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Land defender

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Not to be confused with Land Rover Defender.
2016 "Stand with Standing Rock" march. Slogans include "We are here to protect" and "Defend the land."

A land defender, land protector, or environmental defender is an activist who works to protect ecosystems and the human right to a safe, healthy environment.[1][2][3] Often, defenders are members of Indigenous communities who are protecting property rights of ancestral lands in the face of expropriation, pollution, depletion, or destruction.[1][4]

Land and its resources may be considered sacred by Indigenous peoples, and caring for land is considered a duty that honors ancestors, current peoples, and future generations.[5]

Land defenders face severe persecution from powerful political and corporate alliances that profit from resource extraction. which in turn may cause pollution. The United Nations Human Rights Council determined that land defenders are "among the human rights defenders who are most exposed and at risk."[1]

Etymology

Land and water defenders of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 2016.

During the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests, members of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation blocked the construction of the pipeline to protect the tribe's land and water supply. This grassroots effort led to hundreds of arrests and clashes with the police and National Guard soldiers. Negative articles described the Indigenous land defenders as "protestors," a term denounced by many environmental activists.

Environmental activist and actor Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network has criticized the term "protestor," stating the word "protester" is negative and implies that Native people are angry, violent, or overprotective of resources.[6]

Instead, members of the movement refer to themselves as "land defenders," a term that emphasizes pacifism and responsibility to care for ancestral lands which may be part of the defender's heritage.[7]

Inuit Labrador land protector Denise Cole has stated, "I am very much a believer when I take my medicines, when I take my drum, what colonial law would call protesting is very much what I consider is ceremony."[8]

History

Deadly land conflicts in Honduras date back to the early 1990s.[9]

The Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016.

The occupation of the Atlanta Forest by self-described forest defenders[10] such as Tortuguita, & the broader 'Defend Atlanta Forest' movement to prevent the building of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center within it.[11] (2022–present)

Role and activism

Land defenders play an active and increasingly visible role in actions intended to protect, honour, and make visible the importance of land. There are strong connections between the water protector movement, land defender movement, and Indigenous environmental activism.[12][13] Land defenders resist the installation of pipelines, fossil fuel industries,[14] destruction of territory for development such as agriculture or housing, and resource extraction activities such as fracking because these actions can lead to the degradation of land, destruction of forest, and disruption of habitat.[15][16] Land defenders resist activities that harm land, especially across Indigenous territories and their work is tied to human rights.[17] Yazzie points to the resistance tactics of Diné land defenders and their anti-capitalist and anti-development stance on resource extraction as being highly connected to the longstanding traditions of Diné resistance.[18]

Activism can come in the form of the erection of blockades on reserve lands or traditional territories to block corporations from resource extraction activities.[19][20][21] Water and land protectors also erect camps as a way to occupy traditional territories and strengthen cultural ties. Land defenders also work through legal frameworks such as government court systems in effort to keep control of traditional territories.[5][17] Civil disobedience actions taken by land defenders, are frequently criminalized and some have argued subject to heavier policing and violence.[22][23]

Women are integral to the success of the movement, as they are often land defenders visible at the front of blockades and in resistance protests.[24]

Dangers facing land defenders

Global Witness reported 1,922 murders of land defenders in 57 countries between 2002 and 2019.[1] 40% of the victims were Indigenous,[25] despite making up 6% of the global population.[26] Documentation of this violence is also incomplete.

In 2020, murders of land defenders hit a record high of 227.[27]

U.N. Special Rapporteur David R. Boyd has asked, "How can we protect the extraordinary diversity of life on Earth if we cannot protect environmental defenders?"[28] He has further stated that as many as one hundred land defenders are intimidated, arrested or otherwise harassed for every one that is killed.[1]

Land defenders often face perilous conditions in opposition to state powers, resource corporations such as gas or mining corporations, others seeking to develop land or extinguish Indigenous land rights.[29][30] American environmentalist Bill McKibben has stated, "[Defenders are] at risk because they find themselves living on or near something that some corporation is demanding. That demand – the demand for the highest possible profit, the quickest possible timeline, the cheapest possible operation – seems to translate eventually into the understanding, somewhere, that the troublemaker must go."[31]

Middeldorp and Le Billon have pointed to the dangers faced by land defenders, particularly in authoritarian regimes. In their 2018 article on the topic the point to the killings of several land defenders in Honduras.[29] There, paramilitaries in the Aguán valley were sent to infiltrate and murder key lands rights activists to undermine group efforts.[9] One may et al connect the suppression of Indigenous land rights and a history of intimidation, violent tactics and murder against land defenders to economic development and "land grabs" in colonial nation states.[32]

The Canadian national police force, the RCMP, were prepared to use deadly force against land defenders in a 2019 protest in British Columbia.[33]

Dunlop connects acts of violence against land defenders in countries such as Mexico as retaliation for resistance to economic development and resource extraction.[34]

The human rights organization Global Witness reported that 164 land defenders were killed in 2018 in countries such as the Philippines, Brazil, India, and Guatemala.[35] This same report stated a significant number of the people killed, injured, and threatened were Indigenous.[35] Le Billon and Lujala report that at least 1734 environmental and land defenders were killed between 2002 and 2018 and that Indigenous people are most at risk, numbering more than a third of land defenders killed.[36] The UN has reported that many land protectors are labelled as terrorists by state governments in an effort to discredit their claims.[37] Such labelling can create dangerous conditions for those working to protect land rights.[37]

Yale Environment 360 reported that at least 212 environmental campaigners and land defenders were murdered in 2019.[38] Over half of the murders reported in 2019 took place in Colombia and the Philippines.[38][39]

Amnesty International has called attention to the dangers facing those seeking to protect the earth, water, and communities, calling Latin America the most dangerous location for land defenders.[40][41] The Environmental Defence Fund has reported that over 1700 defenders have been killed with less than 10% of those responsible brought to justice.[42] The Extinction Rebellion (XR) has worked to bring attention to the situation of land defenders and have honoured those who have been killed[43] and the work of land defenders has been linked to climate justice initiatives such as Climate Strike Canada.[44]

Land defenders who have been killed

  • Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (4 March 1971 – 2 March 2016) Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader
  • Paulo Paulino Guajajara, Brazil, killed in 2019 an ambush by illegal loggers the Amazon region.[45][46]
  • Chico Mendes, Brazil, Environmentalist and activist.
  • Hernán Bedoya, Afro-Colombian land rights activist.
  • Julián Carrillo, indigenous Rarámuri leader, Mexico, killed 24 October 2018.[47][48][49]
  • Datu Kaylo Bontolan, Manobo tribal chieftain, member of the National Council of Leaders of Katribu, Northern Mindanao, Philippines, killed 7 April 2019.[39][50]
  • Omar Guasiruma, Indigenous leader, Colombia, killed March 2020.[39]
  • Ernesto Guasiruma, Indigenous leader, Colombia, killed March 2020.[39]
  • Simón Pedro Pérez, Indigenous leader, killed July 6, 2021, Chiapas, Mexico.[51][52]
  • Javiera Rojas, Chilean environmentalist and activist, found dead in November 2021.[53]
  • Tortuguita, US environmental activist killed on January 18, 2023 by a Georgia State Patrol trooper in the Atlanta forest.

See also

Further reading

  • Amnesty International (2016). "They Will Not Stop Us. Ecuador: Justice and Protection for Amazonian Women, Defenders of the Land, Territory, and Environment" (PDF).

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Larsen, Billon, Menton, Aylwin, Balsiger, Boyd, Forst, Lambrick, Santos, Storey, Wilding (2021). "Understanding and responding to the environmental human rights defenders crisis: The case for conservation action". Conservation Letters. 14 (3). doi:10.1111/conl.12777. S2CID 229390470.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Ducklow, Zoë (10 January 2019). "Judy Wilson's Message for Canadians: 'The Land Defenders Are Doing This for Everybody'". The Tyee. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Protesters? Or land protectors?". The Indy. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Land defence and defenders". iwgia.org.
  5. ^ a b Moore, Angel (18 September 2018). "Illegal protest or protecting the land? An Indigenous woman gets ready to face a Canadian court - APTN News". Aptn News. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  6. ^ "Standing Rock activists: Don't call us protesters. We're water protectors". The World from PRX. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  7. ^ "We Are Land Protectors, Not Protesters". YouTube.
  8. ^ Moore, Angel (18 September 2018). "Illegal protest or protecting the land? An Indigenous woman gets ready to face a Canadian court". APTN News. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  9. ^ a b Olson, Jared (6 November 2021). "In Honduras Land Battles, Paramilitaries Infiltrate Local Groups — Then Kill Their Leaders". The Intercept. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Atlanta Community Press Collective". Atlanta Community Press Collective. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  11. ^ "The New Fight Over an Old Forest in Atlanta". The New Yorker. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Meet Josephine Mandamin (Anishinaabekwe), The "Water Walker"". Indigenous Rising. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  13. ^ Maial Panhpunu Paiakan Kaiapó (24 October 2020). "Opinion: The devastation of my Amazon homeland has accelerated during the pandemic". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Mi'kmaq water protectors blocking fossil fuel infrastructure in Nova Scotia | rabble.ca". rabble.ca. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  15. ^ McKenzie-Sutter, Holly (27 November 2020). "Indigenous land occupants in Caledonia appeal injunction". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  16. ^ Kestler-D'Amours, Jillian. "'RCMP off Wet'suwet'en land': Solidarity grows for land defenders". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  17. ^ a b "Beatings, Imprisonment, Murder: The World's Environmental Defenders Are Being Terrorized". Global Citizen. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  18. ^ Yazzie, Melanie K. (2018). "Decolonizing Development in Diné Bikeyah: Resource Extraction, Anti-Capitalism, and Relational Futures". Environment and Society. 9: 25–39. doi:10.3167/ares.2018.090103. ISSN 2150-6779. JSTOR 26879576. S2CID 158704091.
  19. ^ "Standing Rock activists: Don't call us protesters. We're water protectors". Public Radio International. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  20. ^ "Barricades up in Caledonia after attempted arrest of land defender". The Hamilton Spectator. 5 October 2020. ISSN 1189-9417. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  21. ^ "Caledonia land occupation criminal cases move through courts". The Hamilton Spectator. 25 November 2020. ISSN 1189-9417. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  22. ^ Simpson, Michael; Le Billon, Philippe (1 February 2021). "Reconciling violence: Policing the politics of recognition". Geoforum. 119: 111–121. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.12.023. ISSN 0016-7185. S2CID 234082840.
  23. ^ Spiegel, Samuel J. (1 January 2021). "Climate injustice, criminalisation of land protection and anti-colonial solidarity: Courtroom ethnography in an age of fossil fuel violence". Political Geography. 84: 102298. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102298. ISSN 0962-6298. PMC 7544477. PMID 33052177.
  24. ^ Lange, Shauna M. (2020), "Saving Species, Healthy Humanity: The Key Role of Women in Ecological Integrity", Ecological Integrity in Science and Law, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 85–96, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46259-8_8, ISBN 978-3-030-46258-1, S2CID 226561547
  25. ^ "5 deadly countries for environmental defenders". Deutsche Welle. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  26. ^ "Indigenous Peoples". World Bank. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  27. ^ "Murders of environment and land defenders hit record high". the Guardian. 12 September 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  28. ^ Menton, Mary; Le Billon, Philippe (24 June 2021). Environmental Defenders: Deadly Struggles for Life and Territory. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-40221-6.
  29. ^ a b Middeldorp, Nick; Le Billon, Philippe (4 March 2019). "Deadly Environmental Governance: Authoritarianism, Eco-populism, and the Repression of Environmental and Land Defenders". Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 109 (2): 324–337. doi:10.1080/24694452.2018.1530586. ISSN 2469-4452. S2CID 159354399.
  30. ^ "Land Defenders Keep Getting Killed in Colombia". www.vice.com. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  31. ^ Mar, Celina Shih (8 October 2021). "Record Number Of Environmental Activists Killed In The Past Year". The Organization for World Peace. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  32. ^ May, Roy H. (2018), Rozzi, Ricardo; May, Roy H.; Chapin III, F. Stuart; Massardo, Francisca (eds.), "Land Grabbing and Violence Against Environmentalists", From Biocultural Homogenization to Biocultural Conservation, Ecology and Ethics, vol. 3, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 109–123, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-99513-7_7, ISBN 978-3-319-99512-0, retrieved 11 February 2021
  33. ^ Parrish, Jaskiran Dhillon Will (20 December 2019). "Exclusive: Canada police prepared to shoot Indigenous activists, documents show". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  34. ^ Dunlap, Alexander (15 April 2020). "The Politics of Ecocide, Genocide and Megaprojects: Interrogating Natural Resource Extraction, Identity and the Normalization of Erasure". Journal of Genocide Research. 23 (2): 212–235. doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1754051. ISSN 1462-3528.
  35. ^ a b "164 land defenders murdered in 2018, Global Witness reports". Climate Home News. 30 July 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  36. ^ Le Billon, Philippe; Lujala, Päivi (11 November 2020). "Environmental and land defenders: Global patterns and determinants of repression". Global Environmental Change. 65: 102163. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102163. ISSN 0959-3780. S2CID 225119151.
  37. ^ a b Brown, Alleen (30 July 2019). "More Than 160 Environmental Defenders Were Killed in 2018, and Many Others Labeled Terrorists and Criminals". The Intercept. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  38. ^ a b "More Than 200 Environmental Activists and Land Defenders Murdered in 2019". Yale E360. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  39. ^ a b c d "Record 212 land and environment activists killed last year". the Guardian. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  40. ^ "Earth Land and Water Defenders". Amnesty International Canada. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  41. ^ Tabary, Zoe (1 November 2020). "One year on, family of murdered Amazon land defender say nothing has changed". Reuters. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  42. ^ "Murder in the rainforest: 1700+ defenders killed, but their legacy lives on". Environmental Defense Fund. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  43. ^ "Extinction Rebellion honours land defenders killed for protecting the environment". rabble.ca. 10 October 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  44. ^ McIntosh, E. (17 September 2020). "Climate strikers are trying to trademark Erin O'Toole's 'Take Back Canada' slogan". National Observer. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  45. ^ Cowie, Sam (2 November 2019). "Brazilian 'forest guardian' killed by illegal loggers in ambush". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  46. ^ "Brazil Amazon forest defender shot dead by illegal loggers". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  47. ^ "Julián Carrillo defended the forest with his life". www.amnesty.org. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  48. ^ "Mexico's environmental defenders need justice and protection". www.amnesty.org. 24 October 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  49. ^ "Indigenous rights leader reported slain in northern Mexico". AP News. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  50. ^ "Datu Kaylo Bontolan". HRD Memorial: Celebrating Those Who Were Killed Defending Human Rights. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  51. ^ "Indigenous Land Defender Assassinated in Chiapas". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  52. ^ "Mexico rights organizer killed, 3rd activist to die in month". AP News. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  53. ^ "Chilean Activist Javiera Rojas, Who Helped Shut Down Dam Projects, Has Been Killed". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
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