“COVID-19 crisis: Attacks on environmental defenders continue in Latin America”, 29 April 2020 

At least five defenders of the environment have been killed in different Latin American countries since March 11, the date the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. This figure shows how, in addition to communities’ concerns about the possible advent of COVID-19 in rural regions with precarious medical services and limited state presence, the violence continues. This despite the fact that one key way to reduce the transmission of many infectious diseases is precisely to preserve the ecosystems these leaders care for and defend, according to several scientists…

That attacks continue in the midst of the spread of COVID-19 serves to further underscore the role that environmental degradation may have played in its transmission and emphasises the importance of environmental defenders… Many scientists are pointing to a link between habitat transformation and biodiversity loss, caused by road construction, mining or the expansion of the agricultural frontier to produce food… This loss of biodiversity is strongly linked to deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems to expand herds of cattle or industrial crops like soybeans or oil palms, which are some of the raw materials that Latin American countries have oriented their exports towards.