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Hub AI
Environmental defender AI simulator
(@Environmental defender_simulator)
Hub AI
Environmental defender AI simulator
(@Environmental defender_simulator)
Environmental defender
Environmental defenders or environmental human rights defenders are individuals or collectives who protect the environment from harms resulting from resource extraction, hazardous waste disposal, infrastructure projects, land appropriation, or other dangers. In 2019, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously recognised their importance to environmental protection. The term environmental defender is broadly applied to a diverse range of environmental groups and leaders from different cultures that all employ different tactics and hold different agendas. Use of the term is contested, as it homogenizes such a wide range of groups and campaigns, many of whom do not self-identify with the term and may not have explicit aims to protect the environment (being motivated primarily by social justice concerns).
Environmental defenders involved in environmental conflicts face a wide range of threats from governments, local elites, and other powers that benefit from projects that defenders oppose. Global Witness reported 1,922 murders of environmental defenders in 57 countries between 2002 and 2019, with indigenous people accounting for approximately one third of this total. Documentation of this violence is incomplete. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights reported that as many as one hundred environmental defenders are intimidated, arrested or otherwise harassed for every one that is killed.
There is a long history of people protecting their environment from the harms associated with economic production. This has previously been discussed in terms of environmental justice, environmentalism of the poor, ecological distribution conflicts, settler colonialism, and other theories that closely relate to the environmental defender framework. Academic papers, the media, and various NGOs have increasingly used the term environmental defender, environmental human rights defender, and land defender to describe people struggling to protect their land from pollution or dispossession, especially since the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. This increasing use of the term has been accompanied by expanded infrastructure to protect defenders engaging in this work. Environmental defenders are typically viewed as a subset of human rights defenders and are associated with the legal theory of fundamental human rights promoted by the United Nations. They work to establish or protect the fundamental right to a healthy environment.
The environmental defender framework is not evenly used across languages and may have different connotations in different regions. For example, the French défenseurs de l'environnement may refer to environmentalists in general and be largely applied to people in the Global North. Many front-line defenders do not self-identify with the term, preferring a very broad range of other identifications such as: water protector, grassroots environmentalist, life defender, nature defender, ecologist, environmentalist, community leader, and many others. Environmental conflicts in urban areas or middle to high income countries tend to draw terminology from the environmental justice framework. Conflicts in rural areas and low income countries often use terms related to environmentalism of the poor. Indigenous scholars point out that they have been defending their lands for centuries, and describe their struggles in terms of settler colonialism. Environmental protection may not be the explicit agenda of some environmental defender communities who may be primarily motivated by issues of social justice or Indigenous land rights. However, the scope of resource extraction projects carried out by local rural communities is dwarfed by multinational mining and agri-business interests, so even when local environmental defender communities are motivated by their own resource extraction agendas, the net effect is to preserve the environment. Thus, environmental defenders' involvement in conflicts over land and resources often explicitly promote environmental protection, but not always.
Environmental defenders are on the front-lines of a global environmental justice movement in which individual place-based conflicts (ie, ecological distribution conflicts) contribute to a growing environmental justice framework that continually contributes new concepts to the narratives of environmental protection and social justice. Ecological economists suggest that industrialised economies continually require new frontiers for resource extraction, leading to increasing ecological distribution conflicts. The last strongholds of biodiversity protected by Indigenous people are now being targeted for resource extraction. Several researchers and the UN Human Rights Council have concluded that continued protection of these strongholds by environmental defenders may be indispensable to environmental protection and the mitigation of climate change.
The Environmental Justice Atlas documents over 3500 ecological distribution conflicts globally. Studies drawing upon this database and other information sources have revealed a number of patterns that researchers are hoping will better enable understanding of global environmental justice trends and protection of environmental defenders. Salient patterns include:
Global Witness reported 1,922 murders of environmental defenders in 57 countries between 2002 and 2019, with indigenous people accounting for approximately one third of this total. On average, three defenders are killed every week. Documentation of this violence is also incomplete. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights reported that as many as one hundred environmental defenders are intimidated, arrested or otherwise harassed for every one that is killed.
While violence in environmental conflicts is commonly understood as discrete events (such as a disappearance, rape, or assassination), some studies indicate that complete understanding of violence against environmental defender communities requires a multidimensional approach. In addition to commonly reported direct violence, structural violence (embedded in social, political and economic structures), cultural violence (embedded in language, religion, or ideology), slow violence (such as cumulative exposure to low-level toxins), and ecological violence (such as degradation of subsistence resources) all contribute to violence experienced by defender communities.
Environmental defender
Environmental defenders or environmental human rights defenders are individuals or collectives who protect the environment from harms resulting from resource extraction, hazardous waste disposal, infrastructure projects, land appropriation, or other dangers. In 2019, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously recognised their importance to environmental protection. The term environmental defender is broadly applied to a diverse range of environmental groups and leaders from different cultures that all employ different tactics and hold different agendas. Use of the term is contested, as it homogenizes such a wide range of groups and campaigns, many of whom do not self-identify with the term and may not have explicit aims to protect the environment (being motivated primarily by social justice concerns).
Environmental defenders involved in environmental conflicts face a wide range of threats from governments, local elites, and other powers that benefit from projects that defenders oppose. Global Witness reported 1,922 murders of environmental defenders in 57 countries between 2002 and 2019, with indigenous people accounting for approximately one third of this total. Documentation of this violence is incomplete. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights reported that as many as one hundred environmental defenders are intimidated, arrested or otherwise harassed for every one that is killed.
There is a long history of people protecting their environment from the harms associated with economic production. This has previously been discussed in terms of environmental justice, environmentalism of the poor, ecological distribution conflicts, settler colonialism, and other theories that closely relate to the environmental defender framework. Academic papers, the media, and various NGOs have increasingly used the term environmental defender, environmental human rights defender, and land defender to describe people struggling to protect their land from pollution or dispossession, especially since the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. This increasing use of the term has been accompanied by expanded infrastructure to protect defenders engaging in this work. Environmental defenders are typically viewed as a subset of human rights defenders and are associated with the legal theory of fundamental human rights promoted by the United Nations. They work to establish or protect the fundamental right to a healthy environment.
The environmental defender framework is not evenly used across languages and may have different connotations in different regions. For example, the French défenseurs de l'environnement may refer to environmentalists in general and be largely applied to people in the Global North. Many front-line defenders do not self-identify with the term, preferring a very broad range of other identifications such as: water protector, grassroots environmentalist, life defender, nature defender, ecologist, environmentalist, community leader, and many others. Environmental conflicts in urban areas or middle to high income countries tend to draw terminology from the environmental justice framework. Conflicts in rural areas and low income countries often use terms related to environmentalism of the poor. Indigenous scholars point out that they have been defending their lands for centuries, and describe their struggles in terms of settler colonialism. Environmental protection may not be the explicit agenda of some environmental defender communities who may be primarily motivated by issues of social justice or Indigenous land rights. However, the scope of resource extraction projects carried out by local rural communities is dwarfed by multinational mining and agri-business interests, so even when local environmental defender communities are motivated by their own resource extraction agendas, the net effect is to preserve the environment. Thus, environmental defenders' involvement in conflicts over land and resources often explicitly promote environmental protection, but not always.
Environmental defenders are on the front-lines of a global environmental justice movement in which individual place-based conflicts (ie, ecological distribution conflicts) contribute to a growing environmental justice framework that continually contributes new concepts to the narratives of environmental protection and social justice. Ecological economists suggest that industrialised economies continually require new frontiers for resource extraction, leading to increasing ecological distribution conflicts. The last strongholds of biodiversity protected by Indigenous people are now being targeted for resource extraction. Several researchers and the UN Human Rights Council have concluded that continued protection of these strongholds by environmental defenders may be indispensable to environmental protection and the mitigation of climate change.
The Environmental Justice Atlas documents over 3500 ecological distribution conflicts globally. Studies drawing upon this database and other information sources have revealed a number of patterns that researchers are hoping will better enable understanding of global environmental justice trends and protection of environmental defenders. Salient patterns include:
Global Witness reported 1,922 murders of environmental defenders in 57 countries between 2002 and 2019, with indigenous people accounting for approximately one third of this total. On average, three defenders are killed every week. Documentation of this violence is also incomplete. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights reported that as many as one hundred environmental defenders are intimidated, arrested or otherwise harassed for every one that is killed.
While violence in environmental conflicts is commonly understood as discrete events (such as a disappearance, rape, or assassination), some studies indicate that complete understanding of violence against environmental defender communities requires a multidimensional approach. In addition to commonly reported direct violence, structural violence (embedded in social, political and economic structures), cultural violence (embedded in language, religion, or ideology), slow violence (such as cumulative exposure to low-level toxins), and ecological violence (such as degradation of subsistence resources) all contribute to violence experienced by defender communities.