Indigenous and Environmental Defenders Risk Their Lives as the Last Line Protecting the Planet
From The Observatory
Source: Earth Food Life Project
Indigenous leaders, farmers, and environmental activists worldwide face harassment, violence, and legal threats while defending land, water, and ecosystems, highlighting the urgent need for stronger protections and international accountability.
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Introduction
Land and environmental defenders—Indigenous leaders, farmers, conservationists, and community activists—risk their lives opposing the destructive exploitation of natural resources. Global Witness defines them as people who “take a stand… against the unjust, discriminatory, corrupt or damaging exploitation of natural resources or the environment.” Often described as the planet’s last line of defense, they protest, document, and litigate against illegal logging, mining, and pollution—frequently at grave personal risk.
The Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia illustrates this work. Heiltsuk leaders emphasize that their ancestral land is part of one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world, home to iconic species and a crucial carbon sink. Protecting such forests preserves biodiversity and climate stability, highlighting the global importance of local action. Yet defenders often pay a high price: coalition reports describe their work as increasingly perilous and frequently met with escalating violence.
“Standing up to injustice should never be a death sentence,” said Laura Furones, lead author of the 2025 Global Witness annual report, “Roots of Resistance.” The authors report that in 2024, at least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or forcibly disappeared while protecting their land, communities, or the environment. Furones added that defenders “are being hunted, harassed, and killed—not for breaking laws, but for defending life itself.”
Global Scale of Violence
The dangers facing defenders are widespread and persistent. Since reporting began in 2012, Global Witness estimates that at least 2,253 defenders have been killed or disappeared. Latin America remains the deadliest region, accounting for roughly 82 percent of killings in 2024: Colombia reported 48 deaths, Guatemala 20, Mexico 18, and Brazil 12. The violence is linked to land disputes, mining, agribusiness, and organized crime.
Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected. Although they make up only six percent of the global population, they account for roughly one-third of defenders killed or targeted worldwide. Their ancestral lands are rich in biodiversity and natural resources, making them particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Beyond lethal violence, many governments and corporations employ non-lethal tactics to silence defenders: arbitrary arrests, abusive lawsuits, intimidation campaigns, and forced disappearances. These strategies aim to discredit and exhaust activists while avoiding international scrutiny.
The risks vary geographically. In Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia, defenders face surveillance, criminalization, and harassment when opposing extractive industries or government-backed projects. In Africa, Indigenous and rural communities resist exploitation of forests or mining areas, but weak legal systems leave them vulnerable. Even in some developed nations, defenders of peaceful activism face harassment and lawsuits aimed at curtailing their efforts.
Drivers of the Crisis and Legal Context
Systemic threats encompass both economic and legal factors. Large-scale industries—including mining, logging, agribusiness, and oil extraction—prioritize profit over environmental protection and human rights, putting defenders in direct opposition to powerful economic actors. A majority of killings and disappearances in 2024 were linked to extractive activities, with mining and logging at the forefront. Organized crime also plays a role, targeting those who challenge illegal or exploitative operations. Where legal systems exist, enforcement is inconsistent, and perpetrators are rarely held accountable, creating a cycle of impunity.
Legal and political vulnerabilities exacerbate risks. Weak land tenure, corruption, ambiguous or poorly enforced laws, and anti-protest legislation leave defenders exposed. Governments sometimes misuse legal frameworks to harass or criminalize activists, while defenders seeking justice often encounter bureaucratic obstacles. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights notes that defenders are critical in strengthening democracy, yet weak protections leave them vulnerable to repression and violence. In its 2025 advisory opinion, the Court “recognized that respect for and guarantee of the rights of environmental human rights defenders is particularly important because they perform a task that is ‘fundamental for strengthening democracy and the rule of law.’”
International frameworks exist, but enforcement remains uneven. The 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders establishes that individuals acting to prevent human rights violations must be protected, including their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to access to justice. Regional agreements, such as the Escazú Agreement, enshrine access to justice, public participation, and protections for environmental defenders. Yet gaps remain: vague criminal statutes, anti-protest laws, and weak enforcement leave many defenders exposed. “Defenders can play a key role in safeguarding democracy,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in 2014. “They should be able to carry out their activities in an environment that empowers them to defend all human rights for all … A conducive legal, institutional and administrative framework; access to justice and an end to impunity … are basic elements necessary for a safe and enabling environment for defenders.”
Protecting defenders requires systemic reform, community resilience, and international support. Legal safeguards must include secure land tenure, access to impartial justice, and anti-corruption measures. Community-based strategies—such as local monitoring networks, early warning systems, and shared protection initiatives—reduce risk by embedding defense within social networks. International pressure, including reporting to UN mechanisms, diplomatic engagement, and global advocacy campaigns, amplifies defenders’ struggles and raises the cost of repression. Businesses and financiers also play a role: requiring environmental and human rights due diligence ensures that corporate projects do not endanger defenders or ecosystems. As the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances emphasized in September 2025, “These defenders are ultimately safeguarding all ways of life on this planet, and we must protect them from enforced disappearance.”
The Human Stories Behind the Numbers
Numbers alone cannot capture the courage and resilience of defenders. Consider the Sarayaku people in Ecuador. This Kichwa community has long resisted oil companies and government incursions into their Amazon territory. Their struggle encompasses land rights, environmental protection, and cultural survival. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in their favor in 2012, acknowledging the Ecuadorian state’s failure to consult them before granting oil concessions and authorizing military presence. Yet threats continue, with community leader Patricia Gualinga facing death threats and attacks on her home. “If we still have rainforests, it’s because we, the indigenous, have fought for our lives to protect them,” she said in 2022.
Similar stories unfold globally. A farmer in Honduras, Juan López, was killed defending rivers from mining pollution, according to Amnesty International. In Guatemala, Indigenous defenders and small-scale farmers face violent attacks connected to organized crime, land grabs, and agro-industrial expansion, as reported by Al Jazeera. Despite death threats, harassment, and intimidation, defenders persist, believing that protecting their land and communities is inseparable from protecting life itself. Their courage has not gone unnoticed. Globally, their struggles are shaping moral and legal frameworks governing environmental protection and human rights. Persistence among activists, Indigenous leaders, and community organizers—often at great personal cost—is slowly forcing institutions to recognize that defending the planet is inseparable from defending human life and dignity.
This recognition reached a milestone in 2025 when the Inter-American Court issued a landmark advisory opinion affirming that States and corporations have binding obligations under international law to address the climate crisis as a human rights emergency. The Court recognized rights to a safe climate and a healthy environment as fundamental human rights, mandating that governments regulate corporate activity, adopt ambitious, science-based climate targets, and prevent irreversible harm to people and ecosystems. It underscored the duty of States to protect environmental defenders, particularly Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant communities, and youth, who play a vital role in confronting the climate emergency.
Initiated by Colombia and Chile, the ruling process saw unprecedented participation from civil society and frontline communities. The opinion, described as one of the most sweeping interpretations of human rights law to date, will guide future climate litigation and policymaking across the Americas and beyond. For defenders, it represents not only validation but acknowledgment that their work is central to the planet’s survival and to the preservation of fundamental human rights. As nations grapple with the accelerating climate emergency, this decision offers a path forward rooted in justice, science, and respect for those who risk their lives to protect the earth. It signals that the defense of land and life must move beyond rhetoric and into enforceable law, binding governments and corporations to act not as benefactors, but as duty-bearers.
The targeting of defenders has far-reaching consequences. When defenders are silenced, destructive activities—illegal logging, mining, and pollution—accelerate, eroding ecosystems, reducing biodiversity, and weakening critical carbon sinks. Beyond environmental impacts, these attacks fracture communities, disrupt cultural practices, and undermine social cohesion. Indigenous and local communities often act as early warning systems, identifying ecological degradation, disease risks, or ecosystem collapse before broader society recognizes the danger. When defenders’ lives are at risk, so too are the biological systems that sustain life on Earth.
Why Understanding This Crisis Matters
Protecting environmental defenders is crucial for planetary health. They help maintain carbon sinks, conserve biodiversity, and support climate resilience. Silencing defenders signals tolerance for injustice, disregard for ecosystems, and undervaluing human dignity. Their insights often serve as early warnings about environmental risks and sustainability challenges that affect everyone. “Environmental defenders continue to be exposed to significant risks of penalization, persecution, harassment, and even killings,” said Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, in 2022. “The individuals, groups, communities, movements, and organizations that are standing up for the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment… need to be better protected and supported.”
Violence against environmental defenders violates human rights and threatens ecosystems. Protecting defenders requires systemic change: governments must enforce laws, corporations must respect community rights, and societies must demand accountability. Despite fear, many defenders continue their work, exemplifying courage and resilience. Sharing their stories builds solidarity and awareness, creating a global network of support. Protecting those who protect the planet is not optional—it is essential for the survival of both people and nature.
The struggle to protect land, water, and life continues on every continent. While the Inter-American Court’s 2025 decision marks a historic step toward global accountability, it does not end the violence, intimidation, and impunity that defenders still face. Legal recognition must translate into real-world protection—policies that value human life over profit, and ecosystems over extraction. Governments must implement the Court’s guidance with binding enforcement, and corporations must be held accountable.
In 2023, after visiting communities impacted by a massive reclamation project in Manila Bay, Filipino environmental defenders Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro were abducted, allegedly by the military, and held for 17 days. After their acquittal of charges of defamation of the armed forces, Global Witness’s senior campaigner Rachel Cox said, “True justice is holding those involved in their abduction to account.” That sentiment extends far beyond one case or country—it is a call to ensure that no defender stands alone.
Amid the dark times for Earth’s defenders, signs of light shine through. Communities organize, Indigenous nations lead, and environmental defenders like Tamano and Castro—despite fear, fatigue, and retribution—continue to act courageously. Their work inspires younger generations to see that defending the planet is not a fringe cause but the foundation of justice itself. Ultimately, the fate of defenders and the fate of the Earth are intertwined. Laws are beginning to change, the world is starting to listen, and the defenders’ message is clear: protecting the planet is not an act of resistance—it is an act of survival.
