The use of digital technologies to attack environmental defenders, including many Indigenous leaders and women, is part of a continuum of violence that includes targeted disinformation, defamation tactics, surveillance and death threats.
Violence against environmental defenders, particularly those from Indigenous and traditional communities, has increased in recent years, in a context marked by the resurgence of far-right movements in various parts of the world and the expansion of techno-capitalism into traditional territories.
Despite efforts to monitor technology-facilitated violence against environmental defenders, significant challenges remain in terms of under-reporting, particularly in the case of attacks faced by women. Many of the areas where environmental conflicts are most prevalent are isolated and remote. In these regions, documenting cases is difficult, the information is not reported by the mass media, and organised civil society presence is limited. The concept of technology-facilitated violence is still considered new by many traditional communities, as is the recognition of their leaders’ struggles under the category of “environmental defenders”.
It is within this context that the Resistance and Resilience (R&R) project was launched in 2024. The R&R project is a collaborative initiative that aims to contribute to a safer context for environmental activism through community-led research into the scope and impacts of online attacks on environmental defenders.
Summary reports
This document is a compilation of summary reports from the research with communities in Brazil, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines into the scope and impacts of online attacks on environmental defenders. The summary reports offer critical insights from the research with communities in the four countries, including reflections on the importance of community-led participatory research.
Comparative report
This forthcoming publication is a comparative cross-country analysis of the research conducted with communities in Brazil, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines. The report explores cross-cutting patterns of harms together with structural conditions and relational dynamics through which environmental defenders resist violence and build community resilience across different contexts and power dynamics.
In-depth research reports
In October 2026, project partners in Brazil, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines will publish in-depth reports on their research with communities, grounded in research ethics and principles defined together with the communities involved.
Coming soon
Project partners
Globally, the project is led by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in partnership with the following organisations: Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI), which supports the project overall; Voces del Territorio, which implements the project in Mexico; the Manila Observatory through the KLIMA Centre (MO-KLIMA), which implements the project in the Philippines; Intervozes – Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social, responsible for the project in Brazil; and the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program (OPDP), which implements the project in Kenya. Funding is provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
