At least 124 land and environmental defenders were killed around the world in 2025, with 85% of the documented killings occurring in Latin America, according to a new report by Global Witness.
The killings bring to 2 375 the number of land and environmental defenders documented as killed or disappeared since the organisation began tracking cases in 2012.
“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,” the report said. “We remember the families, friends and communities who have been left devastated by each attack.”
Global Witness’ documentation of 124 killings last year represents a decline from 142 killings and four disappearances in 2024 and 196 killings in 2023.
However, the organisation cautioned against interpreting the decline as a positive trend, saying the figures are likely a significant underestimate because many cases go unreported or cannot be verified.
Documentation is particularly difficult in countries affected by armed conflict and mass killings, as well as in repressive contexts where victims and civil society groups risk reprisals for reporting abuses.
Global Witness noted that this is especially the case in Africa and Asia and increasingly in Latin America.
Of the 15 countries where killings were documented, 10 were classified as repressed by Civicus Monitor, while Nicaragua was classified as “closed” - its most restrictive category.
The killings, the report noted, are only the most extreme form of reprisals against defenders. Global Witness also highlights a “hidden iceberg” of non-lethal attacks, including criminalisation, threats and smear campaigns.
Social media is increasingly being used to discredit and harass defenders, the organisation said, potentially explaining some of the decline in documented killings as repressive tactics diversify.
Colombia was the deadliest country for the fourth consecutive year, with 39 documented killings, followed by Brazil with 26. Honduras and the Philippines each recorded 12 killings, Mexico 10 and Guatemala eight.
More than three-quarters of those killed globally were small-scale farmers, Indigenous Peoples or Afro-descendant Peoples. Indigenous Peoples accounted for 44 of the documented killings.
Land disputes were associated with more than half of the killings. Mining and extractive industries were linked to 11 killings, logging interests to eight and agribusiness to six.
More than a third of the killings were linked to organised crime or hitmen, according to Global Witness.
The organisation said Latin America has been the world’s deadliest region for environmental defenders every year since it began publishing its annual report.
Africa
Global Witness documented three killings of defenders in Africa in 2025 — two in Tanzania and one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the organisation cautioned that the figure reflects major challenges in documenting cases on the continent.
Human rights groups face restrictions on civic space across Africa, while in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania governments have increasingly used the legal system against defenders, including through alleged fabricated terrorism charges and disappearances.
Long-running conflicts in countries such as the DRC and Sudan have also made it difficult to verify attacks because of violence, displacement, impunity and the breakdown of the rule of law.
The report highlights criminalisation and intimidation as major threats to defenders even where killings are not documented.
In the DRC’s 2025 murder, journalist Fiston Wilondja Mazambi was found dead with a rope around his neck in Bukavu, where he had been investigating allegations of illegal gold mining by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, which took control of the city in 2025.h
Global Witness said it has documented 79 killings of defenders in the DRC since 2012, making it the deadliest country in Africa in its data.
Mining in the region is often controlled by armed groups that use mineral revenues to finance weapons, while communities face illegal taxation and human rights abuses. Resource extraction has also contributed to deforestation, water pollution, soil degradation and disruption of local livelihoods.
In Asia, Global Witness said accusations of criminal activity are increasingly being used to stigmatise Indigenous communities defending their land.
In Indonesia, Indigenous Dayak people who opposed the activities of a pulpwood producer and raised concerns about pollution of local water sources subsequently faced criminal allegations that could carry years of imprisonment.
The report also highlights community-based approaches to protecting defenders, including territorial patrols, early-warning systems and community monitoring networks. In Peru, the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard patrols community territories and monitors illegal incursions linked to organised crime and illegal coca cultivation.
Global Witness said the threats facing defenders had to be understood within a wider struggle over land and natural resources.
Toby Hill, the report’s lead author, said defenders provide vital information about environmental destruction, including forest clearance and polluted rivers.
The organisation also said the global environment for human rights defenders deteriorated in 2025 amid increased authoritarian practices, violent conflict, unregulated corporate power and cuts to foreign aid.
It said reductions in aid by the governments of the US, Germany, the UK and other traditional donors had reduced support for human rights organisations working with communities in remote and environmentally-sensitive areas.