Delikado - Danger and Hope in Paradise
Hard-hitting movie inspires support for land and environmental defenders
By Ben Leather, Director, Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK
Karl Malakunas was looking forward to heading to Palawan to write a feature on ecotourism – one of the perks as Philippines bureau chief for AFP was the occasional story written in one of the country’s beach locations. But a week before the trip, the environmentalist liaising with Karl was shot in the head and killed. Karl’s story went ahead, but with a focus on the reasons behind Gerry Ortega’s killing.
A story about paradise had become a story about those risking their lives to defend it. This too is the story of Delikado, the beautiful yet hard-hitting documentary which Karl went on to make.
The film follows determined environmental lawyer Bobby Chan, head of the Palawan NGO Network Inc (PNNI) which ventures into Palawan’s pristine forests to perform citizens arrests on illegal loggers, confiscating their chainsaws. We get to know the motivations and tribulations of not only PNNI’s brave environmentalists, but also of Nieves Rosento, the local Mayor, campaigning on a shoestring budget to obtain the second term she needs to enforce the environmental law. The protagonists stick to their mission despite death threats, smears, and even losing colleagues along the way.
Delikado saw its European Premiere at Sheffield Docfest this weekend and, together with The Territory – which focuses on the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau in Brazil – provides a timely reminder risks facing those on the front lines of the climate crisis. More than four land and environmental defenders are murdered every week, according to the watchdog Global Witness, who I was working for when I first met Karl in the course of an investigation into what was driving this global increase in attacks.
Delikado and The Territory allows viewers to understand the answer to this question.
Companies, individuals and criminal groups seek more and more profit at a time when the planet has less and less natural resources. To find new resources, they enter new territories. This might mean cutting down indigenous forests in the Amazon to make space for cattle ranches, or it might mean logging the Philippines to build luxury hotels. At Peace Brigades International (PBI), we provide protection to rural communities across the Americas whose land is being grabbed for large-scale mining.
And that’s the point. To get these resources, companies and criminals often have to kick or con people off their land, while deregulated exploitation is hugely destructive for the planet, accelerating climate change. With fear, complicity and corruption meaning the authorities often fail to act, it falls upon those affected to take a stand. It falls upon the PNNI. It falls upon the Uru-eu-wau-wau. It falls upon the hundreds of land and environmental defenders that PBI works to protect due to the threats, criminalisation and attacks they face.
When you watch Delikado, you are struck by the bravery of its characters. Because, for them, this is personal. Where forests are destroyed, communities are flooded and livelihoods lost. PNNI also works to end the illegal fishing that is depleting stocks and polluting water. The stake of grassroots defenders in combatting climate change is immediate. It's a matter of survival. And yet they are also protecting the planet for all of us.
This is why, ultimately, Delikado is a story of hope. You laugh and cry along with Bobby’s band of ‘para-enforcers’, and are reminded that there are activists out there now who haven’t given up, who won’t give up, and who are making a difference on the front lines every day. They need our support.
At Docfest’s question and answer session, I was asked what people can do to help. As well as providing donations to grassroots groups like PNNI and organisations working to protect activists like PBI, I pointed out that MPs need to know people would rather the Government focused on protecting human rights defenders and holding business to account abroad, than on rolling back rights at home.
I also encouraged people to get behind campaigns to legitimise and celebrate those on the front line of our battle for the planet’s future. Delikado shows how smears and silence leave activists exposed to attacks. At PBI we’re using storytelling and social media to spread the word. Films about environmentalism do the same. Please watch them, and get involved.
PBI is proud to partner with the London Human Rights Film Festival for screenings of Delikado this March 2023. You can purchase your tickets here!
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