Núcleo Amigos da Terra Brasil (AT Brasil) - member of Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC)

AT Brasil is a Civil Society Organisation of Public Interest (Oscip) dedicated to the protection of the environment and the promotion of development with sustainability and social justice. The entity, founded in 1964 under the name of Ação Democrática Feminina Gaúcha (Gaúcha Women's Democratic Action), joined, in 1983, as the Brazilian member of the International Federation Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), the largest network of grassroots environmental groups, with 75 national groups and more than two million members and supporters throughout the world. Friends of the Earth Brazil is part of ATALC, which brings together FoEI member organisations in currently 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries (Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Curaçao, Haiti, Grenada and Ecuador). As ATALC does not have it's own office, national member organizations carry out the administration of ATALC projects. NAT Brasil is one of the member organizations which have such capacity. One of ATALC's strong focus areas is the persecution of environmental defenders as a cross-cutting issue throughout the region. ATALC's approach to the area is: 1. Capacity building: Raising awareness and understanding about the systematic persecution and mechanisms to strengthen the safety and protection of defenders. 2. Registration, documentation and analysis: Find patterns of threats and violence against environmental defenders to draw wider attention to the systemic nature of persecution. ATALC works to improve the ability to predict and prevent attacks against environmental defenders and take measures that targets the root causes of persecution. 3. Rapid Respons Mechanisms: Eg security measures, emergency assistance and ongoing monitoring and support. 4. Information and engagement: Communicating on cases through national, regional and international mechanisms, with a call to engage through concrete actions.