Environmental defenders killed in record numbers in 2020: Report

[Judi Lynn]

Three quarters of the 2020 killings occurred in Latin America, Global Witness report says, with Colombia seeing the most deaths.



Activists gather around crosses in front of the Colombian Embassy in Brussels, Belgium bearing the names of the 64 environmental defenders murdered in Colombia in 2019 - 2020 was deadlier [File: Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE]

By Steven Grattan
13 Sep 2021

Bogota, Colombia – Colombia is the world’s most dangerous country for environmental defenders, a report published on Monday by Global Witness, an international human rights group, highlighted.

For the second year in a row, the Andean nation saw the highest number of killings in 2020, with 65 land and environmental defenders murdered, the report said.

Since the end of a five-decade war between the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group and the Colombian government with a peace deal in 2016, new violence has emerged in the rural areas where the FARC demobilised. Existing and new illegal armed groups vie for control to use land for illegal mining, logging, or drug trafficking, and they often operate on Indigenous or Afro-Colombian territories.

Those who try to defend their land face threats, or in many cases, death.

In the report, Global Witness reported that 227 land and environmental activists were murdered globally in a single year, the worst figure on record.

“The situation in Colombia is of particular concern,” Laura Furones, senior advisor at Global Witness, told Al Jazeera by email.

More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/13/environmental-defenders-killed-in-record-numbers-in-2020-report

[Judi Lynn]

1. Killings of Colombia environmental activists hit record, NGO says, despite gov't promises

September 13, 2021
5:37 PM CDT
Last Updated 2 hours ago
Americas

By Oliver Griffin


PUTUMAYO PROVINCE, Colombia, Sept 13 (Reuters) - An environmental activist in southern Colombia's steamy jungle province of Putumayo was preparing to run some errands earlier this year when she received a warning from a contact, she said.

"He wrote me a message saying it's better I don't go outside...They've sent someone to kill you three times already," she recalled, referring to crime gangs operating in her village. Reuters could not verify the content of the message.

The woman, who has protection from government bodyguards, is one of scores of activists under threat in Colombia, the world's most dangerous country for environmentalists.

She fled her village last October after her activism and opposition to drug crops that damage the Amazon rainforest made her a target for crime gangs.

For her protection, Reuters has not named the activist nor the criminal group, though her story was corroborated by a U.N. Development Program team.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/killings-colombia-environmental-activists-hit-record-ngo-says-despite-govt-2021-09-13/?rpc=401&