Inspiring stories

Around the world, those who defend the environment and the human rights that depend on it face all kinds of obstacles, challenges and threats. Overcoming adversity, they have been working to change the lives of many.

Zapotecas Indigenous Joint Communities

Zapotecas Indigenous Joint Communities

At the south of Mexico in 'Sierra Norte', Oaxaca, eight Zapoteca communities come together to a joint community organization working on the conservation of 13,000 hectares of forest. Their conservation strategy is based on a sustainable ...

Country: Mexico

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva was born in Dehradun, India. Her father was a conservator of forests and her mother was a farmer with a love for nature. She is a physicist, ecologist, writer, philosopher of science, science policy advocate and environmental ...

Country: India

Indigenous Kinipan land rights defenders

Indigenous Kinipan land rights defenders

Kinipan is a small village in Borneo with a population of just under 1,000. In April 2018, the village applied for the recognition of its traditional rights over its forest (hutan adat). The villagers were involved hands-on in charting their ...

Country: Indonesia

Lottie Cunningham Wren

Lottie Cunningham Wren

Lottie Cunningham Wren is a lawyer from the Miskito indigenous group defending the rights of indigenous peoples in Nicaragua to their land and resources. (...)

Country: Nicaragua

Federation of Ogoni Women´s Association – FOWA

Federation of Ogoni Women´s Association – FOWA

Over the past years, Nigerian women have mobilized in a social movement promoted at the grassroots level, to protest against transnational oil companies and have demanded them to be part of the solution. (...)  

Country: Nigeria

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

'The lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe were reduced to a reservation by the Act of March 2, 1889. The Tribal government maintains jurisdiction on all reservation lands, including all rights-of-way, waterways, watercourses and streams ...

Country: United States

Sophia Sidarous – Metepenagiag First Nation

Sophia Sidarous – Metepenagiag First Nation

'Members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation were arrested for protesting the construction of a natural gas pipeline on their ancestral land in northern British Columbia, Canada.' (...)

Country: Canada

PROLITORAL

PROLITORAL

'Prolitoral is a collective formed by Ecologistas en Acción, the Asociación de Naturalistas del Sureste (ANSE), Amacora and other environmental and legal professionals.' (...)

Country: Spain

Brörán peoples of Térraba and the Bribri peoples of Salitre

Brörán peoples of Térraba and the Bribri peoples of Salitre

'More than half a decade ago, on 30 April 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures (MC 321-12) in favour of the Brörán peoples of Térraba and the Bribri peoples of Salitre. This exceptional ...

Country: Costa Rica