Almost four environmental defenders a week killed in 2017
The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated
in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed
worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure
projects. The toll of 197 in
2017 – which has risen fourfold since it was first compiled in 2002 –
underscores the violence on the frontiers of a global economy driven by
expansion and consumption.
“The situation remains
critical. Until communities are genuinely included in decisions around the use
of their land and natural resources, those who speak out will continue to face
harassment, imprisonment and the threat of murder,” said Ben Leather, senior
campaigner for Global Witness. But there was a
glimmer of hope that after four consecutive increases, the number of deaths has
flattened off, amid growing global awareness of the crisis and a renewed push
for multinational companies to take more responsibility and for governments to
tackle impunity.
Most of the killings
occurred in remote forest areas of developing countries, particularly in Latin
America where the abundance of resources is often in inverse proportion to the
authority of the law or environmental regulation. Extractive industries
were one of the deadliest drivers of violence, according to the figures, which
were shared exclusively with the Guardian in an ongoing collaboration with
Global Witness to name every victim.
Mining conflicts
accounted for 36 killings, several of them linked to booming global demand for
construction materials. In India, three members
of the Yadav family: Niranjan, Uday and Vimlesh, were
murdered last May as they tried to prevent the extraction of sand from
a riverbank by their village of Jatpura. In Turkey, a retired
couple, Ali and Aysin Büyüknohutçu, were
gunned down in their home after they won a legal battle to close a
marble quarry that supplied blocks for upscale hotels and municipal monuments.
The hunger for
minerals was also blamed for turning the Andes into a “war zone” with
high-profile conflicts between indigenous groups and the owners of Las Bambas
copper mine in Peru and El Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia. Agribusiness was the
biggest driver of violence as supermarket demand for soy, palm oil, sugarcane
and beef provided a financial incentive for plantations and ranches to push
deeper into indigenous territory and other communal land... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/02/almost-four-environmental-defenders-a-week-killed-in-2017