Dogwood Alliance is aligned with the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL). As a forest protection organization, we know that how we treat our forests is a reflection of how we treat each other. Our mission to protect Southern US forests from industrial logging requires strong partnership with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities of the South who have always borne the brunt of the effects of pollution, flooding, and all of the other damage inflicted by extractive industries. While we have sought environmental justice, it is just as vital that our nation grapples with racial justice and equity.

It is imperative that we follow the lead of the M4BL, the largest coalition of Black racial justice organizations.

The mission of M4BL is:

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), formed in December of 2014, was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. Under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately.

On June 4, 2020, Dogwood Alliance stood with over 200 environmental organizations in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives in the face of the murders of Black people.

The system we live in is one that treats the lives of people and the forests we depend on as disposable.

To maintain a system of constant economic growth and consumerism requires constant degradation of forests, land, air, water, and communities – specifically BIPOC communities. 71% of Black Americans are living in counties that are in violation of clean air standards, and environmental justice communities are 50% more likely to have a wood pellet facility in their county.

The M4BL offers bold and visionary leadership that will continue to guide and influence Dogwood Alliance’s work to become an anti-racist organization.

The M4BL is not separate from the work we do at Dogwood. Rather, the M4BL are our partner organizations, our staff, our strategic advisors. We cannot work in a silo. The People’s Climate Movement, the movement to Stand4Forests – all of these movements are most successful when we unite together in solidarity.

We will not achieve meaningful protections for forests or make any meaningful advances towards climate justice without creating a system that is anti-racist and just.

As an environmental organization with anti-racism incorporated into our work as a core strategy, we are proud to align ourselves with and under the leadership of M4BL.

We encourage you to learn more about the Movement for Black Lives.

Check out the M4BL website

Read the BREATHE Act

The BREATHE Act is a bill that advocates defunding problematic criminal justice solutions and funding community-based solutions and environmental justice.