People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder

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• The Guardian
  People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder

  <p>Defenders of forests and rivers killed at rate of one every three days in 2025, with 85% of deaths in Latin America</p><p>Nature and land defenders were murdered at the rate of one every three days last year, prompting many communities to set up self-defence units, according to the latest annual death toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness.</p><p>Organised crime groups or professional killers were implicated in more than a third of the 124 killings of defenders in 2025 as narco-trafficking activities overlapped with intrusions into indigenous territories and environmental crime, such as illegal logging and wildcat gold mining.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/16/nature-land-defenders-self-defence-murder-organised-crime">Continue reading...</a>

  Wed, 16 Sep 2026 05:00:10 GMT

Timeline

1. 2026-09-16 05:00The Guardian — People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder