Report spotlights killings of environment defenders

Growing land disputes between farm and forest communities on one hand and agribusiness, mining, and hydropower interests on the other have seemingly made Latin America the most dangerous region of the world for environmental defenders. Between 2002 through 2011, 591 land-rights and environmental activists in Latin America were murdered, accounting for 83% of such killings worldwide, according to a recent report by Global Witness, a London-based human rights and environment group. Still, it is difficult to know with certainty how Latin America compares in violence against environmentalists to the rest of the world. While data internationally tends to be very poor, Latin America stands as a region where human rights and environmental organizations closely monitor human rights abuses. Brazil, Peru, and Colombia headed... [Log in to read more]

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