Environmental Activists Targeted for Their Activism

From November 30, 2015... 

From Telesur:

"At least 640 land and environmental defenders have been killed for their activism in the past six years since the 2009 world climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Global Witness reported Monday as the COP21 climate summit kicked off in Paris.

Some of these victims were killed during protests at the hands of security forces, while others were explicitly targeted and shot dead by hitmen.

In light of the troubling statistic, Global Witness called on world leaders to take decisive action to protect those on the front lines struggling against resource extraction and other industries wreaking havoc on the environment, who are among some of the most vulnerable in the face of climate change.

“As delegates in Paris discuss solutions to our climate crisis, far from the corridors of power ordinary people defending their rights to a healthy environment are being killed in record numbers,” said Global Witness campaigner Billy Kyte. “If governments are serious about stopping climate change, the very least they can do is to protect the people who are personally taking a stand.”

For example, Indonesian activist Indra Pelani was forcibly disappeared by security forces and found dead in a swamp earlier this year after vocally opposing land and resource grabs that displaced small farmers in the region. In Latin America, Guatemalan activist Rigoberto Lima Choc was shot dead after exposing massive contamination in the Pasion Rio and launching a fight against the palm oil production company held responsible for the environmental catastrophe.

But these are just two cases of hundreds killed for their environmental activism in two of the countries among the top 10 most dangerous places to be an environment defender.

According to Global Witness, on average more than two land and environmental defenders were killed every week in 2014 as they fought against mining, agribusiness, and other environmentally destructive projects.

The findings from Global Witness echo a recent report by the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Humans Rights Defenders, which found that women defending land, territory, and natural resources in Mexico and Central America were most targeted with attacks between 2012 and 2014 out of all women rights defenders in the region.....


Read the whole thing here.

This news is over a year old. How many more have been added to the list of murdered activists since the time of the writing of this report?