Over 80 participants from across 10 countries, representing over 50 organisations and social movements, came together for the 4th International Forest Defenders Conference. The conference is organised by Not1More and Kazdağı Association for the Preservation of Natural and Cultural Resources with partnership from Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders. Thank you to everyone who took part. Credits Video: Emre Karakaş Interviews: Özlem Akkayalı Content Edit and Translation: Selen Çatalyürekli Drone Images: Kazım Kızıl Music: The Forgotten Forest, Garris L. R. Coleman, Curse of Crowns

Driven by a passionate desire to protect this beautiful place, a community of protectors has formed a resistance camp. Characters from diverse backgrounds come together to camp in the woods, building defences and uniting with local residents to try to stop the felling. They learn about the ecology that is under threat, and are willing to put their bodies on the line. With the woods scheduled for destruction, the threat of eviction looms. Will the community find a way to stop HS2 in their tracks, and save Jones Hill Wood?

Inspired by the beauty of the natural world and courageous in the face of the threats that they knew would come, Sovikea, Mala and Somnang set out to defend their country’s natural heritage. Following a protest to defend the mangrove forests, they were thrown in jail. Will they continue the fight — to do what is right, or give in to the wishes of those who destroy our lands and forests for personal gain?

Sun Mala, Sim Somnang and Try Sovikea work to defend Cambodia’s natural heritage. These three young activists have now been in jail for over ten months, which is unlawful, and a bitter recompense for their hard work and sacrifice. Mala, Sovikea and Somnang faced trial on Monday 27th June 2016.

Pained by the destruction of nature going on around us, and with determination to protect the resources that sustain us, Mother Nature Cambodia activists sacrifice their studies, leave their friends and family and devote themselves to protecting the environment. To do so they risk their safety and their freedom.

Chut Wutty sat in the Cambodian morning sun, preparing for a 500-person strong occupation to investigate deforestation in Prey Lang forest. He jumped up when I spoke to him – I was part of a foreign film team with a battered, borrowed motorbike and nowhere to put the gallons of water we needed to join the protest. Wutty organised us with alacrity. He stowed our water in the back of his burgundy Land Rover and immediately started asking questions. His energy was infectious.

Wutty was a prominent activist and director of the Natural Resources Protection Group. He had been working to stop illegal deforestation in Cambodia since the 1990s, and was particularly active in the Cardamom Mountains and in Prey Lang forest. Wutty played a major role in supporting the Prey Lang Network, a grassroots community movement that spans four provinces and was recently awarded the UN Equator Prize. That day in November 2011, Wutty and the network were preparing for one of their most ambitious campaigns — it would later turn out to be one of the most brutally suppressed.

Deforestation is a systematic violence against people who live by the forest. Land and livelihoods are taken; people migrate or become labourers. In Cambodia, villages are flanked by a patchwork of greens: rice paddy, fields of cassava, cashew nut trees and sugar palms give way to the rich, darker green of the forest. The landscape is vividly alive, from the noisy hum of cicadas and hooting of gibbons, to the ribbons of white road flashing as motorbikes pass. People’s livelihoods depend on resins, vines and rattans collected deep in the forest. Resin trees are passed from one generation to the next, and are protected under Cambodian law. Those same tree species are targeted by loggers.

When the timber industry moves in, it hides behind ‘development.’ Rubber companies cut bare, industrial-sized stamps in the forest. Silence and heat fall heavily on the clearing. As the vivid green saplings grow, the plantations march, dark and regimented, over the dark, red earth. The rubber plantations are a cover. Chut Wutty explained that, after the logging licences were suspended in 2002, “the companies tried to get forest land through the land concessions. At that time, degraded forest was provided for planting rubber, but in reality it was not degraded forest, it was dense, evergreen forest with good quality timber.”

In Cambodia, exploitation of land, or land-grabbing, and exploitation of forests are two sides of one process. It is the local people that suffer as concession companies cut down their resin trees, take their farmland and desecrate the spirit forests. Local authorities and officials offer no support. Wutty told me during the campaign in Prey Lang that November: “They simply put the blame on the forest protectors, the local community, and try their best to conceal illegal actions by businessmen, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to them. According to the law, those living surrounding the forest have the right to access non-timber forest products. In contrast, this access is denied.” Opposing powerful interests and speaking out against corrupt officials is a dangerous job. While Wutty was acutely aware of the risks he was taking, he refused to be silenced. Sitting next to him as the military approached at the Prey Lang protest, Wutty was composed. “They are coming to catch me,” he said. “Should I run away? But where to go?” He looked around for a second, then said: “I’d like to see what they do.” A few minutes later, a military police officer came up behind him, grabbed him in a stranglehold and wrestled him to the ground. For about a minute he struggled, amid a circle of military and police pointing AK-47s. Within seconds, network members rushed to his aid, armed only with sticks, freeing him.

Afterward, Wutty told me he was proud and grateful for his supporters, and also touched at the spirit of the questions protestors shouted at police: “Who pays your salary?” “Why do you bring guns here when we have none?” “We’re all Cambodians aren’t we?”

Later, tired and rattled in a nearby guesthouse, Wutty told me: “I understand that if I don’t help them, no one would. Many others in the country only want to be in a senior position and to get rewards – to make more and more money no matter if it is at the expense of others.”

On April 26, 2012, Wutty was guiding two journalists through the Cardamom Mountains on the last day of a three-day fact finding mission. After the three stopped at an illegal yellow vine site in Koh Kong province and began taking photos, two men prohibited Wutty’s group from leaving. Minutes later, three police officers arrived with AK-47s. After forcibly confiscating the group’s cameras, a verbal scuffle ensued between the officers and Wutty. Shots rang out and Wutty was shot dead through the door of his car. First he sat there, behind the wheel in the position he was killed, and then, after his body was moved, he laid on a tarp, for hours until day turned to dusk and authorities transported his body to the nearest hospital.

Wutty died that day, but he inspired hundreds to carry on his work. Two weeks after he was killed, hundreds of villagers and activists travelled hours to the site where Wutty was killed. They carried a 10-foot effigy of him made of tree branches, and signs that read, “I am Chut Wutty.” They continue to fight for their forests.

SSRP and Not1More short film on frontline environmental defenders and their fight for climate justice. Filmed in Glasgow during the COP26 Climate Conference. In 2021, thousands of climate justice activists gathered at the COP 26 Climate Conference in Glasgow to protest, raise awareness of environmental and social injustices and fight for their rights. Amongst these were Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) members and Not1More representatives and activists, including frontline environmental defenders and activists from Brazil, Tanzania and Cambodia.

As part of our awareness-raising activities during COP, we set up workshops looking further into the links between violence to environmental defenders and climate justice, including film screenings, conversations with defenders and a collagraph printing workshop.

The activities and workshops held during COP 26 were also used as an opportunity to visually document the impactful work which researchers at the University of Sussex, frontline environmental defenders and their in-country partners had been undertaking over the last few years through the SSRP. With funding from the SSRP Impact Fund, video footage was filmed by Dave Aspinall Films during the COP-side events and workshops in November 2021 and now been put together as a 14-minute video. With the main focus being on environmental defenders, human rights abuses and climate action, the short film features interviews with frontline activists from Brazil, Tanzania and Cambodia and their fight for climate justice supported by Not1More representatives and SSRP researchers.

Thanks to Sussex Sustainability Research Programme and ONCA Gallery. Video production supported by Dr Mika Peck, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex.

Justino Sa, an environmental defender working to combat the devastation caused by the rosewood trade in Guinea-Bissau, is interviewed by Not1More. He explains what motivates him to continue his forest protection work despite death threats and intimidation.

After independence, Guinea-Bissau started to export wood, but in a sustainable way that respected the law. The law establishes how to harvest wood. But with the state coup in 2012, the situation worsened. There was a lack of control. They took advantage of that, to do what they did in 2014: they abusively cut down our forests.

It was based on this that we started to ask questions, we decided to begin this fight, to combat it directly. We went on the ground, to see the situation, as witnesses. We denounced it on the radio, on the television, and everywhere.

It’s an environmental crime. To cut trees in such an irresponsible manner, without respecting the rules, this damages the country, damages the generations to come. And there were many threats. But we felt that we weren’t harming anyone — when you are defending your country, you feel at ease. I wasn’t scared. And I’m not going to be scared.

When a person enters into this type of situation you have to have courage, first-off. Don’t let yourself be intimidated. Second, to have in your mind that everything that you are doing is for the good of your people. One day, you could be up against it, but tomorrow the truth will overcome. People will see that what you said yesterday was true. Having this mentality, it’s not easy to be afraid. That was my foundation.

The logging had an impact on the elections. One of the presidential candidates was tarnished. During the election campaigns, the Chinese provided cars to this candidate; people felt that he was one of those who destroyed our forests. A lot of people didn’t vote for him because of the logging. After the elections, there were changes. The government decided, through our denunciations, to pass a provisionary moratorium on logging. But we didn’t stop there. We argued that the timber that had been cut, that had not yet been exported, should be exported for the benefit of the people who suffered from the logging.

Imagine it, if I brought you to see the containers in the stadium of the national guard. If you were to see – there are millions and millions of trunks there to be exported. They will be exported. Millions and millions will come in. But if you went to the customs to see the exact amount [of money] that came in, you won’t find it. Where did those millions of francs go? Into individual peoples’ pockets. It can’t be like this.

We could export the wood to benefit those people who don’t have hospitals, who don’t have schools, who don’t even have painkillers to relieve their pain. The resources should be there to benefit the people. If there is no justice, then it creates conditions for people to continue to commit these crimes.

The people out there in the rural areas, they are the biggest victims. For those of us in the city, there’s no problem. If there is no rain, we can buy rice, import it to eat. But the ones out there, they aren’t able to do that. But if you go there to change their minds, to convince them that they need to fight to protect their forests, they’re going to ask: what is your contribution? Because the loggers are strong. They go there and they buy the people, they pay. People let them enter because they were given a sack of rice. It’s paradoxical. I give authorization for someone to enter my forest to take out a container of wood worth millions, and in return I receive a sack of rice? It’s unthinkable. But if there is no support, this is going to continue. If you go there and show them that this is not right, you have to support them so that they can stop allowing others to cut their forests.

This type of struggle is very difficult, even wanting to succeed, sometimes you lose patience. There has to be help for us to fight against these people. Without help, you can’t fight.

The people in the government, they are complicit in the logging. Who gives the licences? The government. They are not going to be interested in stopping this. If they are complicit, they give the licences, how can you get around it? Through raising awareness campaigns, through direct action together with the people to show them that what we are doing today is going to harm their future as well, the future generations. If our ancestors had accepted, had given their approval for logging, we wouldn’t be here. We’d all be dead. They left the forest for us, we also need to keep the forest for the next generations.

I continue to do the work, even though it affected my family. Even though my wife many times calls me out on it, asking me not to participate, I always continue. I have to fight. If others fought for me to be here, I need to fight so that others can also be here. One day, if someone comes to kill me, then kill me. But I am going to continue doing my work.

This country cost a lot of people their lives. A lot of people died because of this country. So why would we take our independence by force, fight to push the colonists out, if we are not going to fight to develop the country?

I am going to fight so that my children have a better life than mine. I studied by my own effort, because my father died very young, and my mother didn’t have the means to pay for my schooling. And this cost me — I struggled to get where I am. But I hope that my children don’t have to do what I did. I am fighting so that my children have a better life. If you compare Guinea Bissau from the 1980s to the Guinea Bissau of today, it’s totally different. Different for better or worse? For the worse! The infrastructure is all ruined. But we continue to have people that when they assume government roles, instead of working to change the situation, they work only to benefit themselves. This is bad. And the international community can’t allow this to happen. Guinea Bissau is not outside of the concern of these nations. We are in a world without frontiers. What happens in England has repercussions here in Guinea Bissau. What happens in the United States, has impacts here. We are condemned to live in permanent contact. We are all friends. There is only one world.

There has now been 43 years of independence. Forty-three years without roads, without schools, without health. But we have people that used Guinean resources to buy houses in Europe. We have children who studied in universities in Europe while people here don’t have schools. This is a paradox. That is why there needs to be support from the international community. We need support in this effort to fight against the devastation of our forests and against the plundering of our seas. Only in this way can we develop, because these are our key resources.

Our independence is not just to have a flag. Cabral (the leader of the independence movement) used to say, it’s not enough to have a flag and an anthem, independence has to have an impact on the lives of the people. That’s to say, people need to live well. I have my children, every day when they wake, they need at least to have a glass of milk to drink. There are many Guineans that don’t have anything to eat.

That’s why I want to ask that these denunciations are addressed; that this should impact the lives of the people. Because if not, it’s not worth it. I can talk and talk and talk and I die and things continue.

Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae.

Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis.

Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt.

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus.

Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae.

Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis.

Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt.

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus.

Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae.

Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis.

Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt.

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus.

Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae.

Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis.

Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Nulla porttitor accumsan tincidunt.

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Cras ultricies ligula sed magna dictum porta. Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lacinia porttitor dolor, facilisis pharetra arcu dapibus non. Aliquam finibus dui non turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae. Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula. Quisque velit nisi, pretium ut lacinia in, elementum id enim. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus.