Mission

Claudelice Santos at the 3rd International Forest Defenders Conference, Marabá, Brazil (C) Selen Çatalyürekli, 2019



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.

Team

FRAN LAMBRICK

DIRECTOR
Co-founder of N1M, Fran has over ten years experience working as an academic, filmmaker and campaigner on environmental change and conflict, with a particular focus on Cambodia. Fran is Producer and Director of the film, I am Chut Wutty, that tells the story of the murdered forest defender. Banned by the Cambodian government in 2016, the film was subsequently viewed over a million times online. With a DPhil in forestry from University of Oxford, Fran has experience working with large data sets and conducting action-oriented research.

JUSTINE TAYLOR

DIRECTOR
Previously on the media and legal team at Grow Heathrow, Justine joined N1M after working at the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva. Justine now supports N1M’s research into human rights violations by police and other enforcement bodies in the UK.

Lizzie Hudson

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER
Lizzie comes from an arts background and has worked for over a decade as an administrator, project manager and board member in various non-profit institutions. She first worked with Not1More as a volunteer during COP26, for which she helped coordinate the public events programme. She is now responsible for our day-to-day operations, logistics and liaison with our partners in Brazil.

ANONYMOUS TEAM MEMBERS

Some of our team members do not share their names or photos online in order to keep themselves and their communities safe. From Asia to the Americas, Africa to Europe, these people are a fundamental part of Not1More's collective and we thank them all for their vital work.

Ansumana Manneh

STEERING GROUP
Born in the Republic of the Gambia in 1971, Ansu is now settled and working in the Republic of Guinea-Bissau for the last 27 years. Currently, Ansu is the Administrative Secretary of Our Resources (Nô Recursos) an Environmental Non-Profit NGO operating in Guinea-Bissau. Our Resources successfully campaigned for a logging moratorium to safeguard the country's remaining forests, and has been hugely impactful in raising public awareness of environmental rights, and the loss of value to communities through timber extraction.

Find out more about Nô Recursos on the Guinea-Bissau Our Work page

Josie Argyle

STEERING GROUP
Josie is a grassroots campaigner who occupied woodlands under threat by HS2 from 2020 to 2022. She has provided support to protestors facing the court system and is working with N1M to campaign against the increasing criminalisation of protest in the UK. She also works on creative engagement projects which aim to bring activism to wider audiences.

See photos of the Stop HS2 campaign by Talia Woodin

San Mala

STEERING GROUP
Mala is a Cambodian environmental and human rights activist. Following his imprisonment from 2015-2016 due to activism to save the mangrove forests of Koh Kong, Mala continued campaigning for their protection, and was successful, acheiving an export ban on dredged sand from the province in 2017. He is a founder of Not1More in Cambodia, and has since worked closely with communities to defend forests and land rights in Cambodia's north east. Mala is an advocate for digital security and internet freedoms. He is regularly interviewed in the Cambodian media.

Find out more about Not1More in Cambodia

Geranne Vegter

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
Geranne is N1M's Volunteer Coordinator and a volunteer themselves. With experience of management systems and volunteer recruitment, Geranne loves having a collaborative working process. Their strength at working across roles means they are equally at home helping out with research projects, social media and project planning.

DR MARY MENTON

ASSOCIATE
Mary is currently a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow. She was part of Not1More for many years, leading the Atmospheres of a Violence research project while at the University of Sussex and later working to support Not1More's work in Brazil. She continues to collaborate with Not1More on projects.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ATMOSPHERES OF VIOLENCE PROJECT

Claudelice Santos

STEERING GROUP
Claudelice Silva dos Santos is an activist, environmentalist, studies law at the Federal University of South and Southeast Pará - UNIFESSPA, and is the coordinator of IZM.

Find out more about IZM's work in Brazil

N1M Trust

N1M Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 1182322, established in 2019.
The Trust partners with Not1More, making grants to support environmental human rights defenders, by engaging in public education and supporting efforts to uphold human rights and to protect the environment.

JETHRO PETTIT

Dr Jethro Pettit is a consultant and facilitator of learning in the field of international development, focused on issues of participation, civil society, social movements, governance, gender, human rights and the environment. He designs and leads courses, workshops, research and evaluations for development agencies, foundations and universities in the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Jethro is an Emeritus Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, where he was previously Director of Teaching and Learning.

MAUREEN GRANT

Maureen Grant is a community activist who has lived in Bradford since the 1980s. She worked for many years at the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and is now retired. Maureen has extensive experience in education and working on tackling racial justice issues. Currently, she is a volunteer presenter at the community radio station, Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB), and also produces and presents her own monthly radio programme, Race Matters. For many years Maureen has been active in working with communities in West Yorkshire to challenge discrimination and create a strong base from which to exercise their rights.

YANNICK NDOINYO

Yannick Ndoinyo is a human rights and nature defender from Tanzania, and the Executive Director of Traditional Ecosystems Survival Tanzania (TEST) Trust. Yannick is leading in work on decolonisation, bringing Indigenous knowledge to sustainable land management. He is currently studying for a Masters of Science degree at the University of Oxford in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. Yannick has been evicted from Maasai lands twice in his life. He is an elder in his community.

JOANN POINELLI

Joann has an M.B.A. in Finance and has worked in middle to large corporations in Financial Analysis, finishing as Manufacturing Financial Manager at New Balance in Boston, Massachusetts. After this, Joann started her own business providing accounting and financial support to various small businesses. She is currently retired and living in Italy.

RACHEL HUXLEY

Dr Rachel Huxley is Director of Knowledge and Learning, responsible for C40’s knowledge management and research. Rachel has been with C40 for over 5 years during which time she has led the priority research programme on the co-benefits of urban climate action and overseen the launch of C40’s flagship Knowledge Hub. Rachel holds a PhD on Sustainable Cities at the University of Leeds. Prior to this Rachel was Chief Executive of Peterborough Environment City Trust, leading the Trust’s work in Peterborough as well as establishing a UK-wide network of leading sustainable cities to share of best practice.

Tracey Cresswell

Tracey is a Governance, Risk and Compliance expert in financial services for over 20 years, specialising in fintech, cross-jurisdictional and unbanked financial services. She holds a postgraduate degree in International Political Economy from the University of Manchester, is a certified member of the International Compliance Association and an ESG qualified practioner. Having worked in retail and commercial financial institutions with a global presence, leading business decisions and interactions with regulators, she aspires to deploy industry learned skills to support and promote enviromentally sustainable principles.

Governance

Our programs are set by people who are most affected by the issues we grapple with. Our priorities and approach are set by a Steering Group of people from the grassroots campaigns in each region that we operate, including the UK.

Our working patterns and pay structures are set separately by each team in each country.

In the UK, we have two team members who work our full-time week of four days (following research on workplace wellbeing) and three part-time staff members, plus consultants, whom we employ through project funding. We are a Real Living Wage employer and there is a 16.7% difference between our highest and lowest paid employees (between Director and administrative staff).

In Cambodia, the team set their own wages, and the pay rate is equal among all team members. Our sister organisations in Brazil and Guinea-Bissau set their own wages in relation to project funds.

N1M Trust is run by a board of voluntary trustees.