Egot, who is Indigenous Ekuri, helped establish the Ekuri Initiative, an organization dedicated to protecting parts of the rainforest. The Ekuri eco-guards confiscated the company’s logging equipment, but their actions caused army personnel to enter the village, firing their weapons. So there’s a whole lot of pressure.”The violence that Ekuri environment and land defenders face isn’t uncommon. Since the organization began tracking violence against land and environment defenders in 2012, there have been a total of 2,253 cases. “We are calling on international communities to continue to talk to our state, our government, because Nigeria signs to a whole lot of environmental treaties,” he said.