestral knowledge, lands and cultural continuity, they are also who bear the brunt of inherited and contemporary injustices imposed on their peoples. Wouldn’t it make sense, then, that those who stand both at the forefronts of protection and the frontlines of impact should also lead the energy transition? We believe the answer is unequivocally yes. A just and sustainable future cannot be achieved without full participation, leadership and consent of Indigenous women.
If the energy transition is to be more than a change in technology, if it is to become a transformation in values, it must be guided by those who understand the world not as a collection of commodities, but as a web of reciprocal relationships. Indigenous women have been living, teaching and embodying this principle for generations.
To imagine what an Indigenous women-led transition might look like, we can draw inspiration from the gift economy, a concept deeply rooted in many Indigenous cultures. In such economies, wealth is measured by people’s generosity. The richest person is one who gives and shares the most. Gratitude in the gift economy is the ultimate currency, and it is never solitary, as it brings with it blessings, reciprocity and relationships. The more one gives, the more gratitude and blessings flow back, creating a continuous circle of giving and renewal.
This form of economy nurtures a profound kind of abundance, which is based on sufficiency, reciprocity and being enough and having enough. What it looks like in many Indigenous communities around the world is sharing both means of production and fruits of labor, tending to the elderly, raising children by entire communities, honoring the beings who sustain us and ensuring no one, human or otherwise, is left behind. The gift economy embodies values that can guide the energy transition: reciprocity, balance and mutual care. It offers a framework to rethink what progress, development and prosperity truly mean in a world strained by extraction and inequality.
An Indigenous women-led transition, grounded in these values, would prioritize regeneration over profit, community well-being over competition and respect for the living Earth over short-term gains. It would weave together ancestral knowledge and modern innovation into truly sustainable systems in a multitude of ways — ecologically, socially, economically and spiritually.
For generations, the collective power of Indigenous women has been quietly transforming systems of power from the ground up. While values of reciprocity, solidarity and mutual care are shared across Indigenous societies, they are often first learned from our mothers and grandmothers. They teach us that collective organizing is the lifeblood of the community and that the health of the social fabric depends on cooperation, not competition.
Beyond the community level, these same principles have fueled movements for justice, sovereignty and climate action. From the Arctic to the Amazon, from the Pacific Islands to the Sahel, Indigenous women are organizing and forming networks, alliances and coalitions that amplify their voices and demand accountability.
They are also advancing models of environmental stewardship rooted in care, balance and interdependence. Their leadership is transformative and it shows that the true energy of transition lies not in what we extract from the Earth but in how we restore our relationship with it.
Banner image: Mamá Conchita in her chagra with her dogs. Image by Laura Niño/La Silla Vacía.
Galina Angarova is the co-founder and executive director of the SIRGE Coalition and an Indigenous rights activist from the Ekhirit nation of the Buryat peoples in Siberia.
Daniela De León is an assistant at the SIRGE Coalition and is a Maya Q’anjob’al activist.
The series is produced by the collective Passu Creativa, with the support of Earth Alliance, and published by Mongabay.
Voices from the land: As the Andes’ glaciers melt, our values can help (commentary)
Citation:
Owen, J. R., Kemp, D., Lechner, A. M., Harris, J., Zhang, R., & Lèbre, É. (2022). Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples. Nature Sustainability, 6(2), 203-211. doi:10.1038/s41893-022-00994-6
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