Standing Firm: The Land and Environmental Defenders on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis
Publisher: Global Witness
Date: 2023
Topics: Climate Change, Extractive Resources, Gender, Governance, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Brazil, Colombia, Congo (DRC), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Venezuela
For the past 11 years, Global Witness has documented and denounced waves of threats, violence and killings of land and environmental defenders across the world, and 2022 marks the beginning of our second decade documenting lethal attacks. The world has changed dramatically since Global Witness started documenting these in 2012. But one thing that has not changed is the relentlessness of the killings. Last year, at least 177 defenders lost their lives for protecting our planet, bringing the total number of killings to 1,910 since 2012. At least 1,390 of these killings took place between the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015 and 31 December 2022. On average, a defender was killed every other day in 2022, just as was the case in 2021. Although the overall figure is slightly lower last year than in 2021, when Global Witness recorded 200 killings, this does not mean that the situation has significantly improved. The worsening climate crisis and the ever-increasing demand for agricultural commodities, fuel and minerals will only intensify the pressure on the environment – and those who risk their lives to defend it. Increasingly, non-lethal strategies such as criminalisation, harassment and digital attacks are also being used to silence defenders.