Colombia and Brazil deadliest countries for environmental defenders, report says

Colombia has again topped the list of countries with the highest number of killings of land and environmental activists, according to an annual report by campaign group Global Witness .

Out of at least 124 activists killed globally in 2025, 39 were murdered in Colombia, followed by Brazil with 26.

Global Witness says that 85% of the documented killings took place in Latin America, making it the deadliest region for every year since the group started publishing its reports in 2012.

Most of the killings were part of land disputes and in many cases they were carried out by hitmen or members of organised crime gangs, the report states.

Colombia has accounted for the highest number of murders of environmental activists for the past four years.

Almost half of those killed in the country were members of indigenous groups, while many of the remaining ones were small-scale farmers, Global Witness's report says.

Many indigenous groups in Colombia have created their own protection networks in the form of indigenous guards, which patrol their territory but are unarmed.

Members of indigenous guards are often targeted by illegal armed groups looking to expand their territory to plant coca - the raw material used to make cocaine - or to engage in illegal mining.

Last week, Jacob Guachetá Zambrano, who was part of the indigenous guard in Colombia's Cauca region, was found tortured and killed.

While the possible motive behind his murder is still under investigation and the search for the perpetrator is ongoing, indigenous leaders said that murders, threats and forced disappearances in the area were common as illegal armed groups battled for territory.

Global Witness warned that Brazil had seen a doubling of killings of environmental defenders in 2025 compared to 2024.

As in Colombia, in Brazil most of the cases the group documented were primarily driven by conflict over land, Global Witness's researchers found.

Outside of Latin America, 12% of the murders occurred in Asia, with Philippines top of the list with 12 documented murders.

The group warned that while globally the number of documented killings had gone down from 146 in 2024 to 128 in 2025, its numbers were probably an underestimate as many cases went unreported.

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