logo
  • Nonprofit News
  • Management
    • Boards and Governance
    • Communication
      • Framing & Narratives
    • Ethics
    • Financial Management
    • Grassroots Fundraising Journal
    • Leadership
    • Technology
  • Philanthropy
    • Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Donor-Advised Funds
    • Foundations
    • Impact Investing
    • Research
    • Workplace Giving
  • Policy
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Housing
    • Government
    • Taxes
  • Economic Justice
    • About
    • Economy Remix
    • Economy Webinars
    • Community Benefits
    • Economic Democracy
    • Environmental Justice
    • Fair Finance
    • Housing Rights
    • Land Justice
    • Poor People’s Rights
    • Tax Fairness
  • Racial Equity
  • Social Movements
    • Community Development
    • Community Organizing
    • Culture Change
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Gender Equality
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Indigenous Rights
    • Labor
    • LGBTQ+
    • Racial Justice
    • Youth Activism
  • About Us
  • Log in
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Featured Articles
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Tiny Spark Podcast
  • Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Leading Edge Membership
Donate
Environmental Activism, Native American Culture, Policy

2016 Deadliest Year on Record for Indigenous Environmental Activists

Erin Rubin
July 19, 2017
Share15
Tweet1
Email
Share
“Khimki Forest” by Daniel Beilinson

July 17, 2017; Big Think

In 2015, Global Witness reported that the murder of indigenous environmental activists was the highest on record.

But last year was worse.

According to the report, entitled “Defenders of the Earth,”

  • At least 200 defenders were murdered in 2016, the deadliest year on record.
  • Park rangers and forest guards face heightened risks, with at least 20 murdered last year.
  • Criminalization and aggressive civil cases are being used to stifle environmental activism and land rights defense right across the world, including in “developed” countries like the U.S.
  • Almost 40 percent of victims are indigenous, one of the most vulnerable groups of defenders.
  • Governments and business are failing to tackle the root cause of the attacks: the imposition of extractive projects on communities without their free, prior and informed consent.

The data show that the violence is the worst in resource-rich countries in Latin America, but according to National Geographic, “there is little data about the fate of local people trying to protect their land and water in the Middle East, Asia, eastern Europe and Africa.”

Jamie Kneen, communications and outreach coordinator at MiningWatch Canada, said that some countries have even declared martial law to end protests, such as the Philippines and Thailand. “It’s crazy. It’s completely out of control and hardly anyone knows about it,” he added.

The scramble for exportable resources and the land they come from has motivated violence against protestors everywhere. Reuters reported that “dozens of indigenous people are killed each year in Brazil in fights with farmers and ranchers over land, often in the relatively lawless Amazon region, where hired gunmen have been used to push the indigenous off resource-rich reserves.”

In a conversation with Billy Kyte, campaign leader for Global Witness and co-author of the report, told National Geographic,

Protestors are often attacked for being anti-growth or anti-jobs, when all many of them want is environmentally sustainable jobs and businesses that don’t pollute their air or water. Countries with pro-business governments are where murders of protestors were most common. Killings of forest defenders in Brazil have become more brazen under the new business-friendly Michel Temer government.

One of the things worth pointing out here is that many of the horrible murders that Global Witness has documented this year—murders meant as a direct threat to activism—might have gone almost unnoticed by much of the world prior to their existence. Global Witness, like the Committee to Protect Journalists, are indispensable components of a global civil society. As Bill Moyers has commented, “Global Witness is the backbone of hope for journalism. I mean fearless journalism, tough and independent journalism, journalism that in a world of increasing oligarchy will tell us the truth about money and power and the corruption that is robbing everyday people of their rights and resources…So, yes, the backbone of hope for journalism—and our spine for the future.”—Erin Rubin

Share15
Tweet1
Email
Share

About The Author
Erin Rubin

Erin Rubin is an assistant editor at the Nonprofit Quarterly, where she is in charge of online editorial coordination and community building. Before joining NPQ, in 2016, Erin worked as an administrator at Harvard Business School and as an editorial project manager at Pearson Education, where she helped develop a digital resource library for remedial learners. Erin has also worked with David R. Godine, Publishers, and the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. As a creative lead with the TEDxBeaconStreet organizing team, she worked to help innovators and changemakers share their groundbreaking ideas and turn them into action.

Related
400 Years after the Mayflower, the Wampanoag Nation Fights for Its Land
By Steve Dubb
November 25, 2020
An Indigenous Vision for Our Collective Future: Becoming Earth’s Stewards Again
By Native Peoples Action
October 14, 2020
Regeneration—from the Beginning
By A-dae Romero Briones
October 13, 2020
Reconciling the Past May Be the Only Way to a Sustainable Future
By Trisha Kehaulani Watson-Sproat
October 12, 2020
Indigenous Communities and Environmental Justice
By Raymond Foxworth
October 9, 2020
Baltimore City Council Votes Unanimously to Observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day
By Steve Dubb
October 8, 2020

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
January 21, 2 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Health, Racial Disparities, and Economic Justice

other posts by The Author
Law Students Call on States to Suspend the Bar—for Equity...
By Erin Rubin
July 28, 2020
Oklahoma Is Indian Country, Says SCOTUS—Now What?
By Erin Rubin
July 13, 2020
The Arrogance Trap: Why Elites Can’t Learn and Could Doom...
By Erin Rubin
June 24, 2020
CYNDI SUAREZ
The Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap: Flipping the Lens
Powerful Interests Seek to Make Puerto Rico the Hong Kong of the...
Moving Beyond the Privilege of White Tears
logo
Donate
  • About
  • Contact
  • Newsletters
  • Write for NPQ
  • Advertise
  • Writers
  • Funders
  • Copyright Policy
  • Privacy Policy
Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 20-4080038