At least 177 environmental defenders were murdered in 2022 on a global scale, including 60 in Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world for these activists, according to the annual report of the non-governmental organization Global Witness, which was released on Tuesday.

Although the total number is slightly lower than last year (200 deaths), “the situation has not substantially improved” on an international scale and the average, which reaches one murder of an environmental defender every two days, has remained practically unchanged, he pointed out. the British NGO.

In 2022, 88% of the 177 victims globally were in Latin America, sixty in Colombia alone — a figure that doubled compared to 2021.

“Once again, indigenous peoples, communities of African descent, small farmers and environmental defenders have been hit hard in South American countries,” Global Witness said.

Since taking office in August 2022, Social Democrat President Gustavo Petros, the first left-wing president in Colombia’s history, has struggled to reduce violence against activists and community leaders, but non-governmental organizations say efforts they are not enough.

Colombia, where civil war has raged for some half a century, remains one of the deadliest countries in the world for environmentalists. It is experiencing an escalation of violence and the action of armed groups engaged in various illegal activities (drug trafficking, mining of precious metals, timber trade…).

Elsewhere, the defense of nature claimed the lives of 34 people last year in Brazil, 31 in Mexico, 14 in Honduras, 11 in the Philippines.

“Not a single death yet”

“It is difficult to clarify the exact causes of the killings,” acknowledges Global Witness, but most are linked to agro-industrial activity, the exploitation of precious metal deposits, illegal logging, access to water, as well as poaching.

The children are not spared either: “three were murdered in Brazil, one in Colombia and one in Mexico. Three of them belonged to indigenous communities,” according to the report.

One of the activists threatened in Colombia is Nadia Umana, a 35-year-old sociologist. He is a member of an organization that recovers stolen areas of land, seized by paramilitaries on the border between Magdalena and Sesar, two prefectures historically marked by far-right activity, who invest in animal husbandry, in the cultivation of aavora (palm oil source), in illegal mining of minerals. .

Four of her companions were murdered. “Finding out that one of the comrades has been murdered causes a pain for which there are no words,” Mrs Umana confided to AFP in Bogota.

She denounced the “systematic attack” against her organization because it opposed the illegal activities of far-right paramilitaries. “Defending the environment, nature, the land (…) here in Colombia is dangerous,” he complains.

Having now desisted from the threats, Mrs Umana and their comrades now continue the struggle from a distance, from the capital. “We made the decision” that there should not be “not one more death”, he explains.

Another emblematic example: the country’s current vice-president, Afro-Colombian Franca Marquez, who was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2018, often described as the equivalent of the Nobel for the environment, had received threats and been the target of attacks during the years of her struggle .

In 2019, long before she was in power, she survived being attacked with a grenade and gunfire for defending access to clean water for Afro-Colombian communities suffering the consequences of illegal mining.

Amazon, always Amazon

The Amazon forest – which spans eight countries – devoured by logging, metal mining, ranching and arson, in 2022 also proved extremely deadly for environmentalists.

“Last year, 39 environmentalists died there. Among them, 11 belonged to indigenous communities,” highlights Global Witness.

“Year after year, those who defend this ecosystem (…) give their lives to protect their homes, their livelihoods and the health of our planet,” states the non-governmental organization.

In 2022, the murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous affairs expert Bruno Pereira in the Brazilian Amazon became a symbol of the growing violence in the region, which is plagued by drug traffickers, poachers and illegal miners.

In Brazil, environmentalists were faced with the open “hostility” of former President Jáich Bolsonaro (2019-2022). While in Mexico, the country where most murders were recorded in 2021, there was a “significant drop” in them, from 54 to 31, but the situation continues to “cause alarm”, the NGO emphasizes.

“At least 1,910 land and environmental defenders have lost their lives worldwide since Global Witness began documenting these killings in 2012,” according to the report released yesterday. 70% of these murders were committed in Latin America.