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Between 2022 and 2024, the African Environmental Defenders Initiative documented 232 non-lethal attacks against environmental defenders, with 67% occurring in East Africa. Uganda was the most affected country, accounting for 42% of cases, largely driven by opposition to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The report identifies government (34%) and multinational/investment companies (20%) as the primary perpetrators. Women defenders face specific gendered threats, including the withholding of sanitary products during detention and social stigmatization. The document also details country-specific conflicts, such as conservation-linked violence in Kenya, industrial mining in the DRC, and illegal logging in Madagascar, while highlighting the role of the African Environmental Defenders Fund in providing emergency legal and psychosocial support.

The document serves as a guide to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), detailing the collective and individual rights of Indigenous peoples, including self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. It outlines the responsibilities of States and the UN, provides criteria for identifying Indigenous peoples, and offers practical avenues for reporting human rights violations through UN mechanisms. The guide specifically highlights the intersection of UNDRIP with biological diversity, conservation, and land rights.

The document argues that international financial institutions (IFIs) often fund projects in energy, resource extraction, and infrastructure that lead to human rights abuses and environmental damage. It calls on the UN Human Rights Council to hold these institutions and their member states accountable, recommending the adoption of human rights due diligence, impact assessments, and safeguard policies consistent with international law.

The document highlights the disproportionate risks faced by women environmental and human rights defenders (WEHRDs) in Africa, including gender-based violence, criminalization, and digital attacks. It notes a significant gap in data and reporting, with women often excluded from official statistics and protection mechanisms. The brief identifies the Democratic Republic of Congo as the deadliest country for environmental defenders and calls for gender-responsive funding, legal protections, and the formal recognition of WEHRDs' leadership within UNFCCC processes and national policies.

The document examines the gap between the IUCN's formal commitment to protect environmental defenders via Resolution 115 and the actual implementation of a global policy and action plan. It highlights the extreme risks faced by defenders globally and specifically in Africa, including gender-based violence against women defenders and the criminalization of activists. While noting a few regional projects and the importance of IUCN's public statements, the report argues that the organization remains largely reactive and lacks a systematic strategy, funding, and reporting mechanism to address the structural drivers of violence against those protecting nature.

The document highlights the disproportionate risks faced by women environmental and human rights defenders (WEHRDs) in Africa, including gender-based violence, criminalization, and digital attacks. It notes a significant gap in data collection, where official statistics underrepresent the scale of violence against women compared to men. The report identifies the extractive industry, poaching, and state security forces as primary sources of threats, particularly in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Kenya. It argues that WEHRDs face unique intersectional vulnerabilities based on race, class, and disability, and calls for flexible, long-term funding and gender-sensitive legal and psychosocial support to protect these activists.

Natural Justice provides legal support to Indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa, specifically in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Benin, Guinea, and Madagascar. The organization focuses on challenging rights infringements related to land, climate change, and extractive projects, and facilitating fair commercial transactions for traditional knowledge. Key initiatives include the development of 'community protocols' to help communities articulate their rights and the production of accessible legal resources, such as 34 national legal reviews and the Living Convention. Natural Justice also engages in international advocacy through the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and forums like the UNFCCC and CBD.

The document outlines the legal challenges faced by communities regarding land and resource rights, specifically the lack of recognition for customary laws and state ownership of sub-soil resources. It provides a comprehensive directory of international instruments, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169, as well as business and finance guidelines (e.g., UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, IFC Performance Standards) that can be used to empower communities. The guide suggests including customary laws, governance structures, and specific national/international legal references in community protocols to define terms for external engagement and protect cultural and environmental heritage.

The report examines taxation in Cameroon, Mozambique, and South Africa, analyzing how formal institutional designs and informal state-society relations affect revenue collection and development. It finds that while technical reforms (like VAT and semi-autonomous revenue authorities) have increased some revenues, deep-seated perceptions of taxation as a colonial tool of oppression, combined with widespread corruption and a lack of transparency, severely undermine tax morale and voluntary compliance across all three nations.

The paper maps the disparate research and practice of 'business-peace' interactions into five core assertions: economic engagement creating a peace dividend, local development building peace capacities, importing international norms for accountability, constraining conflict drivers, and direct corporate diplomacy. While proponents argue these activities foster stability and development, critics warn of neo-colonial exploitation, 'peacewashing', and the risk of exacerbating local inequalities. The author concludes that business contributions are often limited by the willingness of local regimes and the priority of profit over courageous ethical choices in fragile contexts.

The paper analyzes the 'business-peace nexus,' where multinational corporations (MNCs) are reframed as peace actors. While B4P aims to embed corporations in public accountability structures, the authors argue it creates 'asymmetrical governance' locally, where corporate power is amplified and accountability is obscured.

The authors argue that the EITI lacks a proven Theory of Change, risking obsolescence in some countries. They propose three models—Name-and-Shame, Public Debate, and Technical Reform—and find that while stakeholders prefer the Public Debate model, actual change occurs primarily through Technical Reform. The study emphasizes that ToCs must be dynamic and context-specific to bridge the gap between disclosure and actual accountability.

The document provides a detailed technical walkthrough of the Settings menu in LEAP, covering the Scope & Scale, Years, Calculations, Costs, Optimization, IBC, Internet, Mapping, Folders, and Scripts tabs. It explains how users can enable specific analysis modules—such as energy demand, transformation, and environmental effects—and configure critical parameters like base years, discount rates, and optimization solvers. The guide also details the integration of the Impact Benefit Calculator (IBC) for health and climate impact modeling and the use of GIS shape files for geographical mapping of results.

The report critiques the Indonesian government's plan to move its capital to East Kalimantan, specifically in the Penajam Paser Utara and Kutai Kartanegara regencies. It argues that the project is a 'political commodity' designed to benefit oligarchs and corporations who hold extensive mining, forestry, and plantation concessions in the area. The document highlights significant environmental threats, including the destruction of mangrove ecosystems in Balikpapan Bay, the risk of floods, and continued reliance on coal power. It also warns of the marginalization and potential eviction of indigenous peoples, such as the Balik tribe, and criticizes the lack of transparency in financing and public participation.

The report argues that the relocation of Indonesia's capital to East Kalimantan is a 'mega project' designed to benefit political oligarchs and corporations rather than the public. It highlights that the proposed 180,965-hectare site is not empty land but is already occupied by numerous mining, forestry, and plantation concessions linked to high-ranking politicians and their families. The document warns of severe ecological risks, including the destruction of mangrove ecosystems in Balikpapan Bay, the persistence of coal-fired power plants (PLTU), and the displacement of indigenous groups like the Suku Balik. It further criticizes the lack of public participation and the financial instability of the project, which estimates a cost of Rp 466 trillion.

The report analyzes the management of revenues from Peru's Camisea natural gas project, finding that while subnational governments (SNGs) increased infrastructure spending, they suffered from weak strategic planning and insufficient transparency. It argues that IFIs should withhold support for extractive projects until governance capacity is sufficient and should actively fund SNG capacity building in strategic planning and accountability.

The report examines the role of faith communities in socio-environmental disputes across Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, highlighting their use of spiritual-symbolic strategies to defend territories and human rights. It argues that these actors are often neglected despite their influence and recommends that governments and international organizations recognize them as environmental defenders. The study specifically notes the critical but under-recognized leadership of women within these faith-based movements.

WRI developed seven Principles for Effective Community Engagement for extractive and infrastructure projects after analyzing existing standards and high-profile project experiences. The report argues that inclusive, accountable, and transparent engagement reduces risks for companies and governments while ensuring communities benefit from development. It provides specific recommendations for project proponents to disseminate best practices, for financial institutions like the IFC to increase disclosure of community support, and for citizen organizations to advocate for transparent processes.

The document examines the challenges Chinese transnational corporations face in managing environmental and social risks during overseas expansion, particularly in extractive and infrastructure sectors. It introduces a 4x4 conceptual matrix to identify key stakeholders across host countries, investor countries, third countries, and international regimes. Through case studies of the Rio Blanco mine in Peru and the Myitsone Dam in Myanmar, the report illustrates how reliance on central government relations often leads to conflicts with local communities and environmental degradation. It argues for a shift toward comprehensive stakeholder engagement and the implementation of mandatory domestic regulations to ensure sustainable overseas investment.

The project aims to address a persistent annual operational funding deficit of USD $5.7 million within Namibia's Protected Area Network (PAN), which covers 17% of the national territory. The strategy employs a three-component approach: creating enabling conditions through economic valuation and institutional reform, mobilizing financial resources via the Game Product Trust Fund (GPTF) and innovative mechanisms, and implementing a knowledge management system. Key goals include capitalizing the GPTF as a functional endowment fund, developing a Biodiversity Offset Policy Framework, and piloting sustainable finance solutions such as biodiversity credits and wildlife bonds. The project targets the safeguarding of 13.9 million hectares of ecosystems and expects to mitigate approximately 10 million metric tons of CO2e directly over five years through improved fire and forest management.