Environmental Defenders

This is an important collection of carefully selected research on nature and dynamics of violence over conservation and development projects in different parts of the world. Highly recommended for all scholars and students of the social movements in general and environmental protests in particular. - Ashok Swain, Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden Environmental Defenders, Deadly Struggles for Life and Territory, an essential reading to understand the frontlines of the war for land, shaping the future of humanity and the planet. It will be a crucial handbook for organisations like mine to help us learn about the experiences of environmental defenders in places we have never yet been. - Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness and author of Shadow Network: Chasing Down the Thieves and Crooks Who Secretly Run Our World (2022) How can we protect the extraordinary diversity of life on Earth if we cannot protect environmental defenders? This powerful, timely and insightful book tackles two converging global crises; humanity's war on nature and the systemic violence against the courageous communities and individuals struggling to defend life, nature and culture. Enriched by a diversity of voices from across the planet, Environmental Defenders identifies the root causes of exploitation and prescribes pathways towards peace, reconciliation and a sustainable future. - David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment, Associate Professor of Law, Policy, and Sustainability, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, The University of British Columbia A very importantant collection of narratives, essential to understand what motivates environmental defenders to become locked in a constant fight for communal territories when they also must struggle to keep themselves alive! To understand this, we need to emerse ourselves in this book, which brings touching testimonials of people who experience firsthand this long history of resistance. - Angela Mendes, Coordinator of the Chico Mendes Committee and daughter of Chico Mendes, who was assassinated in 1988 for his struggle to defend the environment and people of the Amazon. This is an important volume about an urgent topic: the violence that environmental defenders face while they seek to protect their lands from large scale extractive projects. The different contributions, written by well-known scholars and activists in the field, cover the complex dimensions of violence in conflicts over natural resources and extraction in different parts of the world in a rich mix of illuminating case-studies, methodological discussions and theoretical explorations. A must-read for students and scholars interested in political ecology, violence, and natural resource conflicts. - Elisabet Dueholm Rasch, Associate Professor in Anthropology of Development, Wageningen University and Research