ONE WORLD
New figures on the killings of activists, journalists and community members defending rights to land and forests show the shocking extent of competition for access to natural resources.
New figures collected by Global Witness on the killings of activists, journalists and community members who were defending rights to land and forests show the true, shocking extent of competition for access to natural resources. Over 737 people appear to have been killed in the last decade – more than one a week. 130 defenders were killed in 2011, a rise of over 40 per cent from the previous year.
On the eve of the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the briefing warns of a hidden crisis in environmental protection, highlighting a pervasive culture of impunity around such violence, a lack of information, reporting or monitoring of the problem at national and international levels, and the involvement of governments and the domestic and foreign private sector in many killings.
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