The Zé Claudio and Maria Institute (IZM) is a collective organisation that works with women’s groups and fights to protect defenders of human rights and the environment who experience death threats and other attacks. IZM was created by the family and friends of the couple José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo da Silva, environmentalists and farmers, who were assassinated in 2011 for protecting the forests inside their agro-extractivist settlement in Nova Ipixuna, Pará (learn more here). Brazil continues to be one of the deadliest places for environmental and land defenders (see more).

Since 2020, IZM, Not1More and CPT (Pastoral Land Commission) have been developing an Amazon Defenders Collective to support land and environmental defenders in Brasil. Most of the funding for the IZM team runs out in March 2022. Help us raise £5500 to keep two team members employed for a year and ensure the collective continues. If we can make it to £8000 that would cover running costs and two staff for a year.

Our article in Conservation Letters, Bille Larsen et al, Understanding and responding to the environmental human rights defenders crisis: the case for conservation action just won the #SNISIG2021 International Geneva award. The award comes with a cash prize of CHF2500 which the co-authors have agreed to donate to support IZM and get this crowd-funder off the ground.

Please help us reach our goal by donating and sharing this with your network!

To @/follow us:

Twitter: @ZeClaudioEMaria / @N1MNot1More

Instagram: @institutozeclaudioemaria / @N1MNot1More