Tundu Antiphas Lissu

Tundu Antiphas Lissu "is a lawyer and activist, campaigning on behalf of the human rights and socio-economic interests of rural communities. He lives in Dar es Salaam and is married with two boys aged fi ve years.

"Since 1998 he has worked with the Lawyers' Environmental Action Team (LEAT), a public interest advocacy group based in Dar es Salaam where he now serves as Program Manager for the Mining, Environment and Livelihoods Program. Between 1999 and 2002 he was a Research Fellow at the Washington DC-based World Resources Institute (WRI) where he researched environmental policy and the politics of natural resource management and their impacts on rural rights and livelihoods.

"He is well known in Tanzania for his political activism. He was at the forefront of the struggle to protect coastal communities against industrial shrimp farming in the Rufi ji Delta in 1997-98. Since 1999 he has been at the forefront of the struggle by communities affected by large-scale industrial mining in Tanzania. He has written, exposed and campaigned widely against the rights abuses of the large-scale mining sector and economic exploitation and social dislocation caused by it. He has personally defended hundreds of villagers and community leaders persecuted for their opposition to the way foreign mining companies operate."