March 8th, 2024
International Women’s Month Feature: Monica Feria-Tinta and Lady Dido Berkeley
As we celebrate women’s month, we feature some of ELF’s powerful women who have been working to protect the environment. This week, we are featuring Monica Feria Tinta and Lady Dido Berkeley.
Monica Feria-Tinta
Monica Feria-Tinta is a barrister at 20 Essex Street Chambers. She practises in public international law, conflict of laws and international arbitration. She acts for States and private parties.
Q: Can you share a defining moment in your career within environmental law or environmental justice that has empowered you as a woman in this field?
I cannot pin down one particular moment. Rather, a series of small moments. The moments where one takes a step in full belief of one’s capacities despite ‘the world’ telling you, perhaps, that you should bow to others, mostly men, despite it is you who is doing all the work. I have brought about major advancements in the law, on the strength of my legal knowledge and I am proud to be a woman, to be the product of my mother’s efforts in giving me education, to represent a sector of society who in the past could not even be able to enter the legal profession.
Q: How do you perceive the intersectionality of gender and environmental issues in your work? Are there unique challenges or opportunities that you believe women bring to the field?
It was in the course of representing a case concerning a coal mine, that I realised that my clients, were mostly women. They had brought the case because of how their children had been affected, despite the opposition of the male authorities. They had summoned this courage because of their gender, and experienced the impact of environmental harm, from the perspective of the roles they play in their family and society. I also suddenly realised that my instructing party was a woman (a lawyer). In a forum discussing environmental issues, I realised most representatives, advocates, were women. This, because women are highly represented among the staff in the voluntary, NGO sector. To a great extent therefore, women have been driving environmental battles as defenders of the land, water, or as advocates. If I think of myself, my experiences (including my gender), have shaped the way I think the law and I have used this to better represent the cases that I am acting on.
In recent submissions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, concerning the climate emergency Advisory Opinion, I made an analysis of how women in particular were affected in small Caribbean islands. Women have a close role to water. They are in charge, in many rural societies in the Americas, to fetch water, and in a context of climate change, they therefore experience first-hand, the rapid reduction of water sources (being for lack of rain or because of salinification). The same concerning reduction of food security, also induced by climate change.
Q: In your opinion, what role can women play in promoting sustainability and environmental awareness on a national scale?
Women are as capable as their male counterparts to set to do anything in this respect: bringing their governments to account, bringing private actors to account, acting as defenders, as activists, as lawyers, as scientists, in any given role one may have in society. The important thing is that environmentalism should never be taken as a fashion, aa something for green-washing purposes, or as something for self-promotion. It is too serious a topic, to banalize it. Unfortunately it happens; it is sometimes banalized.
Q: As a woman in environmental law, have you encountered obstacles or biases in your career, and how have you overcome them?
I have. My attitude is not to bother with that. Keep walking. Because nobody can limit what one feels able to accomplish.
Q: In celebration of International Women’s Day, what advice would you give to young women aspiring to pursue a career in environmental law or environmental justice?
Some years ago I wrote an article envisaging that environmental law would be an area of law which would be on the rise. There are today clearly rising opportunities to get involved in the field. It has a public element, even in cases where the dispute is private. Now, these opportunities do not arise only in the law, but in policy related jobs, in science, across all sectors, really. Be prepared to make a contribution. Excel.
Lady Dido Berkeley
Lady Dido Berkley is a longstanding champion of environmental justice. She challenged to stop the £500m Lots Road development in London’s Chelsea and has been seen lying in the road during climate-change protests. Lady Dido is founder and Director of Thamesbank whose vision is to make the most of the River Thames for all.
Q: Can you share a defining moment in your career within environmental law or environmental justice that has empowered you as a woman in this field?
A defining moment that empowered me in my journey in environmental justice was when I discovered that the male dominated Fulham Football Club had the arrogance to be planning to increase the size of their stadium by encroaching into the River Thames at the serious loss of a valuable sloping intertidal river bank, of which there were only 15% left along the tidal River.
I was incensed that a predominantly male (then – 1995) sport with Jimmy Hill as president should even consider building & encroaching into our valuable world famous River Thames – the reason London and we are all here – at the expense of environmental degradation and social injustice for ignoring rather than enhancing the River and all the many equally important water sports used by the public of both genders.
At that time about 50% of the London’s children were below the poverty line and many affected by drink and drugs so opening up the River to young people to use the River was one way of occupying youngsters and giving them a positive future and activity away out of environmental deprivation.
As a result of this defining moment, and thanks to Diana Schumacher and Martin at ELF, we challenged Fulham Football Club for not having had an EIA and with Richard Buxton and Robert McCracken we took our case to the House of Lords and finally won the landmark case about need & lack of an EIA for smaller important developments.
ELF has been supportive ever since, particularly Emma Montlake, and has helped change the face of all Rivers.
So without ELF, the water, Rivers and countryside in the UK would be much degraded.
Q: How do you perceive the intersectionality of gender and environmental issues in your work? Are there unique challenges or opportunities that you believe women bring to the field?
I perceive the intersectionality of gender and environment issues in my work as two fold- a) the work itself and people connected, and b) with the people/ colleagues that I choose to work with directly related to law and justice and the environment.
The work we have been doing crosses many areas and many (including government and legal profession) institutions – which have tended to be male, patriarchal and traditional – although this has changed considerably over the 25 years. This attitude has been “this is how it’s always been done – so “what makes you think there is any need to change it – that is the law – it will need to be changed at vast expense at the supreme court – so let it go, don’t even bother”.
The other intersectionality of gender and environment perception is with the wonderful mix of men and women who as exciting colleagues are willing to work together with open minds willing to listen and learn from others, and with joint goals that overcome problems and plan solutions with a vision which focusses on change and success in a positive light – far more equal.
The unique challenges or opportunities that I believe women bring to the field is that, because of their/my fights/rights to be heard (I had to darn the boys socks at a co-ed school aged 10, and we were never allowed to take the lead in any decision-making – that was a boy/man’s job) we have an innate energy never to take NO for an answer now, and that any block/ problem is merely a challenge and opportunity to find a solution – by-passing all closed-system people, and bringing on board all the open minded people who are conscious of holding back on ego & damage, and who want to work together as a team to find solutions!
Q: In your opinion, what role can women play in promoting sustainability and environmental awareness on a national scale?
Education on a National scale at the earliest opportunity that we all belong as one to the earth and planet and the vital role is of everyone, together in maintaining the future stability of our World.
As mentioned above, women play a unique role in promoting this, as over the years, decades, centuries, of lives predominantly run by men, they have learned a generally more subtle and wise way of being heard and working towards a solution, without necessarily fighting or a battle or anger. Any energy from women’s anger can be wisely transformed into constructive brainstorming etc. to find more harmonious balanced solutions of a vision, which would focus on inclusivity where possible to find solutions in harmony with nature.
I was quite shocked after studying the Philosophy of Nature as a mature student (I’m dyslexic and failed everything at school) at Kingston University and Deep Ecology with Arne Naess at the Schumacher College, 30 years ago, I found that only a handful of people understood the environment and just accepted that it could be built on!
When I expressed, at the many public river meetings I attended, that the River is NOT there for us to build into, and that it was fundamentally wrong, I found everyone asking for more information and “please tell us more”. I had assumed that everyone would know what is actually obvious! I was lucky to have had a second chance.
Nationally, in my opinion, the judicial system, needs to be made aware of the importance of the Justice System addressing the vital importance of promoting sustainability and environmental awareness in every case that comes to it. Recognising that Climate Change and Environmental degradation will continue on a dangerous scale with the old/ present laws, and that it is the moral and ethical duty of each and every judge to recognise if an old/present law is now clearly out of date in the light of our Climate Crisis and it is his or her privileged duty to accept and allow a new precedence in law to evolve at each and every opportunity to help reduce the present Climate Crisis – without having to fight every inch of the way though the courts to the supreme court– with a 50/50 chance at vast expense of being possibly being allowed!
Judges who have not been educated in the Climate Crisis and Deep Ecology, should not be allowed to sit in judgment!
New Zealand is now integrating the Maoris, the indigenous people, who are at one with nature, and have total respect for their land, earth and rivers as sacred, in the laws of the country. There is now reason why the UK can’t give Water and Rivers legal rights of Personhood, like the Maoris and New Zealanders.
Q: As a woman in environmental law, have you encountered obstacles or biases in your career, and how have you overcome them?
As I have mentioned before the obstacles and biases are many “closed-system thinking” of many patriarchal traditional institutional and government departments, as well as the general environmental “ignorance” of the majority of the population, through lack of education, so they mostly pay lip-service to “helping the environment”, but nothing which effects them too deeply or have to give up. Lack of knowledge and understanding is a major obstacle and a problem is the bias to “old ways of doing things”.
It was – I think – Aristotle who said that people don’t deliberately do wrong, they just don’t know any other way.
Two other obstacles I have encountered are – usually men! – and the “Peter Principle” which means a person will block you, discount your information, or worse say “Yes, I’ll pass that on”, but then withhold the information going to others or to seniors. This person is the “dead wood” in an organisation and as a result can waste a great deal of one’s time and energy.
The other is now particularly in the water engineering world, where the engineers need a job with a water company and so will not support or agree with a sustainable environmental water/river project as they have a vested interest in an old fashioned piece of engineering, that fails the future of the planet, in order to curry favour with an unsustainable Water Company, not working in harmony with nature.
How I’ve overcome these obstacles has been basically the hard way, but now to be wiser and see ways of circumnavigating the obstacle and being aware of the wider context of any project and to recognise the objectives and mindset of whoever I am dealing with… it’s wasted much of my time and energy!
Q: In celebration of International Women’s Day, what advice would you give to young women environmental campaigners?
Really know your environmental facts, so that you are arguing from your heart and for the planet and not from your own ego. I used to get angry and annoyed with anyone who didn’t understand the environment or planet or had another view point – because “I knew that I/we were right – fighting for the planet! – that has taken years of toning down – I’ve learned a great deal from lawyers who only “suggest” and invite someone to think another way. Let go of ego. Work with people – not against them is better.
I find it works best if I’ve read up someone’s background and history, and find out where our paths overlap. Listen to their view point first – looking for common ground & overlaps.
Be focussed on one main point to come out of a meeting. Build up a core support group of people who are on the same page as you. Be aware of others who are “onside” but often have other agendas, you don’t know and can sabotage your work. Don’t waste time fire-fighting at the edges – Find what is going to make the biggest difference and go for the main problem at the centre or top – everything else is a waste of energy.
Have a balanced life and come back refreshed and energised doing other things you love. Go home now and look at everything in your local community and around you and on you. What material is it made of – where does it come from, does it damage the planet, is it fairtrade, organic? Do you really need it? Where does your water come from/go to? – follow it. Is it sustainable / is there a better way? Who can you ask – find out from? What resources do you use every day? Where do they come from/ go to? Where does your rubbish go to – do you believe the council? – have you followed it through? Can you throw away less? Milk, food , paper, metal, wood, energy?
How do you feel if you are in nature? Do you feel a part of it – if not why not? Do you ever feel environmentally deprived and out of sorts? What do you do about it – what are you doing in your area to help protect the planet?
Aim high, never give up, never take no for an answer, and know that just one person, one individual – you can make the difference needed – with others & can take that first step in the right direction for change.