Enlarge image
Illegal deforestation in a national park in Colombia
Photo: Raul Arboleda / AFP
Last year 227 people paid with their lives for their efforts to prevent the overexploitation of nature.
That is the result of a new study by the non-governmental organization Global Witness.
According to this, more environmentalists were killed in the course of 2020 than has ever been counted before - the organization calculates a rate of four murders per week.
In 2019, 212 environmental activists were murdered around the world.
»2020 was the worst year so far.
The aggression against environmentalists and human rights activists has increased sharply, "said the program coordinator Lourdes Castro from the Colombian non-governmental organization Somos Defensores.
"The most common target is indigenous people who are defending their ancestral lands."
The risk is particularly high in Latin America
According to the study, there are large regional differences.
Three quarters of fatal attacks on conservationists were reported in Latin America: 65 environmental activists were killed in Colombia, 30 people in Mexico, 20 in Brazil.
In the Philippines, too, 29 people died because of their commitment to nature conservation.
more on the subject
Brazil: Aisle of DestructionBy Marian Blasberg, Marco Evers, Jens Glüsing and Claus Hecking
In terms of population, Nicaragua was the most dangerous country for environmentalists last year: twelve murders were recorded there.
Honduras and Colombia follow in second and third place.
In Africa, the number of murders of environmentalists has risen sharply: from seven in 2019 to 18 in 2020. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, twelve rangers and one driver were killed in a militia attack in Virunga National Park.
The Global Witness organization assumes that the actual number of environmentalists killed is significantly higher.
Who is responsible for the murders?
Most of the cases are related to forestry projects, the report said.
In second place followed water and dam construction projects.
Violent crimes also occur in connection with processes in agriculture.
The report names state actors, criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and rebels as well as farmers and representatives of profit-oriented companies as possible responsible parties.
According to Lourdes Castro, companies and consumers in Europe share responsibility for the violence against environmentalists.
“Companies and customers should be aware that mining, agriculture and deforestation in Latin America often go hand in hand with violence,” says the Somos Defensores activist.
NGOs are calling for stricter law enforcement
"As long as governments don't take protecting environmentalists seriously and companies don't start putting people and the planet before profit, both climate collapse and killings will continue," said Chris Madden, a Global Witness employee.
“Those who risk their lives fighting the climate crisis to save forests, rivers and ecosystems bear a heavy burden.
That has to stop."
Lawyer Luz Coral Hernández, who works for the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, also said: “The government is not taking the problem seriously.
Many of the acts of violence therefore go unpunished. "
more on the subject
Violence against activists worldwide: »Companies hire murderers to have environmentalists killed« By Nicola Abé, Sonja Peteranderl and Maria Stöhr, São Paulo, Berlin and Hamburg
In view of the increasing effects of the climate crisis, the consistent protection of nature and the preservation of ecosystems are of global importance.
"In order to improve the situation of environmentalists and indigenous peoples, we must end the widespread impunity," demands lawyer Hernández.
In addition to acts of violence and murders, threats, defamation campaigns and legal proceedings against environmentalists have increased.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, activists are increasingly being spied on and threatened on the Internet.
"Oppression, intimidation and open surveillance can seriously affect activists' motivation and mental health," said a report from the research institution.
vki / AFP / dpa