The killings of environmentalists went up by 20-percent in the last year according to the campaign group Global Witness, which monitors environmental degradation and human rights abuses.

The group issued a report documenting the murders of these activists – 116 around the world in 2014.  Broken down by country, 29 environmentalists were killed in Brazil, 25 in Colombia, and 15 in the Philippines.  Honduras was singled out as the most dangerous country for environmental activists, because of “regressive laws” and a climate of “near total impunity”.  The Central American country has the highest number of killings per capita – 111 killings documented since 2002.

Indigenous groups are over-represented in the numbers of murdered activists.  Such was the case with Edwin Chota and three associates, killed in a remote area of Brazil last year on their way to a meeting to discuss ways to combat tree poaching and illegal logging. 

Global Witness is urging governments to stop treating environmentalists as enemies of the state, and to investigate what it calls a “hidden crisis”.