The Guardian ·
People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder
Nature and land defenders were murdered at the rate of one every three days last year, prompting many communities to set up self-defence units, according to the latest annual death toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness.
Organised crime groups or professional killers were implicated in more than a third of the 124 killings of defenders in 2025 as narco-trafficking activities overlapped with intrusions into indigenous territories and environmental crime, such as illegal logging and wildcat gold mining.
This was particularly true in Latin America, which accounted for 85% of last year’s deaths of people trying to protect forests, rivers and other ecosystems.
