Environmental defenders are our future

By Susan Park

In the first year of the global pandemic in 2020 discussions focused on the positive effects of the decline in economic productivity and human mobility for nature. Wildlife  flourished and the largest absolute decline in CO2 emissions in history occurred. While many were looking for hope in those early days, the impact has been much more mixed, including a cessation of environmental conservation efforts and the increasing reliance of people plunged below the poverty level to rely on illegal fishing and hunting (a finding consistent with previous financial crises).

Around the world the number of environmental defenders killed has increased from two to four per week. In seeking to protect themselves and their environment, environmental defenders are the vanguard for global sustainability in the face of increasing environmental conflict.

While much of the world is in some form of mobility restriction or stay at home orders, not enough is being done to avert human induced, radical alterations of our earth systems. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports that the rate of global change in nature over the past 50 years is unprecedented; it is caused by how we use the land and sea, climate change, pollution, our exploitation of organisms, and the invasion of alien species. A rebound in greenhouse gas emissions and economic productivity during the pandemic highlights the rapidly closing window of time to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to well below 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. 

Fighting for our future

What can curb our energy use and consumption? Government intervention, market forces, and public preferences can all shape our transition to a more sustainable world. The current trajectory demonstrates that this is not happening fast enough to limit catastrophic climate change, with feedback effects on other earth systems including having a multiplier effect on environmental disasters. Disasters and more frequent extreme weather events are recognised as affecting those least likely to be able to withstand them: the vulnerable, and lowest income communities and households in middle and low-income countries. While slow progress towards changing our socio-economic relations to be more attuned to the biosphere continues, those seeking to defend their lives, livelihoods and land continue to face intimidation, abuse, violence, and death. 

The global pandemic provided a brief respite to consider our impact on the planet and each other. While slowing the pace of hyperglobalisation for a brief moment, the pandemic has exacerbated inequality.

These are environmental defenders: “individuals and collectives who protect the environment and protest unjust and unsustainable resource uses because of environmental and social reasons”. Indigenous people, local communities, environmental groups, journalists. And they are increasingly under attack. Around the world the number of environmental defenders killed has increased from two to four per week. In seeking to protect themselves and their environment, environmental defenders are the vanguard for global sustainability in the face of increasing environmental conflict.

What are they protesting? Mining, logging, and agri-business. The extraction of natural resources and the decimation of local ecosystems with global implications. What do they strive for? A way of life not driven by unsustainable energy use and consumption. While protesting to exert their rights and demand redress, environmental defenders argue that they are now viewed as terrorists in the fight against state and corporate extraction, production, and consumption. Indeed, they face high rates of criminalisation and assassination for their efforts. The killing of environmental defenders, particularly Indigenous People, often goes unpunished.

The Defenders - The Guardian

Defending the defenders

On the 29th of March 2019 the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 40/11. It recognised the contribution of environmental human rights defenders to the enjoyment of human rights, environmental protection and sustainable development. International organisations can help shine the light on the human rights abuses faced by environmental defenders and what needs to be done to ensure justice. They need protection because their efforts can work. A global study has found that they can stop environmentally destructive projects using non-violence in 11 percent of cases. Environmental defenders more than double their chance of success when they engage in preventative mobilisation, diversify their protest strategy, and litigate. This provides the basis for seeking ways to better address environmental conflict and contribute to global sustainability.

The global pandemic provided a brief respite to consider our impact on the planet and each other. While slowing the pace of hyperglobalisation for a brief moment, the pandemic has exacerbated inequality in the distribution of resources. This will further increase the extent and severity of poverty levels globally, while increasing food insecurity, employment precarity, and ill health. In other words, the global pandemic will exacerbate inequality and injustice while having less of a positive environmental impact than was initially hoped. The future of environmental defenders, those defending our future, remains under threat from multiple sources.

Susan Park is a Professor of Global Governance at the University of Sydney, Australia, and a member of the Planet Politics Institute.

This article is original content published under a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0