Wednesday, January 21, 2026
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LAB’s Environmental Defenders series connects you with grassroots environmental activists’ work.

It highlights both the dangers defenders face and their achievements in protecting their habitats and communities.

The series aims to influence thinking in the Global North away from extractivism
as part of a global struggle for environmental justice.

Editor's picks

Chile: the Indigenous women defending the Sea

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Part of the network looking at stone corrals, structures traditionally used in coastal or river areas to trap or concentrate fish and shellfish as the tides rise and fall. This is an ancestral fishing technique used by many Indigenous peoples and coastal communities.
Environmental Defenders
Amid industrial pressure and legal rollbacks, a grassroots women's network fights for ancestral marine rights and cultural survival in Chile. ‘If they take the sea...

Ecuador: The river never forgets – nor do the communities

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Environmental Defenders
In March 2025, the rivers of Esmeraldas, an Ecuadorian province that for decades has suffered from the social and environmental impacts of the petrochemical industry, were heavily polluted by a 25,000-barrel crude oil spill. Afro-descendant communities, environmental defenders organized in solidarity networks, and local universities continue agitating the murky waters of a disaster the country would prefer had sunk into oblivion.

Desierto Vestido: a territorial solution to the environmental effects of fast...

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Environment
In northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, Alto Hospicio has become a dumping ground for the world’s fast fashion waste. Mountains of unsold clothes from Europe, Asia, and North America pile up, creating toxic conditions. A local youth collective, Desierto Vestido, is fighting to expose the crisis, demand accountability, and develop circular solutions.

Latin America is the most dangerous region in the world to be an environmental defender. But this doesn’t stop activists, territorial guards, Indigenous communities, and environmental associations from taking action.

We are working in partnership with Global Voices – an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists, and Rubi Group – a change-driven PR agency for the Americas, to bring these stories to you.

We also have translation and cross-publishing partnerships with trusted Latin American independent outlets. Find a full list, as well as further details of the series, here.

Help us bring these stories to a wide audience by sharing them on social media and by donating to LAB.

Have you got a story for us?
We’re looking for stories which document the work and amplify the voices of grassroots environmental defenders in Latin America. We’d like to show a geographical diversity in our reporting. Tone: inspirational, motivational, accessible. See our full pitching guide here.

Latest articles

An existing windfarm in Cabo de la Vela, La Guajira. Still from the upcoming documentary 'Between Two Worlds' directed by Eliana Lafone

Communities in Colombia fight to be recognized in the rush to go green

Environmental Defenders
Maquinaria de extracción frente a San Pedro Chicozapote

Communities in Oaxaca unite to stop the plunder of the Río Grande

Environmental Defenders
Part of the network looking at stone corrals, structures traditionally used in coastal or river areas to trap or concentrate fish and shellfish as the tides rise and fall. This is an ancestral fishing technique used by many Indigenous peoples and coastal communities.

Chile: the Indigenous women defending the Sea

Environmental Defenders

Bolivia: Voices for Madidi

Environmental Defenders
Protestors gather to deliver a legal challenge against mining in the headwaters of their river, Cala Cala, in Potosí, Bolivia. Photo- Qhapahqñan, community member of Cala Cala

Bolivia: Highland community gathers to protect river from cooperative mining

Mining
Guapinol Timemap by Leon Elliott

Honduras: interactive tool traces developments in Guapinol anti-mining struggles

Environmental Defenders
Awa Guardia Indigena

The Indigenous rangers protecting Katsa Su in Colombia

Environmental Defenders
WTE Araucania

Alejandra Parra’s Zero Waste battle in southern Chile

Environmental Defenders
Aníbal Isturdes places his hand on the mutilated trunk

Neighbours come together to defend urban trees in Caracas, Venezuela

Environmental Defenders
Moira Millan

Despite global repression, Indigenous-led environmental movements fight on

Indigenous Peoples

The network protecting fishers and life in Guanabara Bay

Environmental Defenders

Indigenous leader Marisol Garcia Apagueño on the hidden costs of carbon credits

Environmental Defenders

Yanomami youth turn to drones to watch their Amazon territory

Environmental Defenders

Chile’s controversial Rucalhue dam

Energy & Fuel

El Salvador: ‘No to Life, Yes to Mining’

Mining
In Tariquía women are at the frontline of the fight against gas extraction which threatens their ways of living

Women criminalized for resisting gas extraction in Bolivian nature reserve

Environmental Defenders
Ka’apor and Quilombola Communities in Brazil

Ka’apor and Quilombola Communities in Brazil

Video posts

COP16: is biodiversity offsetting a false solution?

Environment

COP16 and biodiversity markets: Indigenous peoples meaningfully included?

Environment

Uncontacted tribes are primary conservationists, they must be protected

Environmental Defenders

A summit for the future of Yasuní

Environmental Defenders
All Articles

Mini-doc

Videos

Team

Marcela López Levy, editor and translator
Argentinian researcher, writer, and translator focused on social justice. Editor at LAB 1997-2004, current LAB Chair. Author of Argentina under the Kirchners: The legacy of left populism (2017) and We are Millions: neo-liberalism and new forms of political action in Argentina (2004). Terricide translator.

Linda Etchart, contributor and editor
Lecturer in Human Geography at Kingston University and Senior Co-Chair of the Environment Section of the Latin American Studies Association in Pittsburgh. Regular contributor to the EDs series, author of “Indigenous Peoples and the Rights of Nature” in ‘Voices of Latin America’ and ‘Global Governance of the Environment, the Rights of Nature and Indigenous Peoples: Extractive Industries in the Ecuadorian Amazon’. Ecuador specialist.

Ana Reyes-Hurt, contributor
Coordinator of the Peru Support Group, UK, an independent NGO that works with Peruvian groups and an international network to defend human rights, promote social inclusion and strengthen democracy. Peru specialist.

Fiona Watson, researcher
Field and research director at Survival International international NGO which works with tribal peoples to defend their lives, protect their lands, and determine their own futures. Expert in environmental impacts of deforestation in the northern Amazon state of Roraima in Brazil. Advisor on Amazon in the Times of War.

Leon Elliott, translator, editor
Leon is Policy and Research Coordinator for a UK-wide charity working on homelessness and refugee policy, and has previously worked in the environmental sector in the UK, focusing on deforestation, sustainable agriculture, and environmental policy. Leon is interested in human rights, poverty alleviation, and environmentalism, and provides Spanish>English translations for various organisations working across these fields.

Marilene Cardoso Ribeiro, photographer and artist
Award-winning photographer and ecologist whose works investigate the relationship between human beings and nature. MSc in Ecology and Wildlife Conservation and Management, PhD in photography. Ribeiro’s works focuses on Brazil as a window to discuss worldwide phenomena. Brazil specialist.

Marcos Colón, documentary-maker, academic, writer
Producer and director of two documentary films Beyond Fordlândia: An Environmental Account of Henry Ford’s Adventure in the Amazon (2018) and Zo’é (2018), based on experiences with the Zo’é Amazonian tribe, who have had little to no contact with the outside world. Editor and creator of Amazonia Latitude, a digital environmental magazine and LAB partner. Amazon in the Times of War author.

Moira Millán, Mapuche weychafe, land activist, writer
Indigenous Mapuche weychafe (‘protective warrior’), land activist and writer. Millán founded the Movement of Indigenous Women and Diversities for Good Living and is one of the leaders of the Indigenous ancestral lands recovery movement in Argentina. She is a novelist (El tren del olvido, 2019) and scriptwriter (La rebelión de las flores, 2022). Terricide author.

Sue Branford, editor
Journalist who has written for The FT, the Economist, the Observer, BBC World Service, The Times, the Guardian, and Mongabay. She specialises in environmental reporting, particularly on the Amazon. Sue has published five books, including The Last Frontier – Fighting over Land in the Amazon and Cutting the Wire – the Story of the Landless Movement in Brazil, which was awarded the Vladimir Herzog human rights prize. Amazon specialist.

Rebecca Wilson, editor, writer, translator
Rebecca Wilson is LAB’s part-time Managing Editor. A journalist and translator based in Colombia, she is interested in culture and the environment. Her work has been published by NACLA, Mongabay, The Times, LSE Blogs, Asymptote Journal, Ellipse Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, and Sounds and Colours, among others. 

Get involved

Be a part of this series: help fund our activities, become a media partner, or help us share stories of environmental defence. To get involved email us on contactlab@lab.org.uk

Have you got a story for us?
We’re looking for stories which document the work and amplify the voices of grassroots EDs in Latin America. We’d like to show a geographical diversity in our reporting. Tone: inspirational, motivational, accessible. See our full pitching guide here.

LAB is an independent charitable organisation based in London providing news, analysis and information on Latin America, its people, politics and society.

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