In January 2023, two men mysteriously disappear after speaking out against pollution from a controversial iron ore mine in Michoacán, Mexico. The following March, climate change protesters in Austria and Germany are beaten and pepper sprayed, and some have their homes raided by law enforcement. In September, a pair of youth environmental advocates are abducted by armed men and interrogated for days about their work fighting construction of a new airport in the Philippines. All across the world, environmental defenders continue to experience censorship, threats, physical attacks, kidnappings, disappearances and even death because of their work fighting climate change, deforestation, pollution and other environmental issues. Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, more than 1,500 environmental defenders have been killed for their work, according to Global Witness, a human rights and environmental NGO. The figures for 2023 look like more of the same. At least 196 people were killed last year defending the environment, up from 177 in 2022. And those figures are considered a low-end estimate. Global Witness has been tracking violence against environmental defenders since 2012, revealing an often-overlooked problem in many parts of the world where local communities are the last line of defense against major drivers of ecological destruction. “Murder continues to be a common strategy for silencing defenders and is unquestionably the most brutal,” Global Witness’s report for 2023 said. “But … lethal attacks often occur alongside wider retaliations against defenders who are being targeted by government, business and other non-state actors with…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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