Latin America accounted for 85% of environmental defender killings in 2025, report says
Land disputes and resource extraction drove most of the violence, and organized crime or hitmen were suspected in more than a third of cases, Global Witness said.
- A report released Wednesday by Global Witness found at least 124 environmental defenders were killed worldwide last year, with Latin America accounting for 85% of the deaths.
- Land disputes were linked to 84 killings, more than half the global total, while organized crime and hitmen were suspected of involvement in over a third of cases.
- Colombia was the deadliest country for the fourth consecutive year with 39 killings, followed by Brazil with 26 deaths and The Philippines with 12.
- More than three-quarters of victims were Indigenous people, small-scale farmers, or Afro-descendants; in Peru, the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard patrols Amazonian territory as Segundo Ispán said, "for this next generation coming up, the work is more dangerous than ever."
- While the global toll fell for a second consecutive year, Global Witness cautioned that the decline does not necessarily mean environmental defenders are becoming safer.
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The Latin American continent remains by far the most deadly for those – and often those – who merely protect their lands, rights or cultures, shows the 14th Global Witness report published on 16 September. In Peru, the indigenous Kakataibo community has formed its own guard. In the Philippines, a community has been resisting a major mining project for five months.
The country was the second most dangerous in the world after Colombia, according to Global Witness.
Murders of environmental defenders doubled in 2025 in Brazil, as perpetrators "can kill people because they are sure they will go unpunished". The post Brazil: Murders of environmental defenders doubled in 2025 appeared first on in.gr.
Zeit Online
Those who defend nature live dangerously in parts of Latin America. Although the world's number of environmentalists killed is falling, in Brazil it has more than doubled within a year.
LancasterOnline
BOGOTÁ (AP) — At least 124 defenders of land and the environment were killed worldwide last year, and Latin America concentrated 85% of deaths, while conflicts over land and the...
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