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In many countries around the world, environmental justice organisations are working under increasingly difficult circumstances. Many countries have enacted new laws and regulations to limit the activities and funding of civil society groups. Surveillance and harassment by government authorities, including the police and the military, has intensified. From one minute to the next, organisations’ offices may be raided or their bank accounts frozen or staff held in custody.

Uganda is one of many countries where the situation for environmental organisations has deteriorated. Despite the severe impacts of climate change in the country, including drought and flooding, the Ugandan government and foreign investors are heavily investing in oil, gas and large-scale hydropower projects that violate the rights of Ugandan communities and devastate ecosystems. Efforts to contest harmful policies and projects have been met harshly. Both ENDS’s partners have faced harassment for their indispensable work to promote human rights, environmental justice, and a just energy transition in line with the Paris climate agreement.

In 2021, Uganda’s National NGO Bureau ordered 54 civil society organisations to halt operations. The list included Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), a long-term partner of Both ENDS, which works to promote community-based renewable energy solutions, such as off-gird solar power. The same year, AFIEGO’s offices were raided and staff members unlawfully arrested (and later released). Thanks to national and international pressure, AFIEGO was removed from the government blacklist. But environmental justice work in Uganda remains dangerous.

A proactive approach

As such incidents become increasingly common, Both ENDS has taken steps to develop a more systematic and proactive approach to supporting partners in addressing safety and security issues. Among other things, flexible financial resources and strong networks are important for enabling partners working in hostile contexts to safely carry out their work. To that end, in 2022, we successfully mobilised resources to support six Ugandan organisations – diverse partners of Both ENDS – to strengthen collaboration, increase their visibility, and carry out joint advocacy towards a green and sustainable future.

In addition to AFIEGO, the project involves Environment Governance Institute (EGI), Friends with Environment in Development (FED), the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (known as CEFROHT), Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute – Uganda (SEATINI) and Witness Radio Uganda, a network of human rights investigative journalists, lawyers, and social workers using legal aid support and media to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights and development in Uganda.

An important element of the project is stimulation of information sharing and mutual support around safety and security issues. In 2022, project partners organised a safety and security training where they exchanged best practices on measures to reduce risk to staff and other environmental and human rights defenders working with communities in Uganda’s oil and gas regions. The partners share up-to-date intelligence about potential security risks in the regions where they work. CEFROHT, which specialises in litigation, has provided legal support to project partners when staff were illegally detained during a field visit.

Sharing expertise

The six partners have different strengths, approaches and strategies, from expertise in human rights law, to lobbying, to working directly with communities who have been displaced by large, destructive energy projects. The collaboration has facilitated exchange of expertise and helped strengthen their work. Together, the groups are defending displaced communities, promoting clean energy and livelihoods for communities, as well as promoting agroecology and the right to food. FED, for example, which works with people affected by the Karuma hydropower dam project, has linked up with AFIEGO to enhance efforts to bring solar power to the communities. Witness Radio and CEFROHT are training journalists and lawyers on key issues related to human rights and fossil fuel and large hydropower development. Meanwhile, SEATINI is raising awareness about harmful trade and investment agreements like the Energy Charter Treaty, which threatens Uganda’s ability to transition to just and clean energy.

The collaboration in Uganda has also strengthened collaboration within Both ENDS; the project brings together staff who specialise in different topics – climate change, financial flows, trade and investment agreements – and enables them to see with greater clarity how these interlinked issues are playing out in Uganda and how best to support the diverse partners they work with. The Uganda collaboration, which launched in 2022, is already showing positive results. Environment Governance Institute reports that its engagement in local-to-global and global-to-local partnerships as part of the project has helped enhance the group’s safety.

Amplifying Ugandan voices in the Netherlands

One of the key problems that Both ENDS’s Ugandan partners are addressing is the planned 1,445 km long East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a project of TotalEnergies and the Chinese National Offshore Oil Cooperation (CNOOC). Preparations for construction of the pipeline are already causing human rights violations and serious environmental pollution, and much more is to come if the project continues. It is estimated that over 100,000 people across Uganda and Tanzania will lose the land they rely on for their livelihoods, and many will be forcibly removed from their homes to make way for the pipeline. With the pipeline set to run through several nature reserves and wildlife habitats, and alongside Lake Victoria, the African continent’s largest freshwater reserve, the environmental and safety impacts and risks are enormous.

Both ENDS is playing its part in the global effort to stop EACOP. It has helped convene an ad hoc coalition of organisations in the Netherlands – including our Fair, Green and Global Alliance partners Milieudefensie, SOMO and TNI – that are working together to raise awareness and put pressure on TotalEnergies to stop the project. In September, during TotalEnergies’ ‘Investors Day’, Both ENDS and allies protested under the #StopEACOP banner at the company’s office in The Hague, while others participated in similar actions in Paris and New York. The action brought public attention to the project with an article in the Volkskrant.

We have also called on Dutch pension funds, which have some €2.1 billion invested in TotalEnergies, to use their power to stop the project or divest from TotalEnergies. In meetings with the funds’ asset managers, Both ENDS, together with a Ugandan activist, urged the investors to ensure respect for human rights and environmental sustainability in their investments. Concrete action from the five investors has yet to be seen, but they did commit to raising the issue with TotalEnergies. At least one asset management company has shown what should be done: in April, the Dutch company ACTIAM announced that it had pulled out of all investments from TotalEnergies and placed the company on an exclusion list over concerns about the EACOP project. We will continue to appeal to other investors to follow their lead.

Both ENDS and partners at a meeting with a project affected community in Uganda

Oil developments linked to EACOP lead to deforestation in Bugoma forest, Uganda

In September 2022, Both ENDS gathered a coalition of civil society organisation for a protest action against EACOP in front of TotalEnergies’ Dutch office. Photo by Dorotea Pace

A word from our board and director

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to pose significant challenges to our collective efforts, with partners, to advance environmental justice worldwide. Yet when we reflect on 2021, above all we are proud of what Both ENDS and our partners were able to accomplish in the face of a prolonged global crisis. We made support for our partners our top priority and adapted our plans accordingly, doing whatever we could to respond to their needs during this critical time.

Our experience over the past two years confirms the wisdom of our decentralised, flexible funding system, which enables the organisations we support to do what they need to do in the context of great uncertainty. Our ability to successfully navigate the crisis also showed the value of our open, transparent relationships with donors. It helped increase their broader appreciation for the way innovative, flexible funding systems work in practice.

A great example is the Autonomy and Resilience Fund, which we rapidly launched early in the pandemic with our partners in the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA). In a matter of months, we were able to mobilise resources for women environmental defenders and their communities in 21 countries around the world. By documenting, learning and sharing our experience with this type of innovative finance, we were able to convince donors of its effectiveness. We are delighted that the GAGGA Alliance was recently awarded a special €1.3 million grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery to support continuation of the Fund.

Together with our partners, we celebrated some major successes in the area of climate justice in 2021, including the landmark legal decision requiring Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions, a case on which we were co-plaintiffs. Other major successes resulted from decades of advocacy by Both ENDS and partners for more socially just and sustainable public finance, supported by countless case studies revealing the devastating impacts of fossil fuel investments on communities in the South. In October, we welcomed the decision by ABP, the largest Dutch pension fund and fifth largest pension fund in the world, to stop investing in oil, gas and coal producers. A month later, we celebrated the announcement by the Dutch government in its decision to join other rich countries in ending export financing for fossil fuels.

These are significant policy shifts that resulted from Both ENDS’s strategic combination of dialogue and activism that is rooted in close partnerships with a range of environmental justice organisations, and our long-term commitment to working on these issues. Much work, however, remains. We will continue to closely monitor progress and continue to engage with decision-makers toward the end goal of a just transition.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Both ENDS remained a strong, resilient organisation in 2021. We secured funding to ensure continuity of our work on ecosystem restoration, and built relationships with new donors to step up our transformative work on agroecology, and sustainable and just food systems. We continued to develop and learn about what it means to be a self-organising organisation, including taking stock of what individual leadership and autonomy means within our unique organisational structure. Given our structure, and the added challenge of working remotely, we are incredibly proud to have renewed our ISO certification, even earning the highest marks for our quality management systems.

Going forward, a top priority will be to improve our ability to support partners in the context of increasing pressures and risks. The disintegration of multilateral structures, the rise of authoritarian regimes, increasing conflict over resources, growing marginalisation of civil society – we have come to the regrettable conclusion that these are no longer separate occurrences, but are part of a worrisome global trend. We are in the process of consulting with partners and reaching out to our allies and to Dutch Embassies to see how we can effectively and proactively respond to this ‘new normal’, so that safety nets and emergency support is available to partners whenever they may need it.

As we write this report, Russia is waging a war on Ukraine, which profoundly affects the context in which we are working and the trends we observe. A food crisis is looming, confirming that the growing dependence on global food value chains poses very serious risks to billions of people worldwide. There is an urgent need to shift our foreign policy toward promoting resilient, sustainable local food systems. The war has also added a new geopolitical dimension to the discussion of our dependency on fossil fuels. Our collective challenge will be to ensure that these developments serve to accelerate – in the Netherlands and worldwide – the just energy transition that is so urgently needed.

The challenge we face is formidable. Fortunately, an ever growing number and diversity of actors are rallying behind the call for system change. As this report shows, we are achieving great things. Both ENDS is convinced that by working together – by connecting people – we can secure the changes we need to make our vision a reality.

Danielle Hirsch, Director
Paul Engel, Chair of the Board

Both ENDS was pleased to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2020. As we reflected back on the organisation’s history, we were struck by the organisation’s consistency. At the heart of Both ENDS, then and now, is our commitment to our partners, to connecting and collaborating with organisations and individuals around the world to realise our shared vision of a world where the environment is protected and human rights are respected.

It is this commitment that remains at the centre of our new five-year strategy 2020-2025. The new strategy, which was developed through a rich dialogue with our global network of partners, is organised around three strategic objectives, with activities geared to realising our ambitions and indicators to keep us on track. Next to a strong civil society that can make its voice heard and systemic change at all levels, the new strategy emphasises the importance of the many planet-friendly, gender-just and inclusive initiatives that our partners have developed with us. There are a whole range of examples, from inclusive water governance to the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Program. It is high time that these transformative initiatives receive the financial and policy support they deserve. They need to be scaled up and scaled out, to become the ‘new normal’. Going forward, Both ENDS aims to give these practices more visibility and to explore innovative sources of finance for them. We want to identify investors who share our goals and understanding that environmental sustainability, human rights and gender justice are the starting point of transformative change.

The new strategy reflects the urgency of the multiple crises the world faces. It was in the works well before the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the faults in the system. To those who did not already see it, the pandemic made clear what we have long known: the current model of trade and development is bankrupt. Global value chains do not give people security. Our current trade system causes extreme inequalities.

Both ENDS responded to the challenge of the pandemic in multiple ways. First and foremost, we focused on our partners and the communities with which they work. For them, the pandemic came on top of what were already difficult circumstances. We assured our partners of the flexibility of existing funding and freed up additional funding for them to deal with urgent issues. We also discussed with donors the need of environmental justice and women’s organisations for sustained and flexible funding. Significantly, our partners didn’t want to change what they were working on. They just wanted to be able to continue. So we at Both ENDS knew we also needed to persevere.

Both ENDS quickly shifted to remote working. In the midst of the lockdown, we managed to move to a new digital workspace which provides improved security in a context of increased risk for our partners worldwide. We also managed to move to a new physical office, a beautiful, historic building in Utrecht. The decision-making process behind the office move, which was coordinated by a team of Both ENDS staff, was a really successful proof of concept for Both ENDS’s self-steering structure. We tried to adapt to the challenging work situation, to focus on what really matters and avoid overburdening each other.

We also responded to the crisis with analysis and recommendations for policymakers and donors. Among other things, we highlighted the effectiveness of small grants funds in ensuring that crisis funding actually reaches those in need. We also underscored the need to use public money to kick off a just transition by investing in green infrastructure.

2020 was an important year in terms of our two partnerships with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Fair, Green and Global Alliance (FGG) and the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), both of which were renewed. The fact that the Ministry, for the first time ever, included trade as a topic within its civil society funding framework is a testament to the success of awareness-raising by FGG. And the fact that the GAGGA Alliance, which is led by a women’s organisation, was moved from the gender department to the environmental department reflects the progress GAGGA has made in demonstrating that climate and gender justice are intertwined.

It is with great pride that we look back on 2020 and the response of Both ENDS to the challenges of COVID-19. We stood in solidarity, with purpose and flexibility, with our partners and with each other. Throughout the crisis, we were very clear that this was our priority. As we reflect back, we can say with confidence that what we do, we do well.

Danielle Hirsch, Director
Paul Engel, Chair of the Board

Forests are critical to the health of the planet and the well-being of people everywhere. About one in every six people, particularly women, directly rely on forests for their lives and livelihoods, especially for food. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic showed just how important local food production and short food value chains are, particularly during times of crisis. In India, where a lockdown sent millions of people back from the cities back to the countryside, wild foods and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs) proved essential to hungry migrants.

As a source of food, water and income, and for their cultural and spiritual meaning, forests and NTFPs help ensure community resilience. Both ENDS has a long history of collaboration with partners such as the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP) and Keystone Foundation, which support forest communities in promoting the NTFP concept for forest conservation and livelihood enhancement.

Addressing the gender dimensions of NTFPs

Both ENDS aims to showcase and accelerate the massive upscaling of practices that are based on collective participation, healthy ecosystems, gender justice and a capacious vision of well-being. In recent years, Both ENDS, NTFP-EP and Keystone have collaborated as part of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action to strengthen and unify the women’s rights and environmental justice movements.

NTFP-EP and Keystone are advancing understanding of the gendered aspects of harvesting, managing, trading and accessing NTFPs. A new research report on the topic looked at a variety of NTFPs in India – tamarind, yams, greens and wild honey to name a few – and explored the gendered division of activities, access and control over these resources. Among other things, the report showed that most processing of NTFPs is done by women and that women tend to have greater access and control over NTFPs that can be collected easily, like leaves and berries. In most cases, women did not have control over the income from NTFP sales, and their access to formal or distant markets was limited due to social norms that restrict their mobility. Insights from the report will be used to improve the design of future NTFP-related programmes.

As part of the GAGGA programme, Keystone and NTFP-EP are already working to address some of these gaps. NTFP-EP and Keystone are providing small grants to strengthen women-led NTFP initiatives. For example, a grant from Keystone supported indigenous women’s groups across India to develop common packaging and branding of honey. The new packaging not only helps provide better income but also establishes the women’s rights over resources. It has become a powerful tool to promote solidarity of indigenous women across the country and their collaborative work on NTFPs.

In Indonesia, a grant from NTFP-EP made it possible for members of the Bangkit Bersama Women Group and Dara Kunci Women Group to participate in trainings that were held virtually, due to the pandemic. The training focused on organisational management, financial management, and online marketing to maximise the potential of the women’s cashew nut harvest.

Funding the nexus of women’s rights and transformative practices

NTFP-EP sees grantmaking as a tool which works best when coupled with capacity building activities. The group’s community workshops and exchanges have been crucial for helping build the skills and confidence of women to self-organise, develop their own initiatives and strategies, and engage with government officials. NTFP-EP’s involvement in GAGGA over the last five years has enabled the organisation to better operationalise its commitment to women’s rights. In a new report by Both ENDS, Embedding gender justice in environmental action: where to start?, NTFP-EP and other partners shared experiences and recommendations for environmental organisations, and made the case for dedicated programming and funding for work at the nexus of gender and environmental justice.

Both ENDS and our partners aim to expand the policy space and funding for transformative practices like NTFPs. Research, advocacy and lobbying by NTFP-EP led to important progress on this front in 2020. At the behest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Working Group on Forest Products Development, NTFP-EP led a consultative process to develop guidelines on sustainable harvest and management of NTFP resources. In October 2020, the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry adopted the new ASEAN Guidelines for Sustainable Harvest and Resource Management Protocols for Selected Non-Timber Forest Products. The guidelines will serve as a primary reference for NTFP management protocols in the ASEAN region and help guarantee the sustainable management of NTFP resources.

Forest dependent communities led by the women in Rejang Lebong, Indonesia map out their territory to delineate their livelihood and conservation sites © NTFP-EP

Digital storytelling workshop for women leaders in the Philippines © NTFP-EP

Different Non-Timber Forest Products from India

Human prosperity and healthy ecosystems go hand in hand. Across the globe, local communities are engaged in a variety of people- and planet-friendly practices, often building on knowledge that has been passed from generation to generation.

Together with partners, Both ENDS aims to upscale and mainstream the wide array of transformative practices that are advancing environmental, social and gender justice – everything from inclusive water governance to farmer-managed natural regeneration to analog forestry. We support partners to develop, strengthen and broaden successful practices by connecting practitioners, building evidence, and learning and communicating about what works best. We engage in joint advocacy and fundraising to expand policy space and financial support so that transformative practices become the new norm.

Expanding agroecology in the La Plata Basin

Fundamentally changing the current food and agricultural system towards greater ecological sustainability, social justice, and resilience is a top priority for Both ENDS and our partners worldwide. Together, we are contributing to the growing global movement for agroecology, a term that encompasses a diverse set of agricultural and food production practices which work in harmony with societies and ecosystems.

As part of the Wetlands without Borders programme, partners across the La Plata Basin region of South America further expanded the agroecological practices as a key strategy to strengthen livelihoods, fight deforestation, and conserve the region’s vitally important wetlands. In total, Wetlands without Borders partners developed more than 200 agroecological gardens and plots in 2021, as well as seven new demonstration farms designed for training for showcasing agroecology to a wider community. Capacity building for individual farmers resulted in 43 trained agroecology practitioners across the region.

Among other achievements, FIRE Paraguay, which specialises in ecosystem restoration, created a new multifunctional agroecological model farm in Carlos A. López municipality. The group began planting an analog forest on the farm, which creates an ecologically stable and socio-economically productive landscape by mimicking a natural forest. Lessons from their experience were shared with other members of the International Analog Forestry Network. Another partner in Paraguay, Codes, helped to realise 23 new agroecological urban gardens in Puerto Casado in 2021. At the request of local communities, the group provided seeds, supplies and technical assistance.

Building resilience and community

In addition to advancing healthy ecosystems, agroecology strengthens community resilience and ensures a stable supply of food in the face of crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, and other environmental and climate disasters. In Brazil, where Both ENDS and our partner Forum Suape have long worked with local fisher and farmer communities in their struggle against the destructive expansion of Port Suape, a new agroecology initiative with women proved a resounding success in 2021.

The Suape port expansion has caused severe harm to the local ecosystem and communities, including displacement, water pollution, damage to coral and mangroves, and depletion of fish stocks. With Forum Suape’s support, groups of women in two of the port-affected communities each developed a collective agroecological garden, as well as new backyard gardens – 16 in total. The new gardens enabled the women to increase and diversify their food production, and strengthen their economic well-being but also recapture lost traditional knowledge and practices and reconnected the women in a deeper way to the land of their ancestors. The women, which include members of Brazil’s Afro-descendant Quilombo community, also participated in exchange visits and trainings that focused not only on agroecology but also their rights as citizens. Significantly, the initiative brought together both young and older women, fostering cross-generational learning as well as the revival of agricultural practices that had come to a halt due to the port expansion.

Increasing government support and development finance

In addition to strengthening the agroecological practices on the ground, Both ENDS and our partners advocate to increase government recognition and support for agroecology. In Brazil, partners Reesolbio and Instituto GAIA celebrated codification into state law of an annual Mato Grosso Agroecology Week. In partnership with the University of the State of Mato Grosso, local partners co-organised the first official Mato Grosso Agroecology Week in October in the municipality of Caceres. Over 5,000 people participated in the event, which provides a valuable space for the dissemination of information about agroecology and demonstration of agroecological practices to practitioners and farmers, as well as the wider population.

In the Netherlands, Both ENDS teamed up with Oxfam Novib and others to focus attention on the opportunity to increase Dutch financial support for agroecology. Research commissioned by Both ENDS and undertaken by Profundo found that only nine percent of Dutch official development assistance (ODA) over the last ten years has supported a holistic food system transformation based on agroecological principles – a conclusion supported by a similar study, focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, commissioned by Oxfam Novib. The findings of both reports were shared in discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and have helped put the issue on their agenda. (A joint follow-up paper is planned for 2022.)

In our work on agroecology and Dutch development finance, we have also stepped up collaboration with a broad spectrum of organisations in the Netherlands that have an interest in agricultural development. Under the auspices of a new informal coalition, Food4All, we organised a high-level meeting with both Ministries which focused, among other things, on the opportunity for the Dutch government to more prominently support agroecology, including financially. As a coalition, we also raised our collective concerns with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the risks of corporate capture of the UN Food Systems Summit, and the troubling lack of involvement of civil society and voices from the Global South. On the European level, we are pleased to have helped form Finance4Agroecology, a new ‘community of practice’ consisting of civil society organisations, academics and researchers in some ten European countries working to expand finance and policy space for agroecology.

Nurturing sustainable livelihoods and advancing climate and environmental justice requires nothing short of system change – a fundamental rethinking of the way the world does business, so that people and plant take priority over profits.

When local people have a decisive say in what happens in their community and to the environment around them, much good can be achieved. But when it comes to global finance, more often than not local communities are excluded from decision-making that profoundly affects them. Their voices are ignored, or worse, violently silenced.

Both ENDS works with partners worldwide to amplify the voices of communities that are experiencing first-hand the devastating social and environmental impacts of unsustainable financial policies and practices – from climate change to pollution to forced displacement.

Billions in public money for fossil fuel projects

For more than two decades, we have worked to draw attention to an obscure, yet hugely influential type of financial institution: export credit agencies (ECAs). ECAs provide government-backed insurance or guarantees to domestic companies doing business internationally. As such, they are one of the largest sources of public financial support for projects in developing countries. Our analysis has shown that via their ECAs, governments support the fossil fuel sector with billions of dollars each year, in direct contradiction to globally-agreed climate and sustainable development goals. Not only is such support commonly associated with human rights violations, it locks in long-term dependence on fossil fuels at a time when investment in renewable energy is urgent.

In close collaboration with allies and partners from Mozambique, Ghana, Uganda and Togo, in 2021 Both ENDS stepped up the pressure on governments, including the Netherlands, to put an end to export credit support for fossil fuels. Sustained advocacy and outreach kept the issue on the agenda of the Dutch Parliament and in the media, and even informed negotiations for the new coalition government.

Beyond the Netherlands, we co-launched the website Fossil Free ECAs, which put a spotlight on the harmful impacts of ECA projects (see below) and made a clear case for urgent action by governments worldwide. We collectively reinforced our message throughout the year, including in a meeting at the OECD, which facilitates global rule-making for public ECAs.

A breakthrough at the UN climate conference

A critical juncture came in November at the UN climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow. In close collaboration with partners and allies, we kept the pressure on: concerted media outreach and a side event highlighted the local and global climate impacts of ECA policies, as well as other adverse environmental and social impacts. We demanded that governments follow the positive example of the UK, the US, Canada and others and decisively commit to aligning public finance to a 1.5°C warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Our work paid off. By the end of the COP, 34 countries, including the Netherlands, and five international financial institutions signed a joint statement agreeing to end new, direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022 and to prioritise support towards a clean energy transition. The decision represents a major breakthrough, translating to some $24 billion of public finance that will now shift away from fossil fuels. What’s more, the number of countries actively working together on how to implement the commitment – the Export Finance for Future (E3F) coalition – grew from seven to ten members.

Action needed now for communities in Mozambique

Both ENDS, together with Milieudefensie, SOMO and Friends of the Earth Europe, continued to maintain pressure on the Netherlands to act urgently, not only for the climate, but also to protect local communities, nature and the economy. We supported and echoed the demands of our Mozambique partners, calling on the Dutch government, the Dutch ECA (Atradius Dutch State Business) and others not to provide export support for a large liquid natural gas project in Cabo Delgado, in North Mozambique.

The gas project is connected to an escalation of violence in the region, where some 2,600 people have been killed and more than 700 thousand have fled. Among the refugees of a major attack in March 2021 were members of Both ENDS’ long-term partner UPC, the Union of Peasants of Cabo Delgado. With financial support from Both ENDS, UPC was able to provide urgent humanitarian relief – kits of clothing and food – to the families of members displaced by the conflict.

Just a day after the attack in March, Atradius Dutch State Business (ADSB) agreed to insure the Dutch dredging company Van Oord for €900 million for its work on the Mozambique LNG project. Both ENDS joined our allies in condemning the decision and calling on ADSB to increase transparency about its decision-making process. Through a freedom of information request, we obtained documents that served as the basis for critical media coverage and questions in Parliament about ADSB’s support for the project. In December, in response to the pressure, the Dutch State Secretary of Finance decided to commission independent research into ADSB’s human rights due diligence process. We will continue to monitor the process.

A momentous decision by Dutch pension fund ABP

For years, Both ENDS has played a key role in the movement calling on Dutch pension fund ABP – the largest pension in Europe and the fifth largest in the world – to divest from fossil fuels. Our research has shown that ABP has some fifteen billion euros invested in fossil fuel projects that are causing severe social and environmental harm to local communities and contributing to dangerous climate change. Through advocacy and facilitation of dialogue between partners, investors and governments, we have reinforced the pension divestment campaigns of Fossielvrij NL, Groen Pensioen and allies across Europe and the world.

Finally, after seven years of unwavering pressure, we welcomed ABP’s momentous decision, announced in October, to stop investing in oil, gas and coal producers and to sell off its current holdings by early 2023. As always, Both ENDS will keep a watchful eye on implementation of the policy.

Responsible divestment

As the movement for fossil fuel divestment continues to grow, we will also work to ensure that companies don’t just divest, but divest responsibly. To that end, in light of Shell’s plans to sell its onshore holdings in Nigeria (and focus on offshore), we facilitated a dialogue between our Nigerian partners, ABP (a Shell investor) and Shell Nigeria (SPDC), drawing attention to the need to address ongoing social and environmental problems linked to Shell’s decades-long operations in the country.

Similarly, we supported our Panamanian partner Movimiento 10 de Abril (M10) in its negotiations with Dutch development bank FMO about its exit from the Barro Blanco dam project, which has been associated with major human rights and environmental violations. FMO is currently in the process of designing a responsible exit from the highly contested project.

Both ENDS works to bring about the systemic change needed to ensure unconditional respect for human rights and planetary boundaries. Systemic change entails dealing with issues at all levels, from the local to the global. Our aim is to help strengthen the power of local communities, while simultaneously working to tackle the key drivers behind social and environmental harm. Both ENDS plays a key role in drawing the links between practices and policies in the Netherlands and internationally to their impacts in communities across the world.

Systemic change is urgently needed to protect the Earth’s forests and the rights of forest peoples. Deforestation and forest degradation are driven by global demand for products like palm oil and soy. Tackling the problem requires not reduced demand and better policies and practices at international levels, but also improved recognition of community land rights – a key focus of our work with partners in 2020.

Improved regulation of the palm oil industry

In February, Both ENDS and the Forest Peoples Programme convened a meeting in Malaysia of representatives from some 25 environmental justice, human rights, women’s, youth and indigenous peoples’ organisations from countries across Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. All are working to address the negative impacts of the palm oil industry. In a collective statement that came out of the meeting, the groups highlighted the role of palm oil companies in land-grabbing and deforestation, with particular emphasis on the impacts of women, who play a vital role as custodians of indigenous culture and repositories of knowledge about forests, plants, nutrition, traditional medicine and the like. The groups called on governments of both palm oil-producing and consuming countries to improve regulation of the industry and ensure protection of human rights.

Alongside pressing for regulation, Both ENDS uses its influence as a board member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to improve the sector’s implementation of RSPO’s strong global standards meant to diminish the harm of palm oil production. In 2020 we contributed to greater attention in the RSPO to the gender dimensions and gender-specific risks in relation to palm oil production, when RSPO finalised their practical guidance on gender inclusion and compliance.

Land rights for palm oil affected communities

Both ENDS’s partners work hard to support communities in their struggles to preserve and secure their land rights in the face of powerful economic and political actors, including palm oil companies. Some long-fought struggles of indigenous peoples and local communities resulted in important victories this year.

In the Peruvian Amazon, Both ENDS and several international organisations have been supporting FECONAU, a local organisation that represents a number of indigenous communities in their struggles against the spread of palm oil. Years ago a company illegally acquired large swathes of their territories, cut down the rainforest and planted palm oil, destroying not only vital primary forest but also the indigenous peoples’ livelihoods, which depended on an intact ecosystem. After years of lobbying the local Santa Clara de Uchunya government, FECONAU succeeded in securing recognition of the indigenous peoples’ rights to 1,500 hectares of the illegally grabbed land. The community also achieved a significant victory in its struggle against a palm oil company when the country’s environmental regulator ordered the company to suspend its operations and pay a $2.5 million fine for environmental damages.

In Liberia, our partners celebrated a hard-won victory when the government adopted a new Land Rights Act, which promises improved land security to indigenous peoples. The new law includes strong protections for community customary land rights and is considered one of the most progressive in Africa. The next step is to put the law into practice. Both ENDS’s partners are currently supporting communities in preparing a land claim for one million hectares of village forest to protect it from being cleared to make way for monoculture palm oil plantations and other developments. A similar effort is underway in Kalimantan, Indonesia, where Both ENDS’s local partner is supporting communities to secure their lands (50,000 hectares) under Indonesia’s social forestry law using customary title provisions, such as Hutan Adat and Hutan Dessa. Their claim is currently being processed by the District Authorities.

Long-term advocacy to stop Europe’s imported deforestation

The pressure on local communities’ forests and land – in Peru, Liberia, Indonesia and many other countries – is directly linked to Northern demand for soy and palm oil. Both ENDS and our Southern partners have been advocating for years to push the European Union for strong legislation against ‘imported deforestation’ – deforestation caused by products imported to the EU.

In 2020 the EU finally began the process to draft such legislation by launching a public consultation. The campaign #Together4Forests, led by several international NGOs and backed by more than 160 environmental groups, including Both ENDS, encouraged people to engage in the public consultation and to insist that the EU tackle the forest footprint of its consumption. More than a million European citizens responded by demanding a strong EU law to protect the world’s forests and the rights of people who depend on them.

In the Netherlands, Dutch Minister of Agriculture Carola Schouten admitted that the response was a signal that cannot be ignored. Both ENDS, along with the other Dutch organisations involved in the campaign, called on the Minister to take the lead in Brussels in pushing for strong legislation and to encourage other EU member states to join her. In this process, Both ENDS aims to create space for the voices of locally affected peoples, their concerns, experiences and solutions, and to ensure that European decision-makers hear the wake-up call and are inspired to act.

Community members receive ownership rights of their rice fields. Kalimantan 2020. Photo by GEMAWAN

The community of Santa Clara de Uchunya receives its land title. Photo by FECONAU

Dutch minister Schouten receives the 1.2 million signatures for a strong deforestation law

Both ENDS aims to ensure that civil society can work freely and safely to influence decision-making related to ecosystems, environmental justice and human rights. In many places around the world, the space for civil society organisations to operate is shrinking. Repression, harassment and violence against environmental human rights defenders – our partners among them – is on the rise.

Learning from and mobilising resources for women and girl environmental defenders

In 2021, as part of the GAGGA Alliance, we developed our knowledge about the specific challenges and strategies of women and girl environmental defenders (WGEDs). WGEDs often play a leading role in efforts to protect land, territories, and natural resources, and to advance gender and climate justice. In February, in collaboration with LILAK, the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme, Keystone Foundation and Stockholm Environment Institute, we co-hosted a virtual roundtable on supporting Grassroots Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders. The event brought WGEDs from Asia together with international donor agencies, development organisations and others. The aim was to raise awareness about the strengths and challenges of grassroots women environmental human rights defenders and to explore possibilities for new funding, research and policy partnerships to support them in their struggles.

With support from the Ford Foundation, GAGGA commissioned in-depth research to learn more about how WGEDs understand and experience structural violence, their diverse strategies for dealing with it and what kind of support they want and need from donors. The research was designed to strengthen both our own efforts to support WGEDs and to influence other donors to do the same. Our findings confirmed the importance of providing accessible, flexible and longer-term financial support to WGEDs, addressing their digital and physical security needs, as well as providing support in the form of capacity building, advocacy and communications.

A key conclusion from the research, which was based on input from with 62 grassroots and regional organisations involved in GAGGA, was that the current level of support for WGEDs worldwide is seriously inadequate. Throughout 2021, Both ENDS and our GAGGA partners stepped up collective efforts to mobilise new resources for the vital work of WGEDs – with success. GAGGA’s collaboration with the Ford Foundation led to a new three-year grant of USD $1 million dedicated to supporting (young) women, girl, trans, intersex and non-binary environmental defenders to respond to and resist structural violence, and contribute to the reduction of gender-based violence in the context of the defense of land, territory and the environment.

We also submitted a proposal – approved in 2022 – for a special grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery to support continuation of GAGGA’s Autonomy and Resilience Fund (ARF). Launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ARF was designed to support WGEDs with flexible funding to strengthen community-driven systems of resilience and autonomy. The small grant mechanism aims to support WGEDs and their communities to sustain themselves through short-term crises and increase their resilience into the future, in case of future crises.

Amplifying civil society voices to stop plans for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline

Alongside of mobilising resources, Both ENDS supports partners via networking and alliance-building, and by creating spaces for them to make their voices heard. In 2021, we continued to support the Ugandan-based Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) and Environment Governance Institute (EGI), long-term partners of Both ENDS, in their work alongside many local, national and international organisations to support communities affected by fossil fuel projects, such as the planned 1400 kilometre-long East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). A joint project of TotalEnergies and the national oil companies of China, Tanzania and Uganda, among others, EACOP would transport crude oil from the Albertine Graben region of western Uganda through Tanzania for export. Preparations for the project have already displaced several communities and many more would face the same fate. The project poses significant risks to water resources and wetlands, and is completely at odds with the need to not develop new fossil fuel projects to stay within the critical 1.5°C warming threshold.

Both ENDS has supported AFIEGO and EGI in their aim to communicate about alternatives to oil development. The groups – which also work to promote off-grid solar energy for rural communities, some 90% of whom have no access to electricity – have highlighted the fact that EACOP would not benefit locally affected communities in Uganda. In March Both ENDS helped focus investors’ attention on the risks of EACOP, as well as effective alternatives to fossil fuel development. The webinar featured presentations by staff from AFIEGO, BankTrack and Reclaim Finance, and was attended by some 20 investors, including the asset manager of Dutch pension fund ABP, which has investments in TotalEnergies. The collective efforts of Both ENDS and allies worldwide have inspired some key investors to steer clear of the pipeline.

Risks to environmental defenders in Uganda

Meanwhile, harassment of communities and organisations opposing the EACOP has intensified. In August, the National NGO Bureau ordered 54 civil society organisations to halt operations, AFIEGO among them. In October, AFIEGO’s offices were raided, as were the offices of other community-based organisations that are speaking out against EACOP. On several occasions, AFIEGO staff has been unlawfully arrested for speaking out against the pipeline.

In response to the increased repression, Both ENDS and the network members have called on governments and the EACOP companies to take action to ensure the safety of environmental human rights defenders. We reached out to the Dutch Embassy in Uganda to help strengthen support for the safety and work of AFIEGO and other environmental organisations in the country.

As we increasingly contend with risks and threats to our partners, we recognise the need to put in place a more systematic and proactive approach. In addition to mobilising resources for environmental defenders (see above), we aim to minimise risks to partners as well as strengthen and streamline our response in urgent situations. First steps in that direction include plans for training for partners in digital security and efforts to forge stronger connections with national and international organisations specialised in supporting the safety and security of rights defenders.