RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil was among the three countries with the highest number of killings of environmental activists in 2019. The data is part of an annual report by Global Witness, which surveys attacks on land and environmental defenders. In 2019, 24 activists were murdered in Brazil. In 2018, this record had reached 20 victims, according to the international organization’s data.
In the ranking of violence in the countryside, Colombia stands out as the country with the most cases. There were 64 deaths in 2019, followed by the Philippines (43), Brazil (24), Mexico (18), Honduras (14), and Guatemala (12). Worldwide, the organization recorded 212 deaths last year of people peacefully defending their homes and resisting the destruction of nature. In 2018, the total number reached 164 deaths.
This is a reference number. Overall, as the organization acknowledges, the actual number of murders is probably higher, as the cases are not fully documented. Violence linked to mining projects was the most lethal, with 50 activists killed in 2019. More than half of the cases occurred in communities in Latin America affected by mining.
Logging was the sector with the greatest increase in killings in the world since 2018, with 85 percent more attacks recorded against activists opposing the industry. More than two-thirds of killings occurred in Latin America, which has been consistently ranked as the most affected continent since Global Witness began publishing data in 2012.
Global Witness is an international organization founded in 1993 in the UK that examines the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, corruption, and human rights abuses globally. It has offices in London, Washington, and Brussels.
Source: Estadão Conteúdo