A healthy environment and human rights are mutually dependent: when the environment is threatened, so are human rights.

Yet across the world, rapid, unregulated and unsustainable economic development is resulting in the over-exploitation of marine resources, negatively affecting the coastal communities who depend on them. These communities are also the most vulnerable to procedural and substantive human rights abuses, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable ocean environment.

Any action to heal and protect our planet therefore needs to consider the rights, voices and needs of communities who are vulnerable or may be marginalized. Environmental human rights defenders play an important role in protecting ecosystems and ensuring that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are empowered to exercise their right to influence decisions that affect their lands, coastlines and waters.

Telling French Guiana’s story on the European stage

Protecting the human right to a healthy environment is particularly important in French Guiana, the European Union’s largest overseas territory and one of the Amazon’s most biodiverse regions. French Guiana is home to about 15,000 Indigenous Peoples from six Indigenous Nations, as well as Maroon communities, and countless other coastal inhabitants, thousands of whom directly or indirectly derive their livelihoods, food security and cultural identity from small-scale fishing off the country’s 350-kilometer coastline. However, these important values are threatened in the Guiana region by resource degradation, overfishing, oil and gas development, and coastal development.

The Society for the Study of Nature Protection and Planning in French Guiana (SEPANGUY) and Muntu Gwiyann are two local French Guianese associations that work tirelessly to protect nature across the region. With the WWF Coastal Community Initiative’s support, the leaders of these two organizations, Raphaëlle Rinaldo (SEPANGUY) and Guylaine Bourguignon (Muntu Gwiyann) were able to represent their country and institutions at the 1st European Forum of Environmental Human Rights Defenders, which was co-organized by the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and civil society organizations (CSOs).

Held in Strasbourg, France, on 3-4 June 2026, the Forum brought together more than 400 leaders, activists and policymakers, providing an important opportunity for civil society and grassroots activists to share experiences and explore solutions. Discussions focused on strengthening the leadership and capacity of environmental defenders; protecting them from intimidation, criminalisation and judicial harassment; and tactics for addressing strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), which are often used to silence defenders.

Raphaëlle and Guylaine actively contributed to discussions that informed recommendations for future European actions on environmental defenders. When given an opportunity to speak at the Forum, Raphaëlle highlighted the situation of defenders in French Guiana and the wider French overseas territories, where the legacy of colonialism continues through the marginalisation of Indigenous Peoples and extractive activities. She pointed out that ecosystems are contaminated by illegal gold mining and the use of toxic pesticides, which harms communities and biodiversity. To combat these challenges, she called for more opportunities for locals to access careers in environmental management, law and education to help shape environmental governance in the region.

How can Europe claim to want to listen to and support human rights and environmental defenders while at the same time seeking to maintain its access to natural resources abroad through extractive industries? As long as we rely on an economic model that exploits natural resources and people’s bodies, we will not be able to move forward.

– Raphaëlle Rinaldo at the 1st European Forum of Environmental Human Rights Defenders.
Guylaine Bourguignon, left, and Raphaëlle Rinaldo at the 1st European Forum of Environmental Human Rights Defenders. © Raphaëlle Rinaldo

Many different groups in society have a responsibility to protect human rights and safeguard ocean defenders, including governments, the private sector and CSOs. WWF is contributing to advancing human rights, including the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, through its Inclusive Conservation work and the rollout of its Statements of Principles on Human Rights. Across society, further proactive efforts should be made to protect marine biodiversity, limit pollution, address unsustainable fishing and curtail environmental degradation from unsustainable development of the ocean economy. Maintaining inclusive ocean governance and safe civic spaces can also help to ensure that coastal communities are able to speak on behalf of the ocean and that the rights of ocean defenders are protected.

The participation of Raphaëlle and Guylaine demonstrates how local leadership in ocean conservation can influence international discussions and help strengthen protections for environmental and ocean defenders globally. By creating connections between grassroots experience and policy processes, the Forum reinforced the principle that effective conservation and sustainable development depend on respecting human rights, supporting community leadership and ensuring that those most affected by environmental decisions have a seat at the table.

This article was written by Raphaëlle Rinaldo (SEPANGUY), Guylaine Bourguignon (Muntu Gwiyann), Marie Trémolet (AMARA Nature Solutions), Nathan Bennett (WWF Global Science/IUCN CEESP), Cristina Eghenter (WWF International) and Marina Gomei (WWF Coastal Communities Initiative).