Environmental Defenders Remain Among World’s Most Targeted Activists
Key takeaways
- At least 358 human rights defenders were killed last year, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based group that provides support for global human rights activists.
- Nearly a quarter, 84, were targeted because of their often unpaid work protecting land and the environment.
- Indigenous-rights defenders—often working on environmental issues but tracked separately from environmental defenders—accounted for another 17 percent of the killings documented by the group.
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
June 22, 2026 Share This Article Republish People rally against a Canadian mining project at the Quimsacocha moorlands in Cuenca, Ecuador, on Sept. 16, 2025. Credit: Galo Paguay/AFP via Getty Images Related The Latest Tactic for Silencing Ecuador’s Environmental Defenders: Shuttering Their Bank Accounts Indigenous Land Defender Killed in Ecuador as Government Cracks Down on Environmental and Human Rights Activists How the Drug War and Energy Transition Are Changing Ecuadorians’ Fight For The Rights of Nature Share This Article Republish Most Popular Trump Administration Abandons Fight Against Wind Energy as Clean Energy Output Surges ‘We Just Want Clean Water’: Residents Sue a North Carolina County Over Landfill Contamination As Global Warming Threatens Corals Worldwide, Woods Hole Scientists Search for ‘Super Reefs’ That Can Take the Heat Environmental and Indigenous rights defenders remained among the world’s most targeted human rights advocates in 2025, despite landmark rulings by international courts affirming governments’ obligations to protect both the environment and those who defend it.
At least 358 human rights defenders were killed last year, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based group that provides support for global human rights activists.
Nearly a quarter, 84, were targeted because of their often unpaid work protecting land and the environment. Those killings were documented in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines, Turkey, Somalia and Palestine.