Across the world, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant communities, and grassroots environmental human rights defenders have developed their own collective protection systems to resist violence, criminalisation, and displacement from companies, criminal groups and even government actors. These systems encompass various strategies – from community guards to rapid response networks, rooted in ancestral knowledge, collective decision-making, social structures and local dynamics.

 

Tailored to each community’s context and the specific threats they face, collective protection strategies present a powerful response to systemic efforts to undermine community resistance.

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The ZTI created a micro-site with a database of open-source materials, trainings, and resources on collective protection and violence prevention – made to be accessible in low-bandwidth areas.