Every week, more than 3 people were killed defending the environment worldwide in 2018, according to the annual toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness, a London-based group. Of these murders, the majority of them happened in the Philippines, making the country the most murderous nation in the world for people defending their land and the environment. This only highlights the persistent dangers facing those who stand up to miners, loggers, farmers, poachers, and other extractive industries.
It’s true that the latest global total of 164 deaths last year was less than the 201 deaths of 2017. Campaigners believe it to be due to the growing focus on the subject by indigenous groups, NGOs, the United Nations and the media. However, it is still a brutally high number and killings remain at an alarmingly high rate.
The annual toll that brings us these numbers began in 2012. Since then, Brazil has been on the top of the list, until now that the Philippines has taken its spot. Surprisingly, the number of defenders murdered in South America’s biggest nation fell from 57 to 20 in 2018 – that’s almost a two-thirds drop! Although, this could be because of an overall decline in homicide rates across the country due to rising international attention.
The UN environment program recently organized a conference in Rio de Janeiro to push for international recognition of the human right to a healthy environment and they also put more pressure on governments to protect defenders. The drop in murders could be contributed to this or it could just be that land-grabbers now have more power to get what they want without resorting to violence, because the agricultural lobby has an increasingly dominant position in politics.
Then again, this calming of violence could be short-lived if a new phase of conflict erupts as a result of President Jair Bolsonaro’s efforts to weaken indigenous territorial rights and protections for nature reserves. Already this year there has been a murder – an indigenous leader, Emyra Waiãpi, from the Waiãpi indigenous reserve in the state of Amapá was killed right before an invasion by dozens of illegal miners.
Back to the Philippines, 30 defenders were killed last year marking the highest ever recorded in an Asian country. A third of the deaths were on the island of Mindanao – the center of the new president’s administration’s plans to allocate 1.6m hectares of land to industrial plantations. Overall, half of the deaths nationwide were related to agribusiness.
Across the globe, most of the killings (43) were connected to mining. The sharpest rise (from 4 up to 17) in killings was connected to people protecting water sources – primarily hydro-power in Guatemala. These murders made the Central American nation the deadliest country per capita, according to Global Witness, earning it the record of sharpest spike (from 3 up to 16) in killings worldwide.
Alice Harrison, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, said:
Overall, there is no sign that the underlying causes of violence are improving. In fact, they look to be worsening. Governments in some of the worst-affected countries, from Brazil to Mexico to India, are prioritizing business opportunities for extractives and agricultural companies over the protection of the environment and human rights, setting the stage for more conflict over land.
This is being matched with a global crackdown on protest and freedom of expression, from recognized authoritarian regimes like China and Russia to longstanding democracies like the US. Likewise, the use of courts to criminalize defenders is another weapon of oppression that’s being used in both the global south and north against people who threaten the power and profits of government and big business.
The Global Witness says that its tally of confirmed killings is likely to be an underestimate because killings still go unreported in many parts of the world.
