Latin America Accounted for Nearly 85% of Environmental Defender Killings in 2025, Report Finds
Sept. 16 (UPI) --Latin America accounted for 105 of the 124 land and environmental defenders killed worldwide in 2025, according to a report released Wednesday by Global Witness, a figure amounting to nearly 85% of the global total and reinforcing the region’s grim standing as the most dangerous place for people defending land, forests and communities.
The findings underscore a broader pattern in Latin America, where disputes over land, natural resources and territorial control often intersect with weak state presence and organized crime. As international aid contracts, Indigenous and community guards are increasingly stepping into protection roles that underfunded state agencies struggle to fill, even as those same communities remain targets.
Colombia recorded 39 killings, the highest toll of any country for the fourth consecutive year. Brazil reported 26, more than double the 12 documented there in 2024. Together, the two countries accounted for more than half of the killings recorded worldwide.
Honduras followed with 12 killings, Mexico with 10, Guatemala with eight, Peru with four, and Nicaragua and Ecuador with three each, according to the report.
Globally, the number of killings declined from the 142 killings and four long-term disappearances Global Witness documented in 2024. The organization cautioned, however, that the decrease should not necessarily be read as an improvement because violence against defenders is likely underreported.
The report also warned that shrinking international assistance is reducing support available to threatened communities. Global Witness said the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development under President Donald Trump had “particularly serious implications” for land and environmental defenders because the agency previously supported initiatives that helped Indigenous communities manage and protect their territories.
U.S. official development assistance fell 56.9% in 2025 from the previous year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, accounting for about three-fourths of the overall decline in aid among its Development Assistance Committee members.
“While the number of killings decreased, we have seen that cases of criminalization have somehow increased,” Juliana Vélez Echeverri, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, told Mongabay Latam.
The organization said land disputes were linked to 84 of the 124 killings documented in 2025. Mining and other extractive industries were linked to 11 deaths, logging interests to eight and agribusiness to six. More than one-third of the killings had suspected links to organized crime or hired killers, according to the report.
Indigenous people and small farmers were particularly impacted. Global Witness identified 47 of those killed as small-scale farmers and 44 as Indigenous people.
In Colombia, 35 of the country’s 39 killings were linked to land conflicts, according to Colombian newspaper El Espectador. Thirteen occurred in the southwestern department of Cauca, including four members of Indigenous guards.
Global Witness said it has documented 2,375 killings and long-term disappearances of land and environmental defenders worldwide since it began tracking the violence in 2012.
The report also highlighted efforts by communities to protect themselves as threats from illegal mining, logging, drug trafficking and land seizures continue.
In Peru’s Amazon region, the Indigenous Kakataibo people formally established their own guard in 2022 after a series of killings and threats against community leaders. Six Kakataibo leaders have been killed since 2020. The guard has since grown to more than 150 members operating across 10 communities, where members patrol Indigenous territory and monitor illegal activities.
“In our territory, we used to walk freely. We could hunt, we could fish, enjoy our forest, but not today,” Segundo Ispón, commander of the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard, told Mongabay Latam. “We have to be alert. We have to be careful.”