This week on “The Climate Divide,” we speak with the co-founder of Defensores de la Cuenca
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On this week’s episode of “The Climate Divide,” host Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe speaks to Abel Olivo, executive director and co-founder of Defensores de la Cuenca.
Growing up in Ohio as a fourth-generation Chicano, Olivo comes from a line of migrant farmworkers. During his last nearly 25 years in Washington, he says he has searched for a similarly strong sense of community. Olivo, who has worked as a Washington policy advocate and lobbyist, as well as a stay-at-home dad, wanted to combine his passion for community with his interest in environmental issues affecting the community. That’s how Defensores de la Cuenca was born in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Maryland-based nonprofit organization has programs for Latino-Spanish speaking communities, such as La Academia de Defensores (The Defenders Academy), Defensores Youth Corps (Youth Corps Defenders) and Embajadores de los Árboles (Tree Ambassadors). The team at Defensores tailors its workshops and nature opportunities to the needs of Latino residents and the realities faced by communities grappling with multifaceted environmental issues as well as challenges and barriers to addressing them.
“There are so few of us in this space, and we are so impacted by the policies that we had nothing to do with and had no access to creating,” Olivo says. “At the end of the day, what our community needs is community level capacity to lead and make change in things that are their priority, not ours.”
Defensores de la Cuenca looks for the unification and connection of Latino communities with opportunities aimed at enhancing the understanding of the importance of nature connection and benefits.
In this week’s episode, Olivo expresses the importance of Latino community involvement and how it could be instrumental today in advocating for environmental justice. He also discusses the organization’s recent $2 million Urban Community Forestry Grant from the U.S. Forest Service.
Olivo says one of the biggest priorities for the organization is providing paid opportunities for people to develop marketable skills that recognize their economic needs and can translate into green jobs. He also hopes to expose them more to nature and the importance of green spaces while acknowledging the socio-economic trials and tribulations these communities have to face as a result of lack of resources.
About “The Climate Divide”
In the second season of “The Climate Divide,” we will explore what communities have been overburdened by hazards like pollution and flooding and how this disparity came to be. During a time when both the national and D.C. governments are emphasizing environmental issues, this podcast will focus on the people most affected by these policies, who’ve voiced their concerns and advocated for greater environmental justice.
“The Climate Divide” is hosted, produced and edited by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe. Claudia Peralta Torres provides additional editing and sound mixing support. Christine MacDonald is the series editor and executive director of Hola Cultura. Members of the Society and Culture team, part of Hola Cultura’s Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning, also contribute to this podcast. “The Climate Divide” is supported by Spotlight DC and the Pulitzer Center.
– Story by Natalia Chairez
– Edited by Crystal Lee
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