Men on canoes on a lake in Congo with mountains in the background

Climate Justice

PEJ’s Climate Justice Program has worked worldwide since 2021 to support the marginalized populations most affected by climate change and its mitigation strategies, particularly Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

Rights-Based Conservation

Some climate mitigation strategies harm Indigenous and Local Communities (IPLC), leading to land dispossession, violence, and other human rights violations. Simultaneously, IPLCs bear the brunt of climate change impacts.

True climate justice means addressing climate change while upholding Indigenous rights. Indigenous practices often promote ecosystem diversity and sustainable land stewardship. Empowering Indigenous Peoples to safeguard their lands fosters environmental protection that benefits both nature and humanity.

PEJ’s Climate Justice program counters conservation-related abuses. We put human rights at the center of our efforts to protect the planet. PEJ partners with IPLCs to restore their agency through investigative missions, capacity building, and legal accountability. We tackle abuses such as "fortress conservation," which displaces communities from ancestral lands under the guise of protecting nature.

This program now supports broader efforts, including Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes, capacity-sharing, and mass atrocity documentation. PEJ champions people-centered conservation, centering Indigenous voices to achieve climate justice and sustainable development.

Program Highlights

Knowledge-Sharing

Training and knowledge sharing with local actors to investigate human rights abuses in Africa. We have conducted 26 remote training sessions and one weeklong in-person workshop.

Evidence Collection

We have screened more than 45 witnesses with our partners, interviewed 24 key witnesses, participated in 3 field missions, and completed 5 evidence collection missions. Overall, we have collected more than 2,400 pieces of evidence.

Conservation Report

Our report Trapped Outside the Conservation Fortress: The Intersection of Global Conservation Efforts and Systematic Human Rights Violations exposes gross human rights abuses in protected areas worldwide.

Trust-Building

In an environment characterized by distrust, PEJ’s Climate Justice Program has created a strong local network with partners and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, including chiefs and leaders.

“All donors should … apply a rights-based approach to conservation policies that benefits both communities and biodiversity.”

Trésor Nzila Kendet

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