Intimidations trigger a response.

Nongovernmental organizations are acting to mobilize more protection for environmentalists, in the face of widespread attacks on activists. Last February, for example, five agents of the Russian FSB (formerly the KGB) arrested Alexandr Nikitin at his home in St. Petersburg. Nikitin, once a chief engineer of a Russian nuclear submarine, now works for the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental organization that is studying radioactive pollution from Russia's nuclear fleet. Russian authorities claim that Nikitin was selling state secrets - a charge that Bellona denies. Nikitin has been denied the right of attorney and is charged with high treason. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Nikitin's plight is hardly unique. All over the world, governments or industries with an interest in preventing environmental reform are subjecting activists to intimidation, physical abuse, and even murder. Last December, in response to such abuses, two NGOs established the world's first formal project dedicated exclusively to protecting the human rights of environmentalists. The Ken Saro-Wiwa Memorial Fund is named after the Nigerian writer and activist who was executed, along with eight colleagues, by the Nigerian government on November 10 of last year. Saro-Wiwa had led the fight against the destruction of the Niger River delta by oil development - a process that is ruining the livelihoods of the Ogoni, the ethnic group to which he belonged. His conviction, on a highly improbable murder charge, was broadly condemned by the international community as an outrage to justice. (See cover story, beginning on page 10.)

The memorial fund was established with $200,000 in seed money from the Goldman Environmental Foundation, a San Francisco-based philanthropic organization perhaps best known for its Goldman Environmental Prizes. Sometimes called the "environmental Nobel Prizes," these are awarded annually to six people, one from each of six geographic regions, who have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the environment. Saro-Wiwa won the 1995 prize for Africa. The fund is administered by Human Rights Watch, an organization based in New York City and dedicated to exposing human rights abuses throughout the world. According to Susan Osnos, the group's communications director, the money could be used by Human Rights Watch itself, or made available to other organizations working on a relevant case. Legitimate expenses, Osnos says, could involve legal representation or other types of forensic work for environmentalists unjustly accused of crimes. Or the fund could be used to publicize such cases. "In our experience," Osnos says, "exposure is without question the best disinfectant."

The Goldman contribution to the fund is to be broken down into four annual payments of $50,000 each. There is no target level for the fund, and Human Rights Watch will continue to accept donations to it indefinitely. Contributions, which in the United States are tax deductible, may be sent to the Ken Saro-Wiwa Fund, c/o Human Rights Watch, 485 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10017-6104, U.S.A.