"Environmental conflicts and defenders", 02 Jun 2020

There is a world movement for environmental justice, composed of a myriad of local movements against fossil fuels extraction, open cast mining, tree plantations, hydropower dams and other extractive industries, and also against waste disposal in the form of incineration or dumps... This is the environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous. It took the name 'environmental justice'... Environmental defenders who protest destructive resource uses are indeed a promising force for global sustainability and environmental justice. However, their activism comes at a heavy cost: many face criminalization, violence and murder... These are the findings of a new paper from the EnvJustice team based on the EJAtlas, which presents the largest analysis of environmental conflicts up to date with findings that have direct implications for enhanced support of environmental defenders. The article, published in Global Environmental Change, looks at nearly 3,000 cases worldwide... In 11 percent of cases globally, they contributed to halt environmentally destructive and socially conflictive projects, defending the environment and livelihoods. Combining strategies of preventive mobilisation, protest diversification and litigation can increase this success rate significantly to up to 27 percent... However, defenders globally also face high rates of criminalisation (20 percent of cases), physical violence (18 percent), and assassinations (13 percent), which significantly increase when Indigenous people are involved..."