In Mexico, when nature suffers, women suffer. Despite the many systems of oppression Mexican women struggle against, with their deep connection with the environment, they know how to defend and protect the natural world better than anyone else. As mothers, daughters, and sisters, they have the ability to read the signs that nature sends them: they hear the cries of the forests, of the sea, and understand the pain of living beings. The environment becomes an extension of themselves, as close as a loved one or a friend.

This struggle can take many forms: from compassion to resistance, from the individual to the collective. Here, to mark Earth Day 2025, we meet four women—or communities of women—across Mexico who are doing their part to help save the natural environments that surround them.

Sinaloa

In the coastal state of Sinaloa, the women of three indigenous Yoreme-Mayo communities have been fighting against a petrochemical mega-project for over 10 years. Around Ohuira Bay, they formed the Aquí No collective, made up of some 600 people from the towns of Lázaro Cárdenas, Ohuira, and Paredones. In each of these communities, women have taken the lead in the struggle, despite constant intimidation and threats in a region marked by organized crime.

GPO, the subsidiary of a global fertilizer giant, has chosen this bay connected to the Sea of Cortez to install an ammonia plant, a chemical compound used in industrial agriculture. The plant plans to extract large quantities of water from the shallow bay, then return it to the warmer, saltier area.