Global Witness Reveals 2019 Was 'Deadliest Year on Record' for Eco-Defenders...212 killed.

Global Witness Reveals 2019 Was 'Deadliest Year on Record' for Eco-Defenders, With 212 Murdered Worldwide

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/29/global-witness-reveals-2019-was-deadliest-year-record-eco-defenders-212-murdered

"In 2019, Global Witness recorded 212 murdered land and environmental defenders—making it the deadliest year on record for people defending their homes, forests, and rivers against climate-destructive industries."

That's according to Defending Tomorrow: The climate crisis and threats against land and environmental defenders (pdf), an annual report released Wednesday by the watchdog group, which has published data on the topic since 2012. The 2019 figure shows a notable jump from the 167 people killed in 2018.

While the number of murders last year set a new record, Global Witness notes that its data "will never accurately capture the true scale of the problem" because of reporting challenges in some countries, including "restrictions on a free press and the absence of documented abuses by governments and NGOs."

The two countries with the most known killings of eco-activists last year—Colombia with 64 and the Philippines with 43—collectively accounted for over half of all murders documented by the group. Honduras, which ranked fifth behind those two nations as well as Brazil and Mexico, had the most killings per capita.

*snip*