Fern works with partners across all our campaign issues and whenever we start a new work area, we begin by looking for partners. We believe that EU policies are improved when policymakers receive direct input from affected people, with on-the-ground expertise. Our partnerships aim to both explain the EU’s workings to national NGOs and to open space at the EU for them to be heard.  

Where partnerships include joint fundraising, we sign joint partnership agreements to form a contractual working relationship – always aiming for equal, transparent and mutually beneficial partnerships that achieve strong benefits for forests and forest peoples. For accountability reasons we have added an asterisk (*) to all partners with whom we have joint funding. 

We have linked to each of our partners websites to make is easier to contact them directly, but please do also get in touch with the relevant campaigner if you would like to be introduced to any of them.   

We are also a member of different networks, for example the Forest Movement Europe, a network of European NGOs and individuals using social justice to protect and restore forests globally.

Bioenergy and European Forest Governance

European Forest Governance

Bioenergy

Pulp and paper

Challenging trade that does not contribute to forest protection and respect forest people's rights

International forest governance

"Our work is to increase the alignment between stakeholders in the EU and Indonesia about the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products. I'm happy that we were able to work together, although our approach may not be completely similar. [Fern is] working from the European context and we're working from here."
Nadia Hadad, Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan, Indonesia

"The value of working with Fern is that it gives us a link to the EU. In France, especially at the Ministry of Agriculture level, there’s no dialogue or public debate on French forests. Having partners like Fern who do a great job in Brussels, and who share information with us in advance, like leaks for example, helps us to unblock things at a national level in France."
Sylvain Angerand, Canopée, France

Third country partners:

EU partners:

​A Day in the Life of a Fern partner

This interview features in Fern’s 2023 Annual Report, which can be read here.

 

Dinamam Tuxá is ​one of the executive ​coordinator​s​ of Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil) (APIB), which represents more than 300 Brazilian Indigenous ethnic groups. He is also a lawyer and one of the leaders of the Tuxá people, from Brazil’s western Bahia state.

“Our mission is to defend Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the struggle against the conquest of our territories. Indigenous Peoples in Brazil have endured invasion, colonisation and genocide for centuries.

While we now have a politically favourable scenario in the Executive branch of Brazil’s government [following the electoral defeat of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2022], in the Legislature, the logic of colonizers still prevails, and the exploitation and destruction of our territories are promoted in the name of big international corporations.

My people are a riverine people. The Tuxá lived for centuries on the banks of the São Francisco River in the north of the Brazilian state of Bahia. But in the 1970s our territory was flooded to make way for a dam, and we were displaced. I’ve seen my people succumb to the many social problems this has brought, including reducing our autonomy to produce food.

The Brazilian government has not fulfilled its constitutional obligations to us for this  loss. This motivated me to fight for my people’s rights. I feel this is my duty, as I come from a long family line of leaders in the community.

Studying law opened up a new vista of possibilities for me to work for other Indigenous Peoples suffering from the same large-scale human rights violations carried out by agribusiness and others seeking to extract resources from our land.

We believe that we are one people, we are all related. But by protecting​ ​Indigenous’ territories we are also working to contain the climate crisis and global warming for the benefit of all of humanity.

A friendship founded on common goals

The EU and Brazil share trading, diplomatic and consumer relations. Decisions made in the EU have a direct impact on the lives of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities – whether the Mercosur trade deal or the EU deforestation regulation. Increased demand for agricultural products in Europe leads to more attacks on our people​s,​ and deforestation​ and violations​ in our territories.

Fern has helped us raise our voices in Brussels about these issues, making it possible for us to go to Europe to articulate our message with the main actors influencing the international agreements and treaties which have a direct impact on Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. 

Fern has the same mission as APIB: to protect people, to protect Indigenous Peoples and to protect forests. Our relationship is not just one of institutional support, but a friendship in which we have a common goal.

We're going to keep fighting together because our mission is to protect all the ecosystems, all the biomes, especially the Indigenous Peoples and communities that are within these biomes.”

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