No Defenders, No Climate Justice
By Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK Director, Ben Leather
Think about what it takes to keep a forest standing. Not the satellite imagery or the international agreements - the actual, daily, human act of standing in front of a bulldozer, filing a legal challenge against a mining company, or organising an Indigenous community to assert its ancestral rights. Environmental defenders do that work: people who put their lives on the line to protect the ecosystems our entire civilisation depends upon. Without them, the climate crisis cannot be solved.
The evidence is unambiguous. Where defenders are protected, ecosystems survive. Where they are silenced, destruction follows.
Peace Brigades International has spent decades demonstrating that it is possible to change that equation - to create enough safety and space for defenders to do their work and, in doing so, to protect the planet we all share.
The relationship between environmental defenders and climate action is not peripheral. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been explicit: the voices and knowledge of Indigenous communities and front-line environmentalists must be central to any serious response to global warming. This was reaffirmed at the recent COP in Brazil. These are the people who understand the land. They know which forests absorb the most carbon, which rivers are being poisoned, which corporate operations are illegal, and which communities are already living with the consequences of a warming world. They are not bystanders. They are the most important climate actors we have.
And yet, they are being silenced - sometimes permanently.
In 2023 alone, 196 land and environmental defenders were murdered for doing their work; that’s more than four every single week. 43% of those killed were Indigenous Peoples. Mining was the biggest corporate killer of defenders that year - a grim irony, given that the minerals being extracted are often marketed as essential to the green energy transition. The problem is not going away. As competition for depleting natural resources intensifies, the threats to those who defend them will only grow. If we are serious about tackling the climate crisis, we must be equally serious about protecting the people on its front lines.
"Extractivism is a policy of death aimed at destroying the lungs of the world. As we know, the most important forests are located on Indigenous territories. Hence the offensive against Indigenous people." - Liliana Velázquez, environmental defender, Mexico
What defenders actually achieve
The work of environmental defenders is not symbolic. It produces concrete, measurable change, as shown by some of the groups which Peace Brigades International (PBI) supports. In Kenya, defenders from the Centre for Justice, Governance and Environmental Action resisted a proposed nuclear power plant that threatened one of East Africa's most ecologically rich coastlines, a site bordering a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Despite facing physical attacks, online smears, and police violence, they persisted. In January 2025, Kenya's parliament disbanded the agency responsible for the plant's construction. In Indonesia, Indigenous Moi communities succeeded in having palm oil companies' permits revoked across more than 90,000 hectares of forest - an area larger than New York City. In Mexico, rural communities fought for years to close a landfill that was contaminating their water and devastating their land. They won.
These are not isolated victories. They are evidence of what happens when defenders are kept safe enough to do their work and heard by those with the power to act.
The role of Peace Brigades International (PBI)
For more than four decades, PBI has developed and refined a unique model for protecting environmental and human rights defenders in some of the world's most dangerous environments. The approach, called Holistic Protective Accompaniment, is multilayered and adapted to local contexts. Highly trained international volunteers stand alongside threatened defenders as they carry out their work: in courtrooms, at protest sites, in remote communities, at meetings with government officials. The international presence changes the calculation for those who would use violence to silence dissent. It signals, clearly and visibly, that the world is watching.
"PBI's support has been critical. We feel we have room to manoeuvre. It's not just about their physical presence at activities, but also the government's awareness of PBI's work and the international support networks backing them." - Juan Carlos Flores Solis, environmental defender, Mexico.
But PBI's work goes beyond physical accompaniment. We generate access to governments, coalitions and decision-making bodies, and use it to amplify defenders' voices at the highest levels. We arrange diplomatic delegations, advocate for legal protections, and connect communities across continents so they can share tactics and expertise. PBI currently accompanies 1,327 land, environmental, and Indigenous defenders globally. We are the only organisation providing this kind of on-the-ground protective support across multiple countries and continents, including in the most remote and isolated areas.
PBI's recently launched Global Strategic Plan makes clear that protecting environmental defenders is not a separate concern from the climate emergency - it is central to it. The plan sets out PBI's commitment to expanding and deepening this work in the years ahead, rooted in the communities it serves and responsive to the escalating threats they face.
Why this matters now
The climate debate is too often dominated by those furthest from its consequences - in conference halls, in policy papers, and in the abstract language of carbon budgets and net zero targets. What is frequently missing is the ground-level reality that people, communities and movements are already defending the forests, rivers, and ecosystems we are trying to protect; often at extraordinary personal cost. Supporting those people is not an add-on to climate action. It is climate action.
Again: the evidence is clear. Where defenders are safe and active, the environment thrives. Where they have to flee or be silenced, ecological devastation follows. Peace Brigades International has spent decades demonstrating that it is possible to change that equation - to create enough safety and space for defenders to do their work and, in doing so, to protect the planet we all share.
See the work for yourself!
PBI has just released a brand-new 2-minute film capturing the frontline reality of its work with environmental defenders, as well as a powerful short clip on environmental defenders specifically. Watch them and share them widely!
You can download a one-pager on how PBI protects the people defending our planet here.
