Collective Power: The Struggle for Protection for Land and Environmental Defenders
Publisher: Global Witness
Date: 2026
Topics: Extractive Resources, Land, Protection and Access to Justice, Renewable Resources
Countries: Brazil, Colombia, Congo (DRC), Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Tanzania, Türkiye
At least 124 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2025 for standing up to protect their lands and livelihoods from destruction. This figure brings the total number of killings and disappearances documented by Global Witness since we began this work in 2012 to 2,375.
Every one of these deaths represents an attempt, in the most brutal fashion, to impose a chilling effect on movements that resist environmental and human right abuses. We remember the families, friends and communities who have been left devastated by each attack.
As well as recording the names of the defenders who have been killed and disappeared, our data helps to uncover the underlying causes of the violence. Identifying these trends and challenging the drivers that shape them is vital so that defenders can demand their rights to land and a clean environment without risking their lives.