Strategy 2024-2028

The Natural Justice Strategy 2024-2028 outlines a pan-African approach to securing social and environmental justice through the legal empowerment of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The organization focuses on strategic litigation, policy influencing, and the protection of traditional knowledge to combat the impacts of the climate crisis and harmful extractive projects.

• Natural Justice implements a 'Litigation Plus' approach, which integrates strategic litigation with legal empowerment to help Indigenous Peoples and local communities understand, use, and shape the law to defend their rights against governments and corporations.
• The organization identifies a significant threat from the fossil fuel industry in Africa, noting that over 471 oil and gas projects are slated to begin operations between 2024 and 2028, which may lead to mass displacement, environmental destruction, and conflict.
• Natural Justice utilizes the 2014 Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing to ensure fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources, exemplified by a 2019 industry-wide agreement between the South African rooibos industry and the Khoikhoi and San.
• The strategy is organized into three interconnected programmatic pillars: 'Standing with Communities' (legal empowerment and agency), 'Defending Rights against Environmental and Social Impacts' (halting harmful extractive and infrastructure projects), and 'Affirming and Securing Rights to Lands, Resources and Knowledge' (policy and legal framework influence).
• A central innovation in the organization's legal support is the Community Environmental Legal Officers (CELO) network, consisting of community-based paralegals who provide ongoing legal support and gather evidence for negotiations and litigation.
• The organization has achieved specific legal victories in Kenya and South Africa: in 2019, it helped stop a 1050 MW coal power plant in Kenya due to inadequate climate impact assessments, and in 2022, it successfully challenged Shell's seismic survey rights off South Africa's East Coast.
• The strategy emphasizes the role of women and youth, noting that women are often excluded from environmental management decision-making despite their roles as guardians, and that intergenerational solidarity with youth movements is essential for climate justice.

APA

Natural Justice (2024). Strategy 2024-2028. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NJ_strategy_English-digital-2.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. Strategy 2024-2028. 2024. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NJ_strategy_English-digital-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=Strategy 2024-2028 |date=2024 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NJ_strategy_English-digital-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2024strategy, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{Strategy 2024-2028}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2024}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NJ_strategy_English-digital-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }