Land defenders in global south face deadly risks

Murders of environment and land defenders hit a record high last year as the violent resource grab in the global south continued unabated, despite the pandemic. Figures released by Global Witness show that 227 people were killed in 2020 while trying to protect ecosystems that their livelihoods depended on.

All but one of the attacks took place outside North America, Europe and Oceania. The authors say environment-related conflict is, like the climate crisis, disproportionately affecting lower-income nations. Indigenous communities suffered more than a third of the killings yet account for only 5% of the world population. “On average, our data shows that four defenders have been killed every week since the signing of the Paris climate agreement [in 2016],” the report says.

The annual tally of the dead is now twice the level of 2013. This is thought to be an underestimate because the calculation depends on transparency, press freedom and civil rights, which vary considerably from country to country.