These are the stories of three land and environmental defenders who are fighting for our environment and standing up to the companies that want to take their land.
Following the murder of their fathers, both Ramon Bedoya (Colombia) and Marivic ‘Tarsula’ Danyan (the Philippines) have inherited their parents struggles against expanding plantations.
A formidable Brazilian defender, Maria do Socorro da Silva is herself the target of death threats, intrusions into her home, and has felt the barrel of a pistol against her face.
A new Global Witness report has found that large-scale agriculture projects that produces the food we eat and the products on our shelves are now the main cause of these killings. In total, 207 people were killed in 2017, making it the worst year on record.
**Since publication of this report new information has come to light which has meant the killing of 6 indigenous farmers in Peru in September 2017 no longer fits our criteria for inclusion. As such, the figures for 2017 have been revised to 201 killings globally with 40 linked to agribusiness and 2 occurring in Peru over the year.
