EELL 2025 Canada Conference Highlights: Global Call for Environmental Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty
This article written by: Kwame Anane Frimpong, Toronto, Canada
The 3rd Global Conference on Environmental Education and Lifelong Learning (EELL 2025) took place in Vaughan, Ontario, on October 16-17, uniting diverse voices from around the world environmental leaders, policymakers, Indigenous advocates, youth, and community organizations. Hosted by Pan African Centre for Climate Policy, the event emphasized the interconnectedness of environmental justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and sustainable development across multiple scales and regions, with a focus on Africa, Canada, and the global South.
Key discussions revealed common roots of environmental crises—colonial legacies, extractive capitalism, and marginalization of Indigenous knowledge—while highlighting shared solutions: centering Indigenous rights, adopting true cost accounting, valuing care work, community-led governance, and systemic transformation. The conference opened with a land acknowledgment honoring Indigenous territories, setting a tone of respect and recognition.
Day one featured critical themes such as Ghana’s efforts to combat air and water pollution, led by Ghana EPA CEO Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse, who highlighted the health and economic toll of pollution and climate impacts. Indigenous land rights and corporate impacts were examined through discussions on resource extraction and sustainable partnerships. Ghana’s climate resilience initiatives, including reforestation and renewable energy, were also showcased.
Day two expanded to global challenges—behavioral approaches to climate action, wildlife conservation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, youth empowerment in Zambia, and urban heat in West Africa. Notably, innovative strategies like waste-to-wealth programs and traditional African ecological practices demonstrated the power of indigenous and local knowledge systems. Critical voices challenged the dominance of colonial narratives in food security, advocating for food sovereignty rooted in Indigenous and smallholder-led agriculture.
The conference underscored the importance of decolonizing knowledge, asserting sovereignty, addressing health inequities linked to environmental degradation, and recognizing climate change as a justice issue. Policy recommendations called for rights-based approaches, community empowerment, sustainable resource management, and gender justice.
Concluding, participants affirmed that sustainable alternatives exist embedded in community practices and Indigenous wisdom and emphasized the need for collective action, policy reform, and narrative change.
The event reinforced that transforming environmental and social systems requires resisting extractive models, valuing care, and embracing relational, Indigenous, and local epistemologies to forge a just and sustainable future.
