Full Breakdown
Deadliest Year for Land and Environmental Defenders: 2025 Report Highlights Surge in Latin America
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Core Findings: 2025 Killing Toll
The 2025 Global Witness annual report documents 124 land and environmental defenders killed worldwide. 85 % of those deaths occurred in Latin America, where the region has been the deadliest for defenders every year since the report series began in 2012. Colombia led with 39 killings, followed by Brazil with 26. Honduras and the Philippines each recorded 12 deaths, Mexico 10, and Guatemala 8.
Background & Context
Land and environmental defenders—individuals who protect land, natural resources, and communities from mining, logging, agribusiness, and other development—have faced rising threats as land disputes intersect with organized crime and illicit economies. Since 2012, Global Witness has logged 2,375 killings and disappearances of defenders.
Data & Statistics
- Indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, and Afro-descendant peoples comprised more than three-quarters of the 2025 victims.
- In Colombia, almost half of the 39 victims were Indigenous; 15 were small-scale farmers.
- Land disputes were linked to 84 killings worldwide, representing over half of all cases.
- Mining and extractive industries were associated with 11 deaths, logging with 8, and agribusiness with 6.
On-the-Ground Reports
Violence often targets community-based protection groups. In Colombia’s Cauca department, four Indigenous Guard members were among the 13 killings recorded there, and the region has the highest cumulative total of defender deaths since 2012. The report cites the murder of Jacob Guachetá Zambrano, an Indigenous guard in Cauca, whose body was found tortured.
Astrid Torres, coordinator of the Colombian advocacy group Somos Defensores, described the dynamic:
> “They want to impose their order against the interests of the communities and their own authorities.” — Astrid Torres
In Peru, the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard patrols territories threatened by illegal coca cultivation and organized crime. Commander Segundo Ispón emphasized the growing danger for younger defenders.
Official Statements & Responses
Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, in a written response, linked the reduction of violence to securing territories, combating invasions and illegal activities, and holding perpetrators accountable. The ministry reported the resumption of Indigenous land demarcation and operations that removed outsiders from 12 territories, benefiting more than 67,000 Indigenous people.
Why It Matters
The concentration of killings in Latin America, especially in Colombia and Brazil, signals a deepening crisis where land-related conflicts, illicit drug economies, and extractive projects converge. The loss of Indigenous and small-scale farmer leaders hampers community resistance to illegal mining, logging, and coca cultivation, thereby threatening biodiversity, climate mitigation efforts, and the human rights of vulnerable populations.
Recommendations and Future Outlook
The Global Witness report calls for a shift from individual-focused protection mechanisms to collective protection approaches that recognize whole communities as targets. It urges governments to prosecute not only direct perpetrators but also financiers, organizers, and beneficiaries of attacks, and to systematically investigate corporate actors, political officials, security forces, and organized criminal groups linked to violence.
While no specific future dates are provided, the report’s recommendations aim to guide policy reforms and protection strategies in the coming years, seeking to curb the upward trend in defender killings and strengthen community resilience.