Land and environmental defenders

Land and environmental defenders are ordinary people driven to peacefully protect their lands, homes and livelihoods from the harmful activities of states, corporations and illicit actors engaged in extractive industries like logging, mining and large-scale agri-business. Many also play a vital role in protecting our planet, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change and ensuring our forests, oceans and other natural resources are protected – and that the rights of local communities are respected.  

Land and environmental defenders are a specific type of human rights defender working to achieve social and environmental justice. This may include taking a stand through peaceful protest, calling out inadequate government or business activities, or advocating for greater access to information and public consultation. Anyone can be a defender, from Indigenous Peoples, community leaders and local farmers to professionals like lawyers or journalists and conservationists.   

But after speaking out, many defenders around the world face significant risks – including threats, violence, intimidation and death. In 2024, we published our report Missing Voices, which showed that over 2,000 people have been killed or disappeared for standing up to protect their homes, lands and our planet since we started recording global killings of defenders in 2012.    

Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately targeted, as victims of around a third of all lethal attacks despite making up only 6% of the global population.  

Land and environmental defenders also face a wide range of non-lethal attacks – including criminalisation, threats and intimidation. They may be attacked, threatened and harassed by those who oppose their work – both in person and online. Some have been pushed into isolation from their communities or forced to flee their homes.  

Few perpetrators of defender killings are ever brought to justice due to the failures of governments to properly investigate or prosecute anyone for these crimes. Many authorities either turn a blind eye or impede investigations, downplaying the work of defenders as a suspected motive for an attack. Such impunity for threats and violence against defenders acts as a green light to potential perpetrators, who see that they are unlikely to face consequences for attacks on activists.  

In a savage irony, defenders themselves are instead being arrested, branded as criminals and wrongly imprisoned facing trumped up charges. Governments and companies are increasingly weaponising laws to arrest, intimidate and silence those who oppose them.   

While the drivers behind threats and attacks to land and environmental defenders are complex, land inequality plays a central role. Driven by the rising demand for food, fuel and commodities, and increasingly transition minerals, the last decade has seen an upsurge in land grabs for industries like mining, logging, agribusiness and infrastructure projects, with local communities rarely meaningfully consulted or compensated. Land and territory, and conflicts over their control and use, are central issues in most countries where threats against defenders are present.  

Much of the increasing violence and repression of communities is linked to such conflicts and the pursuit of economic growth based on the extraction of natural resources. Corruption and conflict further perpetuate – and are fuelled by – these cycles of violence.  

For more than a decade, we have conducted investigations linked to defender killings and attacks, helping to raise awareness and hold those responsible to account. We also document and hold the figures for killings and disappearances of defenders globally and release these statistics annually.  

Our ultimate goal is to end the attacks and killings of land and environmental defenders and to protect their right to speak out against harms. We do this by exposing trends in reprisals and addressing the root causes of attacks against them. To work towards this, we raise awareness of the issue with global decision makers, amplify defenders’ voices and support their campaigns and advocacy.   

We campaign, calling for governments and international organisations to adopt regulations that respect and protect environmental defenders and to bring perpetrators to justice. We also pressure businesses and financiers to examine their supply chains and operations to ensure they are adhering to the law and respecting environmental laws and human rights.   

There are many local organisations working to protect land and environmental defenders in communities across the world. We work very closely with them and rely on them to help carry out our work.