NB: Since publication of this report new information has come to light which has meant the killing of 6 indigenous farmers in Peru in September 2017 no longer fits our criteria for inclusion. As such, the figures for 2017 have been revised to 201 killings globally with 40 linked to agribusiness and 2 occurring in Peru over the year.  Please contact us at [email protected] if you have any further enquiries on this or the methodology involved.

As agribusiness booms, tropical forests are logged and mining continues to deliver huge revenue to major global corporations, there are increasingly brutal attacks on land and environmental defenders - the men and women who dare to oppose unscrupulous governments, companies and investors profiting from their land, in what is a grossly unequal struggle.

In Colombia, Hernán Bedoya was shot by a paramilitary group 14 times. He was killed after protesting against palm oil and banana plantations on land stolen from his community. In the Philippines, near the town of Lake Sebu, the military descended on a small community, leaving eight dead, wounding five and causing 200 to flee.

And in one of the largest scale attacks of 2017, Gamela indigenous people were assaulted in Brazil. Powerful ranchers used machetes and rifles in an attempt to forcibly seize control of their land, leaving 22 severely injured, some with their hands cut off.

Every defender has his or her own story, some of which we tell here, but they are all part of a global movement to protect the planet. They are on the frontline of fighting climate change, preserving ecosystems and safeguarding human rights. They stand up for causes that benefit us all: sustainability, biodiversity and justice.

Below we introduce you to some of these brave men and women standing up for their land, forests and rivers, explore the industries behind the violence and explain how you can stand with them to end the killings.

For the full data and references, see our report: At What Cost: irresponsible business and the murder of land and environment defenders in 2017.

For our recommendations to business and governments, see here.

As the killing has increased, some governments, businesses and intergovernmental organisations have begun to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. But their promises and rhetoric have yet to translate into convincing policies and concrete change, leaving defenders in fear of their lives.

This is, in part, driven by one deadly trend: the number of people killed while protesting against large-scale agriculture more than doubled compared to 2016. For the first time, agribusiness surpassed mining as the most dangerous sector to oppose, as 46 defenders who protested against palm oil, coffee, tropical fruit and sugar cane plantations, as well as cattle ranching, were murdered in 2017.

Opposition to mining and oil operations (40 killings), poaching (23 murders) and logging (23 cases) were the other main reasons defenders were killed last year.

Linked to the spike in agribusiness-related deaths, Global Witness observed a rise in multiple killings (7 incidents in total) of land and environmental defenders, many of whom were disputing large-scale agriculture projects.

Brazil was the scene of three horrific massacres, during which 25 defenders died. Eight indigenous activists were massacred in the Philippines, while Mexico, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo also saw incidents where more than four defenders died at the same time.

These massacres sent the message that not only community leaders will be targeted: nobody is safe. This has a huge impact, given that whole communities – or large parts of them – are often involved in struggles to protect their land from being grabbed.

Once again, Latin America saw the highest number of murders, accounting for almost 60% of the total. According to Global Witness data, Brazil recorded the most killings of any country ever with 57 people killed, 80% of them while protecting the natural riches of the Amazon. In Colombia 24 defenders were murdered in 2017, as conflicts over land raged on. Mexico and Peru saw a jump in killings from three to 15 and two to eight respectively. There were fewer murders in Honduras – five compared to 14 in 2016 – but the growing repression of civil society has restricted what defenders can say and do. Nicaragua registered the most murders per capita, with four defenders killed. 

In Asia, the most alarming developments took place in the Philippines, which saw 48 killings – almost a 71% rise on 2016 and the most murders ever recorded in Asia in a single year. President Duterte’s aggressively anti-human-rights stance and a renewed military presence in resource-rich regions are fuelling the violence. Almost half of the killings in the Philippines were linked to struggles against agribusiness. 

Of the 19 land and environmental defenders reported killed across Africa, 17 lost their lives while defending protected areas against poachers and illegal miners – 12 in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone. Of course, many other countries and regions could be suffering elevated numbers of killings which have not been documented or which we have been unable to verify.

Fewer indigenous people were killed in 2017 – falling to 25% of the total, from 40% in 2016. However, with indigenous groups making up just 5% of the world’s population, they remain massively overrepresented among defenders killed. And it is not only killings: in one of the most brutal attacks, Gamela indigenous people were assaulted with machetes and rifles by Brazilian farmers, leaving 22 of them severely injured, some with their hands cut off. In Mexico, 13 out of 15 defenders killed were indigenous – murdered defending their ancestral territories. 

Although nine out of every 10 murdered activists last year were male, women defenders faced gender-specific threats including sexual violence. They were often subjected to smear-campaigns, threats against their children, and attempts to undermine their credibility; sometimes from within their own communities, where macho cultures might prevent women from taking up positions of leadership.

Find out more about women defenders in Section 8.

Our data on killings is likely to be an underestimate, given that many murders go unreported, particularly in rural areas. Our methodology requires cases to be verified according to a strict set of criteria (see Methodology on page 52 of full report), which can’t always be met by a review of public information like newspaper reports or legal documents, nor through local contacts. Having a strict methodology means our figures don’t represent the scale of the problem, and we are working to improve this.

In some countries, suppression of the media, a lack of monitoring and documentation by both governments and NGOs, or the fact that information emerging from conflict zones can often be unclear or contradictory, can make it difficult to identify specific cases. These challenges in reporting, coupled with shrinking space for free speech and civic organisation in many places, means it is highly likely many more defenders are killed than we have documented. It is also important to note that a low number of documented murders in a given country does not necessarily mean that defenders there are not facing other threats such as imprisonment or harassment (see 'Africa' section).

Our data may differ from that being gathered by other NGOs, and there are three likely reasons for this. Firstly, different groups are being monitored: some NGOs document attacks against all human rights defenders. Global Witness data only covers one subgroup of defenders: those working on land or environmental issues. Secondly, some NGOs document all threats, attacks and restrictions on defenders. We only document killings. Thirdly, it may be the case that different NGOs are using different methodologies to verify and include cases in their statistics.

When people have a vested interest in making sure a project goes ahead, they tend not to show many scruples in making sure it does – as shown by the case of the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras. The dam, owned by Desarrollo Energetico SA (DESA), sits on the Gualcarque River, considered sacred by the indigenous Lenca people of western Honduras. 

Berta Caceres, an indigenous leader, fiercely opposed the dam and received death threats for years. Then, in March 2016, Berta was brutally murdered.

The dam’s owners used legal action to intimidate those demanding a proper investigation into her killing. For example, on 28 February 2017, Suyapa Martinez, a women’s rights defender, was summoned to court, accused of divulging inaccurate and detrimental information about DESA. The case was later dropped by the court.

It took an independent group of international lawyers, GAIPE, to eventually shed light on who was responsible for Berta’s killing. GAIPE’s investigation concluded there was irrefutable proof that high-ranking DESA executives and employees, along with state agents, were involved in the planning, execution and cover-up of Berta’s murder. DESA’s executive director, David Castillo, was accused of masterminding her death and, since the report’s publication, has been arrested – a welcome development in an otherwise bleak panorama. 

The investigation also exposed, at best, a shocking level of negligence or, at worst, deliberate omissions by the state’s official investigators. GAIPE examined 40,000 pages of evidence that had been in the possession of the Honduran prosecutors for at least 18 months – crucial information that could have been used to investigate Castillo and his accomplices as suspects in Berta’s murder sooner. 

There are clear links between the government and DESA that suggest a potential cover-up: the company’s hierarchy contains a number of ex-government officials – for example Castillo himself worked for military intelligence – while four of those on trial for Berta’s murder have links with the military. The government, together with DESA, even launched legal charges against her organisation, COPINH, and failed to protect its members when they were threatened. Furthermore, MACCIH – an international anti-corruption panel in Honduras – is investigating suspicious links between members of the ruling party and companies that won bids to construct hydroelectric projects, including the Agua Zarca dam. MACCIH’s head, Juan Jimenez Mayor, resigned in February 2018 citing persistent government resistance to his investigations. DESA insist that Agua Zarca is not linked to any act of violence, that the project has always acted in accordance with Honduran law, and that GAIPE’s report is a fabrication containing false interpretations drawn upon selected conversations that have been taken out of context.

Berta’s murder and the search for justice came amid deepening political turmoil and shocking levels of violence against land and environmental defenders. In our January 2017 report ‘Honduras: The Deadliest Place to Defend the Planet’, we revealed that over 120 people were killed between 2010 and 2016 – more than anywhere else per capita during the same period. We demonstrated how the situation worsened in the context of impunity, corruption and ‘business at any cost’, which characterise President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s regime. The report sparked a hostile backlash from the authorities in Honduras, who threatened our staff with arrest amid a sophisticated online campaign to discredit our work and that of many other activists. 

While the number of murdered land and environmental defenders in Honduras appears to have fallen in 2017, human rights defenders in general are facing increased repression. The National Human Rights Defenders Network of Honduras documented 1,232 attacks against human rights defenders in Honduras in 2016 and 2017, a significant increase on previous years. 

Last year’s elections offered the possibility of change – but those hopes were dashed when street protests about alleged electoral fraud left more than 30 people dead. The UN found that at least 16 of them were killed by government security forces. President Hernandez was declared the winner on 17 December 2017. But the result was disputed by the Organisation of American States (OAS), which called for new elections, stating that the ‘electoral process was characterised by irregularities and deficiencies […] and [was] lacking integrity’.

Threats and attacks against land and environmental defenders remained routine in 2017. For example, Martin Fernandez, coordinator of MADJ, an organisation that works on land rights and corruption, was assaulted by armed men on 4 August 2017. He’d been inspecting environmental damage caused by a hydroelectric scheme in Northern Honduras. Another member of MADJ, Luis Mejia, received a note under his door after his house was sprayed with bullets on 12 October 2017. The note read: 

A vocal opponent of illegal logging on his ancestral land, Luis left home in fear of his life.

New research by Global Witness and the Vance Center shows the real impact of impunity upon land and environmental defenders. 

On 30 July 2010, Jhon Jairo Palacios rang his family from Riosucio, the capital of Chocó department, where he’d travelled by boat from his community, to tell them he would be coming home the following day. When he failed to show up, they called his mobile. A man claiming to belong to a paramilitary group answered, saying: ‘Tell his family that he is already dead.’

Jhon was a member of an Afro-descendant community in the Cacarica River Basin of Chocó. Community members opposed the construction of a major road in the region – a road that would bring with it deforestation, an influx of settlers and devastation to the community’s way of life. To this day, Jhon’s murder remains unsolved. The investigation is at a standstill, the murderers are at liberty, and the message being sent is clear: there will be no price paid for murdering defenders here. 

Seven years later, on 8 December 2017, Hernán Bedoya – another Afro-descendant leader from Chocó – was heading home on horseback to his village. A new paramilitary group intercepted him on a bridge and shot him 14 times, killing him. Hernán had objected to the palm oil, banana plantations and cattle ranches expanding over his community’s territory and clearing the forest. He had been forcibly evicted from his land by a paramilitary group in 1996, but decided to return despite the risks.

He began receiving threats from illegal armed groups in 2015. According to local civil society, the Colombian government had given Bedoya a mobile phone and a bulletproof vest in an attempt to protect his life. Nonetheless, Hernán was killed. Those who wanted to silence him presumed that, like in the case of Jhon, they would face no consequences for their crimes.

Hernán was just one of 24 defenders killed in Colombia in 2017, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world to defend land and the environment.

There are several reasons for this, though struggles for land lie at their core. According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, the signing of the peace agreement between the government and the guerrilla group FARC produced a ‘vacuum of power’. With the FARC demobilising, new militias have sprung up, vying with paramilitary groups to control land which belongs to the indigenous, Afro-Colombian and other rural communities who had to vacate it during the civil war and are now returning home following the signing of the peace agreement.This scenario is complicated further as criminal groups move into areas the FARC once occupied, to carry out illegal logging, mining and cattle ranching. The government’s push for foreign investment has also intensified this scramble for land.

These factors have led to intensifying land conflicts and environmental destruction. Communities have been forced to activism, becoming defenders on the front line of this struggle. The danger is exacerbated by the fact that governmental protection programmes remain limited in their effectiveness and – vitally – that perpetrators of previous attacks on defenders are rarely prosecuted.

Perhaps the most crucial factor behind Colombia’s appalling death rate is its persistent and unaddressed culture of impunity. The murders of Jhon and Hernán are just two of numerous unsolved murders in Colombia. So long as previous crimes against defenders go unpunished, those wishing to silence activists will feel emboldened to act. 

To try to understand the scale of the problem, Global Witness joined forces with the Vance Center. Together, we analysed the killings of all 122 Colombian land and environmental defenders recorded by Global Witness between July 2010 and June 2016, and the Colombian judiciary’s response to each.

The conclusions of the study were astonishing: in 102 cases, an investigation was launched, but only nine cases led to a verdict, eight of which resulted in a conviction. A further ten cases were not being investigated because the prosecutor’s office had no information at all to go on. This puts the impunity rate – the proportion of people literally getting away with murder – at 92%.

Crucially, 61 of the 102 investigations were still at an inquest stage, meaning that the prosecutors had not gathered enough information even to determine the existence of a crime. This meant that the investigation could not proceed to the next phase. It suggests that the public prosecutors’ failure to collect the evidence they need at this early stage is a key factor in the sky-high impunity levels, a conclusion also drawn by Colombian NGO Somos Defensores. To end Colombia’s culture of impunity, their study concluded, prosecutors must be given the training and resources they need to investigate cases and, perhaps more importantly, the endemic corruption which prevents the killings of defenders from being investigated must be tackled. The government recently pledged to tackle impunity for killings of defenders, stating they had set up an elite police task force and investigation unit to dismantle criminal groups and investigate attacks against activists. Proper resourcing and guarantees of independence are required if it is to do its job and prevent future attacks.

Conflicts over land and natural resources are frequent and well documented. The brutal harassment and criminalisation of activists is all too common as well. 

That is what makes our figures for Africa confusing. We report that 19 land and environmental defenders were killed in Africa in 2017, significantly fewer than in Latin America and Asia. Front Line Defenders, who track the killings of all human rights defenders, also recorded small numbers of cases across Africa in 2017.

What explains the relatively low number of killings? This deserves more analysis, as several hypotheses exist. Are land and environmental defenders really less active and therefore not as targeted in African countries as they are elsewhere? Are the patterns of harassment different, meaning that they rarely end in murder? 

Perhaps simply a lack of reporting is underestimating the true extent of the problem. 

We do not yet know the answers to these questions, but there are signs that point towards a shortage of evidence leading to some killings of defenders in Africa being undocumented. 

Compared with Latin America and south-east Asia, there are fewer civil society organisations and journalists documenting attacks against land and environmental defenders specifically, and they may feel less free to speak out without fear of reprisals. There may also be less information and reporting from isolated rural areas where killings may take place, compared to other regions. 

It is therefore difficult to obtain evidence from many African countries. Less local documentation means we do not have as strong a network of contacts in Africa as we do elsewhere, and much of our information comes from the International Ranger Federation and its charitable arm, the Thin Green Line Foundation, which support one subgroup of land and environmental defenders: park rangers. Seventeen out of the 19 killings we documented in 2017 were of people struggling against poaching and for the protection of wildlife – usually in protected areas – so our sources may well influence our statistics. 

It can be difficult to disentangle the different reasons why someone was killed: we may know that a defender was murdered, but not have sufficient evidence to show it was because of their work as a defender. To include cases of killings we need a certain level of information to fulfil our verification criteria (see Methodology on page 52 of full report), which is often lacking in the African context. For example, we need the names of those killed – something that proved impossible when trying to verify who was murdered during 2015 protests against plans to clear forests in central Ethiopia.

One relatively well-reported issue in Africa is its significant, long-standing problem with wildlife crime – one of the largest and most profitable forms of organised crime worldwide. Wildlife trafficking helps to finance militia and terrorist groups and is carried out by the same people, using the same illegal networks that traffic drugs, guns and people. 

As mentioned above, 17 out of the 19 killings we’ve documented in Africa are of individuals who were defending protected areas. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 12 park rangers were killed while protecting wildlife. All but two killings were attributed to Mai Mai (local armed groups), who are known to be involved in illegal poaching and mining activities. Virunga National Park, where five park rangers were killed, has traditionally been considered the most dangerous place for park rangers in the world. According to the head of the park, Emmanuel de Merode, there are around 1,500 to 2,000 armed fighters from different rebel groups operating in the area, and they represent a risk for the wildlife and those who defend it. 

While we have not been able to attribute wildlife trafficking to attacks against land and environmental defenders we do know that two key conservationists, who’ve dedicated their lives to combatting the ivory trade, were killed over the past 12 months in suspicious circumstances.

While the motives for these killings are still not clear, their murders warrant further scrutiny from law-enforcement agencies. 

We asked Just Associates (JASS) to write the following piece, which is informed by feedback from hundreds of women human rights defenders in more than 26 countries around the world, many of whom are fighting for land and environmental rights. It also incorporates learnings from protection networks like the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative, and other feminist organisations such as the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) and the Urgent Action Fund (UAF). 

Women are often at the forefront of struggles to protect their ancestral lands and the environment. This frequently puts them on a collision course with industries that devastate natural resources in the name of ‘development’. The critical leadership role they play comes at a high price that is often invisible. 

Many women are at a distinct disadvantage at the outset of their land or environmental activism. They are frequently excluded from land ownership, as well as community negotiations about the future of their lands and natural resources. When they dedicate time to activism, they are sometimes criticised for neglecting their children and domestic duties. On the other hand, the combined impact of domestic and community care, together with activism, can create a huge physical and emotional burden. 

Women defenders often have to fight a battle on two fronts: the public struggle to protect natural resources, and the hidden struggle to defend their right to speak out within their own organisations and families. Women defenders rarely receive the same level of support as their male colleagues because their communities are often dominated by patriarchal, macho culture. This means that the role that women defenders play is often not recognised, and their communities, organisations and families sometimes even actively hide the violence which women can face.

Although more male land and environmental defenders are murdered, women can feel the impact distinctly. When male defenders are killed or imprisoned for their activism, women shoulder more family responsibilities, often while pursuing justice for the murder and helping to re-organise their communities. 

Women defenders themselves are targets of multiple forms of violence, both for defending their territory and for challenging patriarchal attitudes in their communities, organisations and families. A range of state and non-state actors with powerful economic and political interests have historically used violence against women to spread fear and silence the pursuit of justice.

Threats of rape and violence historically form part of the repression of women opposing extractive projects, as well as misogynistic insults such as being labelled ‘whores’ or ‘bad mothers’. Gender discrimination is one of many fault-lines exploited to exacerbate family or community conflicts through divide-and-conquer tactics. 

Criminalisation, too, has a distinct impact. It increases the financial and social vulnerability of women, as their families often isolate them if they are jailed. Of course, women defenders are also murdered. This is not only about silencing defenders; it’s about silencing women and sends a strong message that women should not be leaders, thus inhibiting others from getting involved.

They champion causes that benefit us all: sustainability, biodiversity and justice. They call out corruption and push for changes in laws, policies and practice to ensure environmental and land rights are upheld.

Yet few people face greater threats. Once again, as part of an ongoing trend, the number of defenders murdered rose in 2017. Two hundred and seven activists were killed, leaving communities without their courageous spokespeople and champions.

It is primarily the responsibility of states (through their governments) to guarantee that all human rights defenders can carry out their activism safely. However, those defenders who work on land and environmental issues face specific and heightened risks because they are seen as a threat to profit as well as power. In the vast majority of cases, they are killed because they have questioned or opposed a business enterprise – one usually linked to the extraction of natural resources, such as mining, large-scale agriculture or logging.

With much of the violence driven by the thirst for profit, those who hold the purse strings have the power – as well as the legal responsibility - to be a force for good. States and businesses must tackle the root causes of the attacks, for example ensuring communities are allowed to say ‘no’ to projects, like mining, on their land; support and protect defenders at risk and ensure justice is served for those suffering from the violence.

Read our recommendations in full.

Our research has revealed how important it is to hold businesses and governments to account when it comes to attacks on land and environmental defenders, and remind them of their responsibility and role in ending these vicious crimes.

Your role, too, is crucial. It’s important to make sure businesses and politicians know their reputations, votes and profits will suffer if they don’t do more to help. But it’s also critical to use your voice to amplify the voice of defenders and shine a light on the challenges they face.

When you take another look at the sectors driving attacks on defenders, everything feels closer to home. Large-scale agriculture, mining, poaching, logging all produce household items that we use and consume. Palm oil for the shampoo we use. Soy for the beef we eat. Timber for our furniture.

Land and environmental defenders have to show incredible courage and resilience in the face of daunting adversaries. They should not have to face them alone. Not when so much is at stake: their communities, their land, the planet we all share.

We stand with them. We will take their fight to the corridors of power and the boardrooms of multinational corporations. We will make sure their voices are heard.

We will demand that policies are implemented and action is taken by business and government to guarantee communities can give or withhold their free, prior and informed consent regarding the use of their land; to support defenders and guarantee their safety; and to hold those responsible accountable when attacks do take place.

For although they are the source of many of the problems documented in this report, governments and business also have the power to make a profound difference.

Please use these stories and your words on social media, your voice when speaking to your political representative and your action when adding your name to our campaign.

Wherever you are and whatever you do, stand with environmental and land defenders, and ensure that their voice is heard.