By Alison Wright, Director of the Environmental Defenders Collaborative
Photo credit: Wambui Gichobi | Survival Media Agency
In 2019, Global Greengrants Fund became the fiscal home of the Environmental Defenders Collaborative, merging the expertise and breadth of our networks to support environmental defenders and deepen the impact of our collective grantmaking. The Environmental Defenders Collaborative is a pooled fund of fourteen donors, including The Cold Mountain Fund, The Overbrook Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, and the Mott Foundation, that gathered together in 2017 to support at-risk environmental activists by increasing access to funding and strategic resources.
The Environmental Defenders Collaborative was originally envisioned in the wake of Berta Cáceres’ murder, when we realized as funders that it was imperative not only to fund activists’ work, but to resource their safety.
Although reports from allies such as Global Witness highlight “hot spots” for violence and other forms of repression, the reality is that this trend can be found everywhere. The risks faced by those speaking truth to power against moneyed interests—mining, fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, tourism developments—might exist on a spectrum of severity, but no region of the world is a totally risk-free environment for activists. Criminalization—the nefarious use of criminal and civil legal instruments to stifle community action—is a widespread and escalating challenge. Surveillance also remains an important tool for those trying to suppress activism in defense of the environment.
In the nearly six years since Cáceres’ murder, the complexity and diversity of challenges faced by leaders and activists on the ground have become apparent, and luckily the funding community has also become more driven to respond.
Through the Environmental Defense Collaborative, we have continued to bridge gaps in the ecosystem of support for environmental defenders—in 2021, we made 30 grants to activists in several dozen countries, including our first grants to support efforts in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Arctic Russia.
We also continued to divide our support into a few key categories: regranting partnerships for emergency support to defenders; support for legal action, whether for cases of criminalization or against the projects at the center of an environmental conflict; and support for community-based campaigns, organizing, and documentation.
Here are just a few examples of the work we’ve recently supported:
- One of our new grant partners is piloting an early warning system for defenders in several provinces of Zimbabwe that face widespread violence stemming from the diamond industry.
- In Guatemala, we’ve renewed support for a landmark legal case related to the Escóbal mine—supporting the Xinka communities’ efforts to ensure full enforcement and implementation of a strong first ruling, in a country where judicial norms are deteriorating quickly.
- We also expanded our grantmaking in Brazil, including grants for indigenous communities facing heightened levels of physical incursion and violence on their lands, and for communities suffering widespread pollution at the hands of corporate giant Vale.
The profound changes that we’re collectively grappling with—the pandemic, growing climate-related disruptions, and the rise of autocracies and anti-democratic regimes—heighten the risks and isolation for frontline activists who are defending community and environmental rights. Therefore, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative is committed to continuing to act as a source of flexible support for the emerging needs of on the ground activists.
In 2022, we’re investing in our internal capacity with additional staffing, and we will support new learning discussions that deepen engagement from funders on the protection of environmental defenders.
We also plan to launch a new program that forges Advising Organization partnerships, similar to the advisory board model used by Global Greengrants, where partner organizations will have a dedicated budget available to them for grant referrals. The first of these partnerships will be grounded in support for legal action and will formalize our collaboration with the ELAW, Environmental Defender Law Center, and Accountability Counsel, who will advise on small grants ($5k-$15k) that support everything from security for client communities who are facing heightened risks because of their work with lawyers to capacity-building for public interest lawyers grappling with new challenges related to criminalization. We will also explore additional Advising Organization partnerships over the course of 2022.
We know that environmental and social justice actors will continue to grapple with security threats, so it is critical for funders to step up and help. Funders can provide discretionary support for unexpected emergencies, and we can always find ways to work with grantees that are more trust-based and productive. We also welcome new members to our Environmental Defenders Collaborative as we build infrastructure to significantly ramp up our core grantmaking. We’re already forming new partnerships with funders, including a collaboration with the Packard Foundation for a project that specifically supports their grantees in Mexico.
As the context for environmental defenders continues to evolve and pose new risks and challenges, we are committed to resourcing the protection of those who are on the ground pushing back against the climate crisis. We encourage other funders to join us in resourcing this critical work.