227 People Trying To Protect Natural World Murdered In 2020; Death Threats Include 12-Year-Old Boy

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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. New figures released by Global Witness show that 227 people were killed in 2020 while trying to protect forests, rivers and other ecosystems that their livelihoods depended on. All but one of the deadly 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, despite accounting for only 5% of the world population.

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Colombia topped the list with 65 deaths, continuing a murderous trend since the 2016 peace accord that eased conflict between the government and Farc rebels, but opened up swathes of the country to extractive industries and greater tension over resources. The victims include biologist Gonzalo Cardona, credited with saving the yellow-eared parrot from extinction, who was murdered by a criminal gang, and forest ranger Yamid Alonso Silva, who was killed near El Cocuy national park. Such is the level of violence and intimidation that a 12-year-old boy, Francisco Vera, has received anonymous death threats on Twitter due to his activism.

The second deadliest nation was Mexico, where 30 defenders lost their lives. Among them was Óscar Eyraud Adams, an indigenous man from the Kumiai territory in Mexico, who protested when his crops dried up after the community water source was diverted to richer areas and a Heineken factory. He was gunned down on 24 September in Tecate, Baja California by assassins who arrived at this home in two vehicles with tinted windscreens.

Third was the Philippines with 29 deaths, making it once again the most murderous country for defenders in Asia. It also suffered the most massacres. The most shocking occurred on 30 December when the military and police slaughtered 9 Tumandok indigenous people who had been resisting a mega-dam project on the Jalaur river in Panay.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/murders-environment-land-defenders-record-high

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