"Collective Power: the struggle for protection of land and environmental defenders" September 2026

"For Indigenous Peoples, land is life. Any threat to our lands, territories and resources is a threat to our very existence – our cultures, our identities, our dignity and our future generations." Joan Carling, Executive Director Indigenous Peoples Rights International.

At least 124 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2025 for standing up to protect their lands and livelihoods from destruction.... Every one of these deaths represents an attempt, in the most brutal fashion, to impose a chilling effect on movements that resist environmental and human rights abuses...

Killings are only the most extreme form of reprisal that defenders face. Beneath them lies a “hidden iceberg” of non-lethal attacks – including criminalisation, threats and smear campaigns – as described by the ALLIED network of human rights monitors...

Latin America again accounts for most of the cases we documented in 2025, as it has for over a decade, representing 85% of the global total last year... Land tenure insecurity continues to be a key driver of attacks, demonstrating the urgent need for governments to secure territorial and land rights for Indigenous and Afro-descendant people, and small-scale farming communities.

Mining emerged as the deadliest sector, with 11 related cases in 2025....

Ricardo Lagunes Gasca... and Antonio Díaz Valencia disappeared over three years ago...in... Mexico.  Their disappearance followed their participation in a community assembly...over longstanding problems with a mining project managed by the steel manufacturer Ternium-México....Throughout the case, Ternium has maintained that it bears no responsibility for any conflict within the community related to its operations.

We also continue to see corporate extractive projects driving attacks. In Guatemala, we documented the killings of two defenders opposing mining projects and two protesting the impacts of a hydroelectric plant. Such cases reveal the inadequacies of both states and businesses in guaranteeing meaningful consultation processes for projects affecting Indigenous and traditional communities...

Organised crime operates not solely as a perpetrator of killings, but also as a corrupting force on the underlying structures and institutions that should protect people from violence....

States and businesses must ensure that all projects affecting Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities are subject to meaningful consultation processes and obtain FPIC...

Human rights and environmental due diligence processes should explicitly assess risks to defenders and affected communities. Companies should identify situations where defenders face heightened risks and take proactive measures to prevent harm, including suspension of activities where meaningful consultation has not occurred or where violence and intimidation are present...

Effective implementation of the CSDDD should recognise that defenders are not merely external stakeholders, but are in fact essential actors in the identification of risks, prevention of abuses and to ensure corporate accountability...

Meaningful engagement with defenders, Indigenous Peoples and local communities must be conducted throughout the due diligence process, with safeguards to protect them from retaliation...

A customary leader of the Indigenous Dayak people in West Kalimantan, Fendy travelled to the local office of PT Mayawana Persada...The company had cleared farmland claimed by his community, Lelayang, replacing crops and rubber groves with industrial monocultures....Mayawana didn’t respond to [Global Witness] request for comment."...

Despite renewed scrutiny, however, the dispute remains unresolved. The same month, pulp and paper giant APRIL announced plans to begin sourcing from Mayawana - allowing the company to continue profiting from plantations established on contested land.... APRIL told Global Witness that it conducted due diligence before finalising the relationship, including reviews of conservation, land use and human rights issues...

Corporate respect for human rights requires recognising that social legitimacy cannot be replaced by regulatory approval.