Understanding and responding to the environmental human rights defenders crisis: The case for conservation action

Peter Bille Larsen,Claudelice Santos,Michel Forst,Susan Wilding,Fran Lambrick,José Aylwin,David Boyd,Jörg Balsiger,Mary Menton,Philippe Le Billon,Hannah Storey

doi:10.1111/conl.12777

Abstract

AbstractClose to two thousand environmental human rights defenders have been killed in 57 countries since 2002, with about four losing their lives every week in 2019. Many of these defenders represent Indigenous Peoples and local communities protecting ecosystems from large‐scale environmentally destructive projects. As the positive contributions of Indigenous and local communities to biodiversity conservation become better recognized, so should the losses and risks that they face. Despite major efforts at documenting abuses and protecting defenders, many blind spots and gaps remain. Here, we call for the conservation community to put the protection of defenders at the heart of its strategy to slow down and reverse the current onslaught on the environment. The conservation community can respond in a number of ways including reaching out to its constituencies, working together with the human rights community, and mobilizing its networks, field offices, and presence in remote areas to denounce abuses and counter isolation. In doing so the conservation community can advance the collective agenda bringing together conservation and environment‐related human rights through the Post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Highlights

The murder of Homero Gómez González near the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in January 2020 caused outrage among the conservation community (Böhm et al, 2020).Despite growing condemnation of such killings, the conservation community has yet to fully grasp the extent of violence against defenders and realize the potential for collective action
2020); in response, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a specific resolution for their protection noting that “defenders working in environmental matters, referred to as environmental human rights defenders, are among the human rights defenders most exposed and at risk” (UNGA/HRC, 2019a)
The killings represent only the tip of the ice-berg of abuses and threats facing Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) a consequence reflecting that “[n]ature managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities is under increasing pressure”

Summary

Abstract page

Close to two thousand environmental human rights defenders have been killed in 57 countries since 2002, with about four losing their lives every week in 2019. Many of these defenders represent Indigenous Peoples and local communities protecting ecosystems from large-scale environmentally destructive projects. We call for the conservation community to put the protection of defenders at the heart of its strategy to slow down and reverse the current onslaught on the environment. In doing so the conservation community can advance the collective agenda bringing together conservation and environment-related human rights through the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Introduction

The environmental defenders crisis

Effective protection to address the underlying drivers

Wider policy implications

Findings

Reverse the tide of marginalization of and attacks against environmental actors