The Earth Liberation Army (ELA), similar to the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), is the collective name for anonymous and autonomous individuals or groups that use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment", commonly known as ecotage or monkeywrenching. The name was first used in Canada, in 1995, which was the first earth liberation direct action in North America, three years after the ELF had been founded in England. The ELA is also a leaderless movement, although in contrary to the ELF, the first group did not publish any guidelines. The ELA are considered to be "eco-terrorists" who use violent tactics, and are also known to also be active in the United States.