Three reasons to support environmental defenders

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So much so that after his visit to the UK in January, Michel Forst, the UN representative for environmental defenders, stated that he found their treatment “extremely worrying”.

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The Conversation

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https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-to-support-environmental-defenders-227742

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

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FORST, SWEDEN, EU, FRANCE, EUROPE, NETHERLANDS, IRELAND

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So much so that after his visit to the UK in January, Michel Forst, the UN representative for environmental defenders, stated that he found their treatment “extremely worrying”.
This ambitious international environmental agreement, which I have spent more than ten years studying and writing a book about, was designed to empower and protect environmental defenders.
But environmental defenders insist that these desperate and disruptive actions are nothing compared to the risks that political inaction pose to human health and that of our planet.
Here are three reasons not to be mad at the protestors.

1. Democracies depend on citizen engagement

Healthy democracies welcome and depend on an active and engaged citizens to thrive.
These examples are all worrying signals for the state of our democracy, and our planet.
The repression and criminalisation of environmental protesters and those undertaking acts of civil disobedience spells trouble for our democracies as well as our planet.

2. Environmental problems need diverse solutions

Environmental harm can operate in ways that are not always well understood by those in power.
Planetary problems therefore need a diverse range of solutions and everyone affected needs to be represented and have their interests heard.
The Aarhus Convention also promotes active public participation in relation to environmental decision-making.

3. Suppressing protest won’t solve the planetary crisis

Lethal air, filthy rivers, collapsing food chains, the climate crisis – these problems will all continue unabated, and soon become much more inconvenient than having to get off the bus to walk the last mile to work.
Forst, in his report, puts it like this: “states must address the root causes of mobilisation” not the mobilisation itself.

Emily Barritt is a trustee of the Environmental Law Foundation