Sunday, September 19, 2021

Killings of Environmental Advocates Around the World Hit a Record High in 2020

 

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14092021/environmental-advocates-murdered-hit-record-high-2020/

 

By Georgina Gustin
September 14, 2021


A record number of environmental activists were killed in 2020, according to the latest accounting by a U.K.-based advocacy group that puts the blame squarely on extractive industries, including agribusiness and logging.

The number of documented killings—227—occurred across the world, but in especially high numbers throughout Latin America and the Amazon. According to the report, published late Sunday by Global Witness, the real number is likely to be higher.

“On average, our data shows that four defenders have been killed every week since the signing of the Paris climate agreement,” the group said, “but this shocking figure is almost certainly an underestimate, with growing restrictions on journalism and other civic freedoms meaning cases are likely being unreported.”

Most of those killed were small-scale farmers or Indigenous people, and most were defending forests from extractive industries, including logging, agribusiness and mining. Logging was the industry linked to the most killings, 23, in Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru and the Philippines.

In 2019, also a record-breaking year, 212 environmental defenders were killed, the Global Witness report said.

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