NATURAL JUSTICE STRATEGY

Natural Justice's 2020-2022 strategy shifts from siloed programs to three integrated streams: affirming rights to lands and resources, defending rights against environmental impacts, and standing with communities through legal empowerment. The organization aims to strengthen the capacity of African Indigenous and local communities to challenge extractive projects, influence climate policy, and protect traditional knowledge. Key initiatives include the Community Environmental Legal Officers (CELOs) program, the African Environmental Defenders Initiative, and the Just Energy Transition Africa project. The strategy also details a resourcing plan focused on funding growth, financial sustainability, and internal system upgrades to support its Pan-African operations.

• Natural Justice has restructured its work into three interlocking programmatic streams to avoid 'silos' and reflect the multi-faceted challenges communities face: 'Standing with Communities', 'Affirming Rights', and 'Defending Rights'.
• The 'Affirming and Securing Rights' stream aims to increase community control over lands and traditional knowledge by 2022, specifically targeting the legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs) and the inclusion of traditional governance in national climate policies.
• The 'Defending Rights' stream focuses on stopping harmful fossil fuel and infrastructure projects, building climate-related litigation, and protecting environmental defenders through a dedicated initiative and solidarity fund.
• The 'Standing with Communities' stream prioritizes legal empowerment, movement building led by women and youth, and increasing community participation in environmental decision-making from local to global levels.
• The organization employs specific tools for community support, including Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) for decision-making on traditional knowledge and the Community Environmental Legal Officer (CELO) initiative for ongoing local-to-national action.
• Natural Justice identifies a 'planetary crisis' driven by climate, economic, and health crises, noting that climate solutions based on restoring natural systems are 'grossly underfunded' and that African states often marginalize rural communities and women in resource management.
• The organization is implementing a resourcing strategy based on three pillars: a funding growth strategy to expand the donor base, a sustainability strategy focusing on innovation and financial reserves, and an internal systems strategy to upgrade technology infrastructure.

APA

Natural Justice (2020). NATURAL JUSTICE STRATEGY. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NJ_STRATEGY-DOCUMENT_Web-72ppi.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. NATURAL JUSTICE STRATEGY. 2020. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NJ_STRATEGY-DOCUMENT_Web-72ppi.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=NATURAL JUSTICE STRATEGY |date=2020 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NJ_STRATEGY-DOCUMENT_Web-72ppi.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2020natural, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{NATURAL JUSTICE STRATEGY}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2020}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NJ_STRATEGY-DOCUMENT_Web-72ppi.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }