Thousands of environmentalists killed in last decade, advocates say aim is to silence their voices

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Attacks on environmental defenders in the face of ongoing destruction of lands and natural resources aim to silence their voices and conservation efforts, according to an official at an international environmentalist group.

While climate change-related extreme weather events and human-induced damage to the environment continue to wreak havoc and make headlines, last year at least 177 land and environmental defenders around the world were killed.

The total toll in the last decade has risen to 1,910, showed the sobering figures of last week's report by Global Witness, an international NGO.

In an interview with Anadolu, Laura Furones, senior advisor to the Land and Environmental Defenders Campaign at Global Witness, pointed to the current level of environmental and climate crisis, which is, in her words, "getting worse and worse."

"We’re really at a tipping point," she noted, stressing that there's no difference between a climate crisis and a humanitarian crisis because “one would lead to the other."

Furones went on to say that land and environmental defenders are being attacked for fighting to protect the planet from the climate crisis, to protect the land, and to preserve forests as well as other natural resources.

"All the attacks against land and environmental defenders have one same objective, and that objective is to silence them. In other words, to make them stop, to make them not complain anymore, not raise their voices anymore, not file complaints, not oppose encroachments and the destruction of lands and natural resources."

Besides fatal attacks, which are "already alarming enough," she also said there are attacks and pressure on people, leaving their lives "drastically transformed," even though they survived.

"We're talking about threats. We're talking about intimidation. We're talking about sexual violence. We're talking about in particular, as we report in this year's annual report, criminalization," she said.

- 'They win means we will lose our planet'

Touching on the worsening situation in the Amazon rainforest, Furones said indigenous peoples and local communities living in those areas "are alone," while they are trying to preserve their lands and natural resources.

They are "having to fight against encroachments from mining interests and agribusiness interests and logging interests, and they're having to confront themselves alone, and when they're trying to do that they are attacked," she added.

According to the figures, the Amazon is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a defender, with 39 killings last year, equals to more than one in five of all killings worldwide.

On the responsibility to prevent further attacks on defenders, she called on governments to provide a safe environment for defenders where "they don't have to pay for their lives when they're doing the work."

Also speaking to Anadolu, Indian activist Licypriya Kangujam called the report horrifying.

"This is an attempt to silence our voices," said the young environment and climate activist, who is about to turn 12 years old, saying lawmakers should be held accountable for their failure to protect defenders and environmentalists around the world.

However, she stressed that no threats or attacks on people who devoted themselves to protecting the environment will stop them from what they are doing.

On the importance of coordinated action to protect the world's environment, Kangujam called on young activists to come forward in support of the victims to strengthen the global environmental movement.

If the vested interests win, she said, this “means we will lost our planet. We win means we will save our planet.”