Tony Povilitis
Dr. Tony has been a wildlife biologist for over a half century and has witnessed first hand what overconsumption and overpopulation has done to the living world. He has been a field researcher and on-the-ground organizer/advocate in defense of wildlife and nature.
Topic/Organization: The Growth Monster—a Plea to Defenders of Mother Earth | Life Net Nature
Jaybee Garganera
Jaybee is the National Coordinator of ATM (Alyansa Tigil Mina), a coalition of over a hundred community organizations resisting destructive large-scale mining in the Philippines. He is active in major social movements and networks working on environmental justice and human rights, including Green Convergence, Green Thumb Coalition, Bantay-Kita, IDefend, the Green Bills Network, the Laudato Si Movement networks, the Green Livelihoods Alliance, Askyon-Klima Pilipinas, and KALIPUNAN.
He contributes to regional and global advocacy through the Philippine Task Force on the Binding Treaty and the Asia Working Group for a Legally-Binding Instrument, and is involved in the Global Campaign for a Legally Binding Treaty and the Treaty Alliance. Jaybee also serves on steering and advisory bodies such as the Asia-Pacific Gathering on Human Rights and Extractives, the Thematic Social Forum on Mining, Defenders in Development, and the Community Resource Exchange of the Coalition on Human Rights and Development.
He has represented civil society in various international conferences, including the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, the Asia-Europe People’s Forum, and annual meetings of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Publish What You Pay–EITI global and regional gatherings.
Topic/Organization: Mining Situation in The Philippines | Alyansa Tigil Mina
Carl van Warmerdam
Carl has been a co-editor of Deep Green Resistance News Service for the last five years.
He is a founding member of Deep Sea Defenders, Green Oceans and Blue Earth Defense.
He also works on local issues to protect his town, on the land of the Pokanoket on the east coast of Turtle Island.
Principally, he strives to be a good Opa to his grandchildren and all humans and more-than humans of this beautiful world.
Topic/Organization: Deep Sea Mining | Deep Sea Defenders / Green Oceans, Blue Earth Defense
Kaelene Spang
Komenaha (Pure Woman), whose given name is Kaelene, is a proud So’taa’eo/Tsetsêhesêstâhase (Northern Cheyenne) citizen from Mo’ȯhtávȯheomenéno, Black Lodge (otherwise known as Lame Deer, MT on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation). At Honor the Earth she works in the Department of Sovereignty and Self-determination as a campaigns organizer. Her work at Honor is currently focused on tribal outreach and research on hyperscale data centers. She received her BA from Macalester College with an American Studies major and an Environmental Studies minor. Her undergraduate research predominantly focuses on the Landback and Data sovereignty movements, reclamation, repatriation, Tribal sovereignty, relationality, and environmental protection.”
Topic/Organization: Green Colonialism & Landback | Honor The Earth
Mario Maderazo
Atty. Mario E. Maderazo, Juris Doctor, is a human rights and environmental lawyer specializing in fisheries law, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and public interest litigation. He has authored legal analyses for international NGOs as well as for the Philippine government. He currently serves as Senior Lawyer at IDEALS, Inc., providing legal support to marginalized communities, and as Legal Counsel of the Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc., a network promoting the Rights of Nature and environmental justice. Atty. Maderazo brings with him decades of experience in community empowerment and participatory legal reform.
Topic/Organization: Rights of Nature | PMPI - Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc.
Bernie Larin
Bernie Larin is the campaign officer of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), a nationwide coalition of mining-affected communities in the Philippines. He is also a member of Blue Earth Defense-Philippines.
He focuses on the seabed mining campaign and the initiatives of ATM regarding environmental human rights defenders, particularly holistic security training and formation of protection hubs at the provincial and regional level.
Before he joined ATM, he worked for almost 15 years with the Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights) and he also spent almost a decade serving in the Philippine Congress under the offices of Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez of Akbayan Partylist in 2013 and Senator Leila de Lima in 2018.
Topic/Organization: Defend Manila Bay Campaign / Reclamation and Seabed Quarrying | Blue Earth Defense Ph / ATM
Fred GIbson
Fred Gibson is Co-Founder of Communities that Protect and Resist. Fred’s been an organizational psychologist and leadership scholar, coach, and practitioner for over 40 years. He offers his experience to build effective leadership and organizational capacity to groups that resist the destruction of the planet. His experiences in the military, business world, and academia provide perspectives on organizing and leading, from which he can draw to consult with resistance collectives and train leaders.
Fred helped found CPR because he saw that radical Communities were the “sweet spot” in resistance organizing. Resistance Communities promise to counter the limitations of small cadres and large organizations, while conforming more closely to the natural state of society.
Topic/Organization: Leadership and Communities of Resistance | Communities that Protect and Resist / Blue Earth Defense
