ABOUT
Around the world, when local communities stand up to defend their rights to clean air, water, forests, and soil, violence and repression often follow. In fact, environmental human rights defenders face the highest risk level of all human rights activists.
In 2021 and 2022 alone, 377 land and environmental human rights defenders were killed, according to Global Witness. That’s an average of one person every other day. A disproportionate number of those targeted are Indigenous.
It’s no coincidence that this lethal violence takes place in countries where systemic repression of basic political rights—such as assembly, free speech, and access to information—is increasingly common. Often the most prominent threat to democratic participation relates to industrial development projects. The struggle for democracy is inseparable from urgent movements for climate justice.
The Environmental Defenders Collaborative (EDC) supports local communities and their allies in the face of rising intimidation, criminalization, and attack. We pool philanthropic funds to provide grants to activists, groups, and networks across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
What makes EDC different from traditional funders is the level of flexibility in how and to whom we make grants. When meaningful support to environmental defenders is especially complex or constrained—such as in countries where outside funding is restricted—EDC’s agility is critical.
Since launching in 2017, EDC has approved more than $9 million in funding to international, regional, and community-level organizations around the world. In the last year, we made 262 grants in more than 55 countries, including our first grants in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Guinea Bissau, and Tonga.
OUR MISSION
EDC was created in the wake of the 2016 murder of Berta Cáceres, as the funding community recognized the urgent need not only to support activists’ work, but their safety as well. We pool donor funds to make grants that range from quick intervention in emergency situations to long-term systemic change that makes it harder and more expensive to criminalize, threaten, and abuse defenders.
We support strategic interventions at the community, regional, and international levels that safeguard the lives, rights, and work of environmental defenders. For a growing number of foundations, we provide an efficient means of sharing knowledge, expertise, and funding to environmental, land, and Indigenous defenders. The more we can combine and expedite resources, the greater the impact.
WHO ARE ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS?
Environmental human rights defenders are not a homogenous group. At EDC, we aim to apply the broadest possible definition, particularly including people who may never use that label to describe themselves. For us, climate defenders include lawyers, scientists, professional organizers, or NGO leaders. But most of our support centers communities defending their lands, their children’s health, their culture, and way of life from projects that directly threaten them.
PARTICIPATING FUNDERS
The Environmental Defenders Collaborative receives funding from private foundations including:
The Environmental Defenders Collaborative is fiscally sponsored by Global Greengrants Fund, a non-profit, 501c(3) organization. Tax ID number: 841612422.