EJF was established in 2000, and became a UK-registered charity in 2001. The founding directors Steve Trent and Juliette Williams, together have over 30 years experience investigating, exposing and resolving environmental abuses and have together worked in over 40 countries around the globe. EJF was established to ensure that these skills and know-how can be passed on to tomorrows environmental and human rights defenders.

Since 2000, EJF has trained defenders in the Global South, and campaigned to raise awareness of their issues here in the West.

Over the past 10 years we have actively partnered grassroots environmental and human rights defenders and undertaken investigations in 16 countries, from Guatemala to Cambodia, Uzbekistan to Guinea.

We have produced 18 campaign reports and 6 films, including ‘White Gold’, the award-winning film on Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, as well as a series of training manuals for grassroots activists.

2008 - 2009 >

2006 - 2007 >

Trained and equiped:

1. Indonesian NGO JALA to develop its research and campaigning expertise, and produce educational and documentary films about illegal trawling activities and their consequences in Northern Sumatra.

2. Coalition SOS Abrolhos, enabling them to document the environmental and human impacts of shrimp farming in coastal areas of Brazil, and produce a film to raise public and political awareness of the issues at stake.

3. Education for Nature-Vietnam (ENV), helping them to use film to raise public awareness of the need to protect their environment and wildlife.

Investigated:

1. Pirate fishing in the West-African State of Guinea and its links with the UK marketplace, via the infamous ‘port of convenience’, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

2. The use of child labour in Indian and Malian cotton fields, uncovering the extent of the problem and the complex set of circumstances that give rise to it.

3. Pesticide use on cotton crops grown in Mali and India.

4. The expansion of shrimp farms along Brazil’s East coast.

5. Pirate fishing in North Sumatra, where illegal fishing has led to violence and a devastated marine environment.

Created and produced:

1. The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton, a report produced in collaboration with the Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) detailing the enormous human health and environmental costs of pesticide use in global cotton production.

2. Stop Trawl – JALA’s first documentary, produced in conjunction with EJF, to support the organisation’s advocacy work in North Sumatra.

3. Illegal Driftnetting in the Mediterranean, a report exposing the devastating environmental damage caused by driftnets.

4. Pirate Fish on Your Plate, which tracks illegally-caught fish from West Africa into the European Market following investigations by EJF and Greenpeace.

5. Stolen Fish – How Pirate Fishing is Robbing the People and seas of West Africa, a film launched alongside Pirate Fish on Your Plate, documenting the extent and impacts of illegal fishing off the coast of Guinea.

6. It's All a Lie/ É Tudo Mentira, a short film about the negative impacts of shrimp farms on the livelihoods and local natural environments of coastal communities in Brazil.

7. The Children Behind Our Cotton, a report revealing the extensive use of child labour in global cotton production.

8. When Fishing Turns Deadly, a briefing by the Advocacy Network for North Sumatra Fisherfolk (JALA) on the environmental and social impacts of illegal trawling (available in English and Bahasa Indonesian).

9. An organic cotton T-shirt range in collaboration with major designers to raise awareness of the cotton campaign, and promote the sale of cotton clothing from sources that have not used child labour or pesticides.

2004 - 2005 >

Trained and equiped:

1. Activists from the Forum for the Defence of the Ceará Coastin Brazil were trained in video production, enabling them to document and expose the growing threat posed by shrimp farms.

2. Education for Nature – Vietnam (ENV) were trained to use video and photographic equipment enabling them to document and raise public awareness of the threats to Vietnam’s wildlife and habitats.

Investigated:

1.Cotton production in the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, where the crop is produced using child and forced labour. EJF filmed children as young as 7 working in the cotton harvest and met refugees and economic migrants unable to sur-fishing operations cost the country an estimated $110 million per year.

2.Brutality and environmental damage in Latin America’s shrimp farm industry. EJF worked with local NGOs in Honduras and Brazil, documenting the significant human rights abuses that are linked to the expansion of shrimp farms across coastal areas, including shootings, intimidation and murder.

3. Illegal fishing in Guinea-Conakry, a war-torn and impoverished West African nation, where pirate fishing operations cost the country an estimated $110 million per year. EJF discovered the presence of many foreign-owned pirate vessels, including boats with strong links to the EU and to the Spanish port, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

3.Bear farms in Hanoi where captive animals are kept in appalling conditions to supply bear bile to Vietnam’s urban elites and the overseas market, who are unaware of both the impacts on wild bear populations and of the alternatives to bear products.

Created and produced:

1. Pirates and Profiteers and Party to the Plunder, which highlight the grave threat to the world’s oceans from illegal fishing activities.

2.What’s the Catch?, a report focusing on the millions of tonnes of fish caught and thrown-away (in bycatch) by European fishing fleets.

3. White Gold, the true cost of cotton, a report exposing the human rights and environmental abuses associated with cotton production in Uzbekistan, the world’s 2nd largest exporter of cotton.cotton carefully’.

4. Farming the Sea, Costing the Earth, which reveals the environmental costs of shrimp farming, and Desert in the Delta, a country report on the abuses caused by shrimp farming in Bangladesh.

5. Mangroves and shrimp farming – a violation of the green, a campaign documentary, showing the impacts of shrimp farming on Brazil’s coastal communities and their environment.ing food security and development in some of the world’s poorest countries.

6. A ‘video training video’, providing activists with a valuable tool and helping them to acquire the essential skills needed to use film in their advocacy.

2000 - 2003 >

Trained and equiped:

1. Education for Nature – Vietnam (ENV) to use video and photographic equipment enabling them to document and raise public awareness of the threats to Vietnam’s wildlife and habitats.

2. Nine members of the Cambodian Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), enabling them to more effectively research, document and advocate on conflicts over freshwater fisheries.

3. CEDAC, a Cambodian development NGO, in the use of video to document pesticide abuses.

4. KSBK, an Indonesian conservation organisation, supplying video equipment enabling them to undertake investigations into the illegal wildlife trade.

Created:

1. A series of Activist Training Manuals providing clear tools for the development and successful implementation of a campaign strategy.

2.An educational video in Khmer about the misuse of pesticides and potential impact on human health for nationwide distribution in Cambodia.

3. Feast or Famine – a report on the ecological and social conflicts over Cambodia’s freshwater fisheries.

4. Death in Small Doses – a campaign report on Cambodia’s pesticide crisis

5. End of the Road for Endosulfan – a call for action against a dangerous pesticide

6. What’s Your Poison? – a report on pesticides and the threat to human health in the developing world.

7. Squandering the Seas, Risky Business and Smash and Grab – the first reports in a series that documents the ecological, developmental and human rights abuses associated with global shrimp production.

8. A Consumer Guide to Shrimp – giving responsible consumers a choice.