Description
Environmental defenders around the world are increasingly threatened by criminalization, physical violence, disappearances, and assassinations. Activists in Southeast Asian countries face similar forms of extractivist repression. Cognizant of this issue in the region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted in October 2025 the Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment, which includes the protection of those who work for the environment. Defending the defenders, however, needs a better understanding of the socio-ecological conflicts that prompt them to mobilize and the narratives that create a hostile landscape for their advocacy. Drawing on post-structuralist perspectives on political ecology, this paper explores the patterns of threats against environmental defenders in Southeast Asia. To understand these conflicts, a systematic analysis of published reports, news articles, and scholarly studies focusing on the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand—the deadliest countries in the region for activists fighting deforestation—was employed. The objective of this study is to uncover the agential, spatial, and discursive patterns of threats against environmental defenders. Understanding these patterns aims to contribute to a critical analysis of socio-ecological conflicts in Southeast Asia and offer practical recommendations for global environmental justice.
