Mission
Frontline environmental defenders commit themselves to protecting nature. They sacrifice their time, their resources, even their freedom, to keep the environment diverse, abundant and free from exploitation.
Yet those who protect our world face violent reprisals. Globally, four environmental and land defenders are killed every week.
Not1More is an environmental campaign group that supports frontline environmental defenders and investigates the root causes of environmental conflict. N1M was founded in 2016, with the purpose of developing innovative, equitable and evidence-based strategies to address the most pressing challenges of our time. Bringing global backing and expertise to support those at the frontline of environmental protection, N1M works closely with at-risk defenders and communities. We work primarily in Cambodia, West Africa, Brazil and the UK.
Our approach is to combat isolation and provide support to defenders, whilst challenging the impunity of persecutors. Many defenders live and campaign in remote locations, cut off from the media, human rights groups and public support, making them particularly vulnerable to arrests or deadly attacks. As part of the wider community provided by N1M, defenders can access direct and practical support otherwise unavailable to them. We combat the exclusion that many environmental defenders face as a result of bureaucratic or language barriers by creating open-source multilingual information, and holding international conferences where defenders can share their needs with environmental and human rights groups. On the legal front, N1M pushes for independent investigations and pursues cases that have a critical impact. We fight the impunity that creates a “licence to kill”, in the words of Brazilian lawyer, Batista Afonso, who has dedicated his life to supporting frontline activists and rural communities.
Protecting our environment is the most important job anyone could take on, it shouldn’t be one of the most dangerous.
Not1More uses the term defenders to refer to people directly protecting the land or environment because it encompasses a wide range of activities. Other terms used by the people we work with include activist, campaigner, environmentalist, protector and community leader.