The Forest Defenders Conference series is steadily building an international network to articulate the needs, successes and demands of frontline defenders. We create a safe and inspiring space to bring together at-risk defenders, grassroot organisations, funders, NGOs, inter-governmental agencies, public interest lawyers, security specialists and researchers.
Our next Forest Defenders Conference will be hosted by our friends Traditional Ecosystems Survival Tanzania (TEST) in 2027. To find out more and to enquire about funding or attending the conference, please get in touch with us via the contact form at the bottom of this page.
In October 2023, the Fourth International Forest Defenders Conference (FDC23) convened in Türkiye, marking a significant gathering for global forest defenders to unite, exchange experiences, and strengthen their collective commitment to protecting nature and Indigenous lands. Organised by Not1More and facilitated by Türkiye-based defenders, notably the Kazdağı Association for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Assets (KAPNCA), the conference aimed to foster international solidarity and support amidst the mounting challenges faced by environmental activists worldwide.
Participants expressed gratitude for the conference as a space where the "whole human being was acknowledged", and the strength to be vulnerable was celebrated. In the closing messages, defenders pledged to maintain networks of support and continue the fight. The overall sentiment echoed the belief that, in the face of challenges posed by extractive transnational companies and oppressive governments, ongoing international collaboration, shared tools, and unwavering solidarity are crucial for the success of grassroots resistance. The FDC23 exemplified how connected defenders can protect forests, preserve cultural heritage, and safeguard the natural world for future generations.
The 5th International Forest Defenders Conference was held in Guinea-Bissau in February 2025.
The conference theme was 'Sovereignty as Security: Analysing Land and Resource Rights through the lens of Decolonisation' and was been chosen by Guinea-Bissauan civil society organisation Nô Recursos — a founding partner of Not1More. This theme encompasses the biggest threats to people in the region in terms of the environment and human rights. Nô Recursos state that intercommunity conflict over land and resources is the biggest threat that the population as a whole face on a daily basis. It is driven by climate breakdown, poverty, corruption, the influence of international markets on resources and legal systems that undermine land and resource security. The conference was a movement-building event for decolonisation, land sovereignty, climate and human rights, that visioned strategies for thriving communities in the face of climate breakdown.
At this four-day conference, partners from across the world came to the subject of land and resource rights from their own existing knowledge and culture, and from varying places along the decolonisation journey, bringing with them experience, ideas and strategies to re-imagine how we can live in a world where people and planet are the priority. The majority of participants were grassroots activists, joined by academics, practitioners and funders. The conference was a space to come together and learn from ancestral knowledge and lived daily experience, whilst considering proactive strategies for the future.
Our conference report, written by Ella Russell, can be read online here.
Highlighting risks, developing strategies and support for defenders on the frontlines
21st–22nd June 2017, Oxford, UK
As global and national companies pursue the short-term and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, competition over land, forests and raw materials is increasingly fierce. Forests are disappearing, but across the world people resist these changes, in order to defend their sovereignty and to protect the natural environment. The risks they face continue to rise. How can we better understand the reality of the dangers, and the barriers that prevent defenders from accessing support?
In June 2017, N1M, hosted the inaugural Forest Defenders Conference with Oxford University. Opening with Laura Zuñiga Cáceres', hopeful, powerful message to her mother, indigenous leader, Berta Cáceres, who was murdered in 2016 — 'We are going to Triumph' — Laura voiced the struggle to defend Honduras' land, rivers and forest.
From that perspective, we dedicated ourselves to working through the detail of how and where violence is enacted against environmental human right defenders and to begin the process of finding solutions.
The 2017 conference brought together frontline environmental defenders with security specialists, lawyers, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment, John Knox, international NGOs, human rights groups, academics and environmental organisations.
We heard first-hand from frontline, at-risk defenders their needs, the dangers and challenges they face in their work to protect the environment, and working in diverse focus groups, we identified top priorities to improve the security of environmental defenders at risk.
Outcomes:
Using a SWOT analysis (Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats), eight groups led by frontline defenders from Brazil, Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Turkey, the UK, and Cambodia identified priorities for action.
These priorities are:
Building success with strategies and support for defenders of the earth
In 2018, we joined forces with EarthRights International and Cambodian Youth Network, to create the second Forest Defenders Conference with a regional focus on South East Asia. The 2018 conference was organised in response to the requests of the frontline defenders who attended the first Forest Defenders Conference, and who wanted to build on the solidarity, energy, analysis and relationships that were developed. One of the key objectives was to create a safe and stimulating environment for at-risk defenders to connect with funders, NGOs, inter-governmental agencies, public interest lawyers, security specialists, and particularly with each other.
During the conference, over 90 defenders and allies worked together to develop the Environmental Defenders Declaration for South East Asia, offering concrete recommendations to governments, the private sector, UN, international finance institutions, and civil society, to address the crisis of violence facing all who take action or resist evictions and dispossession of their lands, forests, seas and rivers.
From 21st – 24th August 2018, the second International Forest Defenders Conference brought together over 50 frontline environmental defenders with security specialists (from Witness, Forum Asia and Protection International), academics from Universities of Sussex (UK) and New South Wales (Australia), intergovernmental representatives from OHCHR and UN Environment, funders, international NGOs, and lawyers, including the Mekong Legal Network, Mekong Legal Advocacy Initiative and international lawyers from Greenpeace International and Action4Justice. Defenders joined the conference from Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey and Brazil.
The four day meeting was split into two parts:
“Nossa luta não tem fronteiras” / “Our fight has no borders"
FRONTLINE DEFENDERS WHO ARE RISKING THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT FORESTS, LAND, AND WATER, UNITED TO SHARE OUR STORIES AND OUR STRATEGIES MEETING TOGETHER IN THE HEART OF THE STRUGGLE, PARÁ, AMAZONIA, BRAZIL.
15 countries represented
10 Indigenous Peoples and Quilombolas
30 Social Movements and Organisations
150 Participants
The gathering was led by grassroots organisations at the frontline in defending lands and forests in Brazil. Our organising team was all women, and composed entirely of volunteers working with a small stipend. Not1More is proud to have partnered in 2019 with: Zé Cláudio and Maria Foundation, the Pastoral Land Commission, Bem-te-vi Diversity Association, Federal University of South and Southeastern Pará, University of Sussex, University of Oxford, Federal University of Bahia, Cabanagem Foundation, and EarthRights International – an incredible organising team. The conference organisation was supported locally by the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the Movement of People Affected by Mining (MAM), the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) and CIMI (the Indigenous Mission Counsel).
For three days, we held a closed workshop in a secure environment with protection given by the Landless Workers Movement (MST), creating a safe space for people to share their stories. We held security trainings with an approach of integrated care developed by the Escola de Ativismo (Activism School) which is a holistic approach including psycho-social support, and digital, physical and collective security. The Pastoral Land Commission, EarthRights International and the Centre for Climate Crimes Analysis led a legal workshop and a mock trial – an insightful and fun opportunity to take on the role of state lawyers, Indigenous plaintiffs, judges and company representatives. Raphael Mimoun, founder of Horizontal, and Mary Menton, University of Sussex, introduced the conference participants to TELLA, a mobile app designed by Horizontal which provides a secure, locally-owned system to gather evidence about human rights violations. The engagement and excitement in the room was palpable.
On the fourth day, we held an open event. We were delighted to welcome Joênia Wapichana, the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Congress in Brazil, as our keynote speaker. She spoke powerfully on this moment of crisis in the Amazon and throughout Brazil. She spoke of the need to unite – a powerful message that resonated as the first panellist, an Indigenous woman from Brazil, joined hands with a forest defender from Ghana, speaking of the need for international solidarity.
The conference also included a closed meeting of highly at-risk defenders. Over 20 of the participants at the conference are facing death threats. The work of building long-term international solidarity and strength to back-up forest and land defenders who are risking their lives is just beginning.
