蜜芽传媒

A record number of activists working to protect the environment and land rights were murdered last year, according to a report by the campaign group, Global Witness.

Almost a third of the 227 murders were reportedly linked to resource exploitation: logging, mining, large-scale agribusiness, hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure.

Those murdered included South African Fikile Ntshangase, 65, who was involved in a legal dispute over the extension of an opencast mine operated by Tendele Coal near Somkhele in KwaZulu-Natal province. She was shot dead in her own living room.

Louis Willson is from Global Witness.

"What we're seeing is that as the climate crisis intensifies, violence against defenders of the earth is also proliferating... In many countries governments have prioritised resource exploitation over the rights of people and the planet. Often in these lethal attacks you'll see an unholy alliance between state forces... and private industry and those combine to a really toxic effect."

(Photo: South African environmental activist Fikile Ntshangase was shot dead in her own home. Credit: Rob Symons, All Rise)

Show less