Latin America accounted for 85% of environmental defender killings in 2025, report says
The toll is likely undercounted as organized crime, land conflicts and extractive industries drive most killings, 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 these deaths as conflicts over land and natural resources intensified.
- 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, reflecting an increasing overlap between criminal activity and resource exploitation.
- Colombia was the deadliest country for the fourth consecutive year with 39 killings, followed by Brazil with 26 and The Philippines with 12, where five killings involved suspected military participation.
- More than three-quarters of victims were Indigenous people, small-scale farmers, or Afro-descendants; in Peru, the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard patrols Amazonian territory, with commander Segundo Ispán stating, "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 defenders are safer, as killings remain significantly underreported due to armed conflict and insecurity.
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Where forests are cleared and soil exploited, resistance is life-threatening. A report again counts dozens of murders of small farmers, indigenous people and environmental activists. It is particularly dangerous in Colombia and Brazil.
Murders of environmental defenders doubled in Brazil in 2025, with a total of 124 activists killed worldwide. The number of environmental defenders murdered doubled in Brazil in 2025, making it the second most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists after Colombia, according to an annual report by the NGO Global Witness released today. 52% of murders in Colombia and Brazil Colombia and Brazil accounted for 52% of the murders …
The NGO Global Witness counts at least 124 deaths or disappearances of land and environmental defenders in 2025. For the first time since the death of Rémi Fraisse in 2014, a Frenchman is included in this count.
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.
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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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