This article by Inge Konik, Robert Agenonga, Gloria Ayiorwoth & Alessandro Musetta investigates how, against the extractivist legacy of colonialism and the extractivist activities currently under way in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, the ecofeminist and collaborative environmental justice organization Environmental Defenders is working to defend ecological integrity and women’s and indigenous people’s livelihoods, lands, and cultural lifeways in the Albertine Rift region. These are threatened by illegal miners, illegal loggers, rebel groups, and especially foreign and African corporate enterprises that continually pillage local environments and disenfranchise indigenous peoples. The article argues that Environmental Defenders is active in the four revolutionary struggles – ecological, indigenous, women’s, and workers’ – which for Ariel Salleh comprise a holistic ecological feminist politics. The article also offers reflections on various lessons that can be drawn from Environmental Defenders’ operations to date.

Image Photographer: Samuel Warom. Courtesy of Environmental Defenders